text stringlengths 10 951k | source stringlengths 39 44 |
|---|---|
Latin hip hop
Latin hip hop or Latin rap is hip hop music recorded by Latin American artists in the United States and Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, most Latin rap came from the West Coast of the United States. Cuban-American artist Mellow Man Ace was the first Latino artist to have a major bilingual single attached to his 1989 debut. Mellow Man, referred to as the "Godfather of Latin rap" and a Hip Hop Hall of Fame inductee, brought mainstream attention to Spanglish rhyming with his 1989 platinum single "Mentirosa". In 1990, fellow West Coast artist Kid Frost further brought Latinos to the rap forefront with his single "La Raza." In 1991, Kid Frost, Mellow Man, A.L.T. and several other Latin rappers formed the rap super group Latin Alliance and released a self-titled album which featured the hit "Lowrider (On the Boulevard)". A.L.T. also scored a hit later that year with his remake of the song Tequila. Cypress Hill, of which Mellow Man Ace was a member before going solo, would become the first Latino rap group to reach platinum status in 1991. The group has since continued to release other Gold and Platinum albums. Ecuadorian born rapper Gerardo received heavy rotation on video and radio for his single "Rico, Suave". While commercially watered-down, his album enjoyed a status of being one of the first mainstream Spanglish CDs on the market. Johnny J was a multi-platinum songwriter, music producer, and rapper who was perhaps best known for his production on Tupac Shakur's albums All Eyez on Me and Me Against the World. He also produced the 1990 single Knockin' Boots for his classmate Candyman's album "Ain't No Shame in My Game", which eventually went platinum thanks to the single.
2012 and 2013 marked the rise of teen rappers such as Earl Sweatshirt and a corresponding rise by teen Latino rappers. In Texas, a group called Sur Lado Entertainment from the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas border with Mexico began producing ethnically unique hip hop tracks. Their single "Un Million De Palmas" focuses on Hispanic identity in America.
DJ Charlie Chase was born in Manhattan on January 16, 1959 to Puerto Rican-born parents. Chase's family moved often and lived in many different New York City neighborhoods which were primarily Puerto Rican or Black.
In the 1980s, Chase DJ'd for WBLS alongside the legendary Funkmaster Flex. Chase received criticism from both Blacks and Hispanics for playing hip-hop music because at the time it was believed to be a genre reserved for Blacks. However, Chase's talent outweighed racial differences. He fused hip-hop with salsa, among other music genres, in order to create a sound that was uniquely his. Chase was the DJ for the legendary New York hip-hop Pioneer group The Cold Crush Brothers, from 1978 and threw the 80's.
On the East Coast, Latin artists such as the Beatnuts emerged in the early 1990s, with New Jersey native Chino XL earning recognition for his lyricism and equal controversy for his subject matter. In 1992, Mesanjarz of Funk, led by the Spanish/English flow of Mr. Pearl, became the first Spanish rap group signed to a major label (Atlantic Records). In 1994, Platinum Producer and DJ Frankie Cutlass used his own label, Hoody Records, to produce his single “Puerto Rico”. The single exploded onto the underground club circuit to become an instant classic. “Puerto Rico,” a ready-made anthem for the Latino audience—who embraced it enthusiastically—paved the way for Latin hip hop artists just starting to carve out a niche in America's music scene. In the late 1990s, Puerto Rican rapper Big Punisher became the first Latino solo artist to reach platinum sales for an LP with his debut album "Capital Punishment", which included hit song Still Not a Player. Other Latin artists on the East Coast would follow and receive a great deal of support from Latino consumers including rappers such as Cuban Link and Immortal Technique. In Miami artists such as Don Dinero, A.B. Junior, Pitbull and Qba Libre have been successful with rhymes in Spanish and English as well.
Latin rap (as well as its subgenre of Chicano rap) has thrived along the West Coast, Southwest and Midwestern states with little promotion due to the large Latino populations of those regions. During the '90s, Southern California Chicano artists, such as Kid Frost, A.L.T., A Lighter Shade of Brown, B-Real, Psycho Realm, Gunter, Delinquent Habits and Jonny Z received mainstream success. More recently, Texas artists such as Chingo Bling, Juan Gotti and South Park Mexican have enjoyed steady sales, and have headlined a number of successful Southwest tours. San Diego artist Lil Rob opened doors for Chicano rap by receiving mainstream attention for his singles "Summer Nights" and "Bring Out the Freak in You". Mav of Sol Camp and MC Magic are the most successful rappers to come out to the Southwest region. Baby Bash also had a huge impact with his single "Suga Suga". Artists Sinful of Tha Mexicanz, and Kemo the Blaxican have continued to improve the popularity of Spanglish rap on the West Coast.
Jonny Z is considered to be a pioneer of Latin hip-hop, due to him being one of the first Latinos combining Spanglish lyrics with freestyle, salsa, mambo, and regional Mexican banda. He scored four Billboard Hot Dance singles between 1993–1997, including one of the greatest Miami bass songs of all time, "Shake Shake (Shake That Culo)". Besides bass music, he also recorded the Chicano anthem "Orale". "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States" Volume 2, Page 301 states: "A new style of Latina and Latino hip-hop was created in Miami and Texas by the bass rappers DJ Laz and Jonny Z, who mixed Latin styles with bass music". Some Chicano rappers have even began to create their own subgenre. "Soul Rapper" Conivan has created his version of Chicano rap by fusing oldies and hip hop on his latest project "Analog Flo". Latin rap, and Chicano rap continue to develop into larger enterprises.
Migrations have brought Hispanic and Latino people and influences across borders. Calle 13 and Choc Quib Town are popular with Latino audiences in the Americas. Since 1992 Mexico has had a growing hip hop scene that first developed in Cd. Juárez Chih. with groups and rappers such as D.N.3 Feat. Raúl Panther G. (DJ Panther), Team-O and Aztlan in México City with specialized in rap house and the list it keeps growing among the years with Bocafloja, Control Machete, Cartel de Santa, Dharius, Kinto Sol, Akwid, Locura Terminal, Dyablo, C-4, Jae-P, KDC, Tanke One, Eptos Uno, Bonnevilla, MC Aese, Romo One, Aleman, C-Kan, Don Aero, Zimple, Santa RM, MC Davo, UnderSide 821, Big Flow Music, Tren Lokote, W Corona, Adan Zapata, Thug Pol, Santa Grifa, El Pinche Mara, Maniako, Toser One, Zaiko & Nuco, Griser NSR, Gera MXM, David Rolas, La Banda Baston, Simpson Ahuevo, Charles Ans, Sabino, El Chivo, Don Cheto, Dante Storch and Molotov who have produced millions of views on YouTube. In Spain, rappers Mala Rodríguez, Nach, El Chojin and Porta have a growing fan base that ranges from Spain to Latin America. Similarly, the movement has spread to Puerto Rico, a country where many of its residents have moved to New York, Miami, and Chicago over the years. Latin rap, which was very much derived from black hip hop, was jumpstarted by a wave of rappers that included Ruben DJ and Vico C. Ruben DJ's hit, "La Escuela", ("The School") and Vico C's hit, "La Recta Final", ("The End of the Road") received considerable radio time during the late 1980s. In addition, Latin rap in Puerto Rico has had a substantial impact on the genres (rap, and Latin rap) and relate a certain message to their respective audiences. Puerto Rican rap emerged as a form of cultural and social protest within the Puerto Rican context. This is similar to the way American and Jamaican youth used rap and reggae/dancehall as a means to communicate their feelings on social, cultural, and political issues. In essence, Puerto Rican rap became the voice of the Puerto Rican youth in which they use dancehall and rap music as methods of expression for the Jamaican and working-class American youth counterparts as they made it in France too since 2003 "1492 Army".
There are many hip-hop scenes in Latin America, including a growing rap movement in Buenos Aires.
Latin rap has also surfaced in the United Kingdom with a group called Cultura Londres which includes Richie Londres of Sol Invicto and Eric Bobo of Cypress Hill in addition, Latin rap also surfaced in Australia with Maya Jupiter.
A music scene, similar to the early underground gangsta-rap scene, has emerged in northeastern Mexico (Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Coahuila), where the musical phenomenon of hip-hop is being co-opted by the influence of organized crime and the drug war in the region.
Narco-Rap is extremely well known, and similar to any other style of rap, is popular among all socioeconomic backgrounds and listened to by diverse audiences; even those that don't necessarily relate or have experienced the same reality of these rappers. Although it is concentrated in northeastern Mexico, it has now spread out to the northwest side of the border, as well as southern parts of the country. Even if narcos are mostly concentrated in the North due to the proximity to the United States border, there is drug related violence that can be seen throughout the entire country, making the lyrics of these raps relatable to huge audiences all around Mexico. However, sometimes the reach of these raps is not ideal to younger audiences. These raps glamourize gang violence and make it seem like something kids should aspire to be a part of. Not only do these rappers seek respect from their audiences, they also want to intimidate other rappers that could potentially be associated with a different cartel. Their raps are a form of expression and also a medium to make themselves sound superior to any competition.
Most of the lyrics in these raps are very violent and crude, sometimes degrading women as well.
Mexican narco-rap contains lyrics similar to those of a narcocorrido (drug ballad). However, unlike corridos, which relate to rural regions of Pacific Mexico (and which are generally linked to the Sinaloa Cartel) narco-rap emerged in the urban area of Tamaulipas, on the border with Texas, a turf currently under armed dispute between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
Derived from the constant presence of "halcones" ("hawks", cartel spies) and cartel-convoys circulating the streets of the region, young people have been involved in the local narcoculture, and narco-raps express the reality of life on the streets in cities ruled by drug cartels.
Some of the main exponents of the genre are Cano y Blunt, DemenT and Big Los.
In the mid-1980s, freestyle music was initially called "Latin hip hop". This dance music genre, not to be confused with improvised freestyle rapping, was dominated, at the time, by electro funk beats and electronic Latin melodic and percussion elements, over which Latino vocalists sang melodramatic pop vocals, usually in English even though it was started by Nuyorican natives and African Americans primarily. Freestyle has been primarily popular among Latinos in the New York City, Miami, Chicago and California club scenes, but achieved national mainstream pop success with hits by Lisa Lisa, The Cover Girls, George Lamond, Stevie B, TKA and Exposé, among others.
In 2015, a new movement of trap music referred to as "Latin trap" began to emerge. Also known as Spanish-language trap, Latin trap similar to mainstream trap which details "'la calle,' or the streets — hustling, sex, and drugs". Prominent artists of Latin trap include Messiah, Fuego, Anuel AA and Bad Bunny. In July 2017, "The Fader" wrote "Rappers and reggaetoneros from Puerto Rico to Colombia have taken elements of trap — the lurching bass lines, jittering 808s and the eyes-half-closed vibe — and infused them into banger after banger." In an August 2017 article for "Billboard"'s series, "A Brief History Of," they enlisted some of the key artists of Latin trap—including Ozuna, De La Ghetto, Bad Bunny, Farruko and Messiah—to narrate a brief history on the genre. Elias Leight of "Rolling Stone" noted "[Jorge] Fonseca featured Puerto Rican artists like Anuel AA, Bryant Myers and Noriel on the compilation "Trap Capos: Season 1", which became the first "Latin trap" LP to reach Number One on "Billboard"'s Latin Rhythm Albums chart." A remixed version of Cardi B's hit single "Bodak Yellow" (which reached number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart), dubbed the "Latin Trap Remix", was officially released on August 18, 2017 and features Cardi B rapping in the Spanish language with Dominican hip hop recording artist Messiah contributing a guest verse. In November 2017, "Rolling Stone" wrote that "a surging Latin trap sound is responding to more recent developments in American rap, embracing the slow-rolling rhythms and gooey vocal delivery popularized by Southern hip-hop." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17722 |
Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria (; Ancient Greek: ὁ Φάρος τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας, contemporary Koine ), was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (280–247 BC), which has been estimated to be at least in overall height. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, for many centuries it was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world.
The lighthouse was severely damaged by three earthquakes between AD 956 and 1323 and became an abandoned ruin. It was the third longest surviving ancient wonder (after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the extant Great Pyramid of Giza), surviving in part until AD 1480, when the last of its remnant stones were used to build the Citadel of Qaitbay on the site.
In 1994, French archaeologists discovered some remains of the lighthouse on the floor of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour. In 2016 the Ministry of State of Antiquities in Egypt had plans to turn submerged ruins of ancient Alexandria, including those of the Pharos, into an underwater museum.
Pharos was a small island located on the western edge of the Nile Delta. In 332 BC Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria on an isthmus opposite Pharos. Alexandria and Pharos were later connected by a mole spanning more than , which was called the "Heptastadion" ("seven stadia"—a "stadium" was a Greek unit of length measuring approximately 180 m).
The east side of the mole became the Great Harbour, now an open bay; on the west side lay the port of Eunostos, with its inner basin Kibotos now vastly enlarged to form the modern harbour. Today's city development lying between the present Grand Square and the modern Ras el-Tin quarter is built on the silt which gradually widened and obliterated this mole. The Ras el-Tin promontory, where Ras el-Tin Palace was built in the 19th century, represents all that is left of the island of Pharos, the site of the lighthouse at its eastern point having been weathered away by the sea.
The lighthouse was constructed in the 3rd century BC. After Alexander the Great died, the first Ptolemy (Ptolemy I Soter) declared himself king in 305 BC, and commissioned its construction shortly thereafter. The building was finished during the reign of his son, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, and took twelve years to complete at a total cost of 800 talents of silver. The light was produced by a furnace at the top, and the tower was said to have been built mostly with solid blocks of limestone. However, since the lighthouse was over 300 feet tall, the use of limestone as the main material is doubtful due to the possibility of collapsing under its own weight. Rather, pink granite found nearby is more probable, as it is much stronger and can withstand more weight.
Strabo reported that Sostratus had a dedication to the "Saviour Gods" inscribed in metal letters on the lighthouse. Later Pliny the Elder wrote that Sostratus was the architect, which is disputed. In the second century AD Lucian wrote that Sostratus hid his name under plaster bearing the name of Ptolemy so that when the plaster fell off, Sostratus's name would be visible in the stone. Blocks of sandstone and limestone used in construction are analyzed to be from the Wadi Hammamat quarries in the desert east of the city.
Arab descriptions of the lighthouse are consistent despite it undergoing several repairs after earthquake damage. Given heights vary only fifteen percent from c. , on a square base.
The fullest description of the lighthouse comes from Arab traveler Abou Haggag Youssef Ibn Mohammed el-Balawi el-Andaloussi, who visited Alexandria in 1166 CE. Balawi provided description and measurement of the interior of the lighthouse's rectangular shaft. The inner ramp was described as roofed with masonry at 7 shibr (189 cm, 6.2 ft) noted as to allow two horsemen to pass at once. In clockwise rotation, the ramp held four stories with eighteen, fourteen, and seventeen rooms on the second, third, and fourth floors, respectively. Balawai accounted the base of the lighthouse to be 45 ba (30 m, 100 ft) long on each side with connecting ramp 600 dhira (300 m, 984 ft) long by 20 dhira (10 m, 32 ft) wide. The octangle section is accounted at 24 ba (16.4 m, 54 ft) in width, and the diameter of the cylindrical section is accounted at 12.73 ba (8.7 m, 28.5 ft). The apex of the lighthouse's oratory was measured with diameter 6.4 ba (4.3 m 20.9 ft).
The Arab authors indicate that the lighthouse was constructed from large blocks of light-coloured stone. The tower was made up of three tapering tiers: a lower square section with a central core; a middle octagonal section; and, at the top, a circular section.
Ancient accounts from geographer Al-Idrisi accounts admiration from his viewing of the lighthouse in 1154. Al-Idrisi accounts the construction, openings in the walls throughout the rectangular shaft with lead used as a filling agent in between the masonry blocks at the base. Al-Idrisi accounted the total height of the lighthouse to be 300 dhira rashashl (162 m equivalence).
At its apex was positioned a mirror which reflected sunlight during the day; a fire was lit at night. Extant Roman coins struck by the Alexandrian mint show that a statue of Triton was positioned on each of the building's four corners, and a statue of Poseidon or Zeus stood atop.
Al-Masudi wrote in the 10th century CE that the seaward-facing side featured an inscription dedicated to Zeus.
Late accounts of the lighthouse after the destruction by the 1303 Crete earthquake include Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan scholar and explorer, who passed through Alexandria in 1326 and 1349. Battuta noted that the wrecked condition of the lighthouse was then only noticeable by the rectangle tower and entrance ramp. Battuta's account measured each side of the tower to be 140 shibr (30.8 m, 101 ft) on either side. Battuta detailed plans of Sultan An-Nasir Muhammad to build a new lighthouse near the site of the collapsed one, but the plans were never fulfilled after the sultan's death in 1341.
The lighthouse was partially cracked and damaged by earthquakes in 796 and 951, followed by structural collapse in the earthquake of 956, and then again in 1303 and 1323. Damaging earthquakes propagate from two well known tectonic boundaries, the African-Arabian and Red-Sea rift zones, respectively 350 and 520 km from the lighthouses location. Documentation shows the 956 earthquake to be the first to cause structural collapse of the top 20+ metres of the construction. Documented repairs after the 956 earthquake include the installment of an Islamic style dome after the collapse of the statue that previously topped the monument. The most destructive earthquake in 1303 was an estimated intensity of VIII+ originating from the Greek island of Crete (280–350 km from Alexandria). Finally, the stubby remnant disappeared in 1480, when the then-Sultan of Egypt, Qaitbay, built a medieval fort on the larger platform of the lighthouse site using some of the fallen stone.
The 10th-century writer al-Mas'udi reports a legendary tale on the lighthouse's destruction, according to which at the time of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan () the Byzantines sent a eunuch agent, who adopted Islam, gained the Caliph's confidence, and secured permission to search for hidden treasure at the base of the lighthouse. The search was cunningly made in such a manner that the foundations were undermined, and the Pharos collapsed. The agent managed to escape in a ship waiting for him.
In 1968, the lighthouse was rediscovered. UNESCO sponsored an expedition to send a team of marine archaeologists, led by Honor Frost, to the site. She confirmed the existence of ruins representing part of the lighthouse. Due to the lack of specialized archaeologists and the area becoming a military zone, exploration was put on hold.
French archaeologists led by Jean-Yves Empereur re-discovered the physical remains of the lighthouse in late 1994 on the floor of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour. He worked with cinematographer Asma el-Bakri who used a 35 mm camera to capture the first underwater pictures of the scattered remains of collapsed columns and statues. Empereur's most significant findings consisted of blocks of granite 49–60 tonnes in mass often broken into multiple pieces, 30 sphinxes, 5 obelisks and columns with carvings dating back to Ramses II (1279–1213 BC). The cataloging of over 3,300 pieces was completed by Empereur and his team at the end of 1995 using a combination of photography and mapping. Thirty-six pieces of Empereur's granite blocks and other discoveries have been restored and are currently on display in Alexandria museums. Subsequent satellite imaging has revealed further remains. In the early 1990s the underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio began exploration at the opposite side of the harbor from where Empereur's team had worked. Subsequent satellite and sonar imaging has revealed the additional remains of wharves, houses and temples which had all fallen into the ocean as a result of earthquakes and other natural disasters. It is possible to go diving and see the ruins. The secretariat of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage is currently working with the Government of Egypt on an initiative to add the Bay of Alexandria (including the remains of the lighthouse) to a World Heritage List of submerged cultural sites.
Legend has it that the people of the island of Pharos were wreckers; hence, Ptolemy I Soter had the lighthouse built to help guide ships into port at night.
"Pharos" became the etymological origin of the word "lighthouse" in Greek ("φάρος"), many Romance languages such as French ("phare"), Italian and Spanish ("faro"), Catalan, Romanian ("far") and Portuguese ("farol"), and even some Slavic languages like Bulgarian ("far"). In Turkish, Serbian and Russian, a derived word means "headlight" ("far"; "фар; фара").
Since 1978 a number of proposals have been made to replace the lighthouse with a modern reconstruction. In 2015, the Egyptian government and the Alexandria governorate suggested building a skyscraper on the site of the lighthouse as part of the regeneration of the eastern harbour of Alexandria Port. The plan was opposed by Alexandria-based sociologist Amro Ali.
The lighthouse remains a civic symbol of the city of Alexandria and of the Alexandria Governorate with which the city is more or less coterminous. A stylised representation of the lighthouse appears on the flag and seal of the Governorate and on many public services of the city, including the seal of Alexandria University.
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17724 |
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or another type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks, and safe entries to harbors; they also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and has become uneconomical since the advent of cheaper and often much more effective electronic navigational systems.
Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since elevating the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs and promontories, unlike many modern lighthouses. The most famous lighthouse structure from antiquity was the Pharos of Alexandria, Egypt, which collapsed following a series of earthquakes between 956 and 1323.
The intact Tower of Hercules at A Coruña, Spain gives insight into ancient lighthouse construction; other evidence about lighthouses exists in depictions on coins and mosaics, of which many represent the lighthouse at Ostia. Coins from Alexandria, Ostia, and Laodicea in Syria also exist.
The modern era of lighthouses began at the turn of the 18th century, as lighthouse construction boomed in lockstep with burgeoning levels of transatlantic commerce. Advances in structural engineering and new and efficient lighting equipment allowed for the creation of larger and more powerful lighthouses, including ones exposed to the sea. The function of lighthouses shifted toward the provision of a visible warning against shipping hazards, such as rocks or reefs.
The Eddystone Rocks were a major shipwreck hazard for mariners sailing through the English Channel. The first lighthouse built there was an octagonal wooden structure, anchored by 12 iron stanchions secured in the rock, and was built by Henry Winstanley from 1696 to 1698. His lighthouse was the first tower in the world to have been fully exposed to the open sea.
The civil engineer, John Smeaton, rebuilt the lighthouse from 1756–59; his tower marked a major step forward in the design of lighthouses and remained in use until 1877. He modeled the shape of his lighthouse on that of an oak tree, using granite blocks. He rediscovered and used "hydraulic lime", a form of concrete that will set under water used by the Romans, and developed a technique of securing the granite blocks together using dovetail joints and marble dowels. The dovetailing feature served to improve the structural stability, although Smeaton also had to taper the thickness of the tower towards the top, for which he curved the tower inwards on a gentle gradient. This profile had the added advantage of allowing some of the energy of the waves to dissipate on impact with the walls. His lighthouse was the prototype for the modern lighthouse and influenced all subsequent engineers.
One such influence was Robert Stevenson, himself a seminal figure in the development of lighthouse design and construction. His greatest achievement was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1810, one of the most impressive feats of engineering of the age. This structure was based upon Smeaton's design, but with several improved features, such as the incorporation of rotating lights, alternating between red and white. Stevenson worked for the Northern Lighthouse Board for nearly fifty years during which time he designed and oversaw the construction and later improvement of numerous lighthouses. He innovated in the choice of light sources, mountings, reflector design, the use of Fresnel lenses, and in rotation and shuttering systems providing lighthouses with individual signatures allowing them to be identified by seafarers. He also invented the movable jib and the balance-crane as a necessary part for lighthouse construction.
Alexander Mitchell designed the first screw-pile lighthouse – his lighthouse was built on piles that were screwed into the sandy or muddy seabed. Construction of his design began in 1838 at the mouth of the Thames and was known as the Maplin Sands lighthouse, and first lit in 1841. Although its construction began later, the Wyre Light in Fleetwood, Lancashire, was the first to be lit (in 1840).
The Vittoria Light in Trieste it is one of the tallest lighthouses in the world.
The source of illumination had generally been wood pyres or burning coal. The Argand lamp, invented in 1782 by the Swiss scientist, Aimé Argand, revolutionized lighthouse illumination with its steady smokeless flame. Early models used ground glass which was sometimes tinted around the wick. Later models used a mantle of thorium dioxide suspended over the flame, creating a bright, steady light. The Argand lamp used whale oil, colza, olive oil or other vegetable oil as fuel which was supplied by a gravity feed from a reservoir mounted above the burner. The lamp was first produced by Matthew Boulton, in partnership with Argand, in 1784 and became the standard for lighthouses for over a century.
South Foreland Lighthouse was the first tower to successfully use an electric light in 1875. The lighthouse's carbon arc lamps were powered by a steam-driven magneto. John Richardson Wigham was the first to develop a system for gas illumination of lighthouses. His improved gas 'crocus' burner at the Baily Lighthouse near Dublin was 13 times more powerful than the most brilliant light then known.
The vaporized oil burner was invented in 1901 by Arthur Kitson, and improved by David Hood at Trinity House. The fuel was vaporized at high pressure and burned to heat the mantle, giving an output of over six times the luminosity of traditional oil lights. The use of gas as illuminant became widely available with the invention of the Dalén light by Swedish engineer, Gustaf Dalén. He used Agamassan (Aga), a substrate, to absorb the gas allowing safe storage and hence commercial exploitation. Dalén also invented the 'sun valve', which automatically regulated the light and turned it off during the daytime. The technology was the predominant form of light source in lighthouses from the 1900s through the 1960s, when electric lighting had become dominant.
With the development of the steady illumination of the Argand lamp, the application of optical lenses to increase and focus the light intensity became a practical possibility. William Hutchinson developed the first practical optical system in 1763, known as a catoptric system. This rudimentary system effectively collimated the emitted light into a concentrated beam, thereby greatly increasing the light's visibility. The ability to focus the light led to the first revolving lighthouse beams, where the light would appear to the mariners as a series of intermittent flashes. It also became possible to transmit complex signals using the light flashes.
French physicist and engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel developed the multi-part Fresnel lens for use in lighthouses. His design allowed for the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length, without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design. A Fresnel lens can be made much thinner than a comparable conventional lens, in some cases taking the form of a flat sheet. A Fresnel lens can also capture more oblique light from a light source, thus allowing the light from a lighthouse equipped with one to be visible over greater distances.
The first Fresnel lens was used in 1823 in the Cordouan lighthouse at the mouth of the Gironde estuary; its light could be seen from more than out. Fresnel's invention increased the luminosity of the lighthouse lamp by a factor of four and his system is still in common use.
The advent of electrification, and automatic lamp changers began to make lighthouse keepers obsolete. For many years, lighthouses still had keepers, partly because lighthouse keepers could serve as a rescue service if necessary. Improvements in maritime navigation and safety such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) have led to the phasing out of non-automated lighthouses across the world. In Canada, this trend has been stopped and there are still 50 staffed light stations, with 27 on the west coast alone.
Remaining modern lighthouses are usually illuminated by a single stationary flashing light powered by solar-charged batteries mounted on a steel skeleton tower. Where the power requirement is too great for solar power, "cycle charging" by diesel generator is used: to save fuel and to increase periods between maintenance the light is battery powered, with the generator only coming into use when the battery has to be charged.
John Smeaton is noteworthy for having designed the third and most famous Eddystone Lighthouse, but some builders are well known for their work in building multiple lighthouses. The Stevenson family (Robert, Alan, David, Thomas, David Alan, and Charles) made lighthouse building a three-generation profession in Scotland. Irishman Alexander Mitchell invented and built a number of screwpile lighthouses despite his blindness. Englishman James Douglass was knighted for his work on lighthouses.
United States Army Corps of Engineers Lieutenant George Meade built numerous lighthouses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts before gaining wider fame as the winning general at the Battle of Gettysburg. Colonel Orlando M. Poe, engineer to General William Tecumseh Sherman in the Siege of Atlanta, designed and built some of the most exotic lighthouses in the most difficult locations on the U.S. Great Lakes.
French merchant navy officer Marius Michel Pasha built almost a hundred lighthouses along the coasts of the Ottoman Empire in a period of twenty years after the Crimean War (1853–1856).
In a lighthouse, the source of light is called the "lamp" (whether electric or fuelled by oil) and the concentration of the light is by the "lens" or "optic". Originally lit by open fires and later candles, the Argand hollow wick lamp and parabolic reflector were introduced in the late 18th century.
Whale oil was also used with wicks as the source of light. Kerosene became popular in the 1870s and electricity and carbide (acetylene gas) began replacing kerosene around the turn of the 20th century. Carbide was promoted by the Dalén light which automatically lit the lamp at nightfall and extinguished it at dawn.
During the Cold-War, many remote Soviet lighthouses were powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). These had the advantage of providing power day or night and did not need refuelling or maintenance. However, after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, there are no official records of the locations or condition of all of these lighthouses. As time passes, their condition is degrading; many have fallen victim to vandalism and scrap metal thieves, who may not be aware of the dangerous radioactive contents.
Before modern strobe lights, lenses were used to concentrate the light from a continuous source. Vertical light rays of the lamp are redirected into a horizontal plane, and horizontally the light is focused into one or a few directions at a time, with the light beam swept around. As a result, in addition to seeing the side of the light beam, the light is directly visible from greater distances, and with an identifying light characteristic.
This concentration of light is accomplished with a rotating lens assembly. In early lighthouses, the light source was a kerosene lamp or, earlier, an animal or vegetable oil Argand lamp, and the lenses rotated by a weight driven clockwork assembly wound by lighthouse keepers, sometimes as often as every two hours. The lens assembly sometimes floated in liquid mercury to reduce friction. In more modern lighthouses, electric lights and motor drives were used, generally powered by diesel electric generators. These also supplied electricity for the lighthouse keepers.
Efficiently concentrating the light from a large omnidirectional light source requires a very large diameter lens. This would require a very thick and heavy lens if a conventional lens were used. The Fresnel lens (pronounced ) focused 85% of a lamp's light versus the 20% focused with the parabolic reflectors of the time. Its design enabled construction of lenses of large size and short focal length without the weight and volume of material in conventional lens designs.
Fresnel lighthouse lenses are ranked by "order", a measure of refracting power, with a first order lens being the largest, most powerful and expensive; and a sixth order lens being the smallest. The order is based on the focal length of the lens. A first order lens has the longest focal length, with the sixth being the shortest. Coastal lighthouses generally use first, second, or third order lenses, while harbor lights and beacons use fourth, fifth, or sixth order lenses.
Some lighthouses, such as those at Cape Race, Newfoundland, and Makapuu Point, Hawaii, used a more powerful hyperradiant Fresnel lens manufactured by the firm of Chance Brothers.
In recent times, many Fresnel lenses have been replaced by rotating aerobeacons which require less maintenance. In modern automated lighthouses, this system of rotating lenses is often replaced by a high intensity light that emits brief omnidirectional flashes (concentrating the light in time rather than direction). These lights are similar to obstruction lights used to warn aircraft of tall structures. Recent innovations are "Vega Lights", and initial experiments with light-emitting diode (LED) panels.
Experimental installations of laser lights, either at high power to provide a "line of light" in the sky or, utilising low power, aimed towards mariners have identified problems of increased complexity in installation and maintenance, and high power requirements.
In any of these designs an observer, rather than seeing a continuous weak light, sees a brighter light during short time intervals. These instants of bright light are arranged to create a light characteristic or pattern specific to a lighthouse. For example, the Scheveningen Lighthouse flashes are alternately 2.5 and 7.5 seconds. Some lights have sectors of a particular color (usually formed by colored panes in the lantern) to distinguish safe water areas from dangerous shoals. Modern lighthouses often have unique reflectors or Racon transponders so the radar signature of the light is also unique.
While lighthouse buildings differ depending on the location and purpose, they tend to have common components.
A light station comprises the lighthouse tower and all outbuildings, such as the keeper's living quarters, fuel house, boathouse, and fog-signaling building. The Lighthouse itself consists of a tower structure supporting the lantern room where the light operates.
The lantern room is the glassed-in housing at the top of a lighthouse tower containing the lamp and lens. Its glass storm panes are supported by metal "Astragal" bars running vertically or diagonally. At the top of the lantern room is a stormproof ventilator designed to remove the smoke of the lamps and the heat that builds in the glass enclosure. A lightning rod and grounding system connected to the metal cupola roof provides a safe conduit for any lightning strikes.
Immediately beneath the lantern room is usually a Watch Room or Service Room where fuel and other supplies were kept and where the keeper prepared the lanterns for the night and often stood watch. The clockworks (for rotating the lenses) were also located there. On a lighthouse tower, an open platform called the gallery is often located outside the watch room (called the Main Gallery) or Lantern Room (Lantern Gallery). This was mainly used for cleaning the outside of the windows of the Lantern Room.
Lighthouses near to each other that are similar in shape are often painted in a unique pattern so they can easily be recognized during daylight, a marking known as a daymark. The black and white barber pole spiral pattern of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is one example. Race Rocks Light in western Canada is painted in horizontal black and white bands to stand out against the horizon.
For effectiveness, the lamp must be high enough to be seen before the danger is reached by a mariner. The minimum height is calculated by trigonometric formula formula_1 where "H" is the height above water in feet, and "d" is the distance to the horizon in nautical miles.
Where dangerous shoals are located far off a flat sandy beach, the prototypical tall masonry coastal lighthouse is constructed to assist the navigator making a landfall after an ocean crossing. Often these are cylindrical to reduce the effect of wind on a tall structure, such as Cape May Light. Smaller versions of this design are often used as harbor lights to mark the entrance into a harbor, such as New London Harbor Light.
Where a tall cliff exists, a smaller structure may be placed on top such as at Horton Point Light. Sometimes, such a location can be too high, for example along the west coast of the United States, where frequent low clouds can obscure the light. In these cases, lighthouses are placed below clifftop to ensure that they can still be seen at the surface during periods of fog or low clouds, as at Point Reyes Lighthouse. Another victim of fog was the Old Point Loma lighthouse, which was replaced in 1891 with a lower lighthouse, New Point Loma lighthouse.
As technology advanced, prefabricated skeletal iron or steel structures tended to be used for lighthouses constructed in the 20th century. These often have a narrow cylindrical core surrounded by an open lattice work bracing, such as Finns Point Range Light.
Sometimes a lighthouse needs to be constructed in the water itself. Wave-washed lighthouses are masonry structures constructed to withstand water impact, such as Eddystone Lighthouse in Britain and the St. George Reef Light of California. In shallower bays, Screw-pile lighthouse ironwork structures are screwed into the seabed and a low wooden structure is placed above the open framework, such as Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse. As screw piles can be disrupted by ice, steel caisson lighthouses such as Orient Point Light are used in cold climates. Orient Long Beach Bar Light (Bug Light) is a blend of a screw pile light that was converted to a caisson light because of the threat of ice damage.
In waters too deep for a conventional structure, a lightship might be used instead of a lighthouse, such as the former lightship "Columbia". Most of these have now been replaced by fixed light platforms (such as Ambrose Light) similar to those used for offshore oil exploration.
Aligning two fixed points on land provides a navigator with a line of position called a range in North America and a transit in Britain. Ranges can be used to precisely align a vessel within a narrow channel such as a river. With landmarks of a range illuminated with a set of fixed lighthouses, nighttime navigation is possible.
Such paired lighthouses are called range lights in North America and leading lights in the United Kingdom. The closer light is referred to as the beacon or front range; the further light is called the rear range. The rear range light is almost always taller than the front.
When a vessel is on the correct course, the two lights align vertically, but when the observer is out of position, the difference in alignment indicates the direction of travel to correct the course.
There are two types of lighthouses: ones that are located on land, and ones that are offshore. A "land lighthouse" is simply a lighthouse constructed to aid navigation over land, rather than water. Historically, they were constructed in areas of flatland where the featureless landscape and prevailing weather conditions (e.g. winter fog) might cause travelers to become easily disorientated and lost. In such a landscape a high tower with a bright lantern could be visible for many miles.
One example of such a structure is Dunston Pillar, an 18th-century tower built to help travelers crossing the heathland of mid-Lincolnshire and to lessen the danger to them from highwaymen. Due to general improvements in transport and navigation throughout the 19th century, land lighthouses became almost totally obsolete as aids to travelers in remote places.
"Offshore Lighthouses" are lighthouses that are not close to land. There can be a number of reasons for these lighthouses to be built. There can be a shoal, reef or submerged island several miles from land.
The current Cordouan Lighthouse was completed in 1611 from the shore on a small islet, but was built on a previous lighthouse that can be traced back to 880 and is the oldest surviving lighthouse in France. It is connected to the mainland by a causeway. The oldest surviving oceanic offshore lighthouse is Bell Rock Lighthouse in the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland.
In the United States, lighthouses are maintained by the United States Coast Guard (USCG).
Those in England and Wales are looked after by Trinity House; in Scotland, by the Northern Lighthouse Board; and in Ireland by the Commissioners of Irish Lights. In Canada, they are managed by the Canadian Coast Guard. In Australia, lighthouses are conducted by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
The Soviet Union built a number of automated lighthouses powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators in remote locations. They operated for long periods without external support with great reliability. However numerous installations deteriorated, were stolen, or vandalized. Some cannot be found due to poor record keeping.
In India (Bharat), Lighthouses are maintained by Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships which comes under the Ministry of Shipping.
As lighthouses became less essential to navigation, many of their historic structures faced demolition or neglect. In the United States, the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 provides for the transfer of lighthouse structures to local governments and private non-profit groups, while the USCG continues to maintain the lamps and lenses. In Canada, the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society won heritage status for Sambro Island Lighthouse, and sponsored the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act to change Canadian federal laws to protect lighthouses.
Many groups formed to restore and save lighthouses around the world. They include the World Lighthouse Society and the United States Lighthouse Society. A further international group is the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society, which sends amateur radio operators to publicize the preservation of remote lighthouses throughout the world.
Lighthouses were once regarded as an archetypal public good, because ships could benefit from the light without being forced to pay. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17725 |
Library of Alexandria
The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts. The idea of a universal library in Alexandria may have been proposed by Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled Athenian statesman living in Alexandria, to Ptolemy I Soter, who may have established plans for the Library, but the Library itself was probably not built until the reign of his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The Library quickly acquired many papyrus scrolls, due largely to the Ptolemaic kings' aggressive and well-funded policies for procuring texts. It is unknown precisely how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 at its height.
Alexandria came to be regarded as the capital of knowledge and learning, in part because of the Great Library. Many important and influential scholars worked at the Library during the third and second centuries BC, including, among many others: Zenodotus of Ephesus, who worked towards standardizing the texts of the Homeric poems; Callimachus, who wrote the "Pinakes", sometimes considered to be the world's first library catalogue; Apollonius of Rhodes, who composed the epic poem the "Argonautica"; Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who calculated the circumference of the earth within a few hundred kilometers of accuracy; Aristophanes of Byzantium, who invented the system of Greek diacritics and was the first to divide poetic texts into lines; and Aristarchus of Samothrace, who produced the definitive texts of the Homeric poems as well as extensive commentaries on them. During the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes, a daughter library was established in the Serapeum, a temple to the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis.
Despite the widespread modern belief that the Library of Alexandria was burned once and cataclysmically destroyed, the Library actually declined gradually over the course of several centuries, starting with the purging of intellectuals from Alexandria in 145 BC during the reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon, which resulted in Aristarchus of Samothrace, the head librarian, resigning from his position and exiling himself to Cyprus. Many other scholars, including Dionysius Thrax and Apollodorus of Athens, fled to other cities, where they continued teaching and conducting scholarship. The Library, or part of its collection, was accidentally burned by Julius Caesar during his civil war in 48 BC, but it is unclear how much was actually destroyed and it seems to have either survived or been rebuilt shortly thereafter; the geographer Strabo mentions having visited the Mouseion in around 20 BC and the prodigious scholarly output of Didymus Chalcenterus in Alexandria from this period indicates that he had access to at least some of the Library's resources.
The Library dwindled during the Roman Period, due to lack of funding and support. Its membership appears to have ceased by the 260s AD. Between 270 and 275 AD, the city of Alexandria saw a rebellion and an imperial counterattack that probably destroyed whatever remained of the Library, if it still existed at that time. The daughter library of the Serapeum may have survived after the main Library's destruction. The Serapeum was vandalized and demolished in 391 AD under a decree issued by Coptic Christian Pope Theophilus of Alexandria, but it does not seem to have housed books at the time and was mainly used as a gathering place for Neoplatonist philosophers following the teachings of Iamblichus.
The Library of Alexandria was not the first library of its kind. A long tradition of libraries existed in both Greece and in the ancient Near East. The earliest recorded archive of written materials comes from the ancient Sumerian city-state of Uruk in around 3400 BC, when writing had only just begun to develop. Scholarly curation of literary texts began in around 2500 BC. The later kingdoms and empires of the ancient Near East had long traditions of book collecting. The ancient Hittites and Assyrians had massive archives containing records written in many different languages. The most famous library of the ancient Near East was the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, founded in the seventh century BC by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (ruled 668– 627 BC). A large library also existed in Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II ( 605– 562 BC). In Greece, the Athenian tyrant Peisistratos was said to have founded the first major public library in the sixth century BC. It was out of this mixed heritage of both Greek and Near Eastern book collections that the idea for the Library of Alexandria was born.
The Macedonian kings who succeeded Alexander the Great as rulers of the Near East wanted to promote Hellenistic culture and learning throughout the known world. Historian Roy MacLeod calls this "a programme of cultural imperialism". These rulers, therefore, had a vested interest to collect and compile information from both the Greeks and from the far more ancient kingdoms of the Near East. Libraries enhanced a city's prestige, attracted scholars, and provided practical assistance in matters of ruling and governing the kingdom. Eventually, for these reasons, every major Hellenistic urban center would have a royal library. The Library of Alexandria, however, was unprecedented due to the scope and scale of the Ptolemies' ambitions; unlike their predecessors and contemporaries, the Ptolemies wanted to produce a repository of all knowledge.
The Library was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world, but details about it are a mixture of history and legend. The earliest known surviving source of information on the founding of the Library of Alexandria is the pseudepigraphic "Letter of Aristeas", which was composed between 180 and 145 BC. The "Letter of Aristeas" claims that the Library was founded during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter ( 323– 283 BC) and that it was initially organized by Demetrius of Phalerum, a student of Aristotle who had been exiled from Athens and taken refuge in Alexandria within the Ptolemaic court. Nonetheless, the "Letter of Aristeas" is very late and it contains information that is now known to be inaccurate. Other sources claim that the Library was instead created under the reign of Ptolemy I's son Ptolemy II Philadelphus (283–246 BC).
Modern scholars agree that, while it is possible that Ptolemy I may have laid the groundwork for the Library, it probably did not come into being as a physical institution until the reign of Ptolemy II. By that time, Demetrius of Phalerum had fallen out of favor with the Ptolemaic court and could not, therefore, have had any role in establishing the Library as an institution. Stephen V. Tracy, however, argues that it is highly probable that Demetrius played an important role in collecting at least some of the earliest texts that would later become part of the Library's collection. In around 295 BC or thereabouts, Demetrius may have acquired early texts of the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus, which he would have been uniquely positioned to do, since he was a distinguished member of the Peripatetic school.
The Library was built in the Brucheion (Royal Quarter) as part of the Mouseion. Its main purpose was to show off the wealth of Egypt, with research as a lesser goal, but its contents were used to aid the ruler of Egypt. The exact layout of the library is not known, but ancient sources describe the Library of Alexandria as comprising a collection of scrolls, Greek columns, a walk, a room for shared dining, a reading room, meeting rooms, gardens, and lecture halls, creating a model for the modern university campus. A hall contained shelves for the collections of papyrus scrolls known as "bibliothekai" ("βιβλιοθῆκαι"). According to popular description, an inscription above the shelves read: "The place of the cure of the soul."
The Ptolemaic rulers intended the Library to be a collection of all knowledge and they worked to expand the Library's collections through an aggressive and well-funded policy of book purchasing. They dispatched royal agents with large amounts of money and ordered them to purchase and collect as many texts as they possibly could, about any subject and by any author. Older copies of texts were favored over newer ones, since it was assumed that older copies had undergone less copying and that they were therefore more likely to more closely resemble what the original author had written. This program involved trips to the book fairs of Rhodes and Athens. According to the Greek medical writer Galen, under the decree of Ptolemy II, any books found on ships that came into port were taken to the library, where they were copied by official scribes. The original texts were kept in the library, and the copies delivered to the owners. The Library particularly focused on acquiring manuscripts of the Homeric poems, which were the foundation of Greek education and revered above all other poems. The Library therefore acquired many different manuscripts of these poems, tagging each copy with a label to indicate where it had come from.
In addition to collecting works from the past, the Mouseion which housed the Library also served as home to a host of international scholars, poets, philosophers, and researchers, who, according to the first-century BC Greek geographer Strabo, were provided with a large salary, free food and lodging, and exemption from taxes. They had a large, circular dining hall with a high domed ceiling in which they ate meals communally. There were also numerous classrooms, where the scholars were expected to at least occasionally teach students. Ptolemy II Philadelphus is said to have had a keen interest in zoology, so it has been speculated that the Mouseion may have even had a zoo for exotic animals. According to classical scholar Lionel Casson, the idea was that if the scholars were completely freed from all the burdens of everyday life they would be able to devote more time to research and intellectual pursuits. Strabo called the group of scholars who lived at the Mouseion a σύνοδος (, "community"). As early as 283 BC, they may have numbered between thirty and fifty learned men.
The Library of Alexandria was not affiliated with any particular philosophical school and, consequently, scholars who studied there had considerable academic freedom. They were, however, subject to the authority of the king. One likely apocryphal story is told of a poet named Sotades who wrote an obscene epigram making fun of Ptolemy II for marrying his sister Arsinoe II. Ptolemy II is said to have jailed him and, after he escaped, sealed him in a lead jar and dropped him into the sea. As a religious center, the Mouseion was directed by a priest of the Muses known as an "epistates", who was appointed by the king in the same manner as the priests who managed the various Egyptian temples. The Library itself was directed by a scholar who served as , as well as tutor to the king's son.
The first recorded head librarian was Zenodotus of Ephesus (lived 325– 270 BC). Zenodotus's main work was devoted to the establishment of canonical texts for the Homeric poems and the early Greek lyric poets. Most of what is known about him comes from later commentaries that mention his preferred readings of particular passages. Zenodotus is known to have written a glossary of rare and unusual words, which was organized in alphabetical order, making him the first person known to have employed alphabetical order as a method of organization. Since the collection at the Library of Alexandria seems to have been organized in alphabetical order by the first letter of the author's name from very early, Casson concludes that it is highly probable that Zenodotus was the one who organized it in this way. Zenodotus's system of alphabetization, however, only used the first letter of the word and it was not until the second century AD that anyone is known to have applied the same method of alphabetization to the remaining letters of the word.
Meanwhile, the scholar and poet Callimachus compiled the "Pinakes", a 120-book catalogue of various authors and all their known works. The "Pinakes" has not survived, but enough references to it and fragments of it have survived to allow scholars to reconstruct its basic structure. The "Pinakes" was divided into multiple sections, each containing entries for writers of a particular genre of literature. The most basic division was between writers of poetry and prose, with each section divided into smaller subsections. Each section listed authors in alphabetical order. Each entry included the author's name, father's name, place of birth, and other brief biographical information, sometimes including nicknames by which that author was known, followed by a complete list of all that author's known works. The entries for prolific authors such as Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and Theophrastus must have been extremely long, spanning multiple columns of text. Although Callimachus did his most famous work at the Library of Alexandria, he never held the position of head librarian there. Callimachus's pupil Hermippus of Smyrna wrote biographies, Philostephanus of Cyrene studied geography, and Istros (who may have also been from Cyrene) studied Attic antiquities. In addition to the Great Library, many other smaller libraries also began to spring up all around the city of Alexandria.
After Zenodotus either died or retired, Ptolemy II Philadelphus appointed Apollonius of Rhodes (lived 295– 215 BC), a native of Alexandria and a student of Callimachus, as the second head librarian of the Library of Alexandria. Philadelphus also appointed Apollonius of Rhodes as the tutor to his son, the future Ptolemy III Euergetes. Apollonius of Rhodes is best known as the author of the "Argonautica", an epic poem about the voyages of Jason and the Argonauts, which has survived to the present in its complete form. The "Argonautica" displays Apollonius's vast knowledge of history and literature and makes allusions to a vast array of events and texts, while simultaneously imitating the style of the Homeric poems. Some fragments of his scholarly writings have also survived, but he is generally more famous today as a poet than as a scholar.
According to legend, during the librarianship of Apollonius, the mathematician and inventor Archimedes (lived 287 – 212 BC) came to visit the Library of Alexandria. During his time in Egypt, Archimedes is said to have observed the rise and fall of the Nile, leading him to invent the Archimedes' screw, which can be used to transport water from low-lying bodies into irrigation ditches. Archimedes later returned to Syracuse, where he continued making new inventions.
According to two late and largely unreliable biographies, Apollonius was forced to resign from his position as head librarian and moved to the island of Rhodes (after which he takes his name) on account of the hostile reception he received in Alexandria to the first draft of his "Argonautica". It is more likely that Apollonius's resignation was on account of Ptolemy III Euergetes's ascension to the throne in 246 BC.
The third head librarian, Eratosthenes of Cyrene (lived 280– 194 BC), is best known today for his scientific works, but he was also a literary scholar. Eratosthenes's most important work was his treatise "Geographika", which was originally in three volumes. The work itself has not survived, but many fragments of it are preserved through quotation in the writings of the later geographer Strabo. Eratosthenes was the first scholar to apply mathematics to geography and map-making and, in his treatise "Concerning the Measurement of the Earth", he calculated the circumference of the earth and was only off by less than a few hundred kilometers. Eratosthenes also produced a map of the entire known world, which incorporated information taken from sources held in the Library, including accounts of Alexander the Great's campaigns in India and reports written by members of Ptolemaic elephant-hunting expeditions along the coast of East Africa.
Eratosthenes was the first person to advance geography towards becoming a scientific discipline. Eratosthenes believed that the setting of the Homeric poems was purely imaginary and argued that the purpose of poetry was "to capture the soul", rather than to give a historically accurate account of actual events. Strabo quotes him as having sarcastically commented, "a man might find the places of Odysseus's wanderings if the day were to come when he would find the leatherworker who stitched the goatskin of the winds." Meanwhile, other scholars at the Library of Alexandria also displayed interest in scientific subjects. Bacchius of Tanagra, a contemporary of Eratosthenes, edited and commented on the medical writings of the Hippocratic Corpus. The doctors Herophilus (lived 335– 280 BC) and Erasistratus ( 304– 250 BC) studied human anatomy, but their studies were hindered by protests against the dissection of human corpses, which was seen as immoral.
According to Galen, around this time, Ptolemy III requested permission from the Athenians to borrow the original manuscripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, for which the Athenians demanded the enormous amount of fifteen talents () of a precious metal as guarantee that he would return them. Ptolemy III had expensive copies of the plays made on the highest quality papyrus and sent the Athenians the copies, keeping the original manuscripts for the library and telling the Athenians they could keep the talents. This story may also be construed erroneously to show the power of Alexandria over Athens during the Ptolemaic dynasty. This detail arises from the fact that Alexandria was a man-made bidirectional port between the mainland and the Pharos island, welcoming trade from the East and West, and soon found itself to be an international hub for trade, the leading producer of papyrus and, soon enough, books. As the Library expanded, it ran out of space to house the scrolls in its collection, so, during the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes, it opened a satellite collection in the Serapeum of Alexandria, a temple to the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis located near the royal palace.
Aristophanes of Byzantium (lived 257– 180 BC) became the fourth head librarian sometime around 200 BC. According to a legend recorded by the Roman writer Vitruvius, Aristophanes was one of seven judges appointed for a poetry competition hosted by Ptolemy III Euergetes. All six of the other judges favored one competitor, but Aristophanes favored the one whom the audience had liked the least. Aristophanes declared that all of the poets except for the one he had chosen had committed plagiarism and were therefore disqualified. The king demanded that he prove this, so he retrieved the texts that the authors had plagiarized from the Library, locating them by memory. On account of his impressive memory and diligence, Ptolemy III appointed him as head librarian.
The librarianship of Aristophanes of Byzantium is widely considered to have opened a more mature phase of the Library of Alexandria's history. During this phase of the Library's history, literary criticism reached its peak and came to dominate the Library's scholarly output. Aristophanes of Byzantium edited poetic texts and introduced the division of poems into separate lines on the page, since they had previously been written out just like prose. He also invented the system of Greek diacritics, wrote important works on lexicography, and introduced a series of signs for textual criticism. He wrote introductions to many plays, some of which have survived in partially rewritten forms. The fifth head librarian was an obscure individual named Apollonius, who is known by the epithet ("the classifier of forms"). One late lexicographical source explains this epithet as referring to the classification of poetry on the basis of musical forms.
During the early second century BC, several scholars at the Library of Alexandria studied works on medicine. Zeuxis the Empiricist is credited with having written commentaries on the Hippocratic Corpus and he actively worked to procure medical writings for the Library's collection. A scholar named Ptolemy Epithetes wrote a treatise on wounds in the Homeric poems, a subject straddling the line between traditional philology and medicine. However, it was also during the early second century BC that the political power of Ptolemaic Egypt began to decline. After the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC, Ptolemaic power became increasingly unstable. There were uprisings among segments of the Egyptian population and, in the first half of the second century BC, connection with Upper Egypt became largely disrupted. Ptolemaic rulers also began to emphasize the Egyptian aspect of their nation over the Greek aspect. Consequently, many Greek scholars began to leave Alexandria for safer countries with more generous patronages.
Aristarchus of Samothrace (lived 216– 145 BC) was the sixth head librarian. He earned a reputation as the greatest of all ancient scholars and produced not only texts of classic poems and works of prose, but full "hypomnemata", or long, free-standing commentaries, on them. These commentaries would typically cite a passage of a classical text, explain its meaning, define any unusual words used in it, and comment on whether the words in the passage were really those used by the original author or if they were later interpolations added by scribes. He made many contributions to a variety of studies, but particularly the study of the Homeric poems, and his editorial opinions are widely quoted by ancient authors as authoritative. A portion of one of Aristarchus's commentaries on the "Histories" of Herodotus has survived in a papyrus fragment. In 145 BC, however, Aristarchus became caught up in a dynastic struggle in which he supported Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator as the ruler of Egypt. Ptolemy VII was murdered and succeeded by Ptolemy VIII Physcon, who immediately set about punishing all those who had supported his predecessor, forcing Aristarchus to flee Egypt and take refuge on the island of Cyprus, where he died shortly thereafter. Ptolemy VIII expelled all foreign scholars from Alexandria, forcing them to disperse across the Eastern Mediterranean.
Ptolemy VIII Physcon's expulsion of the scholars from Alexandria brought about a shift in the history of Hellenistic scholarship. The scholars who had studied at the Library of Alexandria and their students continued to conduct research and write treatises, but most of them no longer did so in association with the Library. A diaspora of Alexandrian scholarship occurred, in which scholars dispersed first throughout the eastern Mediterranean and later throughout the western Mediterranean as well. Aristarchus's student Dionysius Thrax ( 170– 90 BC) established a school on the Greek island of Rhodes. Dionysius Thrax wrote the first book on Greek grammar, a succinct guide to speaking and writing clearly and effectively. This book remained the primary grammar textbook for Greek schoolboys until as late as the twelfth century AD. The Romans based their grammatical writings on it, and its basic format remains the basis for grammar guides in many languages even today. Another one of Aristarchus's pupils, Apollodorus of Athens ( 180– 110 BC), went to Alexandria's greatest rival, Pergamum, where he taught and conducted research. This diaspora prompted the historian Menecles of Barce to sarcastically comment that Alexandria had become the teacher of all Greeks and barbarians alike.
Meanwhile, in Alexandria, from the middle of the second century BC onwards, Ptolemaic rule in Egypt grew less stable than it had been previously. Confronted with growing social unrest and other major political and economic problems, the later Ptolemies did not devote as much attention towards the Library and the Mouseion as their predecessors had. The status of both the Library and the head librarian diminished. Several of the later Ptolemies used the position of head librarian as a mere political plum to reward their most devoted supporters. Ptolemy VIII appointed a man named Cydas, one of his palace guards, as head librarian and Ptolemy IX Soter II (ruled 88–81 BC) is said to have given the position to a political supporter. Eventually, the position of head librarian lost so much of its former prestige that even contemporary authors ceased to take interest in recording the terms of office for individual head librarians.
A shift in Greek scholarship at large occurred around the beginning of the first century BC. By this time, all major classical poetic texts had finally been standardized and extensive commentaries had already been produced on the writings of all the major literary authors of the Greek Classical Era. Consequently, there was little original work left for scholars to do with these texts. Many scholars began producing syntheses and reworkings of the commentaries of the Alexandrian scholars of previous centuries, at the expense of their own originalities. Other scholars branched out and began writing commentaries on the poetic works of postclassical authors, including Alexandrian poets such as Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes. Meanwhile, Alexandrian scholarship was probably introduced to Rome in the first century BC by Tyrannion of Amisus ( 100– 25 BC), a student of Dionysius Thrax.
In 48 BC, during Caesar's Civil War, Julius Caesar was besieged at Alexandria. His soldiers set fire to some of the Egyptian ships docked in the Alexandrian port while trying to clear the wharves to block the fleet belonging to Cleopatra's brother Ptolemy XIV. This fire purportedly spread to the parts of the city nearest to the docks, causing considerable devastation. The first-century AD Roman playwright and Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger quotes Livy's "Ab Urbe Condita Libri", which was written between 63 and 14 BC, as saying that the fire started by Caesar destroyed 40,000 scrolls from the Library of Alexandria. The Greek Middle Platonist Plutarch ( 46–120 AD) writes in his "Life of Caesar" that, "[W]hen the enemy endeavored to cut off his communication by sea, he was forced to divert that danger by setting fire to his own ships, which, after burning the docks, thence spread on and destroyed the great library." The Roman historian Cassius Dio ( 155 – 235 AD), however, writes: "Many places were set on fire, with the result that, along with other buildings, the dockyards and storehouses of grain and books, said to be great in number and of the finest, were burned." However, Florus and Lucan only mention that the flames burned the fleet itself and some "houses near the sea".
Scholars have interpreted Cassius Dio's wording to indicate that the fire did not actually destroy the entire Library itself, but rather only a warehouse located near the docks being used by the Library to house scrolls. Whatever devastation Caesar's fire may have caused, the Library was evidently not completely destroyed. The geographer Strabo ( 63 BC– 24 AD) mentions visiting the Mouseion, the larger research institution to which the Library was attached, in around 20 BC, several decades after Caesar's fire, indicating that it either survived the fire or was rebuilt soon afterwards. Nonetheless, Strabo's manner of talking about the Mouseion shows that it was nowhere near as prestigious as it had been a few centuries prior. Despite mentioning the Mouseion, Strabo does not mention the Library separately, perhaps indicating that it had been so drastically reduced in stature and significance that Strabo felt it did not warrant separate mention. It is unclear what happened to the Mouseion after Strabo's mention of it.
Furthermore, Plutarch records in his "Life of Marc Antony" that, in the years leading up to the Battle of Actium in 33 BC, Mark Antony was rumored to have given Cleopatra all 200,000 scrolls in the Library of Pergamum. Plutarch himself notes that his source for this anecdote was sometimes unreliable and it is possible that the story may be nothing more than propaganda intended to show that Mark Antony was loyal to Cleopatra and Egypt rather than to Rome. Casson, however, argues that, even if the story was made up, it would not have been believable unless the Library still existed. Edward J. Watts argues that Mark Antony's gift may have been intended to replenish the Library's collection after the damage to it caused by Caesar's fire roughly a decade and a half prior.
Further evidence for the Library's survival after 48 BC comes from the fact that the most notable producer of composite commentaries during the late first century BC and early first century AD was a scholar who worked in Alexandria named Didymus Chalcenterus, whose epithet () means "bronze guts". Didymus is said to have produced somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 books, making him the most prolific known writer in all of antiquity. He was also given the nickname (), meaning "book-forgetter" because it was said that even he could not remember all the books he had written. Parts of some of Didymus's commentaries have been preserved in the forms of later extracts and these remains are modern scholars' most important sources of information about the critical works of the earlier scholars at the Library of Alexandria. Lionel Casson states that Didymus's prodigious output "would have been impossible without at least a good part of the resources of the library at his disposal."
Very little is known about the Library of Alexandria during the time of the Roman Principate (27 BC–284 AD). The emperor Claudius (ruled 41–54 AD) is recorded to have built an addition onto the Library, but it seems that the Library of Alexandria's general fortunes followed those of the city of Alexandria itself. After Alexandria came under Roman rule, the city's status and, consequently that of its famous Library, gradually diminished. While the Mouseion still existed, membership was granted not on the basis of scholarly achievement, but rather on the basis of distinction in government, the military, or even in athletics.
The same was evidently the case even for the position of head librarian; the only known head librarian from the Roman Period was a man named Tiberius Claudius Balbilus, who lived in the middle of the first century AD and was a politician, administrator, and military officer with no record of substantial scholarly achievements. Members of the Mouseion were no longer required to teach, conduct research, or even live in Alexandria. The Greek writer Philostratus records that the emperor Hadrian (ruled 117–138 AD) appointed the ethnographer Dionysius of Miletus and the sophist Polemon of Laodicea as members of the Mouseion, even though neither of these men are known to have ever spent any significant amount of time in Alexandria.
Meanwhile, as the reputation of Alexandrian scholarship declined, the reputations of other libraries across the Mediterranean world improved, diminishing the Library of Alexandria's former status as the most prominent. Other libraries also sprang up within the city of Alexandria itself and the scrolls from the Great Library may have been used to stock some of these smaller libraries. The Caesareum and the Claudianum in Alexandria are both known to have had major libraries by the end of the first century AD. The Serapeum, originally the "daughter library" of the Great Library, probably expanded during this period as well, according to classical historian Edward J. Watts.
By the second century AD, the Roman Empire grew less dependent on grain from Alexandria and the city's prominence declined further. The Romans during this period also had less interest in Alexandrian scholarship, causing the Library's reputation to continue to decline as well. The scholars who worked and studied at the Library of Alexandria during the time of the Roman Empire were less well known than the ones who had studied there during the Ptolemaic Period. Eventually, the word "Alexandrian" itself came to be synonymous with the editing of texts, correction of textual errors, and writing of commentaries synthesized from those of earlier scholars—in other words, taking on connotations of pedantry, monotony, and lack of originality. Mention of both the Great Library of Alexandria and the Mouseion that housed it disappear after the middle of the third century AD. The last known references to scholars being members of the Mouseion date to the 260s.
In 272 AD, the emperor Aurelian fought to recapture the city of Alexandria from the forces of the Palmyrene queen Zenobia. During the course of the fighting, Aurelian's forces destroyed the Broucheion quarter of the city in which the main library was located. If the Mouseion and Library still existed at this time, they were almost certainly destroyed during the attack as well. If they did survive the attack, then whatever was left of them would have been destroyed during the emperor Diocletian's siege of Alexandria in 297.
In 642 AD, Alexandria was captured by the Muslim army of 'Amr ibn al-'As. Several later Arabic sources describe the library's destruction by the order of Caliph Omar. Bar-Hebraeus, writing in the thirteenth century, quotes Omar as saying to Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī: "If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them." Later scholars, including Father Eusèbe Renaudot in 1793, are skeptical of these stories, given the range of time that had passed before they were written down and the political motivations of the various writers.
Scattered references indicate that, sometime in the fourth century, an institution known as the "Mouseion" may have been reestablished at a different location somewhere in Alexandria. Nothing, however, is known about the characteristics of this organization. It may have possessed some bibliographic resources, but whatever they may have been, they were clearly not comparable to those of its predecessor. For much of the late fourth century AD, the library of the Serapeum was probably the largest collection of books in the city of Alexandria. In the 370s and 380s, the Serapeum was still a major pilgrimage site for many pagans.
In addition to possessing the largest library in Alexandria, the Serapeum remained a fully functioning temple and it even had classrooms for philosophers to teach in. It naturally tended to attract followers of Iamblichean Neoplatonism. Most of these philosophers were primarily interested in theurgy, the study of cultic rituals and esoteric religious practices. The Neoplatonist philosopher Damascius (lived 458–after 538) records that a man named Olympus came from Cilicia to teach at the Serapeum, where he enthusiastically taught his students the rules of traditional divine worship and ancient religious practices. He enjoined his students to worship the old gods in traditional ways, and he may have even taught them theurgy.
In 391 AD, a group of Christian workmen in Alexandria uncovered the remains of an old Mithraeum. They gave some of the cult objects to the Christian bishop of Alexandria, Theophilus. Theophilus had the cult objects paraded through the streets so they could be mocked and ridiculed. The pagans of Alexandria were incensed by this act of desecration, especially the teachers of Neoplatonic philosophy and theurgy at the Serapeum. The teachers at the Serapeum took up arms and led their students and other followers in a guerrilla attack on the Christian population of Alexandria, killing many of them before being forced to retreat. In retaliation, the Christians vandalized and demolished the Serapeum, although some parts of the colonnade were still standing as late as the twelfth century. However, none of the accounts of the Serapeum's destruction mention anything about it having a library and sources written before its destruction speak of its collection of books in the past tense, indicating that it probably did not have any significant collection of scrolls in it at the time of its destruction.
The "Suda", a tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia, calls the mathematician Theon of Alexandria ( AD 335– 405) a "man of the Mouseion". According to classical historian Edward J. Watts, however, Theon was probably the head of a school called the "Mouseion", which was named in emulation of the Hellenistic Mouseion that had once included the Library of Alexandria, but which had little other connection to it. Theon's school was exclusive, highly prestigious, and doctrinally conservative. Neither Theon nor Hypatia seem to have had any connections to the militant Iamblichean Neoplatonists who taught in the Serapeum. Instead, Theon seems to have rejected the teachings of Iamblichus and may have taken pride in teaching a pure, Plotinian Neoplatonism. In around 400 AD, Theon's daughter Hypatia (born c. 350–370; died 415 AD) succeeded him as the head of his school. Like her father, she rejected the teachings of Iamblichus and instead embraced the original Neoplatonism formulated by Plotinus.
Theophilus, the same bishop who ordered the destruction of the Serapeum, tolerated Hypatia's school and even encouraged two of her students to become bishops in territory under his authority. Hypatia was extremely popular with the people of Alexandria and exerted profound political influence. Theophilus respected Alexandria's political structures and raised no objection to the close ties Hypatia established with Roman prefects. Hypatia was later implicated in a political feud between Orestes, the Roman prefect of Alexandria, and Cyril of Alexandria, Theophilus's successor as bishop. Rumors spread accusing her of preventing Orestes from reconciling with Cyril and, in March of 415 AD, she was murdered by a mob of Christians, led by a lector named Peter. She had no successor and her school collapsed after her death.
Nonetheless, Hypatia was not the last pagan in Alexandria, nor was she the last Neoplatonist philosopher. Neoplatonism and paganism both survived in Alexandria and throughout the eastern Mediterranean for centuries after her death. British Egyptologist Charlotte Booth notes that many new academic lecture halls were built in Alexandria at Kom el-Dikka shortly after Hypatia's death, indicating that philosophy was clearly still taught in Alexandrian schools. The late fifth-century writers Zacharias Scholasticus and Aeneas of Gaza both speak of the "Mouseion" as occupying some kind of a physical space. Archaeologists have identified lecture halls dating to around this time period, located near, but not on, the site of the Ptolemaic Mouseion, which may be the "Mouseion" to which these writers refer.
It is not possible to determine the collection's size in any era with certainty. Papyrus scrolls constituted the collection, and although codices were used after 300 BC, the Alexandrian Library is never documented as having switched to parchment, perhaps because of its strong links to the papyrus trade. The Library of Alexandria in fact was indirectly causal in the creation of writing on parchment, as the Egyptians refused to export papyrus to their competitor in the Library of Pergamum. Consequently, Library of Pergamum developed parchment as its own writing material.
A single piece of writing might occupy several scrolls, and this division into self-contained "books" was a major aspect of editorial work. King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC) is said to have set 500,000 scrolls as an objective for the library. The library's index, Callimachus's "Pinakes", has only survived in the form of a few fragments, and it is not possible to know with certainty how large and how diverse the collection may have been. At its height, the library was said to possess nearly half a million scrolls, and, although historians debate the precise number, the highest estimates claim 400,000 scrolls while the most conservative estimates are as low as 40,000, which is still an enormous collection that required vast storage space.
As a research institution, the library filled its stacks with new works in mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural sciences and other subjects. Its empirical standards were applied in one of the first and certainly strongest homes for serious textual criticism. As the same text often existed in several different versions, comparative textual criticism was crucial for ensuring their veracity. Once ascertained, canonical copies would then be made for scholars, royalty, and wealthy bibliophiles the world over, this commerce bringing income to the library.
The Library of Alexandria was one of the largest and most prestigious libraries of the ancient world, but it was far from the only one. By the end of the Hellenistic Period, almost every city in the Eastern Mediterranean had a public library and so did many medium-sized towns. During the Roman Period, the number of libraries only proliferated. By the fourth century AD, there were at least two dozen public libraries in the city of Rome itself alone.
In late antiquity, as the Roman Empire became Christianized, Christian libraries modeled directly on the Library of Alexandria and other great libraries of earlier pagan times began to be founded all across the Greek-speaking eastern part of the empire. Among the largest and most prominent of these libraries were the Theological Library of Caesarea Maritima, the Library of Jerusalem, and a Christian library in Alexandria. These libraries held both pagan and Christian writings side-by-side and Christian scholars applied to the Judeo-Christian scriptures the same philological techniques that the scholars of the Library of Alexandria had used for analyzing the Greek classics. Nonetheless, the study of pagan authors remained secondary to the study of the Christian scriptures until the Renaissance.
Ironically, the survival of ancient texts owes nothing to the great libraries of antiquity and instead owes everything to the fact that they were exhaustingly copied and recopied, at first by professional scribes during the Roman Period onto papyrus and later by monks during the Middle Ages onto parchment.
The idea of reviving the ancient Library of Alexandria in the modern era was first proposed in 1974, when Lotfy Dowidar was president of the University of Alexandria. In May 1986, Egypt requested the Executive Board of UNESCO to allow the international organization to conduct a feasibility study for the project. This marked the beginning of UNESCO and the international community's involvement in trying to bring the project to fruition. Starting in 1988, UNESCO and the UNDP worked to support the international architectural competition to design the Library. Egypt devoted four hectares of land for the building of the Library and established the National High Commission for the Library of Alexandria. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak took a personal interest in the project, which greatly contributed to its advancement. Completed in 2002, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina now functions as a modern library and cultural center, commemorating the original Library of Alexandria. In line with the mission of the Great Library of Alexandria, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina also houses the International School of Information Science (ISIS), a school for students preparing for highly specialized post-graduate degrees, whose goal is to train professional staff for libraries in Egypt and across the Middle East. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17726 |
Library
A library is a curated collection of sources of information and similar resources, selected by experts and made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing, often in a quiet environment conducive to study. It provides physical or digital access to material, and may be a physical location or a virtual space, or both. A library's collection can include books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, films, maps, prints, documents, microform, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, e-books, audiobooks, databases, table games, video games and other formats. Libraries range widely in size up to millions of items. In Latin and Greek, the idea of a bookcase is represented by "Bibliotheca" and "Bibliothēkē" (Greek: βιβλιοθήκη): derivatives of these mean "library" in many modern languages, e.g. French "bibliothèque".
The first libraries consisted of archives of the earliest form of writing—the clay tablets in cuneiform script discovered in Sumer, some dating back to 2600 BC. Private or personal libraries made up of written books appeared in classical Greece in the 5th century BC. In the 6th century, at the very close of the Classical period, the great libraries of the Mediterranean world remained those of Constantinople and Alexandria. The libraries of Timbuktu were also established around this time and attracted scholars from all over the world.
A library is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, a corporation, or a private individual. Public and institutional collections and services may be intended for use by people who choose not to—or cannot afford to—purchase an extensive collection themselves, who need material no individual can reasonably be expected to have, or who require professional assistance with their research. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services of librarians who are experts at finding and organizing information and at interpreting information needs. Libraries often provide quiet areas for studying, and they also often offer common areas to facilitate group study and collaboration. Libraries often provide public facilities for access to their electronic resources and the Internet.
Modern libraries are increasingly being redefined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources. They are extending services beyond the physical walls of a building, by providing material accessible by electronic means, and by providing the assistance of librarians in navigating and analyzing very large amounts of information with a variety of digital resources. Libraries are increasingly becoming community hubs where programs are delivered and people engage in lifelong learning.
The history of libraries began with the first efforts to organize collections of documents. Topics of interest include accessibility of the collection, acquisition of materials, arrangement and finding tools, the book trade, the influence of the physical properties of the different writing materials, language distribution, role in education, rates of literacy, budgets, staffing, libraries for specially targeted audiences, architectural merit, patterns of usage, and the role of libraries in a nation's cultural heritage, and the role of government, church or private sponsorship. Since the 1960s, issues of computerization and digitization have arisen.
Many institutions make a distinction between a circulating or lending library, where materials are expected and intended to be loaned to patrons, institutions, or other libraries, and a reference library where material is not lent out. Travelling libraries, such as the early horseback libraries of eastern Kentucky and bookmobiles, are generally of the lending type. Modern libraries are often a mixture of both, containing a general collection for circulation, and a reference collection which is restricted to the library premises. Also, increasingly, digital collections enable broader access to material that may not circulate in print, and enables libraries to expand their collections even without building a larger facility. Lamba (2019) reinforced this idea by observing that “today’s libraries have become increasingly multi-disciplinary, collaborative and networked” and that applying Web 2.0 tools to libraries would “not only connect the users with their community and enhance communication but will also help the librarians to promote their library’s activities, services, and products to target both their actual and potential users”.
Academic libraries are generally located on college and university campuses and primarily serve the students and faculty of that and other academic institutions. Some academic libraries, especially those at public institutions, are accessible to members of the general public in whole or in part.
Academic libraries are libraries that are hosted in post-secondary educational institutions, such as colleges and universities. Their main function are to provide support in research and resource linkage for students and faculty of the educational institution. Specific course-related resources are usually provided by the library, such as copies of textbooks and article readings held on 'reserve' (meaning that they are loaned out only on a short-term basis, usually a matter of hours). Some academic libraries provide resources not usually associated with libraries, such as the ability to check out laptop computers, web cameras, or scientific calculators.
Academic libraries offer workshops and courses outside of formal, graded coursework, which are meant to provide students with the tools necessary to succeed in their programs. These workshops may include help with citations, effective search techniques, journal databases, and electronic citation software. These workshops provide students with skills that can help them achieve success in their academic careers (and often, in their future occupations), which they may not learn inside the classroom.
The academic library provides a quiet study space for students on campus; it may also provide group study space, such as meeting rooms. In North America, Europe, and other parts of the world, academic libraries are becoming increasingly digitally oriented. The library provides a "gateway" for students and researchers to access various resources, both print/physical and digital. Academic institutions are subscribing to electronic journals databases, providing research and scholarly writing software, and usually provide computer workstations or computer labs for students to access journals, library search databases and portals, institutional electronic resources, Internet access, and course- or task-related software (i.e. word processing and spreadsheet software). Some academic libraries take on new roles, for instance, acting as an electronic repository for institutional scholarly research and academic knowledge, such as the collection and curation of digital copies of students' theses and dissertations. Moreover, academic libraries are increasingly acting as publishers on their own on a not-for-profit basis, especially in the form of fully Open Access institutional publishers.
Children's libraries are special collections of books intended for juvenile readers and usually kept in separate rooms of general public libraries. Some children's libraries have entire floors or wings dedicated to them in bigger libraries while smaller ones may have a separate room or area for children. They are an educational agency seeking to acquaint the young with the world's literature and to cultivate a love for reading. Their work supplements that of the public schools.
Services commonly provided by public libraries may include storytelling sessions for infants, toddlers, preschool children, or after-school programs, all with an intention of developing early literacy skills and a love of books. One of the most popular programs offered in public libraries are summer reading programs for children, families, and adults.
Another popular reading program for children is PAWS TO READ or similar programs where children can read to certified therapy dogs. Since animals are a calming influence and there is no judgment, children learn confidence and a love of reading. Many states have these types of programs: parents need simply ask their librarian to see if it is available at their local library.
A national or state library serves as a national repository of information, and has the right of legal deposit, which is a legal requirement that publishers in the country need to deposit a copy of each publication with the library. Unlike a public library, a national library rarely allows citizens to borrow books. Often, their collections include numerous rare, valuable, or significant works. There are wider definitions of a national library, putting less emphasis on the repository character.
The first national libraries had their origins in the royal collections of the sovereign or some other supreme body of the state.
Many national libraries cooperate within the National Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to discuss their common tasks, define and promote common standards, and carry out projects helping them to fulfill their duties. The national libraries of Europe participate in The European Library which is a service of the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL).
A public library provides services to the general public. If the library is part of a countywide library system, citizens with an active library card from around that county can use the library branches associated with the library system. A library can serve only their city, however, if they are not a member of the county public library system. Much of the materials located within a public library are available for borrowing. The library staff decides upon the number of items patrons are allowed to borrow, as well as the details of borrowing time allotted. Typically, libraries issue library cards to community members wishing to borrow books. Often visitors to a city are able to obtain a public library card.
Many public libraries also serve as community organizations that provide free services and events to the public, such as reading groups and toddler story time. For many communities, the library is a source of connection to a vast world, obtainable knowledge and understanding, and entertainment. According to a study by the Pennsylvania Library Association, public library services play a major role in fighting rising illiteracy rates among youths. Public libraries are protected and funded by the public they serve.
As the number of books in libraries have steadily increased since their inception, the need for compact storage and access with adequate lighting has grown. The "stack system" involves keeping a library's collection of books in a space separate from the reading room. This arrangement arose in the 19th century. Book stacks quickly evolved into a fairly standard form in which the cast iron and steel frameworks supporting the bookshelves also supported the floors, which often were built of translucent blocks to permit the passage of light (but were not transparent, for reasons of modesty). The introduction of electrical lighting had a huge impact on how the library operated. The use of glass floors was largely discontinued, though floors were still often composed of metal grating to allow air to circulate in multi-story stacks. As more space was needed, a method of moving shelves on tracks (compact shelving) was introduced to cut down on otherwise wasted aisle space.
Library 2.0, a term coined in 2005, is the library's response to the challenge of Google and an attempt to meet the changing needs of users by using web 2.0 technology. Some of the aspects of Library 2.0 include, commenting, tagging, bookmarking, discussions, use of online social networks by libraries, plug-ins, and widgets. Inspired by web 2.0, it is an attempt to make the library a more user-driven institution.
Despite the importance of public libraries, they are routinely having their budgets cut by state legislature. Funding has dwindled so badly that many public libraries have been forced to cut their hours and release employees.
A reference library does not lend books and other items; instead, they can only be read at the library itself. Typically, such libraries are used for research purposes, for example at a university. Some items at reference libraries may be historical and even unique. Many lending libraries contain a "reference section", which holds books, such as dictionaries, which are common reference books, and are therefore not lent out. Such reference sections may be referred to as "reading rooms", which may also include newspapers and periodicals. An example of a reading room is the Hazel H. Ransom Reading Room at the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin, which maintains the papers of literary agent Audrey Wood.
A research library is a collection of materials on one or more subjects. A research library supports scholarly or scientific research and will generally include primary as well as secondary sources; it will maintain permanent collections and attempt to provide access to all necessary materials. A research library is most often an academic or national library, but a large special library may have a research library within its special field, and a very few of the largest public libraries also serve as research libraries. A large university library may be considered a research library; and in North America, such libraries may belong to the Association of Research Libraries. In the United Kingdom, they may be members of Research Libraries UK (RLUK).
A research library can be either a reference library, which does not lend its holdings, or a lending library, which does lend all or some of its holdings. Some extremely large or traditional research libraries are entirely reference in this sense, lending none of their materials; most academic research libraries, at least in the US and the UK, now lend books, but not periodicals or other materials. Many research libraries are attached to a parental organization and serve only members of that organization. Examples of research libraries include the British Library, the Bodleian Library at Oxford University and the New York Public Library Main Branch on 42nd Street in Manhattan, State Public Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science.
Digital libraries are libraries that house digital resources. They are defined as an organization and not a service that provide access to digital works, have a preservation responsibility to provide future access to materials, and provides these items easily and affordably. The definition of a digital library implies that "a digital library uses a variety of software, networking technologies and standards to facilitate access to digital content and data to a designated user community." Access to digital libraries can be influenced by several factors, either individually or together. The most common factors that influence access are: The library's content, the characteristics and information needs of the target users, the library's digital interface, the goals and objectives of the library's organizational structure, and the standards and regulations that govern library use. Access will depend on the users ability to discover and retrieve documents that interest them and that they require, which in turn is a preservation question. Digital objects cannot be preserved passively, they must be curated by digital librarians to ensure the trust and integrity of the digital objects.
One of the biggest considerations for digital librarians is the need to provide long-term access to their resources; to do this, there are two issues requiring watchfulness: Media failure and format obsolescence. With media failure, a particular digital item is unusable because of some sort of error or problem. A scratched CD-Rom, for example, will not display its contents correctly, but another, unscratched disk will not have that problem. Format obsolescence is when a digital format has been superseded by newer technology, and so items in the old format are unreadable and unusable. Dealing with media failure is a reactive process, because something is done only when a problem presents itself. In contrast, format obsolescence is preparatory, because changes are anticipated and solutions are sought before there is a problem.
Future trends in digital preservation include: Transparent enterprise models for digital preservation, launch of self-preserving objects, increased flexibility in digital preservation architectures, clearly defined metrics for comparing preservation tools, and terminology and standards interoperability in real time.
All other libraries fall into the "special library" category. Many private businesses and public organizations, including hospitals, churches, museums, research laboratories, law firms, and many government departments and agencies, maintain their own libraries for the use of their employees in doing specialized research related to their work. Depending on the particular institution, special libraries may or may not be accessible to the general public or elements thereof. In more specialized institutions such as law firms and research laboratories, librarians employed in special libraries are commonly specialists in the institution's field rather than generally trained librarians, and often are not required to have advanced degrees in a specifically library-related field due to the specialized content and clientele of the library.
Special libraries can also include women's libraries or LGBTQ libraries, which serve the needs of women and the LGBTQ community. Libraries and the LGBTQ community have an extensive history, and there are currently many libraries, archives, and special collections devoted to preserving and helping the LGBTQ community. Women's libraries, such as the Vancouver Women's Library or the Women's Library @LSE are examples of women's libraries that offer services to women and girls and focus on women's history.
Some special libraries, such as governmental law libraries, hospital libraries, and military base libraries commonly are open to public visitors to the institution in question. Depending on the particular library and the clientele it serves, special libraries may offer services similar to research, reference, public, academic, or children's libraries, often with restrictions such as only lending books to patients at a hospital or restricting the public from parts of a military collection. Given the highly individual nature of special libraries, visitors to a special library are often advised to check what services and restrictions apply at that particular library.
Special libraries are distinguished from special collections, which are branches or parts of a library intended for rare books, manuscripts, and other special materials, though some special libraries have special collections of their own, typically related to the library's specialized subject area.
For more information on specific types of special libraries, see law libraries, medical libraries, music libraries, or transportation libraries.
Most libraries have materials arranged in a specified order according to a library classification system, so that items may be located quickly and collections may be browsed efficiently. Some libraries have additional galleries beyond the public ones, where reference materials are stored. These reference stacks may be open to selected members of the public. Others require patrons to submit a "stack request", which is a request for an assistant to retrieve the material from the closed stacks: see List of closed stack libraries (in progress).
Larger libraries are often divided into departments staffed by both paraprofessionals and professional librarians.
Basic tasks in library management include the planning of acquisitions (which materials the library should acquire, by purchase or otherwise), library classification of acquired materials, preservation of materials (especially rare and fragile archival materials such as manuscripts), the deaccessioning of materials, patron borrowing of materials, and developing and administering library computer systems. More long-term issues include the planning of the construction of new libraries or extensions to existing ones, and the development and implementation of outreach services and reading-enhancement services (such as adult literacy and children's programming). Library materials like books, magazines, periodicals, CDs, etc. are managed by Dewey Decimal Classification Theory and modified Dewey Decimal Classification Theory is more practical reliable system for library materials management.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published several standards regarding the management of libraries through its Technical Committee 46 (TC 46), which is focused on "libraries, documentation and information centers, publishing, archives, records management, museum documentation, indexing and abstracting services, and information science". The following is a partial list of some of them:
Libraries may have rules which limit noise levels, the use of mobile phones, and/or the consumption of food and drink.
In UK local authority libraries, this has been challenged recently as toddler 'bounce and rhyme' sessions have been held. Noise levels in public libraries have become a matter of controversy.
Librarians have sometimes complained that some of the library buildings which have been used to accommodate libraries have been inadequate for the demands made upon them. In general, this condition may have resulted from one or more of the following causes:
Much advancement has undoubtedly been made toward cooperation between architect and librarian, and many good designers have made library buildings their specialty; nevertheless it seems that the ideal type of library is not yet realized—the type so adapted to its purpose that it would be immediately recognized as such, as is the case with school buildings. This does not mean that library constructions should conform rigidly to a fixed standard of appearance and arrangement, but it does mean that the exterior should express as nearly as possible the purpose and functions of the interior.
Some patrons may not know how to fully use the library's resources. This can be due to individuals' unease in approaching a staff member. Ways in which a library's content is displayed or accessed may have the most impact on use. An antiquated or clumsy search system, or staff unwilling or untrained to engage their patrons, will limit a library's usefulness. In the public libraries of the United States, beginning in the 19th century, these problems drove the emergence of the library instruction movement, which advocated library user education. One of the early leaders was John Cotton Dana. The basic form of library instruction is sometimes known as information literacy.
Libraries should inform their users of what materials are available in their collections and how to access that information. Before the computer age, this was accomplished by the card catalogue—a cabinet (or multiple cabinets) containing many drawers filled with index cards that identified books and other materials. In a large library, the card catalogue often filled a large room.
The emergence of the Internet, however, has led to the adoption of electronic catalogue databases (often referred to as "webcats" or as online public access catalogues, OPACs), which allow users to search the library's holdings from any location with Internet access. This style of catalogue maintenance is compatible with new types of libraries, such as digital libraries and distributed libraries, as well as older libraries that have been retrofitted. Large libraries may be scattered within multiple buildings across a town, each having multiple floors, with multiple rooms housing their resources across a series of shelves called bays. Once a user has located a resource within the catalogue, they must then use navigational guidance to retrieve the resource physically, a process that may be assisted through signage, maps, GPS systems, or RFID tagging.
Finland has the highest number of registered book borrowers per capita in the world. Over half of Finland's population are registered borrowers. In the US, public library users have borrowed on average roughly 15 books per user per year from 1856 to 1978. From 1978 to 2004, book circulation per user declined approximately 50%. The growth of audiovisuals circulation, estimated at 25% of total circulation in 2004, accounts for about half of this decline.
In the 21st century, there has been increasing use of the Internet to gather and retrieve data. The shift to digital libraries has greatly impacted the way people use physical libraries. Between 2002 and 2004, the average American academic library saw the overall number of transactions decline approximately 2.2%. Libraries are trying to keep up with the digital world and the new generation of students that are used to having information just one click away. For example, the University of California Library System saw a 54% decline in circulation between 1991 and 2001 of 8,377,000 books to 3,832,000.
These facts might be a consequence of the increased availability of e-resources. In 1999–2000, 105 ARL university libraries spent almost $100 million on electronic resources, which is an increase of nearly $23 million from the previous year. A 2003 report by the Open E-book Forum found that close to a million e-books had been sold in 2002, generating nearly $8 million in revenue. Another example of the shift to digital libraries can be seen in Cushing Academy's decision to dispense with its library of printed books—more than 20,000 volumes in all—and switch over entirely to digital media resources.
One claim to why there is a decrease in the usage of libraries stems from the observation of the research habits of undergraduate students enrolled in colleges and universities. There have been claims that college undergraduates have become more used to retrieving information from the Internet than a traditional library. As each generation becomes more in tune with the Internet, their desire to retrieve information as quickly and easily as possible has increased. Finding information by simply searching the Internet could be much easier and faster than reading an entire book. In a survey conducted by NetLibrary, 93% of undergraduate students claimed that finding information online makes more sense to them than going to the library. Also, 75% of students surveyed claimed that they did not have enough time to go to the library and that they liked the convenience of the Internet. While the retrieving information from the Internet may be efficient and time saving than visiting a traditional library, research has shown that undergraduates are most likely searching only .03% of the entire web. The information that they are finding might be easy to retrieve and more readily available, but may not be as in depth as information from other resources such as the books available at a physical library.
In the mid-2000s, Swedish company Distec invented a library book vending machine known as the GoLibrary, that offers library books to people where there is no branch, limited hours, or high traffic locations such as El Cerrito del Norte BART station in California.
A library may make use of the Internet in a number of ways, from creating their own library website to making the contents of its catalogues searchable online. Some specialised search engines such as Google Scholar offer a way to facilitate searching for academic resources such as journal articles and research papers. The Online Computer Library Center allows anyone to search the world's largest repository of library records through its WorldCat online database. Websites such as LibraryThing and Amazon provide abstracts, reviews, and recommendations of books. Libraries provide computers and Internet access to allow people to search for information online. Online information access is particularly attractive to younger library users.
Digitization of books, particularly those that are out-of-print, in projects such as Google Books provides resources for library and other online users. Due to their holdings of valuable material, some libraries are important partners for search engines such as Google in realizing the potential of such projects and have received reciprocal benefits in cases where they have negotiated effectively. As the prominence of and reliance on the Internet has grown, library services have moved the emphasis from mainly providing print resources to providing more computers and more Internet access. Libraries face a number of challenges in adapting to new ways of information seeking that may stress convenience over quality, reducing the priority of information literacy skills. The potential decline in library usage, particularly reference services, puts the necessity for these services in doubt.
Library scholars have acknowledged that libraries need to address the ways that they market their services if they are to compete with the Internet and mitigate the risk of losing users. This includes promoting the information literacy skills training considered vital across the library profession. However, marketing of services has to be adequately supported financially in order to be successful. This can be problematic for library services that are publicly funded and find it difficult to justify diverting tight funds to apparently peripheral areas such as branding and marketing.
The privacy aspect of library usage in the Internet age is a matter of growing concern and advocacy; privacy workshops are run by the Library Freedom Project which teach librarians about digital tools (such as the Tor Project) to thwart mass surveillance.
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international association of library organisations. It is the global voice of the library and information profession, and its annual conference provides a venue for librarians to learn from one another.
Library associations in Asia include the Indian Library Association (ILA), Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centers (IASLIC), Bengal Library Association (BLA), Kolkata, Pakistan Library Association, the Pakistan Librarians Welfare Organization, the Bangladesh Association of Librarians, Information Scientists and Documentalists, the Library Association of Bangladesh, and the Sri Lanka Library Association (founded 1960).
National associations of the English-speaking world include the American Library Association, the Australian Library and Information Association, the Canadian Library Association, the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa, and the Research Libraries UK (a consortium of 30 university and other research libraries in the United Kingdom). Library bodies such as CILIP (formerly the Library Association, founded 1877) may advocate the role that libraries and librarians can play in a modern Internet environment, and in the teaching of information literacy skills.
Public library advocacy is support given to a public library for its financial and philosophical goals or needs. Most often this takes the form of monetary or material donations or campaigning to the institutions which oversee the library, sometimes by advocacy groups such as Friends of Libraries and community members. Originally, library advocacy was centered on the library itself, but current trends show libraries positioning themselves to demonstrate they provide "economic value to the community" in means that are not directly related to the checking out of books and other media.
Libraries are considered part of the cultural heritage and are one of the primary objectives in many state and domestic conflicts and are at risk of destruction and looting. Financing is often carried out by robbing valuable library items. National and international coordination regarding military and civil structures for the protection of libraries is operated by Blue Shield International and UNESCO. From an international perspective, despite the partial dissolution of state structures and very unclear security situations as a result of the wars and unrest, robust undertakings to protect libraries are being carried out. The topic is also the creation of "no-strike lists", in which the coordinates of important cultural monuments such as libraries have been preserved. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17727 |
Latin
Latin (, ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken in the area around Rome, known as Latium. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in Italy, and subsequently throughout the western Roman Empire. Latin has contributed many words to the English language. In particular, Latin (and Ancient Greek) roots are used in English descriptions of theology, the sciences, medicine, and law. It is the official language in the Holy See (Vatican City).
By the late Roman Republic (75 BC), Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin. Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence and author Petronius. Late Latin is the written language from the 3rd century; its colloquial form Vulgar Latin developed in the 6th to 9th centuries into the Romance languages, such as Romanian, Aromanian, Sicilian, Neapolitan, Sardinian, Italian, Piedmontese, Lombard, Venetian, Friulan, Ladin, Romansh, French, Franco-Provençal, Occitan, Corsican, Catalan/Valencian, Aragonese, Spanish, Asturian, Galician, and Portuguese. Medieval Latin was used as a literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance which used Renaissance Latin. Later, Early Modern Latin and New Latin evolved. Latin was the language of international communication, scholarship and science until well into the 18th century, when vernaculars (including the Romance languages) supplanted it. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.
Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders, six or seven noun cases, five declensions, four verb conjugations, six tenses, three persons, three moods, two voices, two or three aspects and two numbers. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets and ultimately from the Phoenician alphabet.
A number of historical phases of the language have been recognized, each distinguished by subtle differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, morphology, and syntax. There are no hard and fast rules of classification; different scholars emphasize different features. As a result, the list has variants, as well as alternative names.
In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin refers to the styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church from Late Antiquity onward, as well as by Protestant scholars.
After the Western Roman Empire fell in 476, and Germanic kingdoms took its place, the Germanic people adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other, more formal uses.
The earliest known form of Latin is Old Latin, which was spoken from the Roman Kingdom to the later part of the Roman Republic period. It is attested both in inscriptions and in some of the earliest extant Latin literary works, such as the comedies of Plautus and Terence. The Latin alphabet was devised from the Etruscan alphabet. The writing later changed from what was initially either a right-to-left or a boustrophedon script to what ultimately became a strictly left-to-right script.
During the late republic and into the first years of the empire, a new Classical Latin arose, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate men, who wrote the great works of classical literature, which were taught in grammar and rhetoric schools. Today's instructional grammars trace their roots to such schools, which served as a sort of informal language academy dedicated to maintaining and perpetuating educated speech.
Philological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of Plautus, which contain snippets of everyday speech, indicates that a spoken language, Vulgar Latin (termed , "the speech of the masses", by Cicero), existed concurrently with literate Classical Latin. The informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors and those found as graffiti.
As it was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, romanised European populations developed their own dialects of the language, which eventually led to the differentiation of Romance languages. The decline of the Roman Empire meant a deterioration in educational standards that brought about Late Latin, a postclassical stage of the language seen in Christian writings of the time. It was more in line with everyday speech, not only because of a decline in education but also because of a desire to spread the word to the masses.
Despite dialectal variation, which is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy retained a remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture. It was not until the Moorish conquest of Spain in 711 cut off communications between the major Romance regions that the languages began to diverge seriously. The Vulgar Latin dialect that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from the other varieties, as it was largely cut off from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire.
One key marker of whether a given Romance feature was found in Vulgar Latin is to compare it with its parallel in Classical Latin. If it was not preferred in Classical Latin, then it most likely came from the undocumented contemporaneous Vulgar Latin. For example, the Romance for "horse" (Italian , French , Spanish , Portuguese and Romanian ) came from Latin . However, Classical Latin used . Therefore, was most likely the spoken form.
Vulgar Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing.
Medieval Latin is the written Latin in use during that portion of the postclassical period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed. The spoken language had developed into the various incipient Romance languages; however, in the educated and official world Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as the Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful for international communication between the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies.
Without the institutions of the Roman empire that had supported its uniformity, medieval Latin lost its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin "sum" and "eram" are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use "fui" and "fueram" instead. Furthermore, the meanings of many words have been changed and new vocabularies have been introduced from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically incorrect Latin prevail.
The Renaissance briefly reinforced the position of Latin as a spoken language by its adoption by the Renaissance Humanists. Often led by members of the clergy, they were shocked by the accelerated dismantling of the vestiges of the classical world and the rapid loss of its literature. They strove to preserve what they could and restore Latin to what it had been and introduced the practice of producing revised editions of the literary works that remained by comparing surviving manuscripts. By no later than the 15th century they had replaced Medieval Latin with versions supported by the scholars of the rising universities, who attempted, by scholarship, to discover what the classical language had been.
During the Early Modern Age, Latin still was the most important language of culture in Europe. Therefore, until the end of the 17th century the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin. Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French (a Romance language) and later native or other languages.
Despite having no native speakers, Latin is still used for a variety of purposes in the contemporary world.
The largest organisation that retains Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the Catholic Church. Latin remains the language of the Roman Rite; the Tridentine Mass is celebrated in Latin. Although the Mass of Paul VI is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, it can be and often is said in Latin, in part or in whole, especially at multilingual gatherings. It is the official language of the Holy See, the primary language of its public journal, the , and the working language of the Roman Rota. Vatican City is also home to the world's only automatic teller machine that gives instructions in Latin. In the pontifical universities postgraduate courses of Canon law are taught in Latin, and papers are written in the same language.
In the Anglican Church, after the publication of the "Book of Common Prayer" of 1559, a Latin edition was published in 1560 for use in universities such as Oxford and the leading "public schools" (English private academies), where the liturgy was still permitted to be conducted in Latin. There have been several Latin translations since, including a Latin edition of the 1979 USA Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
In the Western world, many organizations, governments and schools use Latin for their mottos due to its association with formality, tradition, and the roots of Western culture.
Canada's motto ("from sea to sea") and most provincial mottos are also in Latin. The Canadian Victoria Cross is modelled after the British Victoria Cross which has the inscription "For Valour". Because Canada is officially bilingual, the Canadian medal has replaced the English inscription with the Latin .
Spain's motto "PLVS VLTRA", meaning "further beyond", is also Latin in origin. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and is a reversal of the original phrase "Non terrae plus ultra" ("No land further beyond"). This was said to have been inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, which marked the edge of the known world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence.
Several states of the United States have Latin mottos: such as Connecticut's motto ("He who transplanted sustains"); Kansas's ("To the stars through hardships"); Colorado's ("Nothing without providence"); Michigan's ("If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you"); Missouri's ("The health of the people should be the highest law"); North Carolina's ("To be rather than to seem"); Virginia's ("Thus always to tyrants"); and West Virginia's ("Mountaineers are always free").
Many military organizations today have Latin mottos, such as ("always ready"), the motto of the United States Coast Guard; ("always faithful"), the motto of the United States Marine Corps; and ("Through adversity/struggle to the stars"), the motto of the Royal Air Force (RAF).
Some colleges and universities have adopted Latin mottos, for example Harvard University's motto is ("truth"). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue.
Switzerland has adopted the country's Latin short name on coins and stamps, since there is no room to use all of the nation's four official languages. For a similar reason, it adopted the international vehicle and internet code "CH", which stands for , the country's full Latin name.
Some films of ancient settings, such as "Sebastiane" and "The Passion of the Christ", have been made with dialogue in Latin for the sake of realism. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as "The Exorcist" and "Lost" ("Jughead"). Subtitles are usually shown for the benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics. The libretto for the opera-oratorio by Igor Stravinsky is in Latin.
The continued instruction of Latin is often seen as a highly valuable component of a liberal arts education. Latin is taught at many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British public schools and grammar schools, the Italian and , the German and the Dutch .
Occasionally, some media outlets, targeting enthusiasts, broadcast in Latin. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland (the Nuntii Latini broadcast from 1989 until it was shut down in June 2019), and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin.
There are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The Latin Wikipedia has more than 100,000 articles.
Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Catalan, Romansh, and other Romance languages are direct descendants of Latin. There are also many Latin derivatives in English as well as a few in German, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish. Latin is still spoken in Vatican City, a city-state situated in Rome that is the seat of the Catholic Church.
Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. About 270,000 inscriptions are known.
The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology. They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. Their works were published in manuscript form before the invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library, published by Harvard University Press, or the Oxford Classical Texts, published by Oxford University Press.
Latin translations of modern literature such as "The Hobbit", "Treasure Island", "Robinson Crusoe", "Paddington Bear", "Winnie the Pooh", "The Adventures of Tintin", "Asterix", "Harry Potter", , "Max and Moritz", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!", "The Cat in the Hat", and a book of fairy tales, "", are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook.
The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In the Middle Ages, borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century or indirectly after the Norman Conquest, through the Anglo-Norman language. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed "inkhorn terms", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, but some useful ones survived, such as 'imbibe' and 'extrapolate'. Many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and Dutch vocabularies. Those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included.
The influence of Roman governance and Roman technology on the less-developed nations under Roman dominion led to the adoption of Latin phraseology in some specialized areas, such as science, technology, medicine, and law. For example, the Linnaean system of plant and animal classification was heavily influenced by "Historia Naturalis", an encyclopedia of people, places, plants, animals, and things published by Pliny the Elder. Roman medicine, recorded in the works of such physicians as Galen, established that today's medical terminology would be primarily derived from Latin and Greek words, the Greek being filtered through the Latin. Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole. Latin law principles have survived partly in a long list of Latin legal terms.
A few international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin. Interlingua is sometimes considered a simplified, modern version of the language. Latino sine Flexione, popular in the early 20th century, is Latin with its inflections stripped away, among other grammatical changes.
The Logudorese dialect of the Sardinian language is the closest contemporary language to Latin.
Throughout European history, an education in the classics was considered crucial for those who wished to join literate circles. Instruction in Latin is an essential aspect. In today's world, a large number of Latin students in the US learn from "Wheelock's Latin: The Classic Introductory Latin Course, Based on Ancient Authors". This book, first published in 1956, was written by Frederic M. Wheelock, who received a PhD from Harvard University. "Wheelock's Latin" has become the standard text for many American introductory Latin courses.
The Living Latin movement attempts to teach Latin in the same way that living languages are taught, as a means of both spoken and written communication. It is available at the Vatican and at some institutions in the US, such as the University of Kentucky and Iowa State University. The British Cambridge University Press is a major supplier of Latin textbooks for all levels, such as the Cambridge Latin Course series. It has also published a subseries of children's texts in Latin by Bell & Forte, which recounts the adventures of a mouse called Minimus.
In the United Kingdom, the Classical Association encourages the study of antiquity through various means, such as publications and grants. The University of Cambridge, the Open University, a number of prestigious independent schools, for example Eton, Harrow, Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, Merchant Taylor’s School, Via Facilis and Rugby, a London-based charity, run Latin courses. In the United States and in Canada, the American Classical League supports every effort to further the study of classics. Its subsidiaries include the National Junior Classical League (with more than 50,000 members), which encourages high school students to pursue the study of Latin, and the National Senior Classical League, which encourages students to continue their study of the classics into college. The league also sponsors the National Latin Exam. Classicist Mary Beard wrote in "The Times Literary Supplement" in 2006 that the reason for learning Latin is because of what was written in it.
Latin was or is the official language of European states:
The ancient pronunciation of Latin has been reconstructed; among the data used for reconstruction are explicit statements about pronunciation by ancient authors, misspellings, puns, ancient etymologies, the spelling of Latin loanwords in other languages, and the historical development of Romance languages.
The consonant phonemes of Classical Latin are as follows:
In Old and Classical Latin, the Latin alphabet had no distinction between uppercase and lowercase, and the letters did not exist. In place of , were used, respectively; represented both vowels and consonants. Most of the letterforms were similar to modern uppercase, as can be seen in the inscription from the Colosseum shown at the top of the article.
The spelling systems used in Latin dictionaries and modern editions of Latin texts, however, normally use in place of Classical-era . Some systems use for the consonant sounds except in the combinations for which is never used.
Some notes concerning the mapping of Latin phonemes to English graphemes are given below:
In Classical Latin, as in modern Italian, double consonant letters were pronounced as long consonant sounds distinct from short versions of the same consonants. Thus the "nn" in Classical Latin , year, (and in Italian ) is pronounced as a doubled as in English "unnamed". (In English, distinctive consonant length or doubling occurs only at the boundary between two words or morphemes, as in that example.)
In Classical Latin, did not exist as a letter distinct from V; the written form was used to represent both a vowel and a consonant. was adopted to represent upsilon in loanwords from Greek, but it was pronounced like and by some speakers. It was also used in native Latin words by confusion with Greek words of similar meaning, such as and .
Classical Latin distinguished between long and short vowels. Then, long vowels, except for , were frequently marked using the apex, which was sometimes similar to an acute accent . Long was written using a taller version of , called "long I": . In modern texts, long vowels are often indicated by a macron , and short vowels are usually unmarked except when it is necessary to distinguish between words, when they are marked with a breve . The acute accent, when it is used in modern Latin texts, indicates stress, as in Spanish, rather than length.
Long vowels in Classical Latin are, technically, pronounced as entirely different from short vowels. The difference is described in the table below:
A vowel letter followed by at the end of a word, or a vowel letter followed by before or , represented a long nasal vowel, as in "monstrum" .
Classical Latin had several diphthongs. The two most common were . was fairly rare, and were very rare, at least in native Latin words. There has also been debate over whether is truly a diphthong in Classical Latin, due to its rarity, absence in works of Roman grammarians, and the roots of Classical Latin words (i.e. to , to , etc.) not matching or being similar to the pronunciation of classical words if were to be considered a diphthong.
The sequences sometimes did not represent diphthongs. and also represented a sequence of two vowels in different syllables in "of bronze" and "began", and represented sequences of two vowels or of a vowel and one of the semivowels , in "beware!", "whose", "I warned", "I released", "I destroyed", "his", and "new".
Old Latin had more diphthongs, but most of them changed into long vowels in Classical Latin. The Old Latin diphthong and the sequence became Classical . Old Latin and changed to Classical , except in a few words whose became Classical . These two developments sometimes occurred in different words from the same root: for instance, Classical "punishment" and "to punish". Early Old Latin usually changed to Classical .
In Vulgar Latin and the Romance languages, merged with . During the Classical Latin period this form of speaking was deliberately avoided by well-educated speakers.
Latin was written in the Latin alphabet, derived from the Etruscan alphabet, which was in turn drawn from the Greek alphabet and ultimately the Phoenician alphabet. This alphabet has continued to be used over the centuries as the script for the Romance, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, Finnic, and many Slavic languages (Polish, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Bosnian and Czech); and it has been adopted by many languages around the world, including Vietnamese, the Austronesian languages, many Turkic languages, and most languages in sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, making it by far the world's single most widely used writing system.
The number of letters in the Latin alphabet has varied. When it was first derived from the Etruscan alphabet, it contained only 21 letters. Later, "G" was added to represent , which had previously been spelled "C", and "Z" ceased to be included in the alphabet, as the language then had no voiced alveolar fricative. The letters "Y" and "Z" were later added to represent Greek letters, upsilon and zeta respectively, in Greek loanwords.
"W" was created in the 11th century from "VV". It represented in Germanic languages, not Latin, which still uses "V" for the purpose. "J" was distinguished from the original "I" only during the late Middle Ages, as was the letter "U" from "V". Although some Latin dictionaries use "J", it is rarely used for Latin text, as it was not used in classical times, but many other languages use it.
Classical Latin did not contain sentence punctuation, letter case, or interword spacing, but apices were sometimes used to distinguish length in vowels and the interpunct was used at times to separate words. The first line of Catullus 3, originally written as
or with interpunct as
would be rendered in a modern edition as
or with macrons
or with apices
The Roman cursive script is commonly found on the many wax tablets excavated at sites such as forts, an especially extensive set having been discovered at Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall in Britain. Most notable is the fact that while most of the Vindolanda tablets show spaces between words, spaces were avoided in monumental inscriptions from that era.
Occasionally, Latin has been written in other scripts:
Latin is a synthetic, fusional language in the terminology of linguistic typology. In more traditional terminology, it is an inflected language, but typologists are apt to say "inflecting". Words include an objective semantic element and markers specifying the grammatical use of the word. The fusion of root meaning and markers produces very compact sentence elements: "amō", "I love," is produced from a semantic element, "ama-", "love," to which "-ō", a first person singular marker, is suffixed.
The grammatical function can be changed by changing the markers: the word is "inflected" to express different grammatical functions, but the semantic element usually does not change. (Inflection uses affixing and infixing. Affixing is prefixing and suffixing. Latin inflections are never prefixed.)
For example, "amābit", "he (or she or it) will love", is formed from the same stem, "amā-", to which a future tense marker, "-bi-", is suffixed, and a third person singular marker, "-t", is suffixed. There is an inherent ambiguity: "-t" may denote more than one grammatical category: masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. A major task in understanding Latin phrases and clauses is to clarify such ambiguities by an analysis of context. All natural languages contain ambiguities of one sort or another.
The inflections express gender, number, and case in adjectives, nouns, and pronouns, a process called "declension". Markers are also attached to fixed stems of verbs, to denote person, number, tense, voice, mood, and aspect, a process called "conjugation". Some words are uninflected and undergo neither process, such as adverbs, prepositions, and interjections.
A regular Latin noun belongs to one of five main declensions, a group of nouns with similar inflected forms. The declensions are identified by the genitive singular form of the noun. The first declension, with a predominant ending letter of "a", is signified by the genitive singular ending of "-ae". The second declension, with a predominant ending letter of "o", is signified by the genitive singular ending of "-i". The third declension, with a predominant ending letter of "i", is signified by the genitive singular ending of "-is". The fourth declension, with a predominant ending letter of "u", is signified by the genitive singular ending of "-ūs". The fifth declension, with a predominant ending letter of "e", is signified by the genitive singular ending of "-ei".
There are seven Latin noun cases, which also apply to adjectives and pronouns and mark a noun's syntactic role in the sentence by means of inflections. Thus, word order is not as important in Latin as it is in English, which is less inflected. The general structure and word order of a Latin sentence can therefore vary. The cases are as follows:
Latin lacks both definite and indefinite articles so "puer currit" can mean either "the boy is running" or "a boy is running".
There are two types of regular Latin adjectives: first- and second- declension and third-declension. They are so-called because their forms are similar or identical to first- and second-declension and third-declension nouns, respectively. Latin adjectives also have comparative (more --, "-er") and superlative (most --, "est") forms. There are also a number of Latin participles.
Latin numbers are sometimes declined as adjectives. See "Numbers" below.
First and second-declension adjectives are declined like first-declension nouns for the feminine forms and like second-declension nouns for the masculine and neuter forms. For example, for "mortuus, mortua, mortuum" (dead), "mortua" is declined like a regular first-declension noun (such as "puella" (girl)), "mortuus" is declined like a regular second-declension masculine noun (such as "dominus" (lord, master)), and "mortuum" is declined like a regular second-declension neuter noun (such as "auxilium" (help)).
Third-declension adjectives are mostly declined like normal third-declension nouns, with a few exceptions. In the plural nominative neuter, for example, the ending is "-ia" ("omnia" (all, everything)), and for third-declension nouns, the plural nominative neuter ending is "-a" or "-ia" ("capita" (heads), "animalia" (animals)) They can have one, two or three forms for the masculine, feminine, and neuter nominative singular.
Latin participles, like English participles, are formed from a verb. There are a few main types of participles: Present Active Participles, Perfect Passive Participles, Future Active Participles, and Future Passive Participles.
Latin sometimes uses prepositions, depending on the type of prepositional phrase being used. Most prepositions are followed by a noun in either the accusative or ablative case: "apud puerum" (with the boy), with "puerum" being the accusative form of "puer", boy, and "sine puero" (without the boy, "puero" being the ablative form of "puer". A few adpositions, however, govern a noun in the genitive (such as "gratia" and "tenus").
A regular verb in Latin belongs to one of four main conjugations. A conjugation is "a class of verbs with similar inflected forms." The conjugations are identified by the last letter of the verb's present stem. The present stem can be found by omitting the -"re" (-"rī" in deponent verbs) ending from the present infinitive form. The infinitive of the first conjugation ends in "-ā-re" or "-ā-ri" (active and passive respectively): "amāre", "to love," "hortārī", "to exhort"; of the second conjugation by "-ē-re" or "-ē-rī": "monēre", "to warn", "verērī", "to fear;" of the third conjugation by "-ere", "-ī": "dūcere", "to lead," "ūtī", "to use"; of the fourth by "-ī-re", "-ī-rī": "audīre", "to hear," "experīrī", "to attempt".
Irregular verbs may not follow the types or may be marked in a different way. The "endings" presented above are not the suffixed infinitive markers. The first letter in each case is the last of the stem so the conjugations are also called a-conjugation, e-conjugation and i-conjugation. The fused infinitive ending is -"re" or -"rī". Third-conjugation stems end in a consonant: the consonant conjugation. Further, there is a subset of the third conjugation, the i-stems, which behave somewhat like the fourth conjugation, as they are both i-stems, one short and the other long. The stem categories descend from Indo-European and can therefore be compared to similar conjugations in other Indo-European languages.
There are six general "tenses" in Latin (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect and future perfect), three moods (indicative, imperative and subjunctive, in addition to the infinitive, participle, gerund, gerundive and supine), three persons (first, second and third), two numbers (singular and plural), two voices (active and passive) and two aspects (perfective and imperfective). Verbs are described by four principal parts:
There are six "tenses" in the Latin language. These are divided into two tense systems: the present system, which is made up of the present, imperfect and future tenses, and the perfect system, which is made up of the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect tenses. Each tense has a set of endings corresponding to the person, number, and voice of the subject. Subject (nominative) pronouns are generally omitted for the first ("I, we") and second ("you") persons except for emphasis.
The table below displays the common inflected endings for the indicative mood in the active voice in all six tenses. For the future tense, the first listed endings are for the first and second conjugations, and the second listed endings are for the third and fourth conjugations:
Some Latin verbs are deponent, causing their forms to be in the passive voice but retain an active meaning: "hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum (to urge).
As Latin is an Italic language, most of its vocabulary is likewise Italic, ultimately from the ancestral Proto-Indo-European language. However, because of close cultural interaction, the Romans not only adapted the Etruscan alphabet to form the Latin alphabet but also borrowed some Etruscan words into their language, including "persona" "mask" and "histrio" "actor". Latin also included vocabulary borrowed from Oscan, another Italic language.
After the Fall of Tarentum (272 BC), the Romans began Hellenising, or adopting features of Greek culture, including the borrowing of Greek words, such as "camera" (vaulted roof), "sumbolum" (symbol), and "balineum" (bath). This Hellenisation led to the addition of "Y" and "Z" to the alphabet to represent Greek sounds. Subsequently the Romans transplanted Greek art, medicine, science and philosophy to Italy, paying almost any price to entice Greek skilled and educated persons to Rome and sending their youth to be educated in Greece. Thus, many Latin scientific and philosophical words were Greek loanwords or had their meanings expanded by association with Greek words, as "ars" (craft) and τέχνη (art).
Because of the Roman Empire's expansion and subsequent trade with outlying European tribes, the Romans borrowed some northern and central European words, such as "beber" (beaver), of Germanic origin, and "bracae" (breeches), of Celtic origin. The specific dialects of Latin across Latin-speaking regions of the former Roman Empire after its fall were influenced by languages specific to the regions. The dialects of Latin evolved into different Romance languages.
During and after the adoption of Christianity into Roman society, Christian vocabulary became a part of the language, either from Greek or Hebrew borrowings or as Latin neologisms. Continuing into the Middle Ages, Latin incorporated many more words from surrounding languages, including Old English and other Germanic languages.
Over the ages, Latin-speaking populations produced new adjectives, nouns, and verbs by affixing or compounding meaningful segments. For example, the compound adjective, "omnipotens", "all-powerful," was produced from the adjectives "omnis", "all", and "potens", "powerful", by dropping the final "s" of "omnis" and concatenating. Often, the concatenation changed the part of speech, and nouns were produced from verb segments or verbs from nouns and adjectives.
The phrases are mentioned with accents to show where stress is placed. In Latin, words are normally stressed either on the second-to-last (penultimate) syllable, called in Latin "paenultima" or "syllaba paenultima", or on the third-to-last syllable, called in Latin "antepaenultima" or "syllaba antepaenultima". In the following notation, accented short vowels have an acute diacritic, accented long vowels have a circumflex diacritic (representing long falling pitch), and unaccented long vowels are marked simply with a macron. This reflects the tone of the voice with which, ideally, the stress is phonetically realized; but this may not always be clearly articulated on every word in a sentence. Regardless of length, a vowel at the end of a word may be significantly shortened or even altogether deleted if the next word begins with a vowel also (a process called elision), unless a very short pause is inserted. As an exception, the following words: "est" (English "is"), "es" ("[you (sg.)] are") lose their own vowel "e" instead.
sálvē to one person / salvête to more than one person – hello
ávē to one person / avête to more than one person – greetings
válē to one person / valête to more than one person – goodbye
cûrā ut váleās – take care
exoptâtus to male / exoptâta to female, optâtus to male / optâta to female, grâtus to male / grâta to female, accéptus to male / accépta to female – welcome
quômodo válēs?, ut válēs? – how are you?
béne – good
béne váleō – I'm fine
mále – bad
mále váleō – I'm not good
quaêsō (roughly: ['kwaeso:]/['kwe:so:]) – please
amâbō tē – please
íta, íta est, íta vêrō, sîc, sîc est, étiam – yes
nôn, mínimē – no
grâtiās tíbi, grâtiās tíbi ágō – thank you, I give thanks to you
mágnās grâtiās, mágnās grâtiās ágō – many thanks
máximās grâtiās, máximās grâtiās ágō, ingéntēs grâtiās ágō – thank you very much
áccipe sīs to one person / accípite sîtis to more than one person, libénter – you're welcome
quā aetâte es? – how old are you?
25 (vīgíntī quînque) ánnōs nâtus sum by male / 25 ánnōs nâta sum by female – I am 25 years old
úbi lātrîna est? – where is the toilet?
scîs (tū) ... – do you speak (literally: "do you know") ...
ámō tē / tē ámō – I love you
In ancient times, numbers in Latin were written only with letters. Today, the numbers can be written with the Arabic numbers as well as with Roman numerals. The numbers 1, 2 and 3 and every whole hundred from 200 to 900 are declined as nouns and adjectives, with some differences.
The numbers from 4 to 100 do not change their endings. As in modern descendants such as Spanish, the gender for naming a number in isolation is masculine, so that "1, 2, 3" is counted as "ūnus, duo, trēs".
"Commentarii de Bello Gallico", also called "De Bello Gallico" ("The Gallic War"), written by Gaius Julius Caesar, begins with the following passage:
The same text may be marked for all long vowels (before any possible elisions at word boundary) with apices over vowel letters, including customarily before "nf" and "ns" where a long vowel is automatically produced: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17730 |
LiveScript
LiveScript is a functional programming language that compiles to JavaScript. It was created by Jeremy Ashkenas—the creator of CoffeeScript—along with Satoshi Muramaki, George Zahariev, and many others. For a brief period in the 1990s, "LiveScript" was the name of JavaScript.
LiveScript is an indirect descendant of CoffeeScript. The following hello world program is written in LiveScript, but is also compatible with Coffeescript:
hello = ->
While calling a function can be done with empty parens, codice_1, LiveScript treats the exclamation mark as a single-character shorthand for function calls with zero arguments: codice_2
LiveScript introduces a number of other incompatible idioms:
At compile time, the LiveScript parser implicitly converts kebab case (dashed variables and function names) to camelcase.
hello-world = ->
With this definition, both the following calls are valid. However, calling using the same dashed syntax is recommended.
hello-world!
helloWorld!
This does not preclude developers from using camelcase explicitly or using snakecase. Dashed naming is however, common in idiomatic LiveScript
Like a number of other functional programming languages such as F# and Elixir, LiveScript supports the pipe operator, codice_3 which passes the result of the expression on the left of the operator as an argument to the expression on the right of it. Note that in F# the argument passed is the last argument, while in Elixir it is the first.
"hello!" |> capitalize |> console.log
When parenthesized, operators such as codice_4 or codice_5 can be included in pipelines or called as if they were functions.
111 |> (+) 222
(+) 1 2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17731 |
Local area network
A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a larger geographic distance, but also generally involves leased telecommunication circuits.
Ethernet and Wi-Fi are the two most common technologies in use for local area networks. Historical network technologies include ARCNET, Token ring, and AppleTalk.
The increasing demand and usage of computers in universities and research labs in the late 1960s generated the need to provide high-speed interconnections between computer systems. A 1970 report from the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory detailing the growth of their "Octopus" network gave a good indication of the situation.
A number of experimental and early commercial LAN technologies were developed in the 1970s. Cambridge Ring was developed at Cambridge University starting in 1974. Ethernet was developed at Xerox PARC between 1973 and 1974. ARCNET was developed by Datapoint Corporation in 1976 and announced in 1977. It had the first commercial installation in December 1977 at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.
The development and proliferation of personal computers using the CP/M operating system in the late 1970s, and later DOS-based systems starting in 1981, meant that many sites grew to dozens or even hundreds of computers. The initial driving force for networking was to share storage and printers, both of which were expensive at the time. There was much enthusiasm for the concept, and for several years, from about 1983 onward, computer industry pundits would regularly declare the coming year to be, "The year of the LAN".
In practice, the concept was marred by proliferation of incompatible physical layer and network protocol implementations, and a plethora of methods of sharing resources. Typically, each vendor would have its own type of network card, cabling, protocol, and network operating system. A solution appeared with the advent of Novell NetWare which provided even-handed support for dozens of competing card and cable types, and a much more sophisticated operating system than most of its competitors. Netware dominated the personal computer LAN business from early after its introduction in 1983 until the mid-1990s when Microsoft introduced Windows NT.
Of the competitors to NetWare, only Banyan Vines had comparable technical strengths, but Banyan never gained a secure base. 3Com produced 3+Share and Microsoft produced MS-Net. These then formed the basis for collaboration between Microsoft and 3Com to create a simple network operating system LAN Manager and its cousin, IBM's LAN Server. None of these enjoyed any lasting success.
In 1983, TCP/IP was first shown capable of supporting actual defense department applications on a Defense Communication Agency LAN test bed located at Reston, Virginia. The TCP/IP-based LAN successfully supported Telnet, FTP, and a Defense Department teleconferencing application. This demonstrated the feasibility of employing TCP/IP LANs to interconnect Worldwide Military Command and Control System (WWMCCS) computers at command centers throughout the United States. However, WWMCCS was superseded by the Global Command and Control System (GCCS) before that could happen.
During the same period, Unix workstations were using TCP/IP networking. Although this market segment is now much reduced, the technologies developed in this area continue to be influential on the Internet and in both Linux and Apple Mac OS X networking—and the TCP/IP protocol has replaced IPX, AppleTalk, NBF, and other protocols used by the early PC LANs.
Early Ethernet (10BASE-5 and 10BASE-2) used coaxial cable. Shielded twisted pair was used in IBM's Token Ring LAN implementation. In 1984, StarLAN showed the potential of simple unshielded twisted pair by using category 3 cable—the same cable used for telephone systems. This led to the development of 10BASE-T (and its twisted-pair successors) and structured cabling which is still the basis of most commercial LANs today.
While optical fiber cable is common for links between network switches, use of fiber to the desktop is rare.
In a wireless LAN, users have unrestricted movement within the coverage area. Wireless networks have become popular in residences and small businesses, because of their ease of installation. Most wireless LANs use Wi-Fi as it is built into smartphones, tablet computers and laptops. Guests are often offered Internet access via a hotspot service.
Network topology describes the layout of interconnections between devices and network segments. At the data link layer and physical layer, a wide variety of LAN topologies have been used, including ring, bus, mesh and star.
Simple LANs generally consist of cabling and one or more switches. A switch can be connected to a router, cable modem, or ADSL modem for Internet access. A LAN can include a wide variety of other network devices such as firewalls, load balancers, and network intrusion detection. Advanced LANs are characterized by their use of redundant links with switches using the spanning tree protocol to prevent loops, their ability to manage differing traffic types via quality of service (QoS), and their ability to segregate traffic with VLANs.
At the higher network layers, protocols such as NetBIOS, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk and others were once common, but the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) has prevailed as the standard of choice.
LANs can maintain connections with other LANs via leased lines, leased services, or across the Internet using virtual private network technologies. Depending on how the connections are established and secured, and the distance involved, such linked LANs may also be classified as a metropolitan area network (MAN) or a wide area network (WAN). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17739 |
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur (, ; December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French biologist, microbiologist and chemist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of diseases, and his discoveries have saved many lives ever since. He reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and created the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax.
His medical discoveries provided direct support for the germ theory of disease and its application in clinical medicine. He is best known to the general public for his invention of the technique of treating milk and wine to stop bacterial contamination, a process now called pasteurization. He is regarded as one of the three main founders of bacteriology, together with Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch, and is popularly known as the "father of microbiology".
Pasteur was responsible for disproving the doctrine of spontaneous generation. He performed experiments that showed that, without contamination, microorganisms could not develop. Under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences, he demonstrated that in sterilized and sealed flasks, nothing ever developed; and, conversely, in sterilized but open flasks, microorganisms could grow. Although Pasteur was not the first to propose the germ theory, his experiments indicated its correctness and convinced most of Europe that it was true.
Today, he is often regarded as one of the fathers of germ theory. Pasteur made significant discoveries in chemistry, most notably on the molecular basis for the asymmetry of certain crystals and racemization. Early in his career, his investigation of tartaric acid resulted in the first resolution of what is now called optical isomers. His work led the way to the current understanding of a fundamental principle in the structure of organic compounds.
He was the director of the Pasteur Institute, established in 1887, until his death, and his body was interred in a vault beneath the institute. Although Pasteur made groundbreaking experiments, his reputation became associated with various controversies. Historical reassessment of his notebook revealed that he practiced deception to overcome his rivals.
Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in Dole, Jura, France, to a Catholic family of a poor tanner. He was the third child of Jean-Joseph Pasteur and Jeanne-Etiennette Roqui. The family moved to Marnoz in 1826 and then to Arbois in 1827. Pasteur entered primary school in 1831.
He was an average student in his early years, and not particularly academic, as his interests were fishing and sketching. He drew many pastels and portraits of his parents, friends and neighbors. Pasteur attended secondary school at the Collège d'Arbois. In October 1838, he left for Paris to join the Pension Barbet, but became homesick and returned in November.
In 1839, he entered the Collège Royal at Besançon to study philosophy and earned his Bachelor of Letters degree in 1840. He was appointed a tutor at the Besançon college while continuing a degree science course with special mathematics. He failed his first examination in 1841. He managed to pass the "baccalauréat scientifique" (general science) degree in 1842 from Dijon but with a mediocre grade in chemistry.
Later in 1842, Pasteur took the entrance test for the École Normale Supérieure. He passed the first set of tests, but because his ranking was low, Pasteur decided not to continue and try again next year. He went back to the Pension Barbet to prepare for the test. He also attended classes at the Lycée Saint-Louis and lectures of Jean-Baptiste Dumas at the Sorbonne. In 1843, he passed the test with a high ranking and entered the École Normale Supérieure. In 1845 he received the "licencié ès sciences" (Master of Science) degree. In 1846, he was appointed professor of physics at the Collège de Tournon (now called ) in Ardèche, but the chemist Antoine Jérôme Balard wanted him back at the "École Normale Supérieure" as a graduate laboratory assistant ("agrégé préparateur"). He joined Balard and simultaneously started his research in crystallography and in 1847, he submitted his two theses, one in chemistry and the other in physics.
After serving briefly as professor of physics at the Dijon Lycée in 1848, he became professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, where he met and courted Marie Laurent, daughter of the university's rector in 1849. They were married on May 29, 1849, and together had five children, only two of whom survived to adulthood; the other three died of typhoid.
Pasteur was appointed professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg in 1848, and became the chair of chemistry in 1852. In 1854, he was named dean of the new faculty of sciences at University of Lille, where he began his studies on fermentation. It was on this occasion that Pasteur uttered his oft-quoted remark: ""dans les champs de l'observation, le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés"" ("In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind").
In 1857, he moved to Paris as the director of scientific studies at the "École Normale Supérieure" where he took control from 1858 to 1867 and introduced a series of reforms to improve the standard of scientific work. The examinations became more rigid, which led to better results, greater competition, and increased prestige. Many of his decrees, however, were rigid and authoritarian, leading to two serious student revolts. During "the bean revolt" he decreed that a mutton stew, which students had refused to eat, would be served and eaten every Monday. On another occasion he threatened to expel any student caught smoking, and 73 of the 80 students in the school resigned.
In 1863, he was appointed professor of geology, physics, and chemistry at the "École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts", a position he held until his resignation in 1867. In 1867, he became the chair of organic chemistry at the Sorbonne, but he later gave up the position because of poor health. In 1867, the École Normale's laboratory of physiological chemistry was created at Pasteur's request, and he was the laboratory's director from 1867 to 1888. In Paris, he established the Pasteur Institute in 1887, in which he was its director for the rest of his life.
In Pasteur's early work as a chemist, beginning at the "École Normale Supérieure", and continuing at Strasbourg and Lille, he examined the chemical, optical and crystallographic properties of a group of compounds known as tartrates.
He resolved a problem concerning the nature of tartaric acid in 1848. A solution of this compound derived from living things rotated the plane of polarization of light passing through it. The problem was that tartaric acid derived by chemical synthesis had no such effect, even though its chemical reactions were identical and its elemental composition was the same.
Pasteur noticed that crystals of tartrates had small faces. Then he observed that, in racemic mixtures of tartrates, half of the crystals were right-handed and half were left-handed. In solution, the right-handed compound was dextrorotatory, and the left-handed one was levorotatory. Pasteur determined that optical activity related to the shape of the crystals, and that an asymmetric internal arrangement of the molecules of the compound was responsible for twisting the light. The (2"R",3"R")- and (2"S",3"S")- tartrates were isometric, non-superposable mirror images of each other. This was the first time anyone had demonstrated molecular chirality, and also the first explanation of isomerism.
Some historians consider Pasteur's work in this area to be his "most profound and most original contributions to science", and his "greatest scientific discovery."
Pasteur was motivated to investigate fermentation while working at Lille. In 1856 a local wine manufacturer, M. Bigot, whose son was one of Pasteur's students, sought for his advice on the problems of making beetroot alcohol and souring.
According to his son-in-law, René Vallery-Radot, in August 1857 Pasteur sent a paper about lactic acid fermentation to the Société des Sciences de Lille, but the paper was read three months later. A memoire was subsequently published on November 30, 1857. In the memoir, he developed his ideas stating that: "I intend to establish that, just as there is an alcoholic ferment, the yeast of beer, which is found everywhere that sugar is decomposed into alcohol and carbonic acid, so also there is a particular ferment, a lactic yeast, always present when sugar becomes lactic acid."
Pasteur also wrote about alcoholic fermentation. It was published in full form in 1858. Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Justus von Liebig had proposed the theory that fermentation was caused by decomposition. Pasteur demonstrated that this theory was incorrect, and that yeast was responsible for fermentation to produce alcohol from sugar. He also demonstrated that, when a different microorganism contaminated the wine, lactic acid was produced, making the wine sour. In 1861, Pasteur observed that less sugar fermented per part of yeast when the yeast was exposed to air. The lower rate of fermentation aerobically became known as the Pasteur effect.
Pasteur's research also showed that the growth of micro-organisms was responsible for spoiling beverages, such as beer, wine and milk. With this established, he invented a process in which liquids such as milk were heated to a temperature between 60 and 100 °C. This killed most bacteria and moulds already present within them. Pasteur and Claude Bernard completed tests on blood and urine on April 20, 1862. Pasteur patented the process, to fight the "diseases" of wine, in 1865. The method became known as pasteurization, and was soon applied to beer and milk.
Beverage contamination led Pasteur to the idea that micro-organisms infecting animals and humans cause disease. He proposed preventing the entry of micro-organisms into the human body, leading Joseph Lister to develop antiseptic methods in surgery.
In 1866, Pasteur published "Etudes sur le Vin", about the diseases of wine, and he published "Etudes sur la Bière" in 1876, concerning the diseases of beer.
In the early 19th century, Agostino Bassi had shown that muscardine was caused by a fungus that infected silkworms. Since 1853, two diseases called "pébrine" and "flacherie" had been infecting great numbers of silkworms in southern France, and by 1865 they were causing huge losses to farmers. In 1865, Pasteur went to Alès and worked for five years until 1870.
Silkworms with pébrine were covered in corpuscles. In the first three years, Pasteur thought that the corpuscles were a symptom of the disease. In 1870, he concluded that the corpuscles were the cause of pébrine (it is now known that the cause is a microsporidian). Pasteur also showed that the disease was hereditary. Pasteur developed a system to prevent pébrine: after the female moths laid their eggs, the moths were turned into a pulp. The pulp was examined with a microscope, and if corpuscles were observed, the eggs were destroyed. Pasteur concluded that bacteria caused flacherie. The primary cause is currently thought to be viruses. The spread of flacherie could be accidental or hereditary. Hygiene could be used to prevent accidental flacherie. Moths whose digestive cavities did not contain the microorganisms causing flacherie were used to lay eggs, preventing hereditary flacherie.
Following his fermentation experiments, Pasteur demonstrated that the skin of grapes was the natural source of yeasts, and that sterilized grapes and grape juice never fermented. He drew grape juice from under the skin with sterilized needles, and also covered grapes with sterilized cloth. Both experiments could not produce wine in sterilized containers.
His findings and ideas were against the prevailing notion of spontaneous generation. He received a particularly stern criticism from Félix Archimède Pouchet, who was director of the Rouen Museum of Natural History. To settle the debate between the eminent scientists, the French Academy of Sciences offered the Alhumbert Prize carrying 2,500 francs to whoever could experimentally demonstrate for or against the doctrine.
Pouchet stated that air everywhere could cause spontaneous generation of living organisms in liquids. In the late 1850s, he performed experiments and claimed that they were evidence of spontaneous generation. Francesco Redi and Lazzaro Spallanzani had provided some evidence against spontaneous generation in the 17th and 18th centuries, respectively. Spallanzani's experiments in 1765 suggested that air contaminated broths with bacteria. In the 1860s, Pasteur repeated Spallanzani's experiments, but Pouchet reported a different result using a different broth.
Pasteur performed several experiments to disprove spontaneous generation. He placed boiled liquid in a flask and let hot air enter the flask. Then he closed the flask, and no organisms grew in it. In another experiment, when he opened flasks containing boiled liquid, dust entered the flasks, causing organisms to grow in some of them. The number of flasks in which organisms grew was lower at higher altitudes, showing that air at high altitudes contained less dust and fewer organisms. Pasteur also used swan neck flasks containing a fermentable liquid. Air was allowed to enter the flask via a long curving tube that made dust particles stick to it. Nothing grew in the broths unless the flasks were tilted, making the liquid touch the contaminated walls of the neck. This showed that the living organisms that grew in such broths came from outside, on dust, rather than spontaneously generating within the liquid or from the action of pure air.
These were some of the most important experiments disproving the theory of spontaneous generation, for which Pasteur won the Alhumbert Prize in 1862. He concluded that:
Pasteur's later work on diseases included work on chicken cholera. He received cultures from Jean Joseph Henri Toussaint, and cultivated them in chicken broth. During this work, a culture of the responsible bacteria had spoiled and failed to induce the disease in some chickens he was infecting with the disease. Upon reusing these healthy chickens, Pasteur discovered he could not infect them, even with fresh bacteria; the weakened bacteria had caused the chickens to become immune to the disease, though they had caused only mild symptoms.
In 1879, his assistant, Charles Chamberland (of French origin), had been instructed to inoculate the chickens after Pasteur went on holiday. Chamberland failed to do this and went on holiday himself. On his return, the month-old cultures made the chickens unwell, but instead of the infections being fatal, as they usually were, the chickens recovered completely. Chamberland assumed an error had been made, and wanted to discard the apparently faulty culture, but Pasteur stopped him. He inoculated the chickens with virulent bacteria that killed other chickens, and they survived. Pasteur concluded that the animals were now immune to the disease.
In December 1879, Pasteur used a weakened culture of the bacteria to inoculate chickens. The chickens survived, and when he inoculated them with a virulent strain, they were immune to it. In 1880, Pasteur presented his results to the French Academy of Sciences, saying that the bacteria were weakened by contact with oxygen.
In the 1870s, he applied this immunization method to anthrax, which affected cattle, and aroused interest in combating other diseases. Pasteur cultivated bacteria from the blood of animals infected with anthrax. When he inoculated animals with the bacteria, anthrax occurred, proving that the bacteria was the cause of the disease. Many cattle were dying of anthrax in "cursed fields". Pasteur was told that sheep that died from anthrax were buried in the field. Pasteur thought that earthworms might have brought the bacteria to the surface. He found anthrax bacteria in earthworms' excrement, showing that he was correct. He told the farmers not to bury dead animals in the fields.
In 1880, Pasteur's rival Jean-Joseph-Henri Toussaint, a veterinary surgeon, used carbolic acid to kill anthrax bacilli and tested the vaccine on sheep. Pasteur thought that this type of killed vaccine should not work because he believed that attenuated bacteria used up nutrients that the bacteria needed to grow. He thought oxidizing bacteria made them less virulent. In early 1881, Pasteur discovered that growing anthrax bacilli at about 42 °C made them unable to produce spores, and he described this method in a speech to the French Academy of Sciences on February 28. Later in 1881, veterinarian Hippolyte Rossignol proposed that the Société d'agriculture de Melun organize an experiment to test Pasteur's vaccine. Pasteur agreed, and the experiment, conducted at Pouilly-le-Fort on sheep, goats and cows, was successful. Pasteur did not directly disclose how he prepared the vaccines used at Pouilly-le-Fort. His laboratory notebooks, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, show that he actually used heat and potassium dichromate, similar to Toussaint's method.
The notion of a weak form of a disease causing immunity to the virulent version was not new; this had been known for a long time for smallpox. Inoculation with smallpox (variolation) was known to result in a much less severe disease, and greatly reduced mortality, in comparison with the naturally acquired disease. Edward Jenner had also studied vaccination using cowpox ("vaccinia") to give cross-immunity to smallpox in the late 1790s, and by the early 1800s vaccination had spread to most of Europe.
The difference between smallpox vaccination and anthrax or chicken cholera vaccination was that the latter two disease organisms had been artificially weakened, so a naturally weak form of the disease organism did not need to be found. This discovery revolutionized work in infectious diseases, and Pasteur gave these artificially weakened diseases the generic name of "vaccines", in honour of Jenner's discovery.
In 1876, Robert Koch had shown that "Bacillus anthracis" caused anthrax. In his papers published between 1878 and 1880, Pasteur only mentioned Koch's work in a footnote. Koch met Pasteur at the Seventh International Medical Congress in 1881. A few months later, Koch wrote that Pasteur had used impure cultures and made errors. In 1882, Pasteur replied to Koch in a speech, to which Koch responded aggressively. Koch stated that Pasteur tested his vaccine on unsuitable animals and that Pasteur's research was not properly scientific. In 1882, Koch wrote "On the Anthrax Inoculation", in which he refuted several of Pasteur's conclusions about anthrax and criticized Pasteur for keeping his methods secret, jumping to conclusions, and being imprecise. In 1883, Pasteur wrote that he used cultures prepared in a similar way to his successful fermentation experiments and that Koch misinterpreted statistics and ignored Pasteur's work on silkworms.
In 1882, Pasteur sent his assistant Louis Thuillier to southern France because of an epizootic of swine erysipelas. Thuillier identified the bacillus that caused the disease in March 1883. Pasteur and Thuillier increased the bacillus's virulence after passing it through pigeons. Then they passed the bacillus through rabbits, weakening it and obtaining a vaccine. Pasteur and Thuillier incorrectly described the bacterium as a figure-eight shape. Roux described the bacterium as stick-shaped in 1884.
Pasteur produced the first vaccine for rabies by growing the virus in rabbits, and then weakening it by drying the affected nerve tissue. The rabies vaccine was initially created by Emile Roux, a French doctor and a colleague of Pasteur, who had produced a killed vaccine using this method. The vaccine had been tested in 50 dogs before its first human trial. This vaccine was used on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, on July 6, 1885, after the boy was badly mauled by a rabid dog. This was done at some personal risk for Pasteur, since he was not a licensed physician and could have faced prosecution for treating the boy. After consulting with physicians, he decided to go ahead with the treatment. Over 11 days, Meister received 13 inoculations, each inoculation using viruses that had been weakened for a shorter period of time. Three months later he examined Meister and found that he was in good health. Pasteur was hailed as a hero and the legal matter was not pursued. Analysis of his laboratory notebooks shows that Pasteur had treated two people before his vaccination of Meister. One survived but may not actually have had rabies, and the other died of rabies. Pasteur began treatment of Jean-Baptiste Jupille on October 20, 1885, and the treatment was successful. Later in 1885, people, including four children from the United States, went to Pasteur's laboratory to be inoculated. In 1886, he treated 350 people, of which only one developed rabies. The treatment's success laid the foundations for the manufacture of many other vaccines. The first of the Pasteur Institutes was also built on the basis of this achievement.
In "The Story of San Michele", Axel Munthe writes of some risks Pasteur undertook in the rabies vaccine research:
Because of his study in germs, Pasteur encouraged doctors to sanitize their hands and equipment before surgery. Prior to this, few doctors or their assistants practiced these procedures.
A French national hero at age 55, in 1878 Pasteur discreetly told his family never to reveal his laboratory notebooks to anyone. His family obeyed, and all his documents were held and inherited in secrecy. Finally, in 1964 Pasteur's grandson and last surviving male descendant, Pasteur Vallery-Radot, donated the papers to the French national library (Bibliothèque nationale de France). Yet the papers were restricted for historical studies until the death of Vallery-Radot in 1971. The documents were given a catalogue number only in 1985.
In 1995, the centennial of the death of Louis Pasteur, a historian of science Gerald L. Geison published an analysis of Pasteur's private notebooks in his "The Private Science of Louis Pasteur", and declared that Pasteur had given several misleading accounts and played deceptions in his most important discoveries. Max Perutz published a defense of Pasteur in "The New York Review of Books". Based on further examinations of Pasteur's documents, French immunologist Patrice Debré concluded in his book" Louis Pasteur" (1998) that, in spite of his genius, Pasteur had some faults. A book review states that Debré "sometimes finds him unfair, combative, arrogant, unattractive in attitude, inflexible and even dogmatic".
Scientists before Pasteur had studied fermentation. In the 1830s, Charles Cagniard-Latour, Friedrich Traugott Kützing and Theodor Schwann used microscopes to study yeasts and concluded that yeasts were living organisms. In 1839, Justus von Liebig, Friedrich Wöhler and Jöns Jacob Berzelius stated that yeast was not an organism and was produced when air acted on plant juice.
In 1855, Antoine Béchamp, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Montpellier, conducted experiments with sucrose solutions and concluded that water was the factor for fermentation. He changed his conclusion in 1858, stating that fermentation was directly related to the growth of moulds, which required air for growth. He regarded himself as the first to show the role of microorganisms in fermentation.
Pasteur started his experiments in 1857 and published his findings in 1858 (April issue of "Comptes Rendus Chimie", Béchamp's paper appeared in January issue). Béchamp noted that Pasteur did not bring any novel idea or experiments. On the other hand, Béchamp was probably aware of Pasteur's 1857 preliminary works. With both scientists claiming priority on the discovery, a dispute, extending to several areas, lasted throughout their lives.
However, Béchamp was on the losing side, as the "BMJ" obituary remarked: His name was "associated with bygone controversies as to priority which it would be unprofitable to recall". Béchamp proposed the incorrect theory of microzymes. According to K. L. Manchester, anti-vivisectionists and proponents of alternative medicine promoted Béchamp and microzymes, unjustifiably claiming that Pasteur plagiarized Béchamp.
Pasteur thought that succinic acid inverted sucrose. In 1860, Marcellin Berthelot isolated invertase and showed that succinic acid did not invert sucrose. Pasteur believed that fermentation was only due to living cells. Hans Buchner discovered that zymase catalyzed fermentation, showing that fermentation was catalyzed by enzymes within cells. Eduard Buchner also discovered that fermentation could take place outside living cells.
Pasteur publicly claimed his success in developing the anthrax vaccine in 1881. However, his admirer-turned-rival Toussaint was the one who developed the first vaccine. Toussaint isolated the bacteria that caused chicken cholera (later named "Pasteurella" in honour of Pasteur) in 1879 and gave samples to Pasteur who used them for his own works. On July 12, 1880, Toussaint presented his successful result to the French Academy of Sciences, using an attenuated vaccine against anthrax in dogs and sheep. Pasteur on grounds of jealousy contested the discovery by publicly displaying his vaccination method at Pouilly-le-Fort on May 5, 1881. Pasteur gave a misleading account of the preparation of the anthrax vaccine used in the experiment at Pouilly-le-Fort. He used potassium dichromate to prepare the vaccine. The promotional experiment was a success and helped Pasteur sell his products, getting the benefits and glory.
Pasteur experiments are often cited as against medical ethics, especially on his vaccination of Meister. He did not have any experience in medical practice, and more importantly, lacked a medical license. This is often cited as a serious threat to his professional and personal reputation. His closest partner Émile Roux, who had medical qualifications, refused to participate in the clinical trial, likely because he considered it unjust. However, Pasteur executed vaccination of the boy under the close watch of practising physicians Jacques-Joseph Grancher, head of the Paris Children's Hospital's paediatric clinic, and Alfred Vulpian, a member of the Commission on Rabies. He was not allowed to hold the syringe, although the inoculations were entirely under his supervision. It was Grancher who was responsible for the injections, and he defended Pasteur before the French National Academy of Medicine in the issue.
Pasteur has also been criticized for keeping secrecy of his procedure and not giving proper pre-clinical trials on animals. Pasteur stated that he kept his procedure secret in order to control its quality. He later disclosed his procedures to a small group of scientists. Pasteur wrote that he had successfully vaccinated 50 rabid dogs before using it on Meister. According to Geison, Pasteur's laboratory notebooks show that he had vaccinated only 11 dogs.
Meister never showed any symptoms of rabies, but the vaccination has not been proved to be the reason. One source estimates the probability of Meister contracting rabies at 10%.
Pasteur was awarded 1,500 francs in 1853 by the Pharmaceutical Society for the synthesis of racemic acid. In 1856 the Royal Society of London presented him the Rumford Medal for his discovery of the nature of racemic acid and its relations to polarized light, and the Copley Medal in 1874 for his work on fermentation. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1869.
The French Academy of Sciences awarded Pasteur the 1859 Montyon Prize for experimental physiology in 1860, and the Jecker Prize in 1861 and the Alhumbert Prize in 1862 for his experimental refutation of spontaneous generation. Though he lost elections in 1857 and 1861 for membership to the French Academy of Sciences, he won the 1862 election for membership to the mineralogy section. He was elected to permanent secretary of the physical science section of the academy in 1887 and held the position until 1889.
In 1873 Pasteur was elected to the Académie Nationale de Médecine and was made the commander in the Brazilian Order of the Rose. In 1881 he was elected to a seat at the Académie française left vacant by Émile Littré. Pasteur received the Albert Medal from the Royal Society of Arts in 1882. In 1883 he became foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. On June 8, 1886, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II awarded Pasteur with the Order of the Medjidie (I Class) and 10000 Ottoman liras. He was awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh in 1889. Pasteur won the Leeuwenhoek Medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for his contributions to microbiology in 1895.
Pasteur was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1853, promoted to Officer in 1863, to Commander in 1868, to Grand Officer in 1878 and made a Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1881.
In many localities worldwide, streets are named in his honor. For example, in the US: Palo Alto and Irvine, California, Boston and Polk, Florida, adjacent to the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio; Jonquière, Québec; San Salvador de Jujuy and Buenos Aires (Argentina), Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, in the United Kingdom, Jericho and Wulguru in Queensland, (Australia); Phnom Penh in Cambodia; Ho Chi Minh City; Batna in Algeria; Bandung in Indonesia, Tehran in Iran, near the central campus of the Warsaw University in Warsaw, Poland; adjacent to the Odessa State Medical University in Odessa, Ukraine; Milan in Italy and Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timișoara in Romania. The Avenue Pasteur in Saigon, Vietnam, is one of the few streets in that city to retain its French name. "Avenue Louis Pasteur" in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, Massachusetts was named in his honor in the French manner with "Avenue" preceding the name of the dedicatee.
Both the Institut Pasteur and Université Louis Pasteur were named after Pasteur. The schools Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, and Lycée Louis Pasteur in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, are named after him. In South Africa, the Louis Pasteur Private Hospital in Pretoria, and Life Louis Pasteur Private Hospital, Bloemfontein, are named after him. Louis Pasteur University Hospital in Košice, Slovakia is also named after Pasteur.
A statue of Pasteur is erected at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California. A bronze bust of him resides on the French Campus of Kaiser Permanente's San Francisco Medical Center in San Francisco. The sculpture was designed by Harriet G. Moore and cast in 1984 by Artworks Foundry.
The UNESCO/Institut Pasteur Medal was created on the centenary of Pasteur's death, and is given every two years in his name, "in recognition of outstanding research contributing to a beneficial impact on human health".
After developing the rabies vaccine, Pasteur proposed an institute for the vaccine. In 1887, fundraising for the Pasteur Institute began, with donations from many countries. The official statute was registered in 1887, stating that the institute's purposes were "the treatment of rabies according to the method developed by M. Pasteur" and "the study of virulent and contagious diseases". The institute was inaugurated on November 14, 1888. He brought together scientists with various specialties. The first five departments were directed by two graduates of the "École Normale Supérieure": Émile Duclaux (general microbiology research) and Charles Chamberland (microbe research applied to hygiene), as well as a biologist, Élie Metchnikoff (morphological microbe research) and two physicians, Jacques-Joseph Grancher (rabies) and Émile Roux (technical microbe research). One year after the inauguration of the institute, Roux set up the first course of microbiology ever taught in the world, then entitled "Cours de Microbie Technique" (Course of microbe research techniques). Since 1891 the Pasteur Institute had been extended to different countries, and currently there are 32 institutes in 29 countries in various parts of the world.
His grandson, Louis Pasteur Vallery-Radot, wrote that Pasteur had kept from his Catholic background only a spiritualism without religious practice. However, Catholic observers often said that Pasteur remained an ardent Christian throughout his whole life, and his son-in-law wrote, in a biography of him:
The "Literary Digest" of 18 October 1902 gives this statement from Pasteur that he prayed while he worked:
Maurice Vallery-Radot, grandson of the brother of the son-in-law of Pasteur and outspoken Catholic, also holds that Pasteur fundamentally remained Catholic. According to both Pasteur Vallery-Radot and Maurice Vallery-Radot, the following well-known quotation attributed to Pasteur is apocryphal: "The more I know, the more nearly is my faith that of the Breton peasant. Could I but know all I would have the faith of a Breton peasant's wife". According to Maurice Vallery-Radot, the false quotation appeared for the first time shortly after the death of Pasteur. However, despite his belief in God, it has been said that his views were that of a freethinker rather than a Catholic, a spiritual more than a religious man. He was also against mixing science with religion.
In 1868, Pasteur suffered a severe brain stroke that paralysed the left side of his body, but he recovered. A stroke or uremia in 1894 severely impaired his health. Failing to fully recover, he died on September 28, 1895, near Paris. He was given a state funeral and was buried in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, but his remains were reinterred in the Pasteur Institute in Paris, in a vault covered in depictions of his accomplishments in Byzantine mosaics.
Pasteur's principal published works are: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17740 |
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.
From 1929 to 1947, Wittgenstein taught at the University of Cambridge. During his lifetime he published just one slim book (the 75-page "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus", 1921), one article ("Some Remarks on Logical Form", 1929), one book review and a children's dictionary. His voluminous manuscripts were edited and published posthumously. "Philosophical Investigations" appeared as a book in 1953. His teacher, Bertrand Russell, described Wittgenstein as "perhaps the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived; passionate, profound, intense, and dominating".
Born in Vienna into one of Europe's richest families, he inherited a fortune from his father in 1913. He initially made some donations to artists and writers, and then, in a period of severe personal depression after the First World War, he gave away his entire fortune to his brothers and sisters. Three of his four brothers committed suicide, which Wittgenstein had also contemplated. He left academia several timesserving as an officer on the front line during World War I, where he was decorated a number of times for his courage; teaching in schools in remote Austrian villages where he encountered controversy for hitting children when they made mistakes in mathematics; and working as a hospital porter during World War II in London, where he told patients not to take the drugs they were prescribed while largely managing to keep secret the fact that he was one of the world's most famous philosophers.
His philosophy is often divided into an early period, exemplified by the "Tractatus", and a later period, articulated in the "Philosophical Investigations". "Early Wittgenstein" was concerned with the logical relationship between propositions and the world and he believed that by providing an account of the logic underlying this relationship, he had solved all philosophical problems. "Late Wittgenstein", however, rejected many of the assumptions of the "Tractatus", arguing that the meaning of words is best understood as their use within a given language-game.
A survey among American university and college teachers ranked the "Investigations" as the most important book of 20th-century philosophy, standing out as "the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations".The "Investigations" also ranked 54th on a list of most influential twentieth-century works in cognitive science prepared by the University of Minnesota's Center for Cognitive Sciences. However, in the words of his friend Georg Henrik von Wright, he believed that "his ideas were generally misunderstood and distorted even by those who professed to be his disciples. He doubted he would be better understood in the future. He once said he felt as though he "was writing for people who would think in a different way, breathe a different air of life, from that of present-day men."
According to a family tree prepared in Jerusalem after World War II, Wittgenstein's paternal great-great-grandfather was Moses Meier, a Jewish land agent who lived with his wife, Brendel Simon, in Bad Laasphe in the Principality of Wittgenstein, Westphalia. In July 1808, Napoleon issued a decree that everyone, including Jews, must adopt an inheritable family surname, so Meier's son, also Moses, took the name of his employers, the Sayn-Wittgensteins, and became Moses Meier Wittgenstein. His son, Hermann Christian Wittgenstein—who took the middle name "Christian" to distance himself from his Jewish background—married Fanny Figdor, also Jewish, who converted to Protestantism just before they married, and the couple founded a successful business trading in wool in Leipzig. Ludwig's grandmother Fanny was a first cousin of the famous violinist Joseph Joachim.
They had 11 children—among them Wittgenstein's father. Karl Otto Clemens Wittgenstein (1847–1913) became an industrial tycoon, and by the late 1880s was one of the richest men in Europe, with an effective monopoly on Austria's steel cartel. Thanks to Karl, the Wittgensteins became the second wealthiest family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, only behind the Rothschilds. Karl Wittgenstein was viewed as the Austrian equivalent of Andrew Carnegie, with whom he was friends, and was one of the wealthiest men in the world by the 1890s. As a result of his decision in 1898 to invest substantially in the Netherlands and in Switzerland as well as overseas, particularly in the US, the family was to an extent shielded from the hyperinflation that hit Austria in 1922. However, their wealth diminished due to post-1918 hyperinflation and subsequently during the Great Depression, although even as late as 1938 they owned 13 mansions in Vienna alone.
Wittgenstein's mother was Leopoldine Maria Josefa Kalmus, known among friends as Poldi. Her father was a Bohemian Jew and her mother was Austrian-Slovene Catholic—she was Wittgenstein's only non-Jewish grandparent. She was an aunt of the Nobel Prize laureate Friedrich Hayek on her maternal side. Wittgenstein was born at 8:30 pm on 26 April 1889 in the so-called "Wittgenstein Palace" at Alleegasse 16, now the Argentinierstrasse, near the Karlskirche. Karl and Poldi had nine children in all—four girls: Hermine, Margaret (Gretl), Helene, and a fourth daughter Dora who died as a baby; and five boys: Johannes (Hans), Kurt, Rudolf (Rudi), Paul—who became a concert pianist despite losing an arm in World War I—and Ludwig, who was the youngest of the family.
The children were baptized as Catholics, received formal Catholic instruction, and were raised in an exceptionally intense environment. The family was at the center of Vienna's cultural life; Bruno Walter described the life at the Wittgensteins' palace as an "all-pervading atmosphere of humanity and culture." Karl was a leading patron of the arts, commissioning works by Auguste Rodin and financing the city's exhibition hall and art gallery, the Secession Building. Gustav Klimt painted Wittgenstein's sister for her wedding portrait, and Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler gave regular concerts in the family's numerous music rooms.
For Wittgenstein, who highly valued precision and discipline, contemporary music was never considered acceptable at all. "Music," he said to his friend Drury in 1930, "came to a full stop with Brahms; and even in Brahms I can begin to hear the noise of machinery." Ludwig Wittgenstein himself had absolute pitch, and his devotion to music remained vitally important to him throughout his life; he made frequent use of musical examples and metaphors in his philosophical writings, and was unusually adept at whistling lengthy and detailed musical passages. He also learnt to play the clarinet in his 30s. A fragment of music (three bars), composed by Wittgenstein, was discovered in one of his 1931 notebooks, by Michael Nedo, director of the Wittgenstein Institute in Cambridge.
Ray Monk writes that Karl's aim was to turn his sons into captains of industry; they were not sent to school lest they acquire bad habits, but were educated at home to prepare them for work in Karl's industrial empire. Three of the five brothers would later commit suicide. Psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald argues that Karl was a harsh perfectionist who lacked empathy, and that Wittgenstein's mother was anxious and insecure, unable to stand up to her husband. Johannes Brahms said of the family, whom he visited regularly: "They seemed to act towards one another as if they were at court." The family appeared to have a strong streak of depression running through it. Anthony Gottlieb tells a story about Paul practicing on one of the pianos in the Wittgensteins' main family mansion, when he suddenly shouted at Ludwig in the next room: "I cannot play when you are in the house, as I feel your scepticism seeping towards me from under the door!"
The family palace housed seven grand pianos and each of the siblings pursued music "with an enthusiasm that, at times, bordered on the pathological." The eldest brother, Hans, was hailed as a musical prodigy. At the age of four, writes Alexander Waugh, Hans could identify the Doppler effect in a passing siren as a quarter-tone drop in pitch, and at five started crying "Wrong! Wrong!" when two brass bands in a carnival played the same tune in different keys. But he died in mysterious circumstances in May 1902, when he ran away to America and disappeared from a boat in Chesapeake Bay, most likely having committed suicide.
Two years later, aged 22 and studying chemistry at the Berlin Academy, the third eldest brother, Rudi, committed suicide in a Berlin bar. He had asked the pianist to play Thomas Koschat's ""Verlassen, verlassen, verlassen bin ich"" ("Forsaken, forsaken, forsaken am I"), before mixing himself a drink of milk and potassium cyanide. He had left several suicide notes, one to his parents that said he was grieving over the death of a friend, and another that referred to his "perverted disposition". It was reported at the time that he had sought advice from the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, an organization that was campaigning against Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code, which prohibited homosexual sex. His father forbade the family from ever mentioning his name again.
The second eldest brother, Kurt, an officer and company director, shot himself on 27 October 1918 at the end of World War I, when the Austrian troops he was commanding refused to obey his orders and deserted "en masse". According to Gottlieb, Hermine had said Kurt seemed to carry "...the germ of disgust for life within himself." Later Wittgenstein wrote: "I ought to have... become a star in the sky. Instead of which I have remained stuck on earth."
Wittgenstein was taught by private tutors at home until he was 14 years old. Subsequently, for three years, he attended a school. After the deaths of Hans and Rudi, Karl relented, and allowed Paul and Ludwig to be sent to school. Waugh writes that it was too late for Wittgenstein to pass his exams for the more academic "Gymnasium" in Wiener Neustadt; having had no formal schooling, he failed his entrance exam and only barely managed after extra tutoring to pass the exam for the more technically oriented k.u.k. "Realschule" in Linz, a small state school with 300 pupils. In 1903, when he was 14, he began his three years of formal schooling there, lodging nearby in term time with the family of Dr. Josef Strigl, a teacher at the local gymnasium, the family giving him the nickname Luki.
On starting at the Realschule, Wittgenstein had been moved forward a year. Historian Brigitte Hamann writes that he stood out from the other boys: he spoke an unusually pure form of High German with a stutter, dressed elegantly, and was sensitive and unsociable. Monk writes that the other boys made fun of him, singing after him: ""Wittgenstein wandelt wehmütig widriger Winde wegen Wienwärts"" ("Wittgenstein wanders wistfully Vienna-wards (in) worsening winds"). In his leaving certificate, he received a top mark (5) in religious studies; a 2 for conduct and English, 3 for French, geography, history, mathematics and physics, and 4 for German, chemistry, geometry and freehand drawing. He had particular difficulty with spelling and failed his written German exam because of it. He wrote in 1931: "My bad spelling in youth, up to the age of about 18 or 19, is connected with the whole of the rest of my character (my weakness in study)."
Wittgenstein was baptized as an infant by a Catholic priest and received formal instruction in Catholic doctrine as a child, as was common at the time. In an interview, his sister Gretl Stonborough-Wittgenstein says that their grandfather's "strong, severe, partly ascetic Christianity" was a strong influence on all the Wittgenstein children. While he was at the "Realschule", he decided he had lost his faith in God and became an atheist. He nevertheless believed in the importance of the idea of confession. He wrote in his diaries about having made a major confession to his oldest sister, Hermine, while he was at the "Realschule"; Monk speculates that it may have been about his loss of faith. He also discussed it with Gretl, his other sister, who directed him to Arthur Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Representation". As a teenager, Wittgenstein adopted Schopenhauer's epistemological idealism. However, after his study of the philosophy of mathematics, he abandoned epistemological idealism for Gottlob Frege's conceptual realism. In later years, Wittgenstein was highly dismissive of Schopenhauer, describing him as an ultimately "shallow" thinker: "Schopenhauer has quite a crude mind ... where real depth starts, his comes to an end."
Wittgenstein's religious faith and his relationship with Christianity and religion, in general (for which he always professed a sincere and devoted sympathy) would change over time, much like his philosophical ideas. In 1912, Wittgenstein wrote to Russell saying that Mozart and Beethoven were the actual sons of God. However, Wittgenstein resisted formal religion, saying it was hard for him to "bend the knee", though his grandfather's beliefs continued to influence Wittgenstein—as he famously said, "I cannot help seeing every problem from a religious point of view". Wittgenstein referred to Augustine of Hippo in his "Philosophical Investigations." Philosophically, Wittgenstein's thought shows alignment with religious discourse. For example, Wittgenstein would become one of the century's fiercest critics of scientism.
With age, a deepening personal spirituality led to several elucidations and clarifications, as he untangled language problems in religion, attacking, for example, the temptation to think of God's existence as a matter of scientific evidence. In 1947, finding it more difficult to work, he wrote, "I have had a letter from an old friend in Austria, a priest. In it he says that he hopes my work will go well, if it should be God's will. Now that is all I want: if it should be God's will." In Wittgenstein's "Culture and Value", he writes, "Is what I am doing [my work in philosophy] really worth the effort? Yes, but only if a light shines on it from above." His close friend Norman Malcolm would write, "Wittgenstein’s mature life was strongly marked by religious thought and feeling. I am inclined to think that he was more deeply religious than are many people who correctly regard themselves as religious believers." At last, Wittgenstein writes, "Bach wrote on the title page of his "Orgelbüchlein", 'To the glory of the most high God, and that my neighbour may be benefited thereby.' That is what I would have liked to say about my work."
While a student at the "Realschule", Wittgenstein was influenced by Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger's 1903 book "Geschlecht und Charakter" ("Sex and Character").
Weininger (1880–1903), who was also Jewish, argued that the concepts male and female exist only as Platonic forms, and that Jews tend to embody the platonic femininity. Whereas men are basically rational, women operate only at the level of their emotions and sexual organs. Jews, Weininger argued, are similar, saturated with femininity, with no sense of right and wrong, and no soul. Weininger argues that man must choose between his masculine and feminine sides, consciousness and unconsciousness, Platonic love and sexuality. Love and sexual desire stand in contradiction, and love between a woman and a man is therefore doomed to misery or immorality. The only life worth living is the spiritual one—to live as a woman or a Jew means one has no right to live at all; the choice is genius or death. Weininger committed suicide, shooting himself in 1903, shortly after publishing the book. Wittgenstein, then 14, attended Weininger's funeral. Many years later, as a professor at the University of Cambridge, Wittgenstein distributed copies of Weininger's book to his bemused academic colleagues. He said that Weininger's arguments were wrong, but that it was the way they were wrong that was interesting. In a letter dated 23 August 1931, Wittgenstein wrote the following to G. E. Moore;Dear Moore,Thanks for your letter. I can quite imagine that you don't admire Weininger very much, what with that beastly translation and the fact that W. must feel very foreign to you. It is true that he is fantastic but he is great and fantastic. It isn't necessary or rather not possible to agree with him but the greatness lies in that with which we disagree. It is his enormous mistake which is great. I.e. roughly speaking if you just add a “∼” to the whole book it says an important truth.In an unusual move, Wittgenstein took out a copy of Weininger's work on 1 June 1931 from the Special Order Books in the university library. He met Moore on 2 June where he probably gave Moore the copy of Weininger's work.
There is much debate about the extent to which Wittgenstein and his siblings, who were of 3/4 Jewish descent, saw themselves as Jews. The issue has arisen in particular regarding Wittgenstein's schooldays, because Adolf Hitler was, for a while, at the same school at the same time. Laurence Goldstein argues it is "overwhelmingly probable" the boys met each other: that Hitler would have disliked Wittgenstein, a "stammering, precocious, precious, aristocratic upstart ..." Other commentators have dismissed as irresponsible and uninformed any suggestion that Wittgenstein's wealth and unusual personality may have fed Hitler's antisemitism, in part because there is no indication that Hitler would have seen Wittgenstein as Jewish.
Wittgenstein and Hitler were born just six days apart, though Hitler had to re-sit his mathematics exam before being allowed into a higher class, while Wittgenstein was moved forward by one, so they ended up two grades apart at the "Realschule". Monk estimates they were both at the school during the 1904–1905 school year, but says there is no evidence they had anything to do with each other. Several commentators have argued that a school photograph of Hitler may show Wittgenstein in the lower left corner, | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17741 |
Lanthanum
Lanthanum is a chemical element with the symbol La and atomic number 57. It is a soft, ductile, silvery-white metal that tarnishes slowly when exposed to air and is soft enough to be cut with a knife. It is the eponym of the lanthanide series, a group of 15 similar elements between lanthanum and lutetium in the periodic table, of which lanthanum is the first and the prototype. It is also sometimes considered the first element of the 6th-period transition metals, which would put it in group 3, although lutetium is sometimes placed in this position instead. Lanthanum is traditionally counted among the rare earth elements. The usual oxidation state is +3. Lanthanum has no biological role in humans but is essential to some bacteria. It is not particularly toxic to humans but does show some antimicrobial activity.
Lanthanum usually occurs together with cerium and the other rare earth elements. Lanthanum was first found by the Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1839 as an impurity in cerium nitrate – hence the name "lanthanum", from the Ancient Greek "λανθάνειν" ("lanthanein"), meaning "to lie hidden". Although it is classified as a rare earth element, lanthanum is the 28th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, almost three times as abundant as lead. In minerals such as monazite and bastnäsite, lanthanum composes about a quarter of the lanthanide content. It is extracted from those minerals by a process of such complexity that pure lanthanum metal was not isolated until 1923.
Lanthanum compounds have numerous applications as catalysts, additives in glass, carbon arc lamps for studio lights and projectors, ignition elements in lighters and torches, electron cathodes, scintillators, GTAW electrodes, and other things. Lanthanum carbonate is used as a phosphate binder in cases of high levels of phosphate in the blood seen with kidney failure.
Lanthanum is the first element and prototype of the lanthanide series. In the periodic table, it appears to the right of the alkaline earth metal barium and to the left of the lanthanide cerium. Lanthanum is often considered to be a group 3 element, along with its lighter congeners scandium and yttrium and its heavier congener, the radioactive actinium, although this classification is sometimes disputed. Similarly to scandium, yttrium, and actinium, the 57 electrons of a lanthanum atom are arranged in the configuration [Xe]5d16s2, with three valence electrons outside the noble gas core. In chemical reactions, lanthanum almost always gives up these three valence electrons from the 5d and 6s subshells to form the +3 oxidation state, achieving the stable configuration of the preceding noble gas xenon. Some lanthanum(II) compounds are also known, but they are much less stable.
Among the lanthanides, lanthanum is exceptional as it does not have any 4f electrons; indeed, the sudden contraction and lowering of energy of the 4f orbital that is important for the chemistry of the lanthanides only begins to happen at cerium. Thus it is only very weakly paramagnetic, unlike the strongly paramagnetic later lanthanides (with the exceptions of the last two, ytterbium and lutetium, where the 4f shell is completely full). Furthermore, since the melting points of the trivalent lanthanides are related to the extent of hybridisation of the 6s, 5d, and 4f electrons, lanthanum has the second-lowest (after cerium) melting point among all the lanthanides: 920 °C. The lanthanides become harder as the series is traversed: as expected, lanthanum is a soft metal. Lanthanum has a relatively high resistivity of 615 nΩm at room temperature; in comparison, the value for the good conductor aluminium is only 26.50 nΩm. Lanthanum is the least volatile of the lanthanides. Like most of the lanthanides, lanthanum has a hexagonal crystal structure at room temperature. At 310 °C, lanthanum changes to a face-centered cubic structure, and at 865 °C, it changes to a body-centered cubic structure.
As expected from periodic trends, lanthanum has the largest atomic radius of the lanthanides and the stable group 3 elements. Hence, it is the most reactive among them, tarnishing slowly in air and burning readily to form lanthanum(III) oxide, La2O3, which is almost as basic as calcium oxide. A centimeter-sized sample of lanthanum will corrode completely in a year as its oxide spalls off like iron rust, instead of forming a protective oxide coating like aluminium and lanthanum's lighter congeners scandium and yttrium. Lanthanum reacts with the halogens at room temperature to form the trihalides, and upon warming will form binary compounds with the nonmetals nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, boron, selenium, silicon and arsenic. Lanthanum reacts slowly with water to form lanthanum(III) hydroxide, La(OH)3. In dilute sulfuric acid, lanthanum readily forms the aquated tripositive ion : this is colorless in aqueous solution since La3+ has no f electrons. Lanthanum is the strongest and hardest base among the lanthanides and group 3 elements, which is again expected from its being the largest of them.
Naturally occurring lanthanum is made up of two isotopes, the stable 139La and the primordial long-lived radioisotope 138La. 139La is by far the most abundant, making up 99.910% of natural lanthanum: it is produced in the s-process (slow neutron capture, which occurs in low- to medium-mass stars) and the r-process (rapid neutron capture, which occurs in core-collapse supernovae). The very rare isotope 138La is one of the few primordial odd–odd nuclei, with a long half-life of 1.05×1011 years. It is one of the proton-rich p-nuclei which cannot be produced in the s- or r-processes. 138La, along with the even rarer 180mTa, is produced in the ν-process, where neutrinos interact with stable nuclei. All other lanthanum isotopes are synthetic: with the exception of 137La with a half-life of about 60,000 years, all of them have half-lives less than a day, and most have half-lives less than a minute. The isotopes 139La and 140La occur as fission products of uranium.
Lanthanum oxide is a white solid that can be prepared by direct reaction of its constituent elements. Due to the large size of the La3+ ion, La2O3 adopts a hexagonal 7-coordinate structure that changes to the 6-coordinate structure of scandium oxide (Sc2O3) and yttrium oxide (Y2O3) at high temperature. When it reacts with water, lanthanum hydroxide is formed: a lot of heat is evolved in the reaction and a hissing sound is heard. Lanthanum hydroxide will react with atmospheric carbon dioxide to form the basic carbonate.
Lanthanum fluoride is insoluble in water and can be used as a qualitative test for the presence of La3+. The heavier halides are all very soluble deliquescent compounds. The anhydrous halides are produced by direct reaction of their elements, as heating the hydrates causes hydrolysis: for example, heating hydrated LaCl3 produces LaOCl.
Lanthanum reacts exothermically with hydrogen to produce the dihydride LaH2, a black, pyrophoric, brittle, conducting compound with the calcium fluoride structure. This is a non-stoichiometric compound, and further absorption of hydrogen is possible, with a concomitant loss of electrical conductivity, until the more salt-like LaH3 is reached. Like LaI2 and LaI, LaH2 is probably an electride compound.
Due to the large ionic radius and great electropositivity of La3+, there is not much covalent contribution to its bonding and hence it has a limited coordination chemistry, like yttrium and the other lanthanides. Lanthanum oxalate does not dissolve very much in alkali-metal oxalate solutions, and [La(acac)3(H2O)2] decomposes around 500 °C. Oxygen is the most common donor atom in lanthanum complexes, which are mostly ionic and often have high coordination numbers over 6: 8 is the most characteristic, forming square antiprismatic and dodecadeltahedral structures. These high-coordinate species, reaching up to coordination number 12 with the use of chelating ligands such as in La2(SO4)3·9H2O, often have a low degree of symmetry because of stereo-chemical factors.
Lanthanum chemistry tends not to involve π bonding due to the electron configuration of the element: thus its organometallic chemistry is quite limited. The best characterized organolanthanum compounds are the cyclopentadienyl complex La(C5H5)3, which is produced by reacting anhydrous LaCl3 with NaC5H5 in tetrahydrofuran, and its methyl-substituted derivatives.
In 1751, the Swedish mineralogist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt discovered a heavy mineral from the mine at Bastnäs, later named cerite. Thirty years later, the fifteen-year-old Vilhelm Hisinger, from the family owning the mine, sent a sample of it to Carl Scheele, who did not find any new elements within. In 1803, after Hisinger had become an ironmaster, he returned to the mineral with Jöns Jacob Berzelius and isolated a new oxide which they named "ceria" after the dwarf planet Ceres, which had been discovered two years earlier. Ceria was simultaneously independently isolated in Germany by Martin Heinrich Klaproth. Between 1839 and 1843, ceria was shown to be a mixture of oxides by the Swedish surgeon and chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander, who lived in the same house as Berzelius: he separated out two other oxides which he named "lanthana" and "didymia". He partially decomposed a sample of cerium nitrate by roasting it in air and then treating the resulting oxide with dilute nitric acid. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17744 |
Lutetium
Lutetium is a chemical element with the symbol Lu and atomic number 71. It is a silvery white metal, which resists corrosion in dry air, but not in moist air. Lutetium is the last element in the lanthanide series, and it is traditionally counted among the rare earths. Lutetium is sometimes considered the first element of the 6th-period transition metals, although lanthanum is more often considered as such.
Lutetium was independently discovered in 1907 by French scientist Georges Urbain, Austrian mineralogist Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach, and American chemist Charles James. All of these researchers found lutetium as an impurity in the mineral ytterbia, which was previously thought to consist entirely of ytterbium. The dispute on the priority of the discovery occurred shortly after, with Urbain and Welsbach accusing each other of publishing results influenced by the published research of the other; the naming honor went to Urbain, as he had published his results earlier. He chose the name lutecium for the new element, but in 1949 the spelling of element 71 was changed to lutetium. In 1909, the priority was finally granted to Urbain and his names were adopted as official ones; however, the name "cassiopeium" (or later "cassiopium") for element 71 proposed by Welsbach was used by many German scientists until the 1950s.
Lutetium is not a particularly abundant element, although it is significantly more common than silver in the earth's crust. It has few specific uses. Lutetium-176 is a relatively abundant (2.5%) radioactive isotope with a half-life of about 38 billion years, used to determine the age of minerals and meteorites. Lutetium usually occurs in association with the element yttrium and is sometimes used in metal alloys and as a catalyst in various chemical reactions. 177Lu-DOTA-TATE is used for radionuclide therapy (see Nuclear medicine) on neuroendocrine tumours. Lutetium has the highest Brinell hardness of any lanthanide, at 890–1300 MPa.
A lutetium atom has 71 electrons, arranged in the configuration [Xe] 4f145d16s2. When entering a chemical reaction, the atom loses its two outermost electrons and the single 5d-electron. The lutetium atom is the smallest among the lanthanide atoms, due to the lanthanide contraction, and as a result lutetium has the highest density, melting point, and hardness of the lanthanides.
Lutetium's compounds always contain the element in the oxidation state +3. Aqueous solutions of most lutetium salts are colorless and form white crystalline solids upon drying, with the common exception of the iodide. The soluble salts, such as nitrate, sulfate and acetate form hydrates upon crystallization. The oxide, hydroxide, fluoride, carbonate, phosphate and oxalate are insoluble in water.
Lutetium metal is slightly unstable in air at standard conditions, but it burns readily at 150 °C to form lutetium oxide. The resulting compound is known to absorb water and carbon dioxide, and it may be used to remove vapors of these compounds from closed atmospheres. Similar observations are made during reaction between lutetium and water (slow when cold and fast when hot); lutetium hydroxide is formed in the reaction. Lutetium metal is known to react with the four lightest halogens to form trihalides; all of them (except the fluoride) are soluble in water.
Lutetium dissolves readily in weak acids and dilute sulfuric acid to form solutions containing the colorless lutetium ions, which are coordinated by between seven and nine water molecules, the average being [Lu(H2O)8.2]3+.
Lutetium occurs on the Earth in form of two isotopes: lutetium-175 and lutetium-176. Out of these two, only the former is stable, making the element monoisotopic. The latter one, lutetium-176, decays via beta decay with a half-life of 3.78×1010 years; it makes up about 2.5% of natural lutetium.
To date, 32 synthetic radioisotopes of the element have been characterized, ranging in mass from 149.973 (lutetium-150) to 183.961 (lutetium-184); the most stable such isotopes are lutetium-174 with a half-life of 3.31 years, and lutetium-173 with a half-life of 1.37 years. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 9 days, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than half an hour. Isotopes lighter than the stable lutetium-175 decay via electron capture (to produce isotopes of ytterbium), with some alpha and positron emission; the heavier isotopes decay primarily via beta decay, producing hafnium isotopes.
The element also has 42 nuclear isomers, with masses of 150, 151, 153–162, 166–180 (not every mass number corresponds to only one isomer). The most stable of them are lutetium-177m, with a half-life of 160.4 days, and lutetium-174m, with a half-life of 142 days; these are longer than the half-lives of the ground states of all radioactive lutetium isotopes except lutetium-173, 174, and 176.
Lutetium, derived from the Latin "Lutetia" (Paris), was independently discovered in 1907 by French scientist Georges Urbain, Austrian mineralogist Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach, and American chemist Charles James. They found it as an impurity in ytterbia, which was thought by Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac to consist entirely of ytterbium. The scientists proposed different names for the elements: Urbain chose "neoytterbium" and "lutecium", whereas Welsbach chose "aldebaranium" and "cassiopeium" (after Aldebaran and Cassiopeia). Both of these articles accused the other man of publishing results based on those of the author.
The International Commission on Atomic Weights, which was then responsible for the attribution of new element names, settled the dispute in 1909 by granting priority to Urbain and adopting his names as official ones, based on the fact that the separation of lutetium from Marignac's ytterbium was first described by Urbain; after Urbain's names were recognized, neoytterbium was reverted to ytterbium. Until the 1950s, some German-speaking chemists called lutetium by Welsbach's name, "cassiopeium"; in 1949, the spelling of element 71 was changed to lutetium. The reason for this was that Welsbach's 1907 samples of lutetium had been pure, while Urbain's 1907 samples only contained traces of lutetium. This later misled Urbain into thinking that he had discovered element 72, which he named celtium, which was actually very pure lutetium. The later discrediting of Urbain's work on element 72 led to a reappraisal of Welsbach's work on element 71, so that the element was renamed to "cassiopeium" in German-speaking countries for some time. Charles James, who stayed out of the priority argument, worked on a much larger scale and possessed the largest supply of lutetium at the time. Pure lutetium metal was first produced in 1953.
Found with almost all other rare-earth metals but never by itself, lutetium is very difficult to separate from other elements. Its principal commercial source is as a by-product from the processing of the rare earth phosphate mineral monazite (Ce,La...), which has concentrations of only 0.0001% of the element, not much higher than the abundance of lutetium in the Earth crust of about 0.5 mg/kg. No lutetium-dominant minerals are currently known. The main mining areas are China, United States, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Australia. The world production of lutetium (in the form of oxide) is about 10 tonnes per year. Pure lutetium metal is very difficult to prepare. It is one of the rarest and most expensive of the rare earth metals with the price about US$10,000 per kilogram, or about one-fourth that of gold.
Crushed minerals are treated with hot concentrated sulfuric acid to produce water-soluble sulfates of rare earths. Thorium precipitates out of solution as hydroxide and is removed. After that the solution is treated with ammonium oxalate to convert rare earths into their insoluble oxalates. The oxalates are converted to oxides by annealing. The oxides are dissolved in nitric acid that excludes one of the main components, cerium, whose oxide is insoluble in HNO3. Several rare earth metals, including lutetium, are separated as a double salt with ammonium nitrate by crystallization. Lutetium is separated by ion exchange. In this process, rare-earth ions are sorbed onto suitable ion-exchange resin by exchange with hydrogen, ammonium or cupric ions present in the resin. Lutetium salts are then selectively washed out by suitable complexing agent. Lutetium metal is then obtained by reduction of anhydrous LuCl3 or LuF3 by either an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal.
Because of production difficulty and high price, lutetium has very few commercial uses, especially since it is rarer than most of the other lanthanides but is chemically not very different. However, stable lutetium can be used as catalysts in petroleum cracking in refineries and can also be used in alkylation, hydrogenation, and polymerization applications.
Lutetium aluminium garnet (Al5Lu3O12) has been proposed for use as a lens material in high refractive index immersion lithography. Additionally, a tiny amount of lutetium is added as a dopant to gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG), which is used in magnetic bubble memory devices. Cerium-doped lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) is currently the preferred compound for detectors in positron emission tomography (PET). Lutetium aluminium garnet (LuAG) is used as a phosphor in LED light bulbs.
Aside from stable lutetium, its radioactive isotopes have several specific uses. The suitable half-life and decay mode made lutetium-176 used as a pure beta emitter, using lutetium which has been exposed to neutron activation, and in lutetium–hafnium dating to date meteorites. The synthetic isotope lutetium-177 bound to octreotate (a somatostatin analogue), is used experimentally in targeted radionuclide therapy for neuroendocrine tumors. Indeed, lutetium-177 is seeing increased usage as a radionuclide in neuroendrocine tumor therapy and bone pain palliation. Research indicates that lutetium-ion atomic clocks could provide greater accuracy than any existing atomic clock.
Lutetium tantalate (LuTaO4) is the densest known stable white material (density 9.81 g/cm3) and therefore is an ideal host for X-ray phosphors. The only denser white material is thorium dioxide, with density of 10 g/cm3, but the thorium it contains is radioactive.
Like other rare-earth metals, lutetium is regarded as having a low degree of toxicity, but its compounds should be handled with care nonetheless: for example, lutetium fluoride inhalation is dangerous and the compound irritates skin. Lutetium nitrate may be dangerous as it may explode and burn once heated. Lutetium oxide powder is toxic as well if inhaled or ingested.
Similarly to the other rare-earth metals, lutetium has no known biological role, but it is found even in humans, concentrating in bones, and to a lesser extent in the liver and kidneys. Lutetium salts are known to occur together with other lanthanide salts in nature; the element is the least abundant in the human body of all lanthanides. Human diets have not been monitored for lutetium content, so it is not known how much the average human takes in, but estimations show the amount is only about several micrograms per year, all coming from tiny amounts taken by plants. Soluble lutetium salts are mildly toxic, but insoluble ones are not. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17745 |
Lawrencium
Lawrencium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Lr (formerly Lw) and atomic number 103. It is named in honor of Ernest Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron, a device that was used to discover many artificial radioactive elements. A radioactive metal, lawrencium is the eleventh transuranic element and is also the final member of the actinide series. Like all elements with atomic number over 100, lawrencium can only be produced in particle accelerators by bombarding lighter elements with charged particles. Thirteen isotopes of lawrencium are currently known; the most stable is 266Lr with a half-life of 11 hours, but the shorter-lived 260Lr (half-life 2.7 minutes) is most commonly used in chemistry because it can be produced on a larger scale.
Chemistry experiments have confirmed that lawrencium behaves as a heavier homolog to lutetium in the periodic table, and is a trivalent element. It thus could also be classified as the first of the 7th-period transition metals: however, its electron configuration is anomalous for its position in the periodic table, having an s2p configuration instead of the s2d configuration of its homolog lutetium. This means that lawrencium may be more volatile than expected for its position in the periodic table and have a volatility comparable to that of lead.
In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, many claims of the synthesis of lawrencium of varying quality were made from laboratories in the Soviet Union and the United States. The priority of the discovery and therefore the naming of the element was disputed between Soviet and American scientists, and while the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) initially established lawrencium as the official name for the element and gave the American team credit for the discovery, this was reevaluated in 1997, giving both teams shared credit for the discovery but not changing the element's name.
In 1958, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory claimed the discovery of element 102, now called nobelium. At the same time, they also attempted to synthesize element 103 by bombarding the same curium target used with nitrogen-14 ions. A follow-up on this experiment was not performed, as the target was destroyed. Eighteen tracks were noted, with decay energy around and half-life around s; the Berkeley team noted that while the cause could be the production of an isotope of element 103, other possibilities could not be ruled out. While the data agrees reasonably with that later discovered for 257Lr (alpha decay energy 8.87 MeV, half-life 0.6 s), the evidence obtained in this experiment fell far short of the strength required to conclusively demonstrate the synthesis of element 103. Later, in 1960, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory attempted to synthesize the element by bombarding 252Cf with 10B and 11B. The results of this experiment were not conclusive.
The first important work on element 103 was carried out at Berkeley by the nuclear-physics team of Albert Ghiorso, Torbjørn Sikkeland, Almon Larsh, Robert M. Latimer, and their co-workers on February 14, 1961. The first atoms of lawrencium were reportedly produced by bombarding a three-milligram target consisting of three isotopes of the element californium with boron-10 and boron-11 nuclei from the Heavy Ion Linear Accelerator (HILAC). The Berkeley team reported that the isotope 257103 was detected in this manner, and that it decayed by emitting an 8.6 MeV alpha particle with a half-life of . This identification was later corrected to be 258103, as later work proved that 257Lr did not have the properties detected, but 258Lr did. This was considered at the time to be convincing proof of the synthesis of element 103: while the mass assignment was less certain and proved to be mistaken, it did not affect the arguments in favor of element 103 having been synthesized. Scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna (then in the Soviet Union) raised several criticisms: all but one were answered adequately. The exception was that 252Cf was the most common isotope in the target, and in the reactions with 10B, 258Lr could only have been produced by emitting four neutrons, and emitting three neutrons was expected to be much less likely than emitting four or five. This would lead to a narrow yield curve, not the broad one reported by the Berkeley team. A possible explanation was that there was a low number of events attributed to element 103. This was an important intermediate step to the unquestioned discovery of element 103, although the evidence was not completely convincing. The Berkeley team proposed the name "lawrencium" with symbol "Lw", after Ernest Orlando Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron. The IUPAC Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry accepted the name, but changed the symbol to "Lr". This acceptance of the discovery was later characterized as being hasty by the Dubna team.
The first work at Dubna on element 103 came in 1965, when they reported to have created 256103 in 1965 by bombarding 243Am with 18O, identifying it indirectly from its granddaughter fermium-252. The half-life they reported was somewhat too high, possibly due to background events. Later 1967 work on the same reaction identified two decay energies in the ranges 8.35–8.50 MeV and 8.50–8.60 MeV: these were assigned to 256103 and 257103. Despite repeated attempts, they were unable to confirm assignment of an alpha emitter with a half-life of eight seconds to 257103. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17746 |
Lead
Lead () is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin "plumbum") and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, lead is silvery with a hint of blue; it tarnishes to a dull gray color when exposed to air. Lead has the highest atomic number of any stable element and three of its isotopes are endpoints of major nuclear decay chains of heavier elements.
Lead is a relatively unreactive post-transition metal. Its weak metallic character is illustrated by its amphoteric nature; lead and lead oxides react with acids and bases, and it tends to form covalent bonds. Compounds of lead are usually found in the +2 oxidation state rather than the +4 state common with lighter members of the carbon group. Exceptions are mostly limited to organolead compounds. Like the lighter members of the group, lead tends to bond with itself; it can form chains and polyhedral structures.
Lead is easily extracted from its ores; prehistoric people in Western Asia knew of it. Galena is a principal ore of lead which often bears silver. Interest in silver helped initiate widespread extraction and use of lead in ancient Rome. Lead production declined after the fall of Rome and did not reach comparable levels until the Industrial Revolution. In 2014, the annual global production of lead was about ten million tonnes, over half of which was from recycling. Lead's high density, low melting point, ductility and relative inertness to oxidation make it useful. These properties, combined with its relative abundance and low cost, resulted in its extensive use in construction, plumbing, batteries, bullets and shot, weights, solders, pewters, fusible alloys, white paints, leaded gasoline, and radiation shielding.
In the late 19th century, lead's toxicity was recognized, and its use has since been phased out of many applications. However, many countries still allow the sale of products that expose humans to lead, including some types of paints and bullets. Lead is a neurotoxin that accumulates in soft tissues and bones; it damages the nervous system and interferes with the function of biological enzymes, causing neurological disorders, such as brain damage and behavioral problems.
A lead atom has 82 electrons, arranged in an electron configuration of [Xe]4f145d106s26p2. The sum of lead's first and second ionization energies—the total energy required to remove the two 6p electrons—is close to that of tin, lead's upper neighbor in the carbon group. This is unusual; ionization energies generally fall going down a group, as an element's outer electrons become more distant from the nucleus, and more shielded by smaller orbitals. The similarity of ionization energies is caused by the lanthanide contraction—the decrease in element radii from lanthanum (atomic number 57) to lutetium (71), and the relatively small radii of the elements from hafnium (72) onwards. This is due to poor shielding of the nucleus by the lanthanide 4f electrons. The sum of the first four ionization energies of lead exceeds that of tin, contrary to what periodic trends would predict. Relativistic effects, which become significant in heavier atoms, contribute to this behavior. One such effect is the inert pair effect: the 6s electrons of lead become reluctant to participate in bonding, making the distance between nearest atoms in crystalline lead unusually long.
Lead's lighter carbon group congeners form stable or metastable allotropes with the tetrahedrally coordinated and covalently bonded diamond cubic structure. The energy levels of their outer s- and p-orbitals are close enough to allow mixing into four hybrid sp3 orbitals. In lead, the inert pair effect increases the separation between its s- and p-orbitals, and the gap cannot be overcome by the energy that would be released by extra bonds following hybridization. Rather than having a diamond cubic structure, lead forms metallic bonds in which only the p-electrons are delocalized and shared between the Pb2+ ions. Lead consequently has a face-centered cubic structure like the similarly sized divalent metals calcium and strontium.
Pure lead has a bright, silvery appearance with a hint of blue. It tarnishes on contact with moist air and takes on a dull appearance, the hue of which depends on the prevailing conditions. Characteristic properties of lead include high density, malleability, ductility, and high resistance to corrosion due to passivation.
Lead's close-packed face-centered cubic structure and high atomic weight result in a density of 11.34 g/cm3, which is greater than that of common metals such as iron (7.87 g/cm3), copper (8.93 g/cm3), and zinc (7.14 g/cm3). This density is the origin of the idiom "to go over like a lead balloon". Some rarer metals are denser: tungsten and gold are both at 19.3 g/cm3, and osmium—the densest metal known—has a density of 22.59 g/cm3, almost twice that of lead.
Lead is a very soft metal with a Mohs hardness of 1.5; it can be scratched with a fingernail. It is quite malleable and somewhat ductile. The bulk modulus of lead—a measure of its ease of compressibility—is 45.8 GPa. In comparison, that of aluminium is 75.2 GPa; copper 137.8 GPa; and mild steel 160–169 GPa. Lead's tensile strength, at 12–17 MPa, is low (that of aluminium is 6 times higher, copper 10 times, and mild steel 15 times higher); it can be strengthened by adding small amounts of copper or antimony.
The melting point of lead—at 327.5 °C (621.5 °F)—is very low compared to most metals. Its boiling point of 1749 °C (3180 °F) is the lowest among the carbon group elements. The electrical resistivity of lead at 20 °C is 192 nanoohm-meters, almost an order of magnitude higher than those of other industrial metals (copper at 15.43 nΩ·m; gold 20.51 nΩ·m; and aluminium at 24.15 nΩ·m). Lead is a superconductor at temperatures lower than 7.19 K; this is the highest critical temperature of all type-I superconductors and the third highest of the elemental superconductors.
Natural lead consists of four stable isotopes with mass numbers of 204, 206, 207, and 208, and traces of five short-lived radioisotopes. The high number of isotopes is consistent with lead's atomic number being even. Lead has a magic number of protons (82), for which the nuclear shell model accurately predicts an especially stable nucleus. Lead-208 has 126 neutrons, another magic number, which may explain why lead-208 is extraordinarily stable.
With its high atomic number, lead is the heaviest element whose natural isotopes are regarded as stable; lead-208 is the heaviest stable nucleus. (This distinction formerly fell to bismuth, with an atomic number of 83, until its only primordial isotope, bismuth-209, was found in 2003 to decay very slowly.) The four stable isotopes of lead could theoretically undergo alpha decay to isotopes of mercury with a release of energy, but this has not been observed for any of them; their predicted half-lives range from 1035 to 10189 years (at least 1025 times the current age of the universe).
Three of the stable isotopes are found in three of the four major decay chains: lead-206, lead-207, and lead-208 are the final decay products of uranium-238, uranium-235, and thorium-232, respectively. These decay chains are called the uranium chain, the actinium chain, and the thorium chain. Their isotopic concentrations in a natural rock sample depends greatly on the presence of these three parent uranium and thorium isotopes. For example, the relative abundance of lead-208 can range from 52% in normal samples to 90% in thorium ores; for this reason, the standard atomic weight of lead is given to only one decimal place. As time passes, the ratio of lead-206 and lead-207 to lead-204 increases, since the former two are supplemented by radioactive decay of heavier elements while the latter is not; this allows for lead–lead dating. As uranium decays into lead, their relative amounts change; this is the basis for uranium–lead dating. Lead-207 exhibits nuclear magnetic resonance, a property that has been used to study its compounds in solution and solid state, including in human body.
Apart from the stable isotopes, which make up almost all lead that exists naturally, there are trace quantities of a few radioactive isotopes. One of them is lead-210; although it has a half-life of only 22.3 years, small quantities occur in nature because lead-210 is produced by a long decay series that starts with uranium-238 (that has been present for billions of years on Earth). Lead-211, -212, and -214 are present in the decay chains of uranium-235, thorium-232, and uranium-238, respectively, so traces of all three of these lead isotopes are found naturally. Minute traces of lead-209 arise from the very rare cluster decay of radium-223, one of the daughter products of natural uranium-235, and the decay chain of neptunium-237, traces of which are produced by neutron capture in uranium ores. Lead-210 is particularly useful for helping to identify the ages of samples by measuring its ratio to lead-206 (both isotopes are present in a single decay chain).
In total, 43 lead isotopes have been synthesized, with mass numbers 178–220. Lead-205 is the most stable radioisotope, with a half-life of around 1.73 years. The second-most stable is lead-202, which has a half-life of about 52,500 years, longer than any of the natural trace radioisotopes.
Bulk lead exposed to moist air forms a protective layer of varying composition. Lead(II) carbonate is a common constituent; the sulfate or chloride may also be present in urban or maritime settings. This layer makes bulk lead effectively chemically inert in the air. Finely powdered lead, as with many metals, is pyrophoric, and burns with a bluish-white flame.
Fluorine reacts with lead at room temperature, forming lead(II) fluoride. The reaction with chlorine is similar but requires heating, as the resulting chloride layer diminishes the reactivity of the elements. Molten lead reacts with the chalcogens to give lead(II) chalcogenides.
Lead metal resists sulfuric and phosphoric acid but not hydrochloric or nitric acid; the outcome depends on insolubility and subsequent passivation of the product salt. Organic acids, such as acetic acid, dissolve lead in the presence of oxygen. Concentrated alkalis will dissolve lead and form plumbites.
Lead shows two main oxidation states: +4 and +2. The tetravalent state is common for the carbon group. The divalent state is rare for carbon and silicon, minor for germanium, important (but not prevailing) for tin, and is the more important of the two oxidation states for lead. This is attributable to relativistic effects, specifically the inert pair effect, which manifests itself when there is a large difference in electronegativity between lead and oxide, halide, or nitride anions, leading to a significant partial positive charge on lead. The result is a stronger contraction of the lead 6s orbital than is the case for the 6p orbital, making it rather inert in ionic compounds. The inert pair effect is less applicable to compounds in which lead forms covalent bonds with elements of similar electronegativity, such as carbon in organolead compounds. In these, the 6s and 6p orbitals remain similarly sized and sp3 hybridization is still energetically favorable. Lead, like carbon, is predominantly tetravalent in such compounds.
There is a relatively large difference in the electronegativity of lead(II) at 1.87 and lead(IV) at 2.33. This difference marks the reversal in the trend of increasing stability of the +4 oxidation state going down the carbon group; tin, by comparison, has values of 1.80 in the +2 oxidation state and 1.96 in the +4 state.
Lead(II) compounds are characteristic of the inorganic chemistry of lead. Even strong oxidizing agents like fluorine and chlorine react with lead to give only PbF2 and PbCl2. Lead(II) ions are usually colorless in solution, and partially hydrolyze to form Pb(OH)+ and finally [Pb4(OH)4]4+ (in which the hydroxyl ions act as bridging ligands), but are not reducing agents as tin(II) ions are. Techniques for identifying the presence of the Pb2+ ion in water generally rely on the precipitation of lead(II) chloride using dilute hydrochloric acid. As the chloride salt is sparingly soluble in water, in very dilute solutions the precipitation of lead(II) sulfide is achieved by bubbling hydrogen sulfide through the solution.
Lead monoxide exists in two polymorphs, litharge α-PbO (red) and massicot β-PbO (yellow), the latter being stable only above around 488 °C. Litharge is the most commonly used inorganic compound of lead. There is no lead(II) hydroxide; increasing the pH of solutions of lead(II) salts leads to hydrolysis and condensation.
Lead commonly reacts with heavier chalcogens. Lead sulfide is a semiconductor, a photoconductor, and an extremely sensitive infrared radiation detector. The other two chalcogenides, lead selenide and lead telluride, are likewise photoconducting. They are unusual in that their color becomes lighter going down the group.
Lead dihalides are well-characterized; this includes the diastatide and mixed halides, such as PbFCl. The relative insolubility of the latter forms a useful basis for the gravimetric determination of fluorine. The difluoride was the first solid ionically conducting compound to be discovered (in 1834, by Michael Faraday). The other dihalides decompose on exposure to ultraviolet or visible light, especially the diiodide. Many lead(II) pseudohalides are known, such as the cyanide, cyanate, and thiocyanate. Lead(II) forms an extensive variety of halide coordination complexes, such as [PbCl4]2−, [PbCl6]4−, and the [Pb2Cl9]"n"5"n"− chain anion.
Lead(II) sulfate is insoluble in water, like the sulfates of other heavy divalent cations. Lead(II) nitrate and lead(II) acetate are very soluble, and this is exploited in the synthesis of other lead compounds.
Few inorganic lead(IV) compounds are known. They are only formed in highly oxidizing solutions and do not normally exist under standard conditions. Lead(II) oxide gives a mixed oxide on further oxidation, Pb3O4. It is described as lead(II,IV) oxide, or structurally 2PbO·PbO2, and is the best-known mixed valence lead compound. Lead dioxide is a strong oxidizing agent, capable of oxidizing hydrochloric acid to chlorine gas. This is because the expected PbCl4 that would be produced is unstable and spontaneously decomposes to PbCl2 and Cl2. Analogously to lead monoxide, lead dioxide is capable of forming plumbate anions. Lead disulfide and lead diselenide are only stable at high pressures. Lead tetrafluoride, a yellow crystalline powder, is stable, but less so than the difluoride. Lead tetrachloride (a yellow oil) decomposes at room temperature, lead tetrabromide is less stable still, and the existence of lead tetraiodide is questionable.
Some lead compounds exist in formal oxidation states other than +4 or +2. Lead(III) may be obtained, as an intermediate between lead(II) and lead(IV), in larger organolead complexes; this oxidation state is not stable, as both the lead(III) ion and the larger complexes containing it are radicals. The same applies for lead(I), which can be found in such radical species.
Numerous mixed lead(II,IV) oxides are known. When PbO2 is heated in air, it becomes Pb12O19 at 293 °C, Pb12O17 at 351 °C, Pb3O4 at 374 °C, and finally PbO at 605 °C. A further sesquioxide, Pb2O3, can be obtained at high pressure, along with several non-stoichiometric phases. Many of them show defective fluorite structures in which some oxygen atoms are replaced by vacancies: PbO can be considered as having such a structure, with every alternate layer of oxygen atoms absent.
Negative oxidation states can occur as Zintl phases, as either free lead anions, as in Ba2Pb, with lead formally being lead(−IV), or in oxygen-sensitive ring-shaped or polyhedral cluster ions such as the trigonal bipyramidal Pb52− ion, where two lead atoms are lead(−I) and three are lead(0). In such anions, each atom is at a polyhedral vertex and contributes two electrons to each covalent bond along an edge from their sp3 hybrid orbitals, the other two being an external lone pair. They may be made in liquid ammonia via the reduction of lead by sodium.
Lead can form multiply-bonded chains, a property it shares with its lighter homologs in the carbon group. Its capacity to do so is much less because the Pb–Pb bond energy is over three and a half times lower than that of the C–C bond. With itself, lead can build metal–metal bonds of an order up to three. With carbon, lead forms organolead compounds similar to, but generally less stable than, typical organic compounds (due to the Pb–C bond being rather weak). This makes the organometallic chemistry of lead far less wide-ranging than that of tin. Lead predominantly forms organolead(IV) compounds, even when starting with inorganic lead(II) reactants; very few organolead(II) compounds are known. The most well-characterized exceptions are Pb[CH(SiMe3)2]2 and Pb("η"5-C5H5)2.
The lead analog of the simplest organic compound, methane, is plumbane. Plumbane may be obtained in a reaction between metallic lead and atomic hydrogen. Two simple derivatives, tetramethyllead and tetraethyllead, are the best-known organolead compounds. These compounds are relatively stable: tetraethyllead only starts to decompose if heated or if exposed to sunlight or ultraviolet light. With sodium metal, lead readily forms an equimolar alloy that reacts with alkyl halides to form organometallic compounds such as tetraethyllead. The oxidizing nature of many organolead compounds is usefully exploited: lead tetraacetate is an important laboratory reagent for oxidation in organic synthesis. Tetraethyllead, once added to gasoline, was produced in larger quantities than any other organometallic compound. Other organolead compounds are less chemically stable. For many organic compounds, a lead analog does not exist.
Lead's per-particle abundance in the Solar System is 0.121 ppb (parts per billion). This figure is two and a half times higher than that of platinum, eight times more than mercury, and seventeen times more than gold. The amount of lead in the universe is slowly increasing as most heavier atoms (all of which are unstable) gradually decay to lead. The abundance of lead in the Solar System since its formation 4.5 billion years ago has increased by about 0.75%. The solar system abundances table shows that lead, despite its relatively high atomic number, is more prevalent than most other elements with atomic numbers greater than 40.
Primordial lead—which comprises the isotopes lead-204, lead-206, lead-207, and lead-208—was mostly created as a result of repetitive neutron capture processes occurring in stars. The two main modes of capture are the s- and r-processes.
In the s-process (s is for "slow"), captures are separated by years or decades, allowing less stable nuclei to undergo beta decay. A stable thallium-203 nucleus can capture a neutron and become thallium-204; this undergoes beta decay to give stable lead-204; on capturing another neutron, it becomes lead-205, which has a half-life of around 15 million years. Further captures result in lead-206, lead-207, and lead-208. On capturing another neutron, lead-208 becomes lead-209, which quickly decays into bismuth-209. On capturing another neutron, bismuth-209 becomes bismuth-210, and this beta decays to polonium-210, which alpha decays to lead-206. The cycle hence ends at lead-206, lead-207, lead-208, and bismuth-209.
In the r-process (r is for "rapid"), captures happen faster than nuclei can decay. This occurs in environments with a high neutron density, such as a supernova or the merger of two neutron stars. The neutron flux involved may be on the order of 1022 neutrons per square centimeter per second. The r-process does not form as much lead as the s-process. It tends to stop once neutron-rich nuclei reach 126 neutrons. At this point, the neutrons are arranged in complete shells in the atomic nucleus, and it becomes harder to energetically accommodate more of them. When the neutron flux subsides, these nuclei beta decay into stable isotopes of osmium, iridium, and platinum.
Lead is classified as a chalcophile under the Goldschmidt classification, meaning it is generally found combined with sulfur. It rarely occurs in its native, metallic form. Many lead minerals are relatively light and, over the course of the Earth's history, have remained in the crust instead of sinking deeper into the Earth's interior. This accounts for lead's relatively high crustal abundance of 14 ppm; it is the 38th most abundant element in the crust.
The main lead-bearing mineral is galena (PbS), which is mostly found with zinc ores. Most other lead minerals are related to galena in some way; boulangerite, Pb5Sb4S11, is a mixed sulfide derived from galena; anglesite, PbSO4, is a product of galena oxidation; and cerussite or white lead ore, PbCO3, is a decomposition product of galena. Arsenic, tin, antimony, silver, gold, copper, and bismuth are common impurities in lead minerals.
World lead resources exceed two billion tons. Significant deposits are located in Australia, China, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Russia, and the United States. Global reserves—resources that are economically feasible to extract—totaled 88 million tons in 2016, of which Australia had 35 million, China 17 million, and Russia 6.4 million.
Typical background concentrations of lead do not exceed 0.1 μg/m3 in the atmosphere; 100 mg/kg in soil; and 5 μg/L in freshwater and seawater.
The modern English word "lead" is of Germanic origin; it comes from the Middle English "leed" and Old English "lēad" (with the macron above the "e" signifying that the vowel sound of that letter is long). The Old English word is derived from the hypothetical reconstructed Proto-Germanic "*lauda-" ("lead"). According to linguistic theory, this word bore descendants in multiple Germanic languages of exactly the same meaning.
There is no consensus on the origin of the Proto-Germanic "*lauda-". One hypothesis suggests it is derived from Proto-Indo-European "*lAudh-" ("lead"; capitalization of the vowel is equivalent to the macron). Another hypothesis suggests it is borrowed from Proto-Celtic "*ɸloud-io-" ("lead"). This word is related to the Latin "plumbum", which gave the element its chemical symbol "Pb". The word "*ɸloud-io-" is thought to be the origin of Proto-Germanic "*bliwa-" (which also means "lead"), from which stemmed the German "Blei".
The name of the chemical element is not related to the verb of the same spelling, which is derived from Proto-Germanic "*laidijan-" ("to lead").
Metallic lead beads dating back to 7000–6500 BCE have been found in Asia Minor and may represent the first example of metal smelting. At that time lead had few (if any) applications due to its softness and dull appearance. The major reason for the spread of lead production was its association with silver, which may be obtained by burning galena (a common lead mineral). The Ancient Egyptians were the first to use lead minerals in cosmetics, an application that spread to Ancient Greece and beyond; the Egyptians may have used lead for sinkers in fishing nets, glazes, glasses, enamels, and for ornaments. Various civilizations of the Fertile Crescent used lead as a writing material, as currency, and as a construction material. Lead was used in the Ancient Chinese royal court as a stimulant, as currency, and as a contraceptive; the Indus Valley civilization and the Mesoamericans used it for making amulets; and the eastern and southern African peoples used lead in wire drawing.
Because silver was extensively used as a decorative material and an exchange medium, lead deposits came to be worked in Asia Minor from 3000 BCE; later, lead deposits were developed in the Aegean and Laurion. These three regions collectively dominated production of mined lead until c. 1200 BCE. Beginning circa 2000 BCE, the Phoenicians worked deposits in the Iberian peninsula; by 1600 BCE, lead mining existed in Cyprus, Greece, and Sardinia.
Rome's territorial expansion in Europe and across the Mediterranean, and its development of mining, led to it becoming the greatest producer of lead during the classical era, with an estimated annual output peaking at 80,000 tonnes. Like their predecessors, the Romans obtained lead mostly as a by-product of silver smelting. Lead mining occurred in Central Europe, Britain, the Balkans, Greece, Anatolia, and Hispania, the latter accounting for 40% of world production.
Lead tablets were commonly used as a material for letters. Lead coffins, cast in flat sand forms, with interchangeable motifs to suit the faith of the deceased were used in ancient Judea. Lead was used to make sling bullets from the 5th century BC. In Roman times, lead sling bullets were amply used, and were effective at a distance of between 100 and 150 meters. The Balearic slingers, used as mercenaries in Carthaginian and Roman armies, were famous for their shooting distance and accuracy.
Lead was used for making water pipes in the Roman Empire; the Latin word for the metal, "plumbum", is the origin of the English word "plumbing". Its ease of working and resistance to corrosion ensured its widespread use in other applications, including pharmaceuticals, roofing, currency, and warfare. Writers of the time, such as Cato the Elder, Columella, and Pliny the Elder, recommended lead (or lead-coated) vessels for the preparation of sweeteners and preservatives added to wine and food. The lead conferred an agreeable taste due to the formation of "sugar of lead" (lead(II) acetate), whereas copper or bronze vessels could impart a bitter flavor through verdigris formation.
The Roman author Vitruvius reported the health dangers of lead and modern writers have suggested that lead poisoning played a major role in the decline of the Roman Empire. Other researchers have criticized such claims, pointing out, for instance, that not all abdominal pain is caused by lead poisoning. According to archaeological research, Roman lead pipes increased lead levels in tap water but such an effect was "unlikely to have been truly harmful". When lead poisoning did occur, victims were called "saturnine", dark and cynical, after the ghoulish father of the gods, Saturn. By association, lead was considered the father of all metals. Its status in Roman society was low as it was readily available and cheap.
During the classical era (and even up to the 17th century), tin was often not distinguished from lead: Romans called lead "plumbum nigrum" ("black lead"), and tin "plumbum candidum" ("bright lead"). The association of lead and tin can be seen in other languages: the word "olovo" in Czech translates to "lead", but in Russian, its cognate олово ("olovo") means "tin". To add to the confusion, lead bore a close relation to antimony: both elements commonly occur as sulfides (galena and stibnite), often together. Pliny incorrectly wrote that stibnite would give lead on heating, instead of antimony. In countries such as Turkey and India, the originally Persian name "surma" came to refer to either antimony sulfide or lead sulfide, and in some languages, such as Russian, gave its name to antimony (сурьма).
Lead mining in Western Europe declined after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, with Arabian Iberia being the only region having a significant output. The largest production of lead occurred in South and East Asia, especially China and India, where lead mining grew rapidly.
In Europe, lead production began to increase in the 11th and 12th centuries, when it was again used for roofing and piping. Starting in the 13th century, lead was used to create stained glass. In the European and Arabian traditions of alchemy, lead (symbol in the European tradition) was considered an impure base metal which, by the separation, purification and balancing of its constituent essences, could be transformed to pure and incorruptible gold. During the period, lead was used increasingly for adulterating wine. The use of such wine was forbidden for use in Christian rites by a papal bull in 1498, but it continued to be imbibed and resulted in mass poisonings up to the late 18th century. Lead was a key material in parts of the printing press, which was invented around 1440; lead dust was commonly inhaled by print workers, causing lead poisoning. Firearms were invented at around the same time, and lead, despite being more expensive than iron, became the chief material for making bullets. It was less damaging to iron gun barrels, had a higher density (which allowed for better retention of velocity), and its lower melting point made the production of bullets easier as they could be made using a wood fire. Lead, in the form of Venetian ceruse, was extensively used in cosmetics by Western European aristocracy as whitened faces were regarded as a sign of modesty. This practice later expanded to white wigs and eyeliners, and only faded out with the French Revolution in the late 18th century. A similar fashion appeared in Japan in the 18th century with the emergence of the geishas, a practice that continued long into the 20th century. The white faces of women "came to represent their feminine virtue as Japanese women", with lead commonly used in the whitener.
In the New World, lead production was recorded soon after the arrival of European settlers. The earliest record dates to 1621 in the English Colony of Virginia, fourteen years after its foundation. In Australia, the first mine opened by colonists on the continent was a lead mine, in 1841. In Africa, lead mining and smelting were known in the Benue Trough and the lower Congo Basin, where lead was used for trade with Europeans, and as a currency by the 17th century, well before the scramble for Africa.
In the second half of the 18th century, Britain, and later continental Europe and the United States, experienced the Industrial Revolution. This was the first time during which lead production rates exceeded those of Rome. Britain was the leading producer, losing this status by the mid-19th century with the depletion of its mines and the development of lead mining in Germany, Spain, and the United States. By 1900, the United States was the leader in global lead production, and other non-European nations—Canada, Mexico, and Australia—had begun significant production; production outside Europe exceeded that within. A great share of the demand for lead came from plumbing and painting—lead paints were in regular use. At this time, more (working class) people were exposed to the metal and lead poisoning cases escalated. This led to research into the effects of lead intake. Lead was proven to be more dangerous in its fume form than as a solid metal. Lead poisoning and gout were linked; British physician Alfred Baring Garrod noted a third of his gout patients were plumbers and painters. The effects of chronic ingestion of lead, including mental disorders, were also studied in the 19th century. The first laws aimed at decreasing lead poisoning in factories were enacted during the 1870s and 1880s in the United Kingdom.
Further evidence of the threat that lead posed to humans was discovered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mechanisms of harm were better understood, lead blindness was documented, and the element was phased out of public use in the United States and Europe. The United Kingdom introduced mandatory factory inspections in 1878 and appointed the first Medical Inspector of Factories in 1898; as a result, a 25-fold decrease in lead poisoning incidents from 1900 to 1944 was reported. Most European countries banned lead paint—commonly used because of its opacity and water resistance—for interiors by 1930.
The last major human exposure to lead was the addition of tetraethyllead to gasoline as an antiknock agent, a practice that originated in the United States in 1921. It was phased out in the United States and the European Union by 2000.
In the 1970s, the United States and Western European countries introduced legislation to reduce lead air pollution. The impact was significant: while a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States in 1976–1980 showed that 77.8% of the population had elevated blood lead levels, in 1991–1994, a study by the same institute showed the share of people with such high levels dropped to 2.2%. The main product made of lead by the end of the 20th century was the lead–acid battery.
From 1960 to 1990, lead output in the Western Bloc grew by about 31%. The share of the world's lead production by the Eastern Bloc increased from 10% to 30%, from 1950 to 1990, with the Soviet Union being the world's largest producer during the mid-1970s and the 1980s, and China starting major lead production in the late 20th century. Unlike the European communist countries, China was largely unindustrialized by the mid-20th century; in 2004, China surpassed Australia as the largest producer of lead. As was the case during European industrialization, lead has had a negative effect on health in China.
As of 2014, production of lead is increasing worldwide due to its use in lead–acid batteries. There are two major categories of production: primary from mined ores, and secondary from scrap. In 2014, 4.58 million metric tons came from primary production and 5.64 million from secondary production. The top three producers of mined lead concentrate in that year were China, Australia, and the United States. The top three producers of refined lead were China, the United States, and India. According to the International Resource Panel's Metal Stocks in Society report of 2010, the total amount of lead in use, stockpiled, discarded, or dissipated into the environment, on a global basis, is 8 kg per capita. Much of this is in more developed countries (20–150 kg per capita) rather than less developed ones (1–4 kg per capita).
The primary and secondary lead production processes are similar. Some primary production plants now supplement their operations with scrap lead, and this trend is likely to increase in the future. Given adequate techniques, lead obtained via secondary processes is indistinguishable from lead obtained via primary processes. Scrap lead from the building trade is usually fairly clean and is re-melted without the need for smelting, though refining is sometimes needed. Secondary lead production is therefore cheaper, in terms of energy requirements, than is primary production, often by 50% or more.
Most lead ores contain a low percentage of lead (rich ores have a typical content of 3–8%) which must be concentrated for extraction. During initial processing, ores typically undergo crushing, dense-medium separation, grinding, froth flotation, and drying. The resulting concentrate, which has a lead content of 30–80% by mass (regularly 50–60%), is then turned into (impure) lead metal.
There are two main ways of doing this: a two-stage process involving roasting followed by blast furnace extraction, carried out in separate vessels; or a direct process in which the extraction of the concentrate occurs in a single vessel. The latter has become the most common route, though the former is still significant.
3, it is immediately dangerous to life and health. Most ingested lead is absorbed into the bloodstream. The primary cause of its toxicity is its predilection for interfering with the proper functioning of enzymes. It does so by binding to the sulfhydryl groups found on many enzymes, or mimicking and displacing other metals which act as cofactors in many enzymatic reactions. Among the essential metals that lead interacts with are calcium, iron, and zinc. High levels of calcium and iron tend to provide some protection from lead poisoning; low levels cause increased susceptibility.
Lead can cause severe damage to the brain and kidneys and, ultimately, death. By mimicking calcium, lead can cross the blood–brain barrier. It degrades the myelin sheaths of neurons, reduces their numbers, interferes with neurotransmission routes, and decreases neuronal growth. In the human body, lead inhibits porphobilinogen synthase and ferrochelatase, preventing both porphobilinogen formation and the incorporation of iron into protoporphyrin IX, the final step in heme synthesis. This causes ineffective heme synthesis and microcytic anemia.
Symptoms of lead poisoning include nephropathy, colic-like abdominal pains, and possibly weakness in the fingers, wrists, or ankles. Small blood pressure increases, particularly in middle-aged and older people, may be apparent and can cause anemia. Several studies, mostly cross-sectional, found an association between increased lead exposure and decreased heart rate variability. In pregnant women, high levels of exposure to lead may cause miscarriage. Chronic, high-level exposure has been shown to reduce fertility in males.
In a child's developing brain, lead interferes with synapse formation in the cerebral cortex, neurochemical development (including that of neurotransmitters), and the organization of ion channels. Early childhood exposure has been linked with an increased risk of sleep disturbances and excessive daytime drowsiness in later childhood. High blood levels are associated with delayed puberty in girls. The rise and fall in exposure to airborne lead from the combustion of tetraethyl lead in gasoline during the 20th century has been linked with historical increases and decreases in crime levels, a hypothesis which is not universally accepted.
Lead exposure is a global issue since lead mining and smelting, and battery manufacturing/disposal/recycling, are common in many countries. Lead enters the body via inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. Almost all inhaled lead is absorbed into the body; for ingestion, the rate is 20–70%, with children absorbing a higher percentage than adults.
Poisoning typically results from ingestion of food or water contaminated with lead, and less commonly after accidental ingestion of contaminated soil, dust, or lead-based paint. Seawater products can contain lead if affected by nearby industrial waters. Fruit and vegetables can be contaminated by high levels of lead in the soils they were grown in. Soil can be contaminated through particulate accumulation from lead in pipes, lead paint, and residual emissions from leaded gasoline.
The use of lead for water pipes is a problem in areas with soft or acidic water. Hard water forms insoluble layers in the pipes whereas soft and acidic water dissolves the lead pipes. Dissolved carbon dioxide in the carried water may result in the formation of soluble lead bicarbonate; oxygenated water may similarly dissolve lead as lead(II) hydroxide. Drinking such water, over time, can cause health problems due to the toxicity of the dissolved lead. The harder the water the more calcium bicarbonate and sulfate it will contain, and the more the inside of the pipes will be coated with a protective layer of lead carbonate or lead sulfate.
Ingestion of applied lead-based paint is the major source of exposure for children:
a direct source is chewing on old painted window sills. Alternatively, as the applied dry paint deteriorates, it peels, is pulverized into dust and then enters the body through hand-to-mouth contact or contaminated food, water, or alcohol. Ingesting certain home remedies may result in exposure to lead or its compounds.
Inhalation is the second major exposure pathway, affecting smokers and especially workers in lead-related occupations. Cigarette smoke contains, among other toxic substances, radioactive lead-210.
Skin exposure may be significant for people working with organic lead compounds. The rate of skin absorption is lower for inorganic lead.
Treatment for lead poisoning normally involves the administration of dimercaprol and succimer. Acute cases may require the use of disodium calcium edetate, the calcium chelate, and the disodium salt of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). It has a greater affinity for lead than calcium, with the result that lead chelate is formed by exchange and excreted in the urine, leaving behind harmless calcium.
The extraction, production, use, and disposal of lead and its products have caused significant contamination of the Earth's soils and waters. Atmospheric emissions of lead were at their peak during the Industrial Revolution, and the leaded gasoline period in the second half of the twentieth century. Lead releases originate from natural sources (i.e., concentration of the naturally occurring lead), industrial production, incineration and recycling, and mobilization of previously buried lead. Elevated concentrations of lead persist in soils and sediments in post-industrial and urban areas; industrial emissions, including those arising from coal burning, continue in many parts of the world, particularly in the developing countries.
Lead can accumulate in soils, especially those with a high organic content, where it remains for hundreds to thousands of years. Environmental lead can compete with other metals found in and on plants surfaces potentially inhibiting photosynthesis and at high enough concentrations, negatively affecting plant growth and survival. Contamination of soils and plants can allow lead to ascend the food chain affecting microorganisms and animals. In animals, lead exhibits toxicity in many organs, damaging the nervous, renal, reproductive, hematopoietic, and cardiovascular systems after ingestion, inhalation, or skin absorption. Fish uptake lead from both water and sediment; bioaccumulation in the food chain poses a hazard to fish, birds, and sea mammals.
Anthropogenic lead includes lead from shot and sinkers. These are among the most potent sources of lead contamination along with lead production sites. Lead was banned for shot and sinkers in the United States in 2017, although that ban was only effective for a month, and a similar ban is being considered in the European Union.
Analytical methods for the determination of lead in the environment include spectrophotometry, X-ray fluorescence, atomic spectroscopy and electrochemical methods. A specific ion-selective electrode has been developed based on the ionophore S,S'-methylenebis (N,N-diisobutyldithiocarbamate). An important biomarker assay for lead poisoning is δ-aminolevulinic acid levels in plasma, serum, and urine.
By the mid-1980s, there was significant decline in the use of lead in industry. In the United States, environmental regulations reduced or eliminated the use of lead in non-battery products, including gasoline, paints, solders, and water systems. Particulate control devices were installed in coal-fired power plants to capture lead emissions. In 1992, U.S. Congress required the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the blood lead levels of the country's children. Lead use was further curtailed by the European Union's 2003 Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive. A large drop in lead deposition occurred in the Netherlands after the 1993 national ban on use of lead shot for hunting and sport shooting: from 230 tonnes in 1990 to 47.5 tonnes in 1995.
In the United States, the permissible exposure limit for lead in the workplace, comprising metallic lead, inorganic lead compounds, and lead soaps, was set at 50 μg/m3 over an 8-hour workday, and the blood lead level limit at 5 μg per 100 g of blood in 2012. Lead may still be found in harmful quantities in stoneware, vinyl (such as that used for tubing and the insulation of electrical cords), and Chinese brass. Old houses may still contain lead paint. White lead paint has been withdrawn from sale in industrialized countries, but specialized uses of other pigments such as yellow lead chromate remain. Stripping old paint by sanding produces dust which can be inhaled. Lead abatement programs have been mandated by some authorities in properties where young children live.
Lead waste, depending on the jurisdiction and the nature of the waste, may be treated as household waste (in order to facilitate lead abatement activities), or potentially hazardous waste requiring specialized treatment or storage. Lead is released to the wildlife in shooting places and a number of lead management practices, such as stewardship of the environment and reduced public scrutiny, have been developed to counter the lead contamination. Lead migration can be enhanced in acidic soils; to counter that, it is advised soils be treated with lime to neutralize the soils and prevent leaching of lead.
Research has been conducted on how to remove lead from biosystems by biological means: Fish bones are being researched for their ability to bioremediate lead in contaminated soil. The fungus "Aspergillus versicolor" is effective at absorbing lead ions from industrial waste before being released to water bodies. Several bacteria have been researched for their ability to remove lead from the environment, including the sulfate-reducing bacteria "Desulfovibrio" and "Desulfotomaculum", both of which are highly effective in aqueous solutions.
Limestone
Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). A closely related rock is dolomite, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg(CO3)2. In old USGS publications, dolomite was referred to as "magnesian limestone", a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolomites or magnesium-rich limestones.
About 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, in which water erodes the limestone over thousands to millions of years. Most cave systems are through limestone bedrock.
Limestone has numerous uses: as a building material, an essential component of concrete (Portland cement), as aggregate for the base of roads, as white pigment or filler in products such as toothpaste or paints, as a chemical feedstock for the production of lime, as a soil conditioner, and as a popular decorative addition to rock gardens.
Like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera. These organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Other carbonate grains composing limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts, and extraclasts.
Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert (chalcedony, flint, jasper, etc.) or siliceous skeletal fragment (sponge spicules, diatoms, radiolarians), and travertine (a precipitate of calcite and aragonite). Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters (groundwater that precipitates the material in caves). This produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular (oolite) appearance.
The primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, building upon past generations. Below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters (see lysocline). Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments.
Calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits an unusual characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases.
Impurities (such as clay, sand, organic remains, iron oxide, and other materials) will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces.
Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock. When conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures.
Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly where there are waterfalls and around hot or cold springs. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the water leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls. Coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells.
During regional metamorphism that occurs during the mountain building process (orogeny), limestone recrystallizes into marble.
Limestone is a parent material of Mollisol soil group.
Two major classification schemes, the Folk and the Dunham, are used for identifying the types of carbonate rocks collectively known as limestone.
Robert L. Folk developed a classification system that places primary emphasis on the detailed composition of grains and interstitial material in carbonate rocks. Based on composition, there are three main components: allochems (grains), matrix (mostly micrite), and cement (sparite). The Folk system uses two-part names; the first refers to the grains and the second is the root. It is helpful to have a petrographic microscope when using the Folk scheme, because it is easier to determine the components present in each sample.
The Dunham scheme focuses on depositional textures. Each name is based upon the texture of the grains that make up the limestone. Robert J. Dunham published his system for limestone in 1962; it focuses on the depositional fabric of carbonate rocks. Dunham divides the rocks into four main groups based on relative proportions of coarser clastic particles. Dunham names are essentially for rock families. His work considers whether or not the grains were originally in mutual contact, and therefore self-supporting, or whether the rock is characterized by the presence of frame builders and algal mats. Unlike the Folk scheme, Dunham deals with the original porosity of the rock. The Dunham scheme is more useful for hand samples because it is based on texture, not the grains in the sample.
A revised classification was proposed by Wright (1992). It adds some diagenetic patterns and can be summarized as follows:
See: Carbonate platform
About 10% of all sedimentary rocks are limestones.
Limestone is partially soluble, especially in acid, and therefore forms many erosional landforms. These include limestone pavements, pot holes, cenotes, caves and gorges. Such erosion landscapes are known as karsts. Limestone is less resistant than most igneous rocks, but more resistant than most other sedimentary rocks. It is therefore usually associated with hills and downland, and occurs in regions with other sedimentary rocks, typically clays.
Karst topography and caves develop in limestone rocks due to their solubility in dilute acidic groundwater. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes. Regions overlying limestone bedrock tend to have fewer visible above-ground sources (ponds and streams), as surface water easily drains downward through joints in the limestone. While draining, water and organic acid from the soil slowly (over thousands or millions of years) enlarges these cracks, dissolving the calcium carbonate and carrying it away in solution. Most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. Cooling groundwater or mixing of different groundwaters will also create conditions suitable for cave formation.
Coastal limestones are often eroded by organisms which bore into the rock by various means. This process is known as bioerosion. It is most common in the tropics, and it is known throughout the fossil record (see Taylor and Wilson, 2003).
Bands of limestone emerge from the Earth's surface in often spectacular rocky outcrops and islands. Examples include the Rock of Gibraltar, the Burren in County Clare, Ireland; the Verdon Gorge in France; Malham Cove in North Yorkshire and the Isle of Wight, England; the Great Orme in Wales; on Fårö near the Swedish island of Gotland, the Niagara Escarpment in Canada/United States, Notch Peak in Utah, the Ha Long Bay National Park in Vietnam and the hills around the Lijiang River and Guilin city in China.
The Florida Keys, islands off the south coast of Florida, are composed mainly of oolitic limestone (the Lower Keys) and the carbonate skeletons of coral reefs (the Upper Keys), which thrived in the area during interglacial periods when sea level was higher than at present.
Unique habitats are found on alvars, extremely level expanses of limestone with thin soil mantles. The largest such expanse in Europe is the Stora Alvaret on the island of Öland, Sweden. Another area with large quantities of limestone is the island of Gotland, Sweden. Huge quarries in northwestern Europe, such as those of Mount Saint Peter (Belgium/Netherlands), extend for more than a hundred kilometers.
The world's largest limestone quarry is at Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company in Rogers City, Michigan.
Limestone is very common in architecture, especially in Europe and North America. Many landmarks across the world, including the Great Pyramid and its associated complex in Giza, Egypt, were made of limestone. So many buildings in Kingston, Ontario, Canada were, and continue to be, constructed from it that it is nicknamed the 'Limestone City'. On the island of Malta, a variety of limestone called Globigerina limestone was, for a long time, the only building material available, and is still very frequently used on all types of buildings and sculptures. Limestone is readily available and relatively easy to cut into blocks or more elaborate carving. Ancient American sculptors valued limestone because it was easy to work and good for fine detail. Going back to the Late Preclassic period (by 200–100 BCE), the Maya civilization (Ancient Mexico) created refined sculpture using limestone because of these excellent carving properties. The Maya would decorate the ceilings of their sacred buildings (known as lintels) and cover the walls with carved limestone panels. Carved on these sculptures were political and social stories, and this helped communicate messages of the king to his people. Limestone is long-lasting and stands up well to exposure, which explains why many limestone ruins survive. However, it is very heavy, making it impractical for tall buildings, and relatively expensive as a building material.
Limestone was most popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Train stations, banks and other structures from that era were normally made of limestone. It is used as a facade on some skyscrapers, but only in thin plates for covering, rather than solid blocks. In the United States, Indiana, most notably the Bloomington area, has long been a source of high-quality quarried limestone, called Indiana limestone. Many famous buildings in London are built from Portland limestone. Houses built in Odessa in Ukraine in the 19th century were mostly constructed from limestone and the extensive remains of the mines now form the Odessa Catacombs.
Limestone was also a very popular building block in the Middle Ages in the areas where it occurred, since it is hard, durable, and commonly occurs in easily accessible surface exposures. Many medieval churches and castles in Europe are made of limestone. Beer stone was a popular kind of limestone for medieval buildings in southern England.
Limestone and (to a lesser extent) marble are reactive to acid solutions, making acid rain a significant problem to the preservation of artifacts made from this stone. Many limestone statues and building surfaces have suffered severe damage due to acid rain. Likewise limestone gravel has been used to protect lakes vulnerable to acid rain, acting as a pH buffering agent. Acid-based cleaning chemicals can also etch limestone, which should only be cleaned with a neutral or mild alkali-based cleaner.
Other uses include:
People can be exposed to limestone in the workplace by inhalation of and eye contact with the dust.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set the legal limit (permissible exposure limit) for limestone exposure in the workplace as 15 mg/m3 total exposure and 5 mg/m3 respiratory exposure over an 8-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a recommended exposure limit (REL) of 10 mg/m3 total exposure and 5 mg/m3 respiratory exposure over an 8-hour workday.
Removing graffiti from weathered limestone is difficult because it is a porous and permeable material. The surface is fragile so usual abrasion methods run the risk of "severe surface loss". Because it is an acid-sensitive stone some cleaning agents cannot be used due to adverse effects.
The cyanobacterium "Hyella balani" can bore through limestone; as can the green alga "Eugamantia sacculata" and the fungus "Ostracolaba implexa".
Lübeck
Lübeck ( , ) (Danish: "Lybæk"), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck
(), is a city in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. On the river Trave, it was the leading city of the Hanseatic League, and because of its extensive Brick Gothic architecture, it is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. In 2015, it had a population of 218,523.
The old part of Lübeck is on an island enclosed by the Trave. The Elbe–Lübeck Canal connects the Trave with the Elbe River. Another important river near the town centre is the Wakenitz. Autobahn 1 connects Lübeck with Hamburg and Denmark. Travemünde is a sea resort and ferry port on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Lübeck Hauptbahnhof links Lübeck to a number of railway lines, notably the line to Hamburg.
Humans settled in the area around what today is Lübeck after the last Ice Age ended about 9700 BCE. Several Neolithic dolmens can be found in the area.
Around AD 700, Slavic peoples started moving into the eastern parts of Holstein, an area previously settled by Germanic inhabitants who had moved on in the Migration Period. Charlemagne (Holy Roman Emperor 800–814), whose efforts to Christianise the area were opposed by the Germanic Saxons, expelled many of the Saxons and brought in Polabian Slavs allies. Liubice (the place-name means "lovely") was founded on the banks of the River Trave about north of the present-day city-center of Lübeck. In the 10th century, it became the most important settlement of the Obotrite confederacy and a castle was built. In 1128, the pagan Rani from Rügen razed Liubice.
In 1143, Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, founded the modern town as a German settlement on the river island of Bucu. He built a new castle, first mentioned by the chronicler Helmold as existing in 1147. Adolf had to cede the castle to the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, in 1158. After Henry's fall from power in 1181, the town became an Imperial city for eight years. Emperor Barbarossa (reigned 1152–1190) ordained that the city should have a ruling council of 20 members. With the council dominated by merchants, pragmatic trade interests shaped Lübeck's politics for centuries. The council survived into the 19th century. The town and castle changed ownership for a period afterwards and formed part of the Duchy of Saxony until 1192, of the County of Holstein until 1217, and of the kingdom of Denmark until the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227.
Around 1200, the port became the main point of departure for colonists leaving for the Baltic territories conquered by the Livonian Order, and later, by the Teutonic Order. In 1226, Emperor Frederick II elevated the town to the status of an Imperial free city, by which it became the Free City of Lübeck.
In the 14th century, Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the largest and most powerful member of that medieval trade organization. In 1375, Emperor Charles IV named Lübeck one of the five "Glories of the Empire", a title shared with Venice, Rome, Pisa, and Florence.
Several conflicts about trading privileges resulted in fighting between Lübeck (with the Hanseatic League) and Denmark and Norway – with varying outcome. While Lübeck and the Hanseatic League prevailed in conflicts in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in the Count's Feud, a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. Lübeck also joined the pro-Lutheran Schmalkaldic League of the mid-16th century.
After its defeat in the Count's Feud, Lübeck's power slowly declined. The city remained neutral in the Thirty Years' War of 1618–1648, but the combination of the devastation from the decades-long war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade caused the Hanseatic League – and thus Lübeck with it – to decline in importance. However, even after the "de facto" disbanding of the Hanseatic League in 1669, Lübeck still remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.
Franz Tunder was the organist in the Marienkirche. It was part of the tradition in this Lutheran congregation that the organist would pass on the duty in a dynastic marriage. In 1668, his daughter Anna Margarethe married the great Danish-German composer Dieterich Buxtehude, who was the organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck until at least 1703. Some of the greatest composers of the day came to the church to hear his renowned playing.
In the course of the war of the Fourth Coalition against Napoleon, troops under Bernadotte (who would later become King of Sweden) occupied the neutral Lübeck after a battle against Blücher on 6 November 1806. Under the Continental System, the State bank went into bankruptcy. In 1811, the French Empire formally annexed Lübeck as part of France; the anti-Napoleonic allies liberated the area in 1813, and the Congress of Vienna of 1815 recognised Lübeck as an independent free city. The city became a member of the German Confederation (1815-1866) the North German Confederation (1866-1871) the German Empire (1871-1918) and the Weimar Republic (1919-1933). Under the Third Reich (1933-1945) the Nazis passed the Greater Hamburg Act, which incorporated the city of Lübeck into the Schleswig-Holstein province of Prussia, effective April 1, 1937. It thereby lost its status as an independent constituent state.
Writer Thomas Mann was a member of the Mann family of Lübeck merchants. His well-known 1901 novel "Buddenbrooks" made readers in Germany (and later worldwide, through numerous translations) familiar with the manner of life and mores of the 19th-century Lübeck "bourgeoisie".
During World War II (1939–1945), Lübeck became the first German city to suffer substantial Royal Air Force (RAF) bombing. The attack of 28 March 1942 created a firestorm that caused severe damage to the historic centre. This raid destroyed three of the main churches and large parts of the built-up area; the bells of St Marienkircke plunged to the stone floor. Germany operated a prisoner-of-war camp for officers, Oflag X-C, near the city from 1940 until April 1945. The British Second Army entered Lübeck on 2 May 1945 and occupied it without resistance.
On 3 May 1945, one of the biggest disasters in naval history occurred in the Bay of Lübeck when RAF bombers sank three ships: the SS "Cap Arcona", the SS "Deutschland", and the SS "Thielbek" – which, unknown to them, were packed with concentration-camp inmates. About 7,000 people died.
Lübeck's population grew considerably, from about 150,000 in 1939 to more than 220,000 after the war, owing to an influx of ethnic German refugees expelled from the so-called former eastern provinces of Germany in the Communist Bloc. Lübeck remained part of Schleswig-Holstein after World War II (and consequently lay within West Germany). It stood directly on what became the inner German border during the division of Germany into two states in the Cold War period. South of the city, the border followed the path of the river Wakenitz, which separated the Germanys by less than in many parts. The northernmost border crossing was in Lübeck's district of Schlutup. Lübeck spent decades restoring its historic city centre. In 1987, UNESCO designated this area a World Heritage Site.
Lübeck became the scene of a notable art scandal in the 1950s. Lothar Malskat was hired to restore the medieval frescoes of the cathedral of the Marienkirche, which were discovered after the cathedral had been badly damaged during World War II. Instead, he painted new works, which he passed off as restorations, fooling many experts. Malskat later revealed the deception himself. Günter Grass featured this incident in his 1986 novel "The Rat".
On the night of 18 January 1996, a fire broke out in a home for foreign refugees, killing 10 people and severely injuring more than 30 others, mostly children. Most of the shelter's inhabitants thought it was a racist attack, as they stated that they had encountered other overt hostility in the city. The police and the local court were criticized at the time for ruling out racism as a possible motive before even beginning preliminary investigations. But by 2002, the courts found all the Germans involved not guilty; the perpetrators have not been caught.
In April 2015, Lübeck hosted the G7 conference.
In 2015, the city had a population of 218,523. The largest ethnic minority groups are Turks, Central Europeans (Poles), Southern Europeans (mostly Greeks and Italians), Eastern Europeans (e.g. Russians), Arabs, and several smaller groups.
Population development since 1227:
Population structure:
In 2019 Lübeck reached 2 million overnight stays. Lübeck is famous for its medieval City Center with the Churches, the Holstentor, its small alleys and so much more. Lübeck has been called "Die Stadt der 7 Türme" (The City of seven Towers) due to its seven prominent church towers.
A typical visit in Lübeck includes a walk through the medieval city centre to see the Holstentor, the famous Churches like St. Mary's Church, and the town hall. Lübeck is also very famous for marzipan. This almond treat has been a part of Lübeck's history since 1806, and amongst its most famous producers is "Niederegger". For many people the Niederegger coffee shop in the city centre is a significant tourist attraction: it offers more than 25 variety of pie and all things marzipan. At night time, there are many bars, clubs and restaurants to finish the day.
Also very popular is the city of Travemünde on the Baltic Sea. In summer there are thousands of people on the white sanded beach. Here you can watch the huge ferries and cruiseships coming in and leaving the port to Scandinavia.
Most tourists stay for a week and visit places nearby such as the cities of Hamburg, Schwerin, Wismar or Rostock, the seaside resorts Timmendorfer Strand, Scharbeutz, Grömitz or Boltenhagen, going on a cycling tour on the coast of the Baltic Sea, the Hansa-Park amusement park, the SeaLife Center in Timmendorf, the Island of Fehmarn, and some even on a day trip to Denmark.
Much of the old town has kept a medieval appearance with old buildings and narrow streets. At one time, the town could only be entered by any of four town gates, two of which remain today, the well-known Holstentor (1478) and the Burgtor (1444).
The old town centre is dominated by seven church steeples. The oldest are the Lübecker Dom (the city's cathedral) and the Marienkirche (Saint Mary's), both from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Built in 1286, the Holy Spirit Hospital at Koberg is one of the oldest existing social institutions in the world and one of the most important buildings in the city. The Holy Spirit Hospital is in parts an old-folk and nursing home. Historic parts can be visited.
Other sights include:
Like many other places in Germany, Lübeck has a long tradition of a Christmas market in December, which includes the famous handicrafts market inside the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital (Hospital of the Holy Spirit), located at the northern end of Königstrasse.
Lübeck has many small museums, such as the St. Anne's Museum Quarter, Lübeck, the Behnhaus, the European Hansemuseum, and the Holstentor. Lübeck Museum of Theatre Puppets is a privately run museum. Waterside attractions are a lightvessel that served Fehmarnbelt and the Lisa von Lübeck, a reconstruction of a Hanseatic 15th century caravel.
The marzipan museum in the second floor of Café Niederegger in Breite Strasse explains the history of marzipan, and shows historical wood molds for the production of marzipan blocks and a group of historical figures made of marzipan.
Lübeck is famous for its marzipan industry. According to local legend, marzipan was first made in Lübeck, possibly in response either to a military siege of the city or a famine year. The story, perhaps apocryphal, is that the town ran out of all food except stored almonds and sugar, which were used to make loaves of marzipan "bread". Others believe that marzipan was actually invented in Persia a few hundred years before Lübeck claims to have invented it. The best known producer is Niederegger, which tourists often visit while in Lübeck, especially at Christmas time.
The Lübeck wine trade dates back to Hanseatic times. One Lübeck specialty is Rotspon (), wine made from grapes processed and fermented in France and transported in wooden barrels to Lübeck, where it is stored, aged and bottled.
Like other coastal North German communities, Fischbrötchen and Brathering are popular takeaway foods, given the abundance of fish varieties.
Lübeck has three universities, the University of Lübeck, the Technical University of Applied Sciences Lübeck, and the Lübeck Academy of Music. The Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences is a central faculty of the University and was founded by the German Excellence Initiative.
The International School of New Media is an affiliated institute of the university.
The city of Lübeck is divided into 10 zones. These again are arranged into altogether 35 urban districts. The 10 zones with their official numbers, their associated urban districts and the numbers of inhabitants of the quarters:
The "Innenstadt" is the main tourist attraction and consists of the old town as well as the former ramparts. It is the oldest and smallest part of Lübeck.
"Sankt Jürgen" is one of three historic suburbs of Lübeck (alongside "St. Lorenz" and "St. Gertrud"). It is located south of the city centre and the biggest of all city parts.
"Moisling" is situated in the far South-West. Its history dates back to the 17th century.
"Buntekuh" lies in the West of Lübeck. A big part consists of commercial zones such as the "Citti-Park", Lübeck's biggest mall.
"Sankt Lorenz-Süd" is located right in the South-West of the city centre and has the highest population density. The main train and bus station lie in its Northern part.
"Sankt Lorenz-Nord" is situated in the North-West of Lübeck. It is split from its southern part by the railways.
"Sankt Gertrud" is located in the East of the city centre. This part is mainly characterized by its nature. Many parks, the rivers "Wakenitz" and "Trave" and the forest "Lauerholz" make up a big part of its area.
"Schlutup" lies in the far East of Lübeck. Due to forest "Lauerholz" in its west and river "Trave" in the north, Schlutup is relatively isolated from the other city parts.
North of river Trave lies "Kücknitz". It is the old main industrial area of Lübeck.
"Travemünde" is located in far northeastern Lübeck at the Baltic Sea. With its long beach and coast line, Travemünde is the second biggest tourist destination.
Lübeck is twinned with:
Lubec, Maine, the easternmost town in the United States, is named after Lübeck.
Lübeck is connected to three Main Motorways (Autobahnen). The A1 Motorway is heading north to the Island of Fehmarn and Copenhagen (Denmark) and south to Hamburg, Bremen and Cologne. The A20 Motorway is heading east to Wismar, Rostock and Szczecin (Poland) and west to Bad Segeberg and to the North Sea. The A226 Motorway starts in Central Lübeck and is heading to the north-east and the Seaport-City of Travemünde.
Lübeck has multiple train Stations. The biggest of them is Lübeck Central Station. With about 31.000 passengers per day, it's the largest station in Schleswig-Holstein. The station is most likely being served by regional rail services to Hamburg, Lüneburg, Kiel, The Island of Fehmarn and Szczecin (Poland). There are some Long distance trains to Munich, Frankfurt a.m. and Cologne. During the summer holidays, there are many extra rail services. Till the end of 2019, Lübeck was a stop on the "Vogelfluglinie" train line from Hamburg to Copenhagen (Denmark).
Public transport by bus is organized by the Lübeck City-Traffic-Company (Lübecker Stadtverkehr). There are 40 buslines serving the City and the area around Lübeck. There are some other regional Bus services.
In Lübeck's district of Travemünde is on the Baltic Sea and has the city's main port. The Scandinavienkai (the quay of Scandinavia) has ferry routes are to (Malmo, Sweden, Trelleborg, Denmark, Liepaja, Latvia, Helsinki, Finland and St.Petersburg, Russia). It is the second-biggest German port on the Baltic Sea.
Lübeck Airport is located in the south of Lübeck in the Town of Blankensee. It provides regional flights to Munich and Stuttgart and some charter flights to Italy and Croatia.
Laos
Laos (, ; , "Lāo" ), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (; ), is a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese peninsula, Laos is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast and Thailand to the west and southwest.
Present Laos traces its historic and cultural identity to Lan Xang, which existed from the 14th century to the 18th century as one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Due to its central geographical location in Southeast Asia, the kingdom became a hub for overland trade, and became wealthy economically and culturally. After a period of internal conflict, Lan Xang broke into three separate kingdoms—Luang Phrabang, Vientiane, and Champasak. In 1893, the three territories came under a French protectorate and were united to form what is now known as Laos. It briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation, but was recolonised by France until it won autonomy in 1949. Laos became independent in 1953, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong. A post-independence civil war began, which saw the communist resistance, supported by the Soviet Union, fight against the monarchy that later came under influence of military regimes supported by the United States. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the communist Pathet Lao came to power, ending the civil war. Laos was then dependent on military and economic aid from the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991.
In 2018, the country had the fourth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Southeast Asia, after Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand and country ranked 139th on the Human Development Index (HDI), indicating medium development. Laos is a member of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, the ASEAN, East Asia Summit, and La Francophonie. Laos applied for membership of the World Trade Organization in 1997; on 2 February 2013, it was granted full membership. It is a one-party socialist republic, espousing Marxism–Leninism governed by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, under which non-governmental organizations have routinely characterized the country's human rights record as poor, citing repeated abuses such as torture, restrictions on civil liberties, and persecution of minorities.
In Laos, the politically and culturally dominant Lao people make up 53.2% of the population, mostly in the lowlands. Mon-Khmer groups, the Hmong, and other indigenous hill tribes live in the foothills and mountains. Laos's strategies for development are based on generating electricity from rivers and selling the power to its neighbours, namely Thailand, China, and Vietnam, as well as its initiative to become a "land-linked" nation, as evidenced by the construction of four new railways connecting Laos and neighbours. Laos has been referred to as one of Southeast Asia and Pacific's Fastest Growing Economies by the World Bank with annual GDP growth averaging 7.7% since 2009.
The English word "Laos" was coined by the French, who united the three Lao kingdoms in French Indochina in 1893 and named the country as the plural of the dominant and most common ethnic group, the Lao people. English-speakers often mispronounce the word 'Laos', falsely believing that it should be pronounced with a silent 's', however the 's' in Laos should not be silent. In the Lao language, the country's name is "Muang Lao" () or "Pathet Lao" (), both of which literally mean 'Lao Country'.
An ancient human skull was recovered in 2009 from the Tam Pa Ling Cave in the Annamite Mountains in northern Laos; the skull is at least 46,000 years old, making it the oldest modern human fossil found to date in Southeast Asia. Stone artifacts including Hoabinhian types have been found at sites dating to the Late Pleistocene in northern Laos. Archaeological evidence suggests an agriculturist society developed during the 4th millennium BC. Burial jars and other kinds of sepulchers suggest a complex society in which bronze objects appeared around 1500 BC, and iron tools were known from 700 BC. The proto-historic period is characterised by contact with Chinese and Indian civilisations. According to linguistic and other historical evidence, Tai-speaking tribes migrated southwestward to the modern territories of Laos and Thailand from Guangxi sometime between the 8th–10th centuries.
Laos traces its history to the kingdom of Lan Xang ('million elephants'), which was founded in the 14th century by a Lao prince, Fa Ngum, whose father had his family exiled from the Khmer Empire. Fa Ngum, with 10,000 Khmer troops, conquered many Lao principalities in the Mekong River Basin, culminating in the capture of Vientiane. Ngum was descended from a long line of Lao kings that traced back to Khoun Boulom. He made Theravada Buddhism the state religion and Lan Xang prospered. Within 20 years of its formation, the kingdom expanded eastward to Champa and along the Annamite mountains in Vietnam. His ministers, unable to tolerate his ruthlessness, forced him into exile to the present-day Thai province of Nan in 1373, where he died. Fa Ngum's eldest son, Oun Heuan, ascended to the throne under the name Samsenthai and reigned for 43 years. Lan Xang became an important trade centre during Samsenthai's reign, but after his death in 1421 it collapsed into warring factions for nearly a century.
In 1520, Photisarath came to the throne and moved the capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane to avoid a Burmese invasion. Settathirath became king in 1548, after his father was killed, and ordered the construction of what became the symbol of Laos, That Luang. Settathirath disappeared in the mountains on his way back from a military expedition into Cambodia and Lan Xang fell into more than seventy years of instability, involving both Burmese invasion and civil war.
It was not until 1637, when Sourigna Vongsa ascended the throne, that Lan Xang further expanded its frontiers. His reign is often regarded as Laos's golden age. When he died without an heir, the kingdom split into three principalities. Between 1763 and 1769, Burmese armies overran northern Laos and annexed Luang Phrabang, while Champasak eventually came under Siamese suzerainty.
Chao Anouvong was installed as a vassal king of Vientiane by the Siamese. He encouraged a renaissance of Lao fine arts and literature and improved relations with Luang Phrabang. Under Vietnamese pressure, he rebelled against the Siamese in 1826. The rebellion failed and Vientiane was ransacked. Anouvong was taken to Bangkok as a prisoner, where he died.
A Siamese military campaign in Laos in 1876 was described by a British observer as having been "transformed into slave-hunting raids on a large scale".
In the late-19th century, Luang Prabang was ransacked by the Chinese Black Flag Army. France rescued King Oun Kham and added Luang Phrabang to the Protectorate of French Indochina. Shortly after, the Kingdom of Champasak and the territory of Vientiane were added to the protectorate. King Sisavang Vong of Luang Phrabang became ruler of a unified Laos and Vientiane once again became the capital.
Laos never held any importance for France other than as a buffer state between Thailand and the more economically important Annam and Tonkin.
During their rule, the French introduced the corvée, a system that forced every male Lao to contribute 10 days of manual labour per year to the colonial government. Laos produced tin, rubber, and coffee, but never accounted for more than one percent of French Indochina's exports. By 1940, around 600 French citizens lived in Laos. Under French rule, the Vietnamese were encouraged to migrate to Laos, which was seen by the French colonists as a rational solution to a labour shortage within the confines of an Indochina-wide colonial space. By 1943, the Vietnamese population stood at nearly 40,000, forming the majority in the largest cities of Laos and enjoying the right to elect its own leaders. As a result, 53% of the population of Vientiane, 85% of Thakhek, and 62% of Pakse were Vietnamese, with only the exception of Luang Prabang where the population was predominantly Lao. As late as 1945, the French drew up an ambitious plan to move massive Vietnamese population to three key areas, i.e., the Vientiane Plain, Savannakhet region, and the Bolaven Plateau, which was only derailed by the Japanese invasion of Indochina. Otherwise, according to Martin Stuart-Fox, the Lao might well have lost control over their own country.
During World War II in Laos, Vichy France, Thailand, Imperial Japan and Free France occupied Laos. On 9 March 1945, a nationalist group declared Laos once more independent, with Luang Prabang as its capital but on 7 April 1945 two battalions of Japanese troops occupied the city. The Japanese attempted to force Sisavang Vong (the King of Luang Phrabang) to declare Laotian independence but on 8 April he instead simply declared an end to Laos's status as a French protectorate. The King then secretly sent Prince Kindavong to represent Laos to the Allied forces and Prince Sisavang as representative to the Japanese. When Japan surrendered, some Lao nationalists (including Prince Phetsarath) declared Laotian independence, but by early-1946, French troops had reoccupied the country and conferred limited autonomy on Laos.
During the First Indochina War, the Indochinese Communist Party formed the Pathet Lao independence organisation. The Pathet Lao began a war against the French colonial forces with the aid of the Vietnamese independence organisation, the Viet Minh. In 1950 the French were forced to give Laos semi-autonomy as an "associated state" within the French Union. France remained in de facto control until 22 October 1953, when Laos gained full independence as a constitutional monarchy.
The First Indochina War took place across French Indochina and eventually led to French defeat and the signing of a peace accord for Laos at the Geneva Conference of 1954. In 1955, the US Department of Defense created a special Programs Evaluation Office to replace French support of the Royal Lao Army against the communist Pathet Lao as part of the US containment policy.
In 1960, amidst a series of rebellions in the Kingdom of Laos, fighting broke out between the Royal Lao Army and the communist North Vietnam-backed, and Soviet Union-backed Pathet Lao guerillas. A second Provisional Government of National Unity formed by Prince Souvanna Phouma in 1962 was unsuccessful, and the situation steadily deteriorated into large scale civil war between the Royal Laotian government and the Pathet Lao. The Pathet Lao were backed militarily by the NVA and Vietcong.
Laos was a key part of the Vietnam War since parts of Laos were invaded and occupied by North Vietnam for use as a supply route for its war against the South. In response, the United States initiated a bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese positions, supported regular and irregular anticommunist forces in Laos and supported South Vietnamese incursions into Laos (see ).
In 1968 the North Vietnamese Army launched a multi-division attack to help the Pathet Lao to fight the Royal Lao Army. The attack resulted in the army largely demobilising, leaving the conflict to irregular ethnic Hmong forces of the "U.S. Secret Army" backed by the United States and Thailand, and led by General Vang Pao.
Massive aerial bombardment against the Pathet Lao and invading People's Army of Vietnam forces were carried out by the United States to prevent the collapse of the Royal Kingdom of Laos central government, and to deny the use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to attack US forces in the Republic of Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos, nearly equal to the 2.1 million tons of bombs the U.S. dropped on Europe and Asia during all of World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population; "The New York Times" noted this was "nearly a ton for every person in Laos". Some 80 million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country, rendering vast swathes of land impossible to cultivate and killing or maiming approximately 50 Laotians every year. Due to the particularly heavy impact of cluster bombs during this war, Laos was a strong advocate of the Convention on Cluster Munitions to ban the weapons, and was host to the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in November 2010.
In 1975 the Pathet Lao, along with the Vietnam People's Army, and backed by the Soviet Union, overthrew the royalist Lao government, forcing King Savang Vatthana to abdicate on 2 December 1975. He later died in prison. Between 20,000 and 62,000 Laotians died during the Civil War.
On 2 December 1975, after taking control of the country, the Pathet Lao government under Kaysone Phomvihane renamed the country as the "Lao People's Democratic Republic" and signed agreements giving Vietnam the right to station armed forces and to appoint advisers to assist in overseeing the country. The close ties between Laos and Vietnam were formalised via a treaty signed in 1977, which has since provided not only directions for Lao foreign policy, but also the basis for Vietnamese involvement at all levels of Lao political and economic life. Laos was requested in 1979 by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to end relations with the People's Republic of China, leading to isolation in trade by China, the United States, and other countries. In 1979 there were 50,000 Vietnamese troops stationed in Laos and as many as 6,000 civilian Vietnamese officials including 1,000 directly attached to the ministries in Vientiane.
The conflict between Hmong rebels and the Vietnam People's Army of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, as well as the Vietnamese-backed Pathet Lao continued in key areas of Laos, including in Saysaboune Closed Military Zone, Xaisamboune Closed Military Zone near Vientiane Province and Xieng Khouang Province. From 1975 to 1996, the United States resettled some 250,000 Lao refugees from Thailand, including 130,000 Hmong (see: Indochina refugee crisis).
On 2 December 2015, Laos celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the republic.
Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, and it lies mostly between latitudes 14° and 23°N (a small area is south of 14°), and longitudes 100° and 108°E. Its thickly forested landscape consists mostly of rugged mountains, the highest of which is Phou Bia at , with some plains and plateaus. The Mekong River forms a large part of the western boundary with Thailand, where the mountains of the Annamite Range form most of the eastern border with Vietnam and the Luang Prabang Range the northwestern border with the Thai highlands. There are two plateaux, the Xiangkhoang in the north and the Bolaven Plateau at the southern end. The climate is tropical and influenced by the monsoon pattern.
There is a distinct rainy season from May to November, followed by a dry season from December to April. Local tradition holds that there are three seasons (rainy, cold and hot) as the latter two months of the climatologically defined dry season are noticeably hotter than the earlier four months. The capital and largest city of Laos is Vientiane and other major cities include Luang Prabang, Savannakhet, and Pakse.
In 1993 the Laos government set aside 21 percent of the nation's land area for habitat conservation preservation. The country is one of four in the opium poppy growing region known as the "Golden Triangle". According to the October 2007 UNODC fact book "Opium Poppy Cultivation in South East Asia", the poppy cultivation area was , down from in 2006.
Laos can be considered to consist of three geographical areas: north, central, and south.
Laos has a mostly tropical savanna climate. A tropical monsoon and humid sub-tropical climate also occurs in places. Laos is vulnerable to climate change and almost all provinces in the country are "at high risk from climate change."
Laos is divided into 17 provinces ("khoueng") and one prefecture ("kampheng nakhon"), which includes the capital city Vientiane ("Nakhon Louang Viangchan"). A new province, Xaisomboun Province, was established on 13 December 2013. Provinces are further divided into districts ("muang") and then villages ("ban"). An "urban" village is essentially a town.
The Lao People's Democratic Republic is one of the world's only socialist states openly endorsing communism. The only legal political party is the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). With one-party state status of Laos, the General Secretary (party leader) holds ultimate power and authority over state and government and serves as the supreme leader. The head of state is President Bounnhang Vorachith, also General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.
The head of government is Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, who is also a member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party's Politburo. Government policies are determined by the party through the all-powerful eleven-member Politburo of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the 61-member Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. Important government decisions are vetted by the Council of Ministers.
Laos's first, French-written and monarchical constitution was promulgated on 11 May 1947, and declared Laos an independent state within the French Union. The revised constitution of 11 May 1957 omitted reference to the French Union, though close educational, health and technical ties with the former colonial power persisted. The 1957 document was abrogated in December 1975, when a communist People's Republic was proclaimed. A new constitution was adopted in 1991 and enshrined a "leading role" for the LPRP. In 1990, deputy minister for science & technology Thongsouk Saysangkhi resigned from the government and party, calling for political reform. He died in captivity in 1998.
In 1992 elections were held for a new 85-seat National Assembly with members, nominated by the one-party communist government, elected by secret ballot to five-year terms. The elections were widely disputed and questioned by Lao and Hmong opposition and dissident groups abroad and in Laos and Thailand. This National Assembly, which essentially acts as a rubber stamp for the LPRP, approves all new laws, although the executive branch retains authority to issue binding decrees. The most recent elections took place in April 2011. The assembly was expanded to 99 members in 1997, to 115 members in 2006 and finally to 132 members during the 2011 elections.
On 17 May 2014 the Defense Minister, who was also Deputy Prime Minister, Major General Douangchay Phichit, with other top ranking officials was killed in a plane crash. The officials were to participate in a ceremony to mark the liberation of the Plain of Jars from the former Royal Lao government forces. Their Russian-built Antonov AN 74–300 with 20 people on board crashed in Xiengkhouang Province.
Some Hmong groups fought as CIA-backed units on the royalist side in the Laotian Civil War. After the Pathet Lao took over the country in 1975, the conflict continued in isolated pockets. In 1977, a communist newspaper promised the party would hunt down the "American collaborators" and their families "to the last root".
As many as 200,000 Hmong went into exile in Thailand, with many ending up in the US. A number of Hmong fighters hid out in mountains in Xiangkhouang Province for many years, with a remnant emerging from the jungle in 2003.
In 1989, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with the support of the US government, instituted the Comprehensive Plan of Action, a programme to stem the tide of Indochinese refugees from Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Under the plan, refugee status was evaluated through a screening process. Recognised asylum seekers were given resettlement opportunities, while the remaining refugees were to be repatriated under guarantee of safety.
After talks with the UNHCR and the Thai government, Laos agreed to repatriate the 60,000 Lao refugees living in Thailand, including several thousand Hmong people. Very few of the Lao refugees, however, were willing to return voluntarily. Pressure to resettle the refugees grew as the Thai government worked to close its remaining refugee camps. While some Hmong people returned to Laos voluntarily, with development assistance from UNHCR, allegations of forced repatriation surfaced. Of those Hmong who did return to Laos, some quickly escaped back to Thailand, describing discrimination and brutal treatment at the hands of Lao authorities.
In 1993, Vue Mai, a former Hmong soldier and leader of the largest Hmong refugee camp in Thailand, who had been recruited by the US Embassy in Bangkok to return to Laos as proof of the repatriation programme's success, disappeared in Vientiane. According to the US Committee for Refugees, he was arrested by Lao security forces and was never seen again.
Following the Vue Mai incident, debate over the Hmong's planned repatriation to Laos intensified greatly, especially in the United States, where it drew strong opposition from many American conservatives and some human rights advocates. In a 23 October 1995 "National Review" article, Michael Johns, the former Heritage Foundation foreign policy expert and Republican White House aide, labelled the Hmong's repatriation a Clinton administration "betrayal", describing the Hmong as a people "who have spilled their blood in defense of American geopolitical interests". Debate on the issue escalated quickly. In an effort to halt the planned repatriation, the Republican-led US Senate and House of Representatives both appropriated funds for the remaining Thailand-based Hmong to be immediately resettled in the United States; Clinton, however, responded by promising a veto of the legislation.
In their opposition of the repatriation plans, Democratic and Republican Members of Congress challenged the Clinton administration's position that the government of Laos was not systematically violating Hmong human rights. US Representative Steve Gunderson (R-WI), for instance, told a Hmong gathering: "I do not enjoy standing up and saying to my government that you are not telling the truth, but if that is necessary to defend truth and justice, I will do that." Republicans called several Congressional hearings on alleged persecution of the Hmong in Laos in an apparent attempt to generate further support for their opposition to the Hmong's repatriation to Laos.
Although some accusations of forced repatriation were denied, thousands of Hmong people refused to return to Laos. In 1996 as the deadline for the closure of Thai refugee camps approached, and under mounting political pressure, the United States agreed to resettle Hmong refugees who passed a new screening process. Around 5,000 Hmong people who were not resettled at the time of the camp closures sought asylum at Wat Tham Krabok, a Buddhist monastery in central Thailand where more than 10,000 Hmong refugees had already been living. The Thai government attempted to repatriate these refugees, but the Wat Tham Krabok Hmong refused to leave and the Lao government refused to accept them, claiming they were involved in the illegal drug trade and were of non-Lao origin.
Following threats of forcible removal by the Thai government, the United States, in a significant victory for the Hmong, agreed to accept 15,000 of the refugees in 2003. Several thousand Hmong people, fearing forced repatriation to Laos if they were not accepted for resettlement in the United States, fled the camp to live elsewhere within Thailand where a sizeable Hmong population has been present since the 19th century.
In 2004 and 2005, thousands of Hmong fled from the jungles of Laos to a temporary refugee camp in the Thai province of Phetchabun. These Hmong refugees, many of whom are descendants of the former-CIA Secret Army and their relatives, claim that they have been attacked by both the Lao and Vietnamese military forces operating inside Laos as recently as June 2006. The refugees claim that attacks against them have continued almost unabated since the war officially ended in 1975, and have become more intense in recent years.
Lending further support to earlier claims that the government of Laos was persecuting the Hmong, filmmaker Rebecca Sommer documented first-hand accounts in her documentary, "Hunted Like Animals", and in a comprehensive report that includes summaries of refugee claims and was submitted to the UN in May 2006.
The European Union, UNHCHR, and international groups have since spoken out about the forced repatriation. The Thai foreign ministry has said that it will halt deportation of Hmong refugees held in Detention Centres in Nong Khai, while talks are underway to resettle them in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States.
For the time being, countries willing to resettle the refugees are hindered in their immigration and settlement procedures because the Thai administration does not grant them access to the refugees. Plans to resettle additional Hmong refugees in the United States have been complicated by provisions of President George W. Bush's Patriot Act and Real ID Act, under which Hmong veterans of the Secret War, who fought on the side of the United States, are classified as terrorists because of their historical involvement in armed conflict.
On 27 December 2009, "The New York Times" reported that the Thai military was preparing to forcibly return 4,000 Hmong asylum seekers to Laos by the end of the year. The BBC later reported that repatriations had started. Both United States and United Nations officials have protested this action. Outside government representatives have not been allowed to interview this group over the last three years. Médecins Sans Frontières has refused to assist the Hmong refugees because of what they have called "increasingly restrictive measures" taken by the Thai military. The Thai military jammed all cellular phone reception and disallowed any foreign journalists from the Hmong camps.
Human rights violations remain a significant concern in Laos. Prominent civil society advocates, human rights defenders, political and religious dissidents, and Hmong refugees have disappeared at the hands of Lao military and security forces.
Ostensibly, the Constitution of Laos that was promulgated in 1991, and amended in 2003, contains most key safeguards for human rights. For example, Article 8 makes it clear that Laos is a multinational state and is committed to equality between ethnic groups. The Constitution also contains provisions for gender equality, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of press and assembly. On 25 September 2009, Laos ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, nine years after signing the treaty. The stated policy objectives of both the Lao government and international donors remain focused upon achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction.
However, the government of Laos frequently breaches its own constitution and the rule of law, since the judiciary and judges are appointed by the ruling communist party—an independent judicial branch does not exist. According to independent non-profit/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Civil Rights Defenders, along with the U.S. State Department, serious human rights violations such as arbitrary detentions, disappearances, free speech restrictions, prison abuses and other violations are an ongoing problem.
Amnesty International raised concerns about the ratification record of the Lao government on human rights standards, and its lack of co-operation with the UN human rights mechanisms and legislative measures—both impact negatively upon human rights. The organisation also raised concerns in relation to freedom of expression, poor prison conditions, restrictions on freedom of religions, protection of refugees and asylum-seekers, and the death penalty.
In October 1999, 30 young people were arrested for attempting to display posters calling for peaceful economic, political and social change in Laos. Five of them were arrested and subsequently sentenced to up to 10 years imprisonment on charges of treason. One has since died due to his treatment by prison guards, while one has been released. The surviving three men should have been released by October 2009, but their whereabouts remain unknown. Later reports have contradicted this, claiming they were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In late February 2017, two of those imprisoned were finally released after 17 years.
Laos and Vietnamese (SRV) troops were reported to have raped and killed four Christian Hmong women in Xiangkhouang Province in 2011, according to the US-based non-governmental public policy research organization The Centre for Public Policy Analysis. CPPA also said other Christian and independent Buddhist and animist believers were being persecuted.
The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Lao Veterans of America, Inc. and other non-governmental organisations (NGO)s have reported egregious human rights violations, religious persecution, the arrest and imprisonment of political and religious dissidents as well as extrajudicial killings, in Laos by government military and security forces. Human rights advocates including Vang Pobzeb, Kerry and Kay Danes and others have also raised concerns about human rights violations, torture, the arrest and detention of political prisoners as well as the detention of foreign prisoners in Laos including at the infamous Phonthong Prison in Vientiane. Concerns have been raised about the high-profile abduction of Laotian civic activist and Lao PDR's only living Ramon Magsaysay Award laureate Sombath Somphone by Lao security forces and police on 15 December 2012.
In The Economist's "Democracy Index 2016" Laos was classified as an "authoritarian regime", ranking lowest of the nine ASEAN nations included in the study.
Laos is mainly an origin country for sexually trafficked persons. A number of citizens, primarily women and girls, from all ethnic groups and foreigners have been victims of sex trafficking in Laos.
The foreign relations of Laos after the takeover by the Pathet Lao in December 1975, were characterised by a hostile posture toward the West, with the government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic aligning itself with the Soviet Bloc, maintaining close ties with the Soviet Union and depending heavily on the Soviets for most of its foreign assistance. Laos also maintained a "special relationship" with Vietnam and formalised a 1977 treaty of friendship and cooperation that created tensions with China.
With the fall of the Soviet Union and with Vietnam's decreased ability to provide assistance, Laos has sought to improve relations with its regional neighbours.
Laos's emergence from international isolation has been marked through improved and expanded relations with other nations such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey, Australia, France, Japan, and Sweden. Trade relations with the United States were normalised in November 2004 through Congress approved legislation.
Laos was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July 1997 and acceded to the World Trade Organization in 2016. In 2005 it attended the inaugural East Asia Summit.
The Lao economy depends heavily on investment and trade with its neighbors, Thailand, Vietnam, and, especially in the north, China. Pakxe has also experienced growth based on cross-border trade with Thailand and Vietnam. In 2009, despite the fact that the government is still officially communist, the Obama administration in the US declared Laos was no longer a Marxist–Leninist state and lifted bans on Laotian companies receiving financing from the US Export-Import Bank. In 2011, the Lao Securities Exchange began trading. In 2012, the government initiated the creation of the Laos Trade Portal, a website incorporating all information traders need to import and export goods into the country.
In 2016, China was the biggest foreign investor in Laos's economy, having invested in US$5.395 billion since 1989, according to Laos Ministry of Planning and Investment 1989–2014 report. Thailand (invested US$4.489 billion) and Vietnam (invested US$3.108 billion) are the second and third largest investors respectively.
Subsistence agriculture still accounts for half of the GDP and provides 80 percent of employment. Only 4.01 percent of the country is arable land, and a mere 0.34 percent used as permanent crop land, the lowest percentage in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The irrigated areas under cultivation account for only 28% of the total area under cultivation which, in turn, represents only 12% of all of the agricultural land in 2012. Rice dominates agriculture, with about 80 percent of the arable land area used for growing rice. Approximately 77 percent of Lao farm households are self-sufficient in rice.
Through the development, release and widespread adoption of improved rice varieties, and through economic reforms, production has increased by an annual rate of five percent between 1990 and 2005, and Lao PDR achieved a net balance of rice imports and exports for the first time in 1999.
Lao PDR may have the greatest number of rice varieties in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Since 1995 the Lao government has been working with the International Rice Research Institute of the Philippines to collect seed samples of each of the thousands of rice varieties found in Laos.
The economy receives development aid from the IMF, ADB, and other international sources; and also foreign direct investment for development of the society, industry, hydropower and mining (most notably of copper and gold). Tourism is the fastest-growing industry in the country. Economic development in Laos has been hampered by brain drain, with a skilled emigration rate of 37.4 percent in 2000.
Laos is rich in mineral resources and imports petroleum and gas. Metallurgy is an important industry, and the government hopes to attract foreign investment to develop the substantial deposits of coal, gold, bauxite, tin, copper, and other valuable metals. In addition, the country's plentiful water resources and mountainous terrain enable it to produce and export large quantities of hydroelectric energy. Of the potential capacity of approximately 18,000 megawatts, around 8,000 megawatts have been committed for exporting to Thailand and Vietnam.
The country's most widely recognised product may well be Beerlao, which is exported to many developed countries around the world such as the US, Britain, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and neighbours Cambodia and Vietnam. It is produced by the Lao Brewery Company.
The mining industry of Laos has received prominent attention with foreign direct investments. This sector, since 2003–04, has made significant contributions to the economic condition of Laos. More than 540 mineral deposits of gold, copper, zinc, lead and other minerals have been identified, explored and mined.
In 2018, the country ranked 139th on the Human Development Index (HDI), indicating medium development. According to the Global Hunger Index (2018), Laos ranks as the 36th hungriest nation in the world out of the list of the 52 nations with the worst hunger situation(s).
In 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights conducted an official visit to Laos, and found that the country's top-down approach to economic growth and poverty alleviation "is all too often counterproductive, leading to impoverishment and jeopardizing the rights of the poor and marginalised."
In March 2019 the government of Laos announced an interest in permitting cannabis to be used for medicinal purposes. The Prime Minister's Office issued an announcement entrusting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other sectors to organise a seminar to discuss and study the medical use of cannabis. Outcomes of the seminar discussion will be reported to the government as a reference for a subsequent decision.
The tourism sector has grown rapidly, from 80,000 international visitors in 1990, to 1.876 million in 2010. Tourism is expected to contribute US$679.1 million to the gross national product in 2010, rising to US$1.5857 billion by 2020. In 2010, one in every 10.9 jobs was in the tourism sector. Export earnings from international visitors and tourism goods are expected to generate 15.5 percent of total exports or US$270.3 million in 2010, growing in nominal terms to US$484.2 million (12.5 percent of the total) in 2020.
The official tourism slogan is "Simply Beautiful". The main attractions for tourists include Buddhist culture and colonial architecture in Luang Prabang; gastronomy and ancient temples in the capital of Vientiane; backpacking in Muang Ngoi Neua and Vang Vieng; ancient and modern culture and history in the Plain of Jars region (main article: Phonsavan); Laos Civil War history in Sam Neua; trekking and visiting hill tribes in a number of areas including Phongsaly and Luang Namtha; spotting tigers and other wildlife in Nam Et-Phou Louey; caves and waterfalls near Thakhek; relaxation, the Irrawaddy dolphin and Khone Phapheng Falls at Si Phan Don or, as they are known in English, the Four Thousand Islands; Vat Phou, an ancient Khmer temple complex; and the Bolaven Plateau for waterfalls and coffee. The European Council on Trade and Tourism awarded the country the "World Best Tourist Destination" designation for 2013 for this combination of architecture and history.
Luang Prabang and Vat Phou are both UNESCO World Heritage sites, with the Plain of Jars expected to join them once more work to clear Unexploded ordnance has been completed. Major festivals include Lao New Year celebrated around 13–15 April and involves a water festival similar but more subdued than that of Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.
The Lao National Tourism Administration, related government agencies and the private sector are working together to realise the vision put forth in the country's National Ecotourism Strategy and Action Plan. This includes decreasing the environmental and cultural impact of tourism; increasing awareness in the importance of ethnic groups and biological diversity; providing a source of income to conserve, sustain and manage the Lao protected area network and cultural heritage sites; and emphasizing the need for tourism zoning and management plans for sites that will be developed as ecotourism destinations.
Laos is known for silk and local handicraft products, which are on display in Luang Prabang's night market, among other places. Another specialty is mulberry tea.
The main international airports are Vientiane's Wattay International Airport and Luang Prabang International Airport with Pakse International Airport also having a few international flights. The national carrier is Lao Airlines. Other carriers serving the country include Bangkok Airways, Vietnam Airlines, AirAsia, Thai Airways International, China Eastern Airlines and Silk Air.
Much of Laos lacks adequate infrastructure. Laos has no railways, except a short link to connect Vientiane with Thailand over the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge. A short portage railway, the Don Det–Don Khon narrow gauge railway was built by the French in Don Det and Don Khon in Champasak Province but has been closed since the 1940s. In the late 1920s, work began on the Thakhek–Tan Ap railway that would have run between Thakhek, Khammouane Province and Tân Ấp Railway Station, Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam through the Mụ Giạ Pass. The scheme was aborted in the 1930s. The major roads connecting the major urban centres, in particular Route 13, have been significantly upgraded in recent years, but villages far from major roads can be reached only through unpaved roads that may not be accessible year-round.
There is limited external and internal telecommunication, but mobile phones have become widespread in urban centres. In many rural areas electricity is at least partly available. Songthaews (pick-up trucks with benches) are used in the country for long-distance and local public transport.
Laos has made particularly noteworthy progress increasing access to sanitation and has already met its 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target. Laos's predominantly rural (68 percent, source: Department of Statistics, Ministry of Planning and Investment, 2009) population makes investing in sanitation difficult. In 1990 only eight percent of the rural population had access to improved sanitation. Access rose rapidly from 10 percent in 1995 to 38 percent in 2008. Between 1995 and 2008 approximately 1,232,900 more people had access to improved sanitation in rural areas.
Laos's progress is notable in comparison to similar developing countries. This success is in part due to small-scale independent providers emerging in a spontaneous manner or having been promoted by public authorities. The authorities in Laos have recently developed an innovative regulatory framework for Public–Private partnership contracts signed with small enterprises, in parallel with more conventional regulation of State-owned water enterprises.
According to the World Bank data conducted in 2014, Laos has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets on water and sanitation regarding UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme. However, as of today, there are approximately 1.9 million Lao population could not access to improved water supply and 2.4 million people without access to improved sanitation due to a large inequalities access between areas that are close to good roads and remote inaccessible locations.
The term "Laotian" does not necessarily refer to the Lao language, ethnic Lao people, language or customs. It is a political term that includes the non-ethnic Lao groups within Laos and identifies them as "Laotian" because of their political citizenship. Laos has the youngest population of any country in Asia with a median age of 21.6 years.
Laos's population was estimated at 7.45 million in 2020, dispersed unevenly across the country. Most people live in valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries. Vientiane prefecture, the capital and largest city, had about 683,000 residents in 2020.
The people of Laos are often categorised by their distribution by elevation: (lowlands, midlands and upper high lands) as this somewhat correlates with ethnic groupings.
More than half of the nation's population is ethnic Lao—the principal lowland inhabitants, and the politically and culturally dominant people of Laos. The Lao belong to the Tai linguistic group who began migrating south from China in the first millennium CE. Ten percent belong to other "lowland" groups, which together with the Lao people make up the Lao Loum.
In the central and southern mountains, Mon-Khmer-speaking groups, known as Lao Theung or mid-slope Laotians, predominate. Other terms are Khmu, Khamu (Kammu) or Kha as the Lao Loum refer to them to indicate their Austroasiatic language affiliation. However, the latter is considered pejorative, meaning 'slave'. They were the indigenous inhabitants of northern Laos. Some Vietnamese, Laotian Chinese and Thai minorities remain, particularly in the towns, but many left after independence in the late 1940s, many of whom relocated either to Vietnam, Hong Kong, or to France. Lao Theung constitute about 30 percent of the population.
Hill people and minority cultures of Laos such as the Hmong, Yao (Mien) (Hmong-Mien), Dao, Shan, and several Tibeto-Burman speaking peoples have lived in isolated regions of Laos for many years. Mountain/hill tribes of mixed ethno/cultural-linguistic heritage are found in northern Laos, which include the Lua and Khmu people who are indigenous to Laos. Collectively, they are known as Lao Soung or highland Laotians. Lao Soung account for only about 10 percent of the population.
The official and majority language is Lao, a language of the Tai-Kadai language family. However, only slightly more than half of the population speaks Lao natively. The remainder, particularly in rural areas, speak ethnic minority languages. The Lao alphabet, which evolved sometime between the 13th and 14th centuries, was derived from the ancient Khmer script and is very similar to Thai, and easily understood by readers of Thai script. Languages like Khmu (Austroasiatic) and Hmong (Hmong-Mien) are spoken by minorities, particularly in the midland and highland areas. A number of Laotian sign languages are used in areas with high rates of congenital deafness.
French is still commonly used in government and commerce and over a third of Laos's students are educated through the medium of French with French being compulsory for all other students. Throughout the country signage is bilingual in Lao and French, with French being predominant. English, the language of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has become increasingly studied in recent years. It is also a member of the French organisation La Francophonie.
Sixty-six percent of Laotians were Theravada Buddhist, 1.5 percent Christian, 0.1 percent Muslim, 0.1 percent Jewish, and 32.3 percent were other or traditional (mostly practitioners of Satsana Phi) in 2010. Buddhism has long been one of the most important social forces in Laos. Theravada Buddhism has coexisted peacefully since its introduction to the country with the local polytheism.
Male life expectancy at birth was at 62.6 years and female life expectancy was at 66.7 years in 2017. Healthy life expectancy was 54 years in 2007. In 2008, 43 percent of the population did not have access to sanitary water resources. By 2010 this had been reduced to 33 percent of the population. Government expenditure on health is about four percent of GDP, about US$18 (PPP) in 2006.
The adult literacy rate exceeds two thirds. The male literacy rate exceeds the female literacy rate. The total literacy rate is 73 percent (2010 estimate).
In 2004 the net primary enrollment rate was at 84 percent.
The National University of Laos is the Lao state's public university.
As a low-income country, Laos faces a brain-drain problem as the most educated people migrate to developed countries. It is estimated that about 37% of educated Laotians live outside of Laos.
Theravada Buddhism is a dominant influence in Lao culture. It is reflected throughout the country from language to the temple and in art, literature, performing arts, etc. Many elements of Lao culture predate Buddhism, however. For example, Laotian music is dominated by its national instrument, the khaen, a type of bamboo pipe that has prehistoric origins. The khaen traditionally accompanied the singer in "lam", the dominant style of folk music. Among the "lam" styles, the "lam saravane" is probably the most popular.
Sticky rice is a characteristic staple food and has cultural and religious significance to the Lao people. Sticky rice is generally preferred over jasmine rice, and sticky rice cultivation and production is thought to have originated in Laos. There are many traditions and rituals associated with rice production in different environments and among many ethnic groups. For example, Khammu farmers in Luang Prabang plant the rice variety Khao Kam in small quantities near the hut in memory of dead parents, or at the edge of the rice field to indicate that parents are still alive.
Sinh is a traditional garment worn by Laotian women in daily life. It is a hand-woven silk skirt that can identify the woman who wears it in a variety of ways. In particular, it can indicate which region the wearer is from.
Since the founding of the Lao PDR in 1975 only very few films have been made in Laos. The first feature-length film made after the monarchy was abolished is "Gun Voice from the Plain of Jars", directed by Somchith Pholsena in 1983, although its release was prevented by a censorship board. One of the first commercial feature-length films was "Sabaidee Luang Prabang", made in 2008.
The 2017 documentary feature film Blood Road was predominantly shot and produced in Laos with assistance from the Lao government, it was recognized with a News and Documentary Emmy Award in 2018.
Australian filmmaker Kim Mordount's first feature film was made in Laos and features a Laotian cast speaking their native language. Entitled "The Rocket", the film appeared at the 2013 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) and won three awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. One production company's film that has succeeded to produce Lao feature films and gain international recognition.is Lao New Wave Cinema's "At the Horizon", directed by Anysay Keola, that was screened at the OzAsia Film Festival and Lao Art Media's "Chanthaly" (Lao: ຈັນທະລີ) directed by Mattie Do, which was screened at the 2013 Fantastic Fest.
In September 2017, Laos submitted "Dearest Sister" (Lao: ນ້ອງຮັກ), Mattie Do's second feature film, to the 90th Academy Awards (or the Oscars) for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film, marking the country's first submission for the Oscars.
As of 2018, Laos has only three operating theatres dedicated to showing films.
There are some public holidays, festivities and ceremonies in Laos.
All newspapers are published by the government, including two foreign language papers: the English-language daily "Vientiane Times" and the French-language weekly "Le Rénovateur". Additionally, the Khao San Pathet Lao, the country's official news agency, publishes English and French versions of its eponymous paper. Laos has nine daily newspapers, 90 magazines, 43 radio stations, and 32 TV stations operating throughout the country. , Nhân Dân (The People) and the Xinhua News Agency are the only foreign media organisations permitted to open offices in Laos—both opened bureaus in Vientiane in 2011.
The Lao government controls all media channels to prevent critique of its actions. Lao citizens who have criticised the government have been subjected to enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and torture.
Polygamy is officially a crime in Laos, though the penalty is minor. The constitution and Family Code bar the legal recognition of polygamous marriages, stipulating that monogamy is the principal form of marriage in the country. Polygamy, however, is still customary among some Hmong people.
The martial art of muay Lao, the national sport, is a form of kickboxing similar to Thailand's Muay Thai, Burmese Lethwei and Cambodian Pradal Serey.
Football has become the most popular sport in Laos. The Lao League is now the top professional league for association football clubs in the country. Since the start of the League, Lao Army FC has been the most successful club with 8 titles (following the 2007–2008 season), the highest number of championship wins.
Unlike its neighbours, Laos has no tradition in other team sports. In 2017, the country sent a team for the first time to the team events at the Southeast Asian Games. The national basketball team competed at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games where it beat Myanmar in the eighth place game.
History of Laos
Evidence for modern human presence in the northern and central highlands of Indochina, that constitute the territories of the modern Laotian nation-state dates back to the Lower Paleolithic. These earliest human migrants are Australo-Melanesians — associated with the Hoabinhian culture and have populated the highlands and the interior, less accessible regions of Laos and all of South-east Asia to this day. The subsequent Austroasiatic and Austronesian marine migration waves affected landlocked Laos only marginally and direct Chinese and Indian cultural contact had a greater impact on the country.
The modern nation-state Laos emerged from the French Colonial Empire as an independent country in 1953. Laos exists in truncated form from the thirteenth century Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. Lan Xang existed as a unified kingdom from 1357–1707, divided into the three rival kingdoms of Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and Champasak from 1707–1779, fell to Siamese suzerainty from 1779–1893, and was reunified under the French Protectorate of Laos in 1893. The borders of the modern state of Laos were established by the French colonial government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Archaeological exploration in Laos has been limited due to rugged and remote topography, a history of twentieth century conflicts which have left over two million tons of unexploded ordnance throughout the country, and local sensitivities to history which involve the Communist government of Laos, village authorities and rural poverty. The first archaeological explorations of Laos began with French explorers acting under the auspices of the École française d'Extrême-Orient. However, due to the Lao Civil War it is only since the 1990s that serious archaeological efforts have begun in Laos. Since 2005, one such effort, The Middle Mekong Archaeological Project (MMAP) has excavated and surveyed numerous sites along the Mekong and its tributaries around Luang Prabang in northern Laos, with the goal of investigating early human settlement of the valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries.
Anatomically modern human hunter-gatherer migration into Southeast Asia before 50,000 years ago has been confirmed by the fossil record of the region. These immigrants might have, to a certain extent, merged and reproduced with members of the archaic population of "Homo erectus", as the 2009 fossil discoveries in the Tam Pa Ling Cave suggest. Dated to between 46,000 and 63,000 years old, it is the oldest fossil found in the region that bears modern human morphological features.
Recent research also supports more accurate understanding of migration patterns of early humans, who migrated in successive waves moving west to east following the coastlines, but also used river valleys further inland and further north than previously theorized.
An early tradition is discernible in the Hoabinhian, the name given to an industry and cultural continuity of stone tools and flaked cobble artifacts that appears around 10,000 BP in caves and rock shelters first described in "Hòa Bình", Vietnam and later also in Laos.
The earliest inhabitants of Laos – Australo-Melanesians – were followed by members of the Austro-Asiatic language family. These earliest societies contributed to the ancestral gene pool of the upland Lao ethnicities known collectively as “Lao Theung,” with the largest ethnic groups being the Khamu of northern Laos, and the Brao and Katang in the south.
Subsequent Neolithic immigration waves are considered dynamic, very complex and are intensely debated. Researchers resort to linguistic terms and argumentation for group identification and classification.
Wet-rice and millet farming techniques were introduced from the Yangtze River valley in southern China since around 2,000 years BC. Hunting and gathering remained an important aspect of food provision; particularly in forested and mountainous inland areas. Earliest known copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia has been confirmed at the site of Ban Chiang in modern north-east Thailand and among the Phung Nguyen culture of northern Vietnam since around 2000 BCE.
From the 8th century BCE to as late as the 2nd century CE an inland trading society emerged on the Xieng Khouang Plateau, around the megalithic site called the Plain of Jars. The Plain, nominated to the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 is still being cleared from unexploded ordnance since 1998. The jars are stone sarcophagi, date from the early Iron Age (500 BCE to 800 CE) and contained evidence of human remains, burial goods and ceramics. Some sites contain more than 250 individual jars. The tallest jars are more than in height. Little is known about the culture which produced and used the jars. The jars and the existence of iron ore in the region suggest that the creators of the site engaged in profitable overland trade.
The first indigenous kingdom to emerge in Indochina was referred to in Chinese histories as the Kingdom of Funan and encompassed an area of modern Cambodia, and the coasts of southern Vietnam and southern Thailand since the 1st century CE. Funan was an Indianised kingdom,
that had incorporated central aspects of Indian institutions, religion, statecraft, administration, culture, epigraphy, writing and architecture and engaged in profitable Indian Ocean trade.
By the 2nd century CE, Austronesian settlers had established an Indianised kingdom known as Champa along modern central Vietnam. The Cham people established the first settlements near modern Champasak in Laos. Funan expanded and incorporated the Champasak region by the sixth century CE, when it was replaced by its successor polity Chenla. Chenla occupied large areas of modern-day Laos as it accounts for the earliest kingdom on Laotian soil.
The capital of early Chenla was Shrestapura which was located in the vicinity of Champasak and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Wat Phu. Wat Phu is a vast temple complex in southern Laos which combined natural surroundings with ornate sandstone structures, which were maintained and embellished by the Chenla peoples until 900 CE, and were subsequently rediscovered and embellished by the Khmer in the 10th century.
By the 8th century CE Chenla had divided into “Land Chenla” located in Laos, and “Water Chenla” founded by Mahendravarman near Sambor Prei Kuk in Cambodia. Land Chenla was known to the Chinese as “Po Lou” or “Wen Dan” and dispatched a trade mission to the Tang Dynasty court in 717 CE. Water Chenla, would come under repeated attack from Champa, the Medang sea kingdoms in Indonesia based in Java, and finally pirates. From the instability the Khmer emerged.
Under the king Jayavarman II the Khmer Empire began to take shape in the 9th century CE.
Geography of Laos
Laos is an independent republic, and a landlocked nation in Southeast Asia, northeast of Thailand, west of Vietnam. It covers 236,800 square kilometers in the center of the Southeast Asian peninsula and it is surrounded by Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Vietnam. About seventy percent of its geographic area is made up of mountain ranges, highlands, plateaux, and rivers cut through.
Its location has often made it a buffer state between more powerful neighboring states, as well as a crossroads for trade and communication. Migration and international conflict have contributed to the present ethnic composition of the country and to the geographic distribution of its ethnic groups.
Most of the western border of Laos is demarcated by the Mekong river, which is an important artery for transportation. The Dong Falls at the southern end of the country prevent access to the sea, but cargo boats travel along the entire length of the Mekong in Laos during most of the year. Smaller power boats and pirogues provide an important means of transportation on many of the tributaries of the Mekong.
The Mekong has thus not been an obstacle but a facilitator for communication, and the similarities between Laos and northeast Thai society—same people, almost same language—reflect the close contact that has existed across the river for centuries. Also, many Laotians living in the Mekong Valley have relatives and friends in Thailand.
Prior to the twentieth century, Laotian kingdoms and principalities encompassed areas on both sides of the Mekong, and Thai control in the late nineteenth century extended to the left bank. Although the Mekong was established as a border by French colonial forces, travel from one side to the other has been significantly limited only since the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR, or Laos) in 1975.
The eastern border with Vietnam extends for 2,130 kilometres, mostly along the crest of the Annamite Chain, and serves as a physical barrier between the Chinese-influenced culture of Vietnam and the Indianized states of Laos and Thailand. These mountains are sparsely populated by tribal minorities who traditionally have not acknowledged the border with Vietnam any more than lowland Lao have been constrained by the 1,754-kilometre Mekong River border with Thailand. Thus, ethnic minority populations are found on both the Laotian and Vietnamese sides of the frontier. Because of their relative isolation, contact between these groups and lowland Lao has been mostly confined to trading.
Laos shares its short—only 541 kilometres—southern border with Cambodia, and ancient Khmer ruins at Wat Pho and other southern locations attest to the long history of contact between the Lao and the Khmer. In the north, the country is bounded by a mountainous 423-kilometre border with China and shares the 235-kilometre-long Mekong River border with Myanmar.
The topography of Laos is largely mountainous, with the Annamite Range in the northeast and east and the Luang Prabang Range in the northwest, among other ranges typically characterized by steep terrain. Elevations are typically above 500 metres with narrow river valleys and low agricultural potential. This mountainous landscape extends across most of the north of the country, except for the plain of Vientiane and the Plain of Jars in the Xiangkhoang Plateau.
The southern "panhandle" of the country contains large level areas in Savannakhét and Champasak provinces that are well suited for extensive paddy rice cultivation and livestock raising. Much of Khammouan Province and the eastern part of all the southern provinces are mountainous. Together, the alluvial plains and terraces of the Mekong and its tributaries cover only about 20% of the land area.
Only about 4% of the total land area is classified as arable. The forested land area has declined significantly since the 1970s as a result of commercial logging and expanded swidden, or slash-and-burn, farming.
Laos has a tropical climate, with a pronounced rainy season from May through October, a cool dry season from November through February, and a hot dry season in March and April. Generally, monsoons occur at the same time across the country, although that time may vary significantly from one year to the next.
Rainfall varies regionally, with the highest amounts— annually—recorded on the Bolovens Plateau in Champasak Province. City rainfall stations have recorded that Savannakhét averages of rain annually; Vientiane receives about , and Louangphrabang (Luang Prabang) receives about .
Rainfall is not always adequate for rice cultivation and the relatively high average precipitation conceals years where rainfall may be only half or less of the norm, causing significant declines in rice yields. Such droughts often are regional, leaving production in other parts of the country unaffected.
The average temperatures in January, coolest month, are, Luang Prabang 20.5 °C (minimum 0.8 °C), Vientiane 20.3 °C (minimum 3.9 °C), and Pakse 23.9 °C (minimum 8.2 °C); the average temperatures for April, usually the hottest month, are, Luang Prabang 28.1 °C (maximum 44.8 °C), Vientiane 39.4 °C). Temperature does vary according to the altitude, there is an average drop of 1.7 °C for every 1000 feet (or 300 meters). Temperatures in the upland plateux and in the mountains are considered lower than on the plains around Vientiane.
Laos is highly vulnerable to the effects of global climate change; nearly all provinces in Laos are at high risks from climate change.
Agriculture in Laos is the most important sector of the economy. Five million out of 23,680,000 hectares of Laos's total land area is suitable for cultivation, and seventeen percent of the land area, between 850,000 and 900,000 hectares, is cultivated. Rice is the main crop grown during the rainy season both upland and wet. There is also a significant amount of fishing.
Agricultural cultivation is possible during with varying weather on a small portion of land area apart from the Vientiane plain and the lowlands along the Mekong Valley. These cultivated areas are situated in the valley cuts by the rivers or the plateau regions of Xieng Khouang in the North and in the Bolovens in the south. Typically there are only two ways to cultivate: either the wet-field paddy system practiced among the Lao Loum or lowland in Lao, or the swidden cultivation system practiced in the hills.
Laos has a smaller population than most countries in South East Asia. The first comprehensive national population census of Laos was taken in 1985; it recorded a population of about 3.57 million. In 1987, the population was officially stated as 3,830,000 and the capital city, Vientiane, had a population of 120,000. The annual growth was estimated at between 2.6 and 3.0 percent. The national birth rate is estimated at about forty-five per 1,000, while the death rate estimates at around sixteen per 1,000. The fertility rates are higher between ages twenty and forty which highlights the average woman giving birth to an average of 6.8 children.
The overall population density was only eighteen persons per square kilometer, and in many districts the density was fewer than ten persons per square kilometer. Population density per cultivated hectare was considerably high ranging from 3.3 to 7.8 persons per hectare. The population is ethnically diverse, but a complete classification of all ethnic groups has never been undertaken. Discrepancies in the number of groups resulted from inconsistent definitions of what constitutes an ethnic group as opposed to a subgroup, as well as incomplete knowledge about the groups themselves.
Because of its mountainous topography and lack of development, Laos has few reliable transportation routes. This inaccessibility has historically limited the ability of any government to maintain a presence in areas distant from the national or provincial capitals and has limited interchange and communication among villages and ethnic groups.
The Mekong and Nam Ou are the only natural channels suitable for large-draft boat transportation, and from December through May low water limits the size of the draft that may be used over many routes. Laotians in lowland villages located on the banks of smaller rivers have traditionally traveled in pirogues for fishing, trading, and visiting up and down the river for limited distances.
Otherwise, travel is by ox-cart over level terrain or by foot. The steep mountains and lack of roads have caused upland ethnic groups to rely entirely on pack baskets and horse packing for transportation.
The road system is not extensive. A rudimentary network begun under French colonial rule and continued from the 1950s has provided an important means of increased inter-village communication, movement of market goods, and a focus for new settlements. In mid-1994, travel in most areas was difficult and expensive, and most Laotians traveled only limited distances, if at all. As a result of ongoing improvements in the road system started during the early 1990s, it is expected that in the future villagers will more easily be able to seek medical care, send children to schools at district centers, and work outside the village.
In October 2015 the first highway through the country was completed connecting southern China to Thailand.[1]
Inland waterways, including the Mekong River, is the second most important source of transport network. About 4,600 kilometers of navigable waterways are located within the Mekong, the Ou, and nine other rivers. The Mekong River is only navigable for about seventy percent of its length due to rapids and low water levels in the dry season.
Residents in the lower lands and villages of smaller river banks have traditionally traveled in pirogues for fishing, trading, or visiting up and down the river for limited distances. The public and private trade associations handle river traffic. There are a series of warehouses and ports in Savannakhet, Xeno, and Vientiane. The river transportation has improved since government policy expanded trade with Vietnam and other rural regions.
Expanding commercial exploitation of forests, plans for additional hydroelectric facilities, foreign demands for wild animals and nonwood forest products for food and traditional medicines, and a growing population have brought new and increasing attention to the forests. Traditionally, forests have been important sources of wild foods, herbal medicines, and timber for house construction.
Soils are found commonly throughout the floodplains. Typically, soils are formed from alluvium deposited by the rivers as either sandy clay in light colors or sand clay with gray or yellow colors. Upland soils derive from granitic, schistose, or sandstone parent rocks more acidic and less fertile. Southern Laos has areas of laterite soils, and basaltic soils in the Bolovens Plateau.
Northern Laos has tropical rainforests with broader-leaved evergreens and monsoon forests of mixed evergreen and in the south is filled with deciduous trees. In the monsoon forest, the ground is covered with tall, coarse grass. The trees mostly only reach their secondary growth. Typically, bamboo, scrub, and wild banana are abundant. Laos is also home to hundreds of species of orchids and palms.
Forests and fields serve as support for wildlife. Wildlife in Laos includes nearly 200 species of mammals, about the same number for reptiles and amphibians, and about 700 varieties of birds. Common mammals are gaurs (wild oxen), deer, bears, and monkeys. Endangered animals include elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, several types of wild oxen, monkeys, and gibbons. Snakes, skinks, frogs, and geckoes are abundant. Warblers, babblers, woodpeckers, thrushes, and large raptors inhabit the canopy and floor of the forest. Numerous species of birds live in the lowlands. Lastly, several of Laos's bird species are threatened, including most hornillo, ibises, and storks.
Laos is increasingly suffering from environmental problems, with deforestation a particularly significant issue, as expanding commercial exploitation of the forests, plans for additional hydroelectric facilities, foreign demand for wild animals and nonwood forest products for food and traditional medicines, and a growing population all create increasing pressure.
The United Nations Development Programme warns: "Protecting the environment and sustainable use of natural resources in Lao PDR is vital for poverty reduction and economic growth."
In April 2011, "The Independent" newspaper reported that Laos had started work on the controversial Xayaburi Dam on the Mekong River without getting formal approval. Environmentalists say the dam will adversely affect 60 million people and Cambodia and Vietnam—concerned about the flow of water further downstream—are officially opposed to the project. The Mekong River Commission, a regional intergovernmental body designed to promote the "sustainable management" of the river, famed for its giant catfish, carried out a study that warned if Xayaburi and subsequent schemes went ahead, it would "fundamentally undermine the abundance, productivity and diversity of the Mekong fish resources". Neighbouring Vietnam warned that the dam would harm the Mekong Delta, which is the home to nearly 20 million people and supplies around 50 percent of Vietnam's rice output and over 70 percent of both its seafood and fruit output. By building dams Laos is willing to become the battery of Asia by selling electricity to its neighboring countries.
Milton Osborne, Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy who has written widely on the Mekong, warns: "The future scenario is of the Mekong ceasing to be a bounteous source of fish and guarantor of agricultural richness, with the great river below China becoming little more than a series of unproductive lakes."
Illegal logging is also a major problem. Environmental groups estimate that of logs are being cut by Vietnam People's Army (VPA) forces, and companies it owns, in co-operation with the Lao People's Army and then transported from Laos to Vietnam every year, with most of the furniture eventually exported to western countries by the VPA military-owned companies.
A 1992 government survey indicated that forests occupied about 48 percent of Laos's land area. Forest coverage decreased to 41 percent in a 2002 survey. Lao authorities have said that, in reality, forest coverage might be no more than 35 percent because of development projects such as dams, on top of the losses to illegal logging.
Most of the deforestation during the 1980s stemmed from the northern region in which the poor destroyed about 300,000 hectares annually. A study conducted in Savannakhet Province revealed a pattern in which the households extracting resources from the forest tended to be the rural poor. It cross referenced the data collected from two groups, the poor and the wealthy to identify possible correlations between welfare and the dependency on the extraction of natural resources to support one's livelihood. Compared to the wealthy group, the poor had higher levels of exposure to environmental, health, and economic shocks in addition to having little capital such as education and financial assets. While the poor depended more on nonwood commodities from the forest to increase food security, the wealthier group would harvest timber and wood for environmental income. A study found a correlation between the loss of forest coverage with socio-economic development and physical factors, such as the elevation and slope of the land or its distance to main roads. The closer a forest was situated to a main road, the increased chances of deforestation; the same applied to the proximity of villages to nearby forests. Furthermore, high elevation areas in the mountains tended to faced higher deforestation rates compared to the flat lands or lower areas. While there is a higher amount of settlements and villages in the lower flat lands, most of the human activities is concentrated in the higher areas thus explaining the different rates. A plethora of environmental issues contributing to the deforestation include problems with the urban environment, mismanaged mineral exploitation, and careless development planning for industrial and transportation sectors.
Among the many ongoing issues threatening Lao's ecosystem with deforestation, there is a growing concern about Invasive Alien Species (IAS) contributing to the environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity. Bringing in alien species to promote economic development has brought notable success such as coffee, which is now one of Lao's main exports. However, as non native plants or species proliferate, new diseases and pests also become an issue which upsets the natural balance of the ecosystem. This prompts farmers to use extensive commercial herbicides to protect their crops from species such as the Mimosa Invisa and Mimosa Pigra weeds, further damaging the land in the long run. Ever since the Golden Apple Snail (GAS) was introduced to Laos from Vietnam in 1994 as a new source of food, it has spread through waterways and human transport to 10 of Lao's 17 provinces causing many fields to become infested with snails. One of the unintended consequences of this alien species being brought to Laos was the unforeseeable damage to rice paddies, prompting farmers to forgo hand-picking and instead use pesticides for the heavily infested fields leading to chemical runoff. In addition to the chemical pollution in the water threatening the health of aquatic animals and people working in the paddies, many farmers also experienced severe injuries in the field from stepping on the snail shells.
Government intervention policies have been implemented to address concerns such as unsustainable timber harvesting, slash-and-burn cultivation, and the allocation of forestland to other purposes such as agriculture, industry, and infrastructure development. The major causes of continued forest degradation from that point onward was not due to policy failure, but rather a lack of multiple factors which include: funding, law enforcement, experienced workers, and organization in the economic sector. Despite all this, there have been other policy attempts and interventions that have been successful in aiding the problem. Reducing the rural population, allowing for tree plantation development, and transitioning from upland rice cultivation to commercial market oriented agricultural practices, contributed to the efforts increasing the amount of forest coverage in Laos. Of the commercial market oriented agricultural practices, the one that saw great success in forest coverage increase is linked to the Southern region's rubber plantations, which has been increasing in number due to rubber being a valuable commodity giving farmers incentive to plant more trees. While it did increase forest coverage, native forests and shifting cultivation lands were subject to change and decline as they transformed into rubber plantations especially during the boom periods of rubber prices, altering the overall biodiversity in the ecosystem.
As a means of regulating the country's environmental degradation, the Laos government implemented a new article to the Environmental Protection Law in 2013 that requires the natural resources and environment sector to develop a report every three years to assess the current state of the environment. Amidst the implementation of new laws, however, to regulate the logging industry, there has not been much transparency regarding the provincial government's involvement with the smuggling and foreign investors. Despite implementing the national export ban on timber in 2016, logs are still being smuggled on a regular basis to Lao's neighboring countries, particularly China and Vietnam to be used as materials for luxury furniture. An anonymous witness account revealed that particular provincial governors are safeguarding the hidden illegal lumber, manipulating the reports, and hiding the total number of seized logs to protect the interests of their foreign investors. As such there seems to be a lack of oversight in the ongoing matter.
USAID also implemented a program called Lowering Emissions in Asia's Forests (LEAF) from 2011 to 2016 to reduce greenhouse gases and minimize the consequences of deforestation. While USAID LEAF was overseeing one of the National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) in Nam Xam, Laos, Climate Protection Through Avoided Deforestation (CliPAD) also simultaneously initiated their project in the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area (NPA) which provided a complementary foundation for USAID LEAF to work upon. USAID LEAF worked in conjunction with the CliPAD project to provide participatory land use planning as well as animal husbandry to prepare the communities for future provincial REDD+ strategies. In introducing participatory land use planning into the provinces, districts developed management plans to allocate natural resources or approved land in a substantially more eco-friendly manner by allowing for better community security and conditions over forest resources. They also were involved in monitoring livestock management for quality over quantity, and in doing so decreased the concerns of excessive forest grazing while collectively increasing community income. They also were involved in monitoring livestock management for quality over quantity, and in doing so decreased the concerns of excessive forest grazing while collectively increasing community income. However, due to a lack of strong political leadership, the collaborative efforts between LEAF and CliPAD were impeded, resulting in LEAF downsizing the scope of the programs and processes. Furthermore, constant regulatory and legislative changes continued to occur in the national and provincial levels, which discouraged the plans of LEAF, but ultimately shifted the focus more on the local level leading to successful outcomes with local stakeholders.
Funded by the German government through the KfW development bank, the GIZ CliPAD project oversaw the creation of a national and provincial REDD+ framework through local-level mitigation measures and sustainable financing models. Similarly to the USAID LEAF project, it provided support through capacity building measures such as conducting participatory land use planning in 87 villages. In addition, it arranged law enforcement training for 162 officers from the Provincial Office of Forest Inspection as a means to effectively deal with poachers and illegal logging. Local communities were prompted to apply the learned sustainable practices regarding natural resource management and explore alternative means of income, to reduce the dependency on the environment's natural resources. In addition to the capacity building measures, CliPAD also provided support for establishing the necessary legal framework to launch REDD+ by aiding in the forest law revision process.
Area:
"total:" 236,800 km²
"land:" 230,800 km²
"water:" 6,000 km²
Area - comparative: slightly larger than the US state of Minnesota slightly smaller than half of the Canadian territory of the Yukon slightly smaller than the United Kingdom
Land boundaries:
"total:" 5,083 km
"border countries:" Myanmar 235 km, Cambodia 541 km, the People's Republic of China 423 km, Thailand 1,754 km, Vietnam 2,130 km
Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)
Elevation extremes:
"lowest point:" Mekong River 70 m
"highest point:" Phou Bia 2,817 m
"Laos". "Encyclopædia Britannica Online". Encyclopædia Britannica, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2016.
Kittikhoun, Anoulak. "Small State, Big Revolution: Geography and the Revolution in Laos". "Theory & Society" 38.1 (2009): 25-55. Print.
Savada, Andrea Matles, et al. "Laos : A Country Study". 3rd ed. ed. Washington, DC: Washington, DC : Federal Research Division, Library of Congress : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O, 1995. Print.
Demographics of Laos
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Laos, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Laos' population was estimated at about /1e6 round 2 million in , dispersed unevenly across the country. Most people live in valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries. Vientiane Prefecture, which includes Vientiane, the capital and largest city of the country, had about 569,000 residents in 1999. The country's population density is 23.4/km2.
In March 2005, the total population was 5.62 million (2.82 million females, 2.80 million males) in the 2005 census, an increase of 1.047 million since the previous 1995 census.
The demographic makeup of the population is uncertain as the government divides the people into three groups according to the altitude at which they live, rather than according to ethnic origin. The lowland Lao (Lao Loum) account for 68%, upland Lao (Lao Theung) for 22%, and the highland Lao (Lao Soung, including the Hmong and the Yao) for 9%.
Ethnic Lao, the principal lowland inhabitants and politically and culturally dominant group, make up the bulk of the Lao Loum and around 60% of the total population. The Lao are a branch of the Tai people who began migrating southward from China in the first millennium A.D. In the north, there are mountain tribes of Miao–Yao, Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman Hmong, Yao, Akha, and Lahu who migrated into the region in the 19th century. Collectively, they are known as Lao Sung or highland Lao.
In the central and southern mountains, Mon–Khmer tribes known as Lao Theung or upland Lao, predominate. Some Chinese minorities remain, particularly in the towns, but many Laotian Chinese were forced to leave during 1975-80 when Laos followed the anti-Chinese policy of Vietnam.
The predominant religion is Theravada Buddhism. Animism is common among the mountain tribes. Buddhism and spirit worship coexist easily. There is a small number of Christians and Muslims.
The official and dominant language is Lao, a tonal language of the Tai linguistic group. Midslope and highland Lao speak tribal languages. French, once common in government and commerce, has declined in use, while knowledge of English — the language of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — has increased in recent years.
With a median age of 19.3, Laos has the youngest population of Asia.
According to , the population of Laos increased from 1.7 million in 1950 to /1e6 round 1 million in . Until the year 2000 the proportion of children 0–14 years of age was over 40% of the total population. Due to decreasing fertility rates this proportion decreased to 34.5% in 2010. The proportion of elderly people is still very low (3.9%), although the proportion doubled between 1950 and 2010.
Structure of the population (March 2005; census):
Structure of the population (01.03.2015) (Census) :
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
Total fertility rate and other related statistics by province, as of 2011-2012:
Source: "UN World Population Prospects"
Specialists are largely in agreement as to the ethnolinguistic classification of the ethnic groups of Laos. For the purposes of the 1995 census, the government of Laos recognized 149 ethnic groups within 47 main ethnicities. whereas the Lao Front for National Construction (LFNC) recently revised the list to include 49 ethnicities consisting of over 160 ethnic groups.
The term "ethnic minorities" is used by some to classify the non-Lao ethnic groups, while the term "indigenous peoples" is not used by the Lao PDR. These 160 ethnic groups speak a total of 82 distinct living languages.
Lao 53.2%, Khmu 11%, Hmong 9.2%, and other (over 100 minor ethnic groups) 26.6% (2015 census).
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Sex ratio:
"at birth:" 1.1 male(s)/female
"under 15 years:" 1.01 male(s)/female
"15-64 years:" 0.98 male(s)/female
"65 years and over:" 0.76 male(s)/female
"total population:" 0.98 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
"total population:" 62.39 years (2011 est.)
"male:" 60.50 years (2011 est.)
"female:" 64.36 years (2011 est.)
Nationality:
"noun:" Lao(s) or Laotian(s)
"adjective:" Lao or Laotian
Religions:
Buddhist 67%, Christian 1.5%, other and unspecified 31.5% (see Religion in Laos)
Languages:
Lao (official), French, English, Vietnamese, and various ethnic languages
Literacy:
"definition:" age 15 and over can read and write
"total population:" 73%
"male:" 83%
"female:" 63% (2005 est.)
Politics of Laos
The politics of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (commonly known as Laos) takes place in the framework of a one-party socialist republic. The only legal political party is the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). The "de jure" head of state is President Bounnhang Vorachith, who also is LPRP general secretary making him the "de facto" leader of Laos.
The head of government is Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith. Government policies are determined by the party through the all-powerful nine-member Politburo and the 49-member Central Committee. Important government decisions are vetted by the Council of Ministers.
The FY 2000 central government budget plan called for revenue of $180 million and expenditures of $289 million, including capital expenditures of $202 million.
Laos' first, French-written and monarchical constitution was promulgated on May 11, 1947 and declared it to be an independent state within the French Union. The revised constitution of May 11, 1957, omitted reference to the French Union, though close educational, health and technical ties with the former colonial power persisted. The 1957 document was abrogated on December 3, 1975, when a communist state was proclaimed.
A new constitution was adopted in 1991 and enshrined a "leading role" for the LPRP. The following year, elections were held for a new 85-seat National Assembly with members elected by secret ballot to five-year terms. This National Assembly, which essentially acts as a rubber stamp for the LPRP, approves all new laws, although the executive branch retains authority to issue binding decrees.
The most recent election took place in March 2016.
In the early 2000s, bomb attacks against the government occurred, coupled with small exchanges of fire, across Laos. A variety of different groups have claimed responsibility including the Committee for Independence and Democracy in Laos and Lao Citizens Movement for Democracy.
The president is elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term. The prime minister and the Council of Ministers are appointed by the president with the approval of the National Assembly for a five-year term.
There are also four deputy prime ministers. As of a cabinet reshuffle on June 8, 2006, they are Maj. Gen. Douangchay Phichit (also defense minister), Thongloun Sisoulith (also foreign minister), Somsavat Lengsavad and Maj. Gen. Asang Laoly.
The 28-member cabinet also includes Onechanh Thammavong as labour minister, Chaleuan Yapaoher as justice minister, Nam Vignaket as industry and commerce minister, Sitaheng Latsaphone as agriculture minister and Sommath Pholsena as transport minister.
The National Assembly ("Sapha Heng Xat") has 149 members (144 are LPRP, 5 independents), elected for a five-year term.
The President of the People's Supreme Court is elected by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the National Assembly Standing Committee. The Vice President of the People's Supreme Court and the judges are appointed by the National Assembly Standing Committee.
As for the legal profession, there are 188 lawyers in Laos who are members of the Laos Bar Association according to a 2016 article. However, most of the attorneys have entered the government sector and do not practice law—seldom giving thought to practicing in the private sector. While there is evidence of female lawyers in Laos, there is no indication as to how women have fared in the legal field.
Somphao Phaysith, Governor of Lao PDR Central Bank
Politburo of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party:
Secretariat of the Party Central Committee:
Inspection Committee of the Party Central Committee
Party Central Committee Advisor: Khamtai Siphandon
Laos is divided into 17 provinces ("khoueng", singular and plural), 1 municipality* (" nakhon luang vientiane", singular and plural):
Attapu, Bokeo, Borikhamxay, Champassack, Houaphan, Khammouane, Louang Namtha, Luangphabang, Oudomxay, Phongsaly, Saravane, Savannakhet, Saysomboune, Sekong, Vientiane*, Vientiane, Sayaboury, Xieng Khouang.
Economy of Laos
The economy of Laos is a rapidly growing lower-middle income developing economy. Being one of five remaining socialist states, the Lao economic model resembles the Chinese socialist market and/or Vietnamese socialist-oriented market economies by combining high degrees of state ownership with an openness to foreign direct investment and private ownership in a predominantely market-based framework.
Following independence, Laos established a Soviet-type planned economy. As part of economic restructuring that aimed to integrate Laos into the globalized world market, Laos underwent reforms called the "New Economic Mechanism" in 1986 that decentralized government control and encouraged private enterprise alongside state-owned enterprises. Currently, Laos ranks amongst the fastest growing economies in the world, averaging 8% a year in GDP growth. It is also forecasted that Laos will sustain at least 7% growth through 2019 as well.
Key goals for the government includes pursuing poverty reduction and education for all children, also with its initiative to become a "land-linked" country. This is showcased through the ongoing construction of the nearly $6 billion high-speed rail from Kunming, China to Vientiane, Laos. The country opened a stock exchange, the Lao Securities Exchange in 2011, and has become a rising regional player in its role as a hydroelectric power supplier to neighbors such as China, Vietnam and Thailand. In the current period, the economy of Laos relies largely on foreign direct investment to attract the capital from overseas to support its continual economic rigorousness. The long-term goal of the Lao economy as enshrined in the constitution is economic development in the direction of socialism by creating the material conditions to move towards socialism.
Despite rapid growth, Laos remains one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. A landlocked country, it has inadequate infrastructure and a largely unskilled work force. Nonetheless, Laos continues to attract foreign investment as it integrates with the larger ASEAN Economic Community, its plentiful, young workforce, and favorable tax treatment.
With the overthrow of the Laotian monarchy in 1975, the Pathet Lao's communist government instituted a planned economy of the Soviet-style command economy system, replacing the private sector with state enterprises and cooperatives; centralizing investment, production, trade, and pricing; and creating barriers to internal and foreign trade.
Seizure of power by the Communists also resulted in a withdrawal of mainly American external investment, on which the country had become greatly dependent as a result of the destruction of domestic capital during the Indochina Wars.
Within a few years, the PDR Lao government realized these types of economic policies were preventing, rather than stimulating, growth and development. No substantive reform was introduced, however, until 1986 when the government announced its "new economic mechanism" (NEM). Initially timid, the NEM was expanded to include a range of reforms designed to create conditions conducive to private sector activity.
Prices set by market forces replaced government-determined prices. Farmers were permitted to own land and sell crops on the open market. State firms were granted increased decision-making authority and lost most of their subsidies and pricing advantages. The government set the exchange rate close to real market levels, lifted trade barriers, replaced import barriers with tariffs, and gave private sector firms direct access to imports and credit.
With the growing unrest in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, in 1989, the PDR Lao government reached agreement with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on additional reforms. The government agreed to introduce fiscal and monetary reform, promote private enterprise and foreign investment, privatize or close state firms, and strengthen banking. It also agreed to maintain a market exchange rate, reduce tariffs, and eliminate unneeded trade regulations. A liberal foreign investment code was enacted and appears to be slowly making a positive impact in the market. Enforcement of intellectual property rights is governed by two Prime Minister's Decrees dating from 1995 and 2002.
In an attempt to stimulate further international commerce, the PDR Lao government accepted Australian aid to build a bridge across the Mekong River to Thailand. The "Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge", between Vientiane Prefecture and Nong Khai Province, Thailand, was inaugurated in April 1994. Although the bridge has created additional commerce, the Lao government does not yet permit a completely free flow of traffic across the span.
These reforms led to economic growth and an increased availability of goods. However, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, coupled with the Lao government's own mismanagement of the economy, resulted in spiraling inflation and a steep depreciation of the kip, which lost 87% of its value from June 1997 to June 1999. Tighter monetary policies brought about greater macroeconomic stability in FY 2000, and monthly inflation, which had averaged about 10% during the first half of FY 1999, dropped to an average 1% over the same period in FY 2000.
In FY 1999, foreign grants and loans accounted for more than 20% of GDP and more than 75% of public investment.
The economy continues to be dominated by an unproductive agricultural sector operating largely outside the money economy and in which the public sector continues to play a dominant role. Still, a number of private enterprises have been founded and some are quite successful in industries such as handicrafts, beer, coffee and tourism. With United Nations, Japanese, and German support, a formerly state-controlled chamber of commerce aims to promote private business: the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and its provincial subdivisions.
The latest round of state-owned enterprise reform in 2019 aims to establish SOEs as profitable ventures that can become efficient and sustainable sources of income for the national treasury. These measures include closing unproductive enterprises, ensure businesses in which the state has investments are reformed into profitable ventures, and reduce corruption. As of 2019, the State-Owned Enterprise Development and Insurance Department of the Lao government has 183 enterprises under its supervision.
Agriculture, mostly subsistence rice farming, dominates the economy, employing an estimated 85% of the population and producing 51% of GDP. Domestic savings are low, forcing Laos to rely heavily on foreign assistance and concessional loans as investment sources for economic development.
Agricultural products include sweet potatoes, vegetables, corn, coffee, sugarcane, tobacco, cotton, tea, peanuts, rice; water buffalo, pigs, cattle, poultry.
In mid-2012, the Laos government issued a four-year moratorium for new mining projects. The reasons cited were environmental and social concerns relating to the use of agricultural land.
Tourism is the fastest growing industry in the economy and plays a vital role in the Lao economy. The government opened Laos to the world in the 1990s, and continues to be a popular destination amongst tourists.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $14.2 billion (2009 est.)
Exchange rate - kips (LAK) per US dollar - 8,556.56 (2009), 8,760.69 (2008), 9,658 (2007), 10,235 (2006), 10,820 (2005)
Of the total foreign investment in Laos in 2012, the mining industry got 27% followed by electricity generation which has 25% share.
Mass media in Laos
Mass media in Laos are based on a network of telephone lines and radiotelephone communications in remote areas, as well as mobile phone infrastructure. The system is not well-developed.
In 1997 there were 25,000 telephone lines in use, and in 2007 there were 850,000 mobile cellular subscribers. Laos is served by a Russian Intersputnik satellite that covers the Indian Ocean region.
In 1998 there were 12 AM stations and one FM station. In 1997 there were an estimated 730,000 radios in the country. In 2011 Laos had three television channels. In 2000 there was one Internet service provider, by 2002 serving about 10,000 users. The top-level domain for Laos is .la.
Transport in Laos
This article concerns the systems of transportation in Laos. Laos is a country in Asia, which possesses a number of modern transportation systems, including several highways and a number of airports. As a landlocked country, Laos possesses no ports or harbours on the sea, and the difficulty of navigation on the Mekong means that this is also not a significant transport route.
Because of its mountainous topography and lack of development, Laos has few reliable transportation routes. This inaccessibility has historically limited the ability of any government to maintain a presence in areas distant from the national or provincial capitals and has limited interchange and communication among villages and ethnic groups.
The Mekong and Nam Ou are the only natural channels suitable for large-draft boat transportation, and from December through May low water limits the size of the draft that may be used over many routes. Laotians in lowland villages located on the banks of smaller rivers have traditionally traveled in pirogues for fishing, trading, and visiting up and down the river for limited distances.
Otherwise, travel is by ox-cart over level terrain or by foot. The steep mountains and lack of roads have caused upland ethnic groups to rely entirely on pack baskets and horse packing for transportation.
The road system is not extensive. A rudimentary network begun under French colonial rule and continued from the 1950s has provided an important means of increased intervillage communication, movement of market goods, and a focus for new settlements. As of mid-1994, travel in most areas was difficult and expensive, and most Laotians traveled only limited distances, if at all. As a result of ongoing improvements in the road system started during the early 1990s, it is expected that in the future villagers will more easily be able to seek medical care, send children to schools at district centers, and work outside the village.
Rail transport does not play a significant part in Laos's transport sector, since the country largely lacks the required infrastructure. A short portage railway, the Don Det – Don Khon narrow gauge railway, was built by the French while Laos was a part of French Indochina. The railway crossed over the islands of Don Det and Don Khon, enabling vessels, freight and passengers to travel along the Mekong River. The railway was abandoned and fell into disrepair, although some of the infrastructure is still in place.
In the late 1920s, work began on the Thakhek–Tan Ap railway, that would have run between Thakhek, Khammouane Province and Tân Ấp Railway Station, Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam through the Mụ Giạ Pass. However, the scheme was eventually aborted in the 1930s.
In January 2007 work began on a extension of the metre-gauge State Railway of Thailand network across the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge to Thanaleng Railway Station, a new passenger and freight terminal in Dongphosy village, east of Vientiane. Test trains began running on July 4, 2008, and Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand formally inaugurated the line on March 5, 2009. As of November 2010, Lao officials plan to convert the station into a rail cargo terminal for freight trains, allowing cargo to be transported from Bangkok into Laos at a lower cost than would be possible with road transport.
In 2007, the Laotian Ministry of Transportation entered into discussion with Vietnam to discuss the possibility of opening a new railway line from Thakhek in Laos through the Mụ Giạ Pass to Tân Ấp Railway Station in Vietnam's Quảng Bình Province, on the North–South Railway. The proposed line would continue to the coast at Vung Ang, a port in Hà Tĩnh Province, which would provide landlocked Laos with access to the South China Sea. According to plans established by ASEAN, the line may also be extended via Thakhek all the way to the Laotian capital Vientiane. Both Laos and Thailand have expressed interest in the project as a shorter export gateway to the Pacific Ocean.
By 2012, the Thakhek project was not in the news anymore; but a project for another, somewhat more southern, line to Vietnam, now from Savannakhet, was announced instead. An agreement for the construction of this , $5 billion line, was signed on Nov 5, 2012 with a Malaysian company called Giant Consolidated Limited. The work is supposed to begin in 2013 and be completed in 4 years. On the 11th April 2016, the Laotian Ministry of Public Works and Transport approved a new rail corridor after it was reported that the previous route would have unacceptable social and environmental impacts. Installation of corridor posts along the proposed railway right-of-way was completed in December 2016, with major construction to commence immediately after final approval from the Lao government.
Laos has a long history of negotiating with China regarding the possibility of a joint railway project.
In October 2010, plans were announced for a standard gauge railway linking Vientiane to Xishuangbanna, in Yunnan province in China. Construction was expected to begin in 2011, for completion in 2014. There were plans to extend this railway south from Vientiane to Bangkok. However, in April 2011 it was reported that construction of the railway has been postponed indefinitely, while the Chinese Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun has been arrested on corruption charges.
In October 2012, it was announced again that an agreement with China about the construction of a railway from Vientiane to the Chinese border is to be signed "within days". The project cost is quoted at $7 billion, and the construction will be done by Chinese companies. The ground-breaking ceremony was planned for November 2012, and the completion of the project was expected by 2017. In November 2012, the Laotian press was reporting that the money for the construction of the railway would be borrowed from the EXEM Bank of China; the construction would be started in 2013, and complete in 2018.. As of March 2020 construction is well advanced, with completion scheduled for December 2021.
The rail link will go through Yunnan province, linking together Kunming, China with Vientiane via Bangkok, Thailand to Dawei, Myanmar. On February 23, 2013, part of the new railway line started operations. It spans from Yuxi, south of Kunming, capital of China's Yunnan province, to Mengzi on the route to the Vietnamese border, and is mainly intended for freight transport with a maximum speed of . The new line replaces the 100-year-old, Kunming-Haiphone line, which had a speed of just .
On 2 December 2015, Laos with China officially began about the construction of a railway from Vientiane to the Chinese border. The railway will stretch , from the Laos-China borderline in Phongsaly Province to Vientiane. The rail will be connected with the new railway bridge spanning the Mekong between Vientiane and Thailand's Nongkhai Province. The total project cost is estimated at 38.7 billion yuan (over US$6 billion), which is about 90.6 million yuan (approx. US$14 million) per kilometre. China will be responsible for 70 per cent of the total investment, while Laos will bear the remainder.
In Laos, there are of roadway, of which are paved, leaving unpaved. Right-hand traffic (RHT) is observed in Laos.
Laos constructed a new highway in 2007 connecting Savannakhet to the Vietnamese border at Lao Bao, with funding from the Japanese government. This has greatly improved transport across Laos. This highway can be traversed in a few hours, while in 2002 the trip took over nine hours.
Laos is connected across the Mekong River to Thailand by First and Second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridges. Vientiane is linked to Nong Khai by the First Friendship Bridge. The Third Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge began construction in March 2009 linking Nakhon Phanom Province in northeastern Thailand and Khammouane Province in Laos. It was completed on 11 November 2011.
Laos opened a highway connection to Kunming in April 2008. The Fourth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge opened to the public on 11 December 2013 linking Kunming to Bokeo, Laos and Chiang Rai. It reduces travel time to five hours.
, the Vientiane–Vang Vieng Expressway, the first expressway in Laos, is 70 percent complete. Authorities expect to open the road to traffic before Lao National Day on 2 December 2020. Construction began at the end of 2018 and was initially scheduled to finish in 2021, but will be completed early. The road, which includes twin tunnels almost 900 metres long through Phoupha Mountain, will shorten the route by 43 km as compared with the existing Route No 13. The expressway toll will be 550 kip per kilometre, or about 62,000 kip for a one-way trip between Vientiane and Vang Vieng. The Vientiane-Vang Vieng expressway is the first section of a planned expressway from Vientiane through the northern provinces to Boten in Luang Namtha Province, which borders China.
About of navigable water routes exist in Laos, primarily the Mekong and its tributaries. There are an additional of water routes, which is sectionally navigable by craft drawing less than .
Laos has an ocean-going merchant marine consisting of one cargo ship of .
Laos has of pipelines for the transport of petroleum products.
Laos possesses 52 airports, of which nine have paved runways. Of the airports with paved runways, Wattay International Airport in Vientiane has a runway length of . Of the remainder, four have runways to length, and a further four have lengths between and .
Of the airports without paved runways, one has a runway length of more than . Seventeen have runway lengths between and , leaving 25 with a lengths below .
Lao People's Armed Forces
The Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF) is the name of the armed forces of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the institution of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, who are charged with protecting the country.
The army of 29,100 is equipped with 30 main battle tanks. The army marine section, equipped with 16 patrol craft, has 600 personnel. The air force, with 3,500 personnel, is equipped with anti-aircraft missiles and 24 combat aircraft (no longer in service).
Militia self-defence forces number approximately 100,000 organised for local defence. The small arms utilised mostly by the Laotian Army are the Soviet AKM assault rifle, PKM machine gun, Makarov PM pistol, and the RPD light machine gun.
Until 1975, the Royal Lao Army were the armed forces of the Kingdom of Laos.
Serving one of the world's least developed communist countries, the Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF) is small, poorly funded, and ineffectively resourced. Its mission focus is border and internal security, primarily in internal suppression of Laotian dissident and opposition groups.
This includes the brutal crushing of the peaceful 1999 Lao Students Movement of Democracy demonstrations in Vientiane, and in countering ethnic Hmong insurgent groups and other groups of Laotian and Hmong people opposing the one-party Marxist Pathet Lao government and the support it receives from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Together with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the government, the Lao People's Army (LPA) is the third pillar of state machinery, and as such is expected to suppress political and civil unrest and similar national emergencies faced by the authoritarian, communist government in Vientiane. The LPA also has reportedly upgraded skills to respond to avian influenza outbreaks. At present, there is no major perceived external threat to the state and the LPA maintains very strong ties with the neighbouring Vietnamese military (2008).
According to numerous independent journalists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, Lao Human Rights Council, United League for Democracy in Laos and humanitarian and human rights organisations, the Lao People's Army has repeatedly engaged in egregious human rights violations and the practice of corruption in Laos.
Human rights violations committed by the Lao military include kidnapping, rape, torture, extrajudicial killing, military attacks against civilians, mass starvation against the ethnic minority, Hmong people, illegal logging in co-operation with the Vietnam People's Army-owned front companies and other violations of international law, the Geneva conventions, and acceptable norms of behaviour. According to a report by Amnesty International in 2007: "Thousands of ethnic Hmong women, men and children live in scattered groups in the Lao jungles, hiding from the authorities, particularly the military. Amnesty International is calling for an immediate end to armed attacks on these people."
In 2013, attacks by the Lao People's Army against the Hmong people and others intensified, with soldiers killing four unarmed Hmong school teachers in addition to engaging in other human rights abuses according to the Lao Human Rights Council, the Centre for Public Policy Analysis and others. The LPAF and its military intelligence play a major role in the arrest, imprisonment and torture of foreign prisoners in Vientiane's notorious Phonthong Prison and the communist Lao gulag system where Australians Kerry and Kay Danes were imprisoned and where civic activist Sombath Somphone may be imprisoned following his arrest in December 2012.
Laotian and Hmong veterans who fought against North Vietnam, Vietnam People's Army (VPA), communist Pathet Lao forces, and LPAF to defend the Kingdom of Laos and US, Laos and the Kingdom of Thailand's national security interests during the Vietnam war and its aftermath, including the Lao Veterans of America, established the Laos Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in 1997.
The United League for Democracy in Laos, Amnesty International, the Centre for Public Policy Analysis, the Lao Veterans of America and other NGOs continue to raise concerns about the LPAF's serious human rights violations, internal suppression of the population, systemic corruption, brutal attacks against unarmed Laotian and Hmong political and religious dissident and opposition groups, one-party authoritarian rule in Laos as well as the LPAF's very close relationship with the VPA and VPA military-owned companies engaged in illegal logging in Laos.
Foreign relations of Laos
The foreign relations of Laos, internationally designated by its official name as the Lao People's Democratic Republic, after the takeover by the Pathet Lao in December 1975, were characterized by a hostile posture toward the West, with the government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic aligning itself with the Soviet bloc, maintaining close ties with the Soviet Union and depending heavily on the Soviets for most of its foreign assistance. Laos also maintained a "special relationship" with Vietnam and formalized a 1977 treaty of friendship and cooperation that created tensions with China.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and with Vietnam's decreased ability to provide assistance, Laos has sought to improve relations with its regional neighbors and has emerged from international isolation through improved and expanded relations with other nations such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey, Australia, France, Japan, and Sweden. Trade relations with the United States were normalized in 2004. Laos was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July 1997 and applied to join the World Trade Organization in 1998. In 2005 it attended the inaugural East Asia Summit.
Laos is a member of the following international organizations: Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT), ASEAN, ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), ASEAN Regional Forum, Asian Development Bank, Colombo Plan, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Group of 77, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Development Association (IDA), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Intelsat (nonsignatory user), and Interpol.
Laos is also a member of the International Olympic Commission (IOC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Mekong Group, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Pacific Alliance (as observer), Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), United Nations, United Nations Convention on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Universal Postal Union (UPU), World Federation of Trade Unions, World Health Organization (WHO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), World Tourism Organization, World Trade Organization (observer).
Laos has established relations with 134 countries (including the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and the State of Palestine) and the European Union.
Laos has not yet established diplomatic relations with: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17747 |
Limestone
Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). A closely related rock is dolomite, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg(CO3)2. In old USGS publications, dolomite was referred to as "magnesian limestone", a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolomites or magnesium-rich limestones.
About 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, in which water erodes the limestone over thousands to millions of years. Most cave systems are through limestone bedrock.
Limestone has numerous uses: as a building material, an essential component of concrete (Portland cement), as aggregate for the base of roads, as white pigment or filler in products such as toothpaste or paints, as a chemical feedstock for the production of lime, as a soil conditioner, and as a popular decorative addition to rock gardens.
Like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera. These organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Other carbonate grains composing limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts, and extraclasts.
Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert (chalcedony, flint, jasper, etc.) or siliceous skeletal fragment (sponge spicules, diatoms, radiolarians), and travertine (a precipitate of calcite and aragonite). Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters (groundwater that precipitates the material in caves). This produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular (oolite) appearance.
The primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, building upon past generations. Below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters (see lysocline). Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments.
Calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits an unusual characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases.
Impurities (such as clay, sand, organic remains, iron oxide, and other materials) will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces.
Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock. When conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures.
Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly where there are waterfalls and around hot or cold springs. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the water leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls. Coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells.
During regional metamorphism that occurs during the mountain building process (orogeny), limestone recrystallizes into marble.
Limestone is a parent material of Mollisol soil group.
Two major classification schemes, the Folk and the Dunham, are used for identifying the types of carbonate rocks collectively known as limestone.
Robert L. Folk developed a classification system that places primary emphasis on the detailed composition of grains and interstitial material in carbonate rocks. Based on composition, there are three main components: allochems (grains), matrix (mostly micrite), and cement (sparite). The Folk system uses two-part names; the first refers to the grains and the second is the root. It is helpful to have a petrographic microscope when using the Folk scheme, because it is easier to determine the components present in each sample.
The Dunham scheme focuses on depositional textures. Each name is based upon the texture of the grains that make up the limestone. Robert J. Dunham published his system for limestone in 1962; it focuses on the depositional fabric of carbonate rocks. Dunham divides the rocks into four main groups based on relative proportions of coarser clastic particles. Dunham names are essentially for rock families. His work considers whether or not the grains were originally in mutual contact, and therefore self-supporting, or whether the rock is characterized by the presence of frame builders and algal mats. Unlike the Folk scheme, Dunham deals with the original porosity of the rock. The Dunham scheme is more useful for hand samples because it is based on texture, not the grains in the sample.
A revised classification was proposed by Wright (1992). It adds some diagenetic patterns and can be summarized as follows:
See: Carbonate platform
About 10% of all sedimentary rocks are limestones.
Limestone is partially soluble, especially in acid, and therefore forms many erosional landforms. These include limestone pavements, pot holes, cenotes, caves and gorges. Such erosion landscapes are known as karsts. Limestone is less resistant than most igneous rocks, but more resistant than most other sedimentary rocks. It is therefore usually associated with hills and downland, and occurs in regions with other sedimentary rocks, typically clays.
Karst topography and caves develop in limestone rocks due to their solubility in dilute acidic groundwater. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes. Regions overlying limestone bedrock tend to have fewer visible above-ground sources (ponds and streams), as surface water easily drains downward through joints in the limestone. While draining, water and organic acid from the soil slowly (over thousands or millions of years) enlarges these cracks, dissolving the calcium carbonate and carrying it away in solution. Most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. Cooling groundwater or mixing of different groundwaters will also create conditions suitable for cave formation.
Coastal limestones are often eroded by organisms which bore into the rock by various means. This process is known as bioerosion. It is most common in the tropics, and it is known throughout the fossil record (see Taylor and Wilson, 2003).
Bands of limestone emerge from the Earth's surface in often spectacular rocky outcrops and islands. Examples include the Rock of Gibraltar, the Burren in County Clare, Ireland; the Verdon Gorge in France; Malham Cove in North Yorkshire and the Isle of Wight, England; the Great Orme in Wales; on Fårö near the Swedish island of Gotland, the Niagara Escarpment in Canada/United States, Notch Peak in Utah, the Ha Long Bay National Park in Vietnam and the hills around the Lijiang River and Guilin city in China.
The Florida Keys, islands off the south coast of Florida, are composed mainly of oolitic limestone (the Lower Keys) and the carbonate skeletons of coral reefs (the Upper Keys), which thrived in the area during interglacial periods when sea level was higher than at present.
Unique habitats are found on alvars, extremely level expanses of limestone with thin soil mantles. The largest such expanse in Europe is the Stora Alvaret on the island of Öland, Sweden. Another area with large quantities of limestone is the island of Gotland, Sweden. Huge quarries in northwestern Europe, such as those of Mount Saint Peter (Belgium/Netherlands), extend for more than a hundred kilometers.
The world's largest limestone quarry is at Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company in Rogers City, Michigan.
Limestone is very common in architecture, especially in Europe and North America. Many landmarks across the world, including the Great Pyramid and its associated complex in Giza, Egypt, were made of limestone. So many buildings in Kingston, Ontario, Canada were, and continue to be, constructed from it that it is nicknamed the 'Limestone City'. On the island of Malta, a variety of limestone called Globigerina limestone was, for a long time, the only building material available, and is still very frequently used on all types of buildings and sculptures. Limestone is readily available and relatively easy to cut into blocks or more elaborate carving. Ancient American sculptors valued limestone because it was easy to work and good for fine detail. Going back to the Late Preclassic period (by 200–100 BCE), the Maya civilization (Ancient Mexico) created refined sculpture using limestone because of these excellent carving properties. The Maya would decorate the ceilings of their sacred buildings (known as lintels) and cover the walls with carved limestone panels. Carved on these sculptures were political and social stories, and this helped communicate messages of the king to his people. Limestone is long-lasting and stands up well to exposure, which explains why many limestone ruins survive. However, it is very heavy, making it impractical for tall buildings, and relatively expensive as a building material.
Limestone was most popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Train stations, banks and other structures from that era were normally made of limestone. It is used as a facade on some skyscrapers, but only in thin plates for covering, rather than solid blocks. In the United States, Indiana, most notably the Bloomington area, has long been a source of high-quality quarried limestone, called Indiana limestone. Many famous buildings in London are built from Portland limestone. Houses built in Odessa in Ukraine in the 19th century were mostly constructed from limestone and the extensive remains of the mines now form the Odessa Catacombs.
Limestone was also a very popular building block in the Middle Ages in the areas where it occurred, since it is hard, durable, and commonly occurs in easily accessible surface exposures. Many medieval churches and castles in Europe are made of limestone. Beer stone was a popular kind of limestone for medieval buildings in southern England.
Limestone and (to a lesser extent) marble are reactive to acid solutions, making acid rain a significant problem to the preservation of artifacts made from this stone. Many limestone statues and building surfaces have suffered severe damage due to acid rain. Likewise limestone gravel has been used to protect lakes vulnerable to acid rain, acting as a pH buffering agent. Acid-based cleaning chemicals can also etch limestone, which should only be cleaned with a neutral or mild alkali-based cleaner.
Other uses include:
People can be exposed to limestone in the workplace by inhalation of and eye contact with the dust.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set the legal limit (permissible exposure limit) for limestone exposure in the workplace as 15 mg/m3 total exposure and 5 mg/m3 respiratory exposure over an 8-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a recommended exposure limit (REL) of 10 mg/m3 total exposure and 5 mg/m3 respiratory exposure over an 8-hour workday.
Removing graffiti from weathered limestone is difficult because it is a porous and permeable material. The surface is fragile so usual abrasion methods run the risk of "severe surface loss". Because it is an acid-sensitive stone some cleaning agents cannot be used due to adverse effects.
The cyanobacterium "Hyella balani" can bore through limestone; as can the green alga "Eugamantia sacculata" and the fungus "Ostracolaba implexa". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17748 |
Lübeck
Lübeck ( , ) (Danish: "Lybæk"), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck
(), is a city in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. On the river Trave, it was the leading city of the Hanseatic League, and because of its extensive Brick Gothic architecture, it is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. In 2015, it had a population of 218,523.
The old part of Lübeck is on an island enclosed by the Trave. The Elbe–Lübeck Canal connects the Trave with the Elbe River. Another important river near the town centre is the Wakenitz. Autobahn 1 connects Lübeck with Hamburg and Denmark. Travemünde is a sea resort and ferry port on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Lübeck Hauptbahnhof links Lübeck to a number of railway lines, notably the line to Hamburg.
Humans settled in the area around what today is Lübeck after the last Ice Age ended about 9700 BCE. Several Neolithic dolmens can be found in the area.
Around AD 700, Slavic peoples started moving into the eastern parts of Holstein, an area previously settled by Germanic inhabitants who had moved on in the Migration Period. Charlemagne (Holy Roman Emperor 800–814), whose efforts to Christianise the area were opposed by the Germanic Saxons, expelled many of the Saxons and brought in Polabian Slavs allies. Liubice (the place-name means "lovely") was founded on the banks of the River Trave about north of the present-day city-center of Lübeck. In the 10th century, it became the most important settlement of the Obotrite confederacy and a castle was built. In 1128, the pagan Rani from Rügen razed Liubice.
In 1143, Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, founded the modern town as a German settlement on the river island of Bucu. He built a new castle, first mentioned by the chronicler Helmold as existing in 1147. Adolf had to cede the castle to the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, in 1158. After Henry's fall from power in 1181, the town became an Imperial city for eight years. Emperor Barbarossa (reigned 1152–1190) ordained that the city should have a ruling council of 20 members. With the council dominated by merchants, pragmatic trade interests shaped Lübeck's politics for centuries. The council survived into the 19th century. The town and castle changed ownership for a period afterwards and formed part of the Duchy of Saxony until 1192, of the County of Holstein until 1217, and of the kingdom of Denmark until the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227.
Around 1200, the port became the main point of departure for colonists leaving for the Baltic territories conquered by the Livonian Order, and later, by the Teutonic Order. In 1226, Emperor Frederick II elevated the town to the status of an Imperial free city, by which it became the Free City of Lübeck.
In the 14th century, Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the largest and most powerful member of that medieval trade organization. In 1375, Emperor Charles IV named Lübeck one of the five "Glories of the Empire", a title shared with Venice, Rome, Pisa, and Florence.
Several conflicts about trading privileges resulted in fighting between Lübeck (with the Hanseatic League) and Denmark and Norway – with varying outcome. While Lübeck and the Hanseatic League prevailed in conflicts in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in the Count's Feud, a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. Lübeck also joined the pro-Lutheran Schmalkaldic League of the mid-16th century.
After its defeat in the Count's Feud, Lübeck's power slowly declined. The city remained neutral in the Thirty Years' War of 1618–1648, but the combination of the devastation from the decades-long war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade caused the Hanseatic League – and thus Lübeck with it – to decline in importance. However, even after the "de facto" disbanding of the Hanseatic League in 1669, Lübeck still remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.
Franz Tunder was the organist in the Marienkirche. It was part of the tradition in this Lutheran congregation that the organist would pass on the duty in a dynastic marriage. In 1668, his daughter Anna Margarethe married the great Danish-German composer Dieterich Buxtehude, who was the organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck until at least 1703. Some of the greatest composers of the day came to the church to hear his renowned playing.
In the course of the war of the Fourth Coalition against Napoleon, troops under Bernadotte (who would later become King of Sweden) occupied the neutral Lübeck after a battle against Blücher on 6 November 1806. Under the Continental System, the State bank went into bankruptcy. In 1811, the French Empire formally annexed Lübeck as part of France; the anti-Napoleonic allies liberated the area in 1813, and the Congress of Vienna of 1815 recognised Lübeck as an independent free city. The city became a member of the German Confederation (1815-1866) the North German Confederation (1866-1871) the German Empire (1871-1918) and the Weimar Republic (1919-1933). Under the Third Reich (1933-1945) the Nazis passed the Greater Hamburg Act, which incorporated the city of Lübeck into the Schleswig-Holstein province of Prussia, effective April 1, 1937. It thereby lost its status as an independent constituent state.
Writer Thomas Mann was a member of the Mann family of Lübeck merchants. His well-known 1901 novel "Buddenbrooks" made readers in Germany (and later worldwide, through numerous translations) familiar with the manner of life and mores of the 19th-century Lübeck "bourgeoisie".
During World War II (1939–1945), Lübeck became the first German city to suffer substantial Royal Air Force (RAF) bombing. The attack of 28 March 1942 created a firestorm that caused severe damage to the historic centre. This raid destroyed three of the main churches and large parts of the built-up area; the bells of St Marienkircke plunged to the stone floor. Germany operated a prisoner-of-war camp for officers, Oflag X-C, near the city from 1940 until April 1945. The British Second Army entered Lübeck on 2 May 1945 and occupied it without resistance.
On 3 May 1945, one of the biggest disasters in naval history occurred in the Bay of Lübeck when RAF bombers sank three ships: the SS "Cap Arcona", the SS "Deutschland", and the SS "Thielbek" – which, unknown to them, were packed with concentration-camp inmates. About 7,000 people died.
Lübeck's population grew considerably, from about 150,000 in 1939 to more than 220,000 after the war, owing to an influx of ethnic German refugees expelled from the so-called former eastern provinces of Germany in the Communist Bloc. Lübeck remained part of Schleswig-Holstein after World War II (and consequently lay within West Germany). It stood directly on what became the inner German border during the division of Germany into two states in the Cold War period. South of the city, the border followed the path of the river Wakenitz, which separated the Germanys by less than in many parts. The northernmost border crossing was in Lübeck's district of Schlutup. Lübeck spent decades restoring its historic city centre. In 1987, UNESCO designated this area a World Heritage Site.
Lübeck became the scene of a notable art scandal in the 1950s. Lothar Malskat was hired to restore the medieval frescoes of the cathedral of the Marienkirche, which were discovered after the cathedral had been badly damaged during World War II. Instead, he painted new works, which he passed off as restorations, fooling many experts. Malskat later revealed the deception himself. Günter Grass featured this incident in his 1986 novel "The Rat".
On the night of 18 January 1996, a fire broke out in a home for foreign refugees, killing 10 people and severely injuring more than 30 others, mostly children. Most of the shelter's inhabitants thought it was a racist attack, as they stated that they had encountered other overt hostility in the city. The police and the local court were criticized at the time for ruling out racism as a possible motive before even beginning preliminary investigations. But by 2002, the courts found all the Germans involved not guilty; the perpetrators have not been caught.
In April 2015, Lübeck hosted the G7 conference.
In 2015, the city had a population of 218,523. The largest ethnic minority groups are Turks, Central Europeans (Poles), Southern Europeans (mostly Greeks and Italians), Eastern Europeans (e.g. Russians), Arabs, and several smaller groups.
Population development since 1227:
Population structure:
In 2019 Lübeck reached 2 million overnight stays. Lübeck is famous for its medieval City Center with the Churches, the Holstentor, its small alleys and so much more. Lübeck has been called "Die Stadt der 7 Türme" (The City of seven Towers) due to its seven prominent church towers.
A typical visit in Lübeck includes a walk through the medieval city centre to see the Holstentor, the famous Churches like St. Mary's Church, and the town hall. Lübeck is also very famous for marzipan. This almond treat has been a part of Lübeck's history since 1806, and amongst its most famous producers is "Niederegger". For many people the Niederegger coffee shop in the city centre is a significant tourist attraction: it offers more than 25 variety of pie and all things marzipan. At night time, there are many bars, clubs and restaurants to finish the day.
Also very popular is the city of Travemünde on the Baltic Sea. In summer there are thousands of people on the white sanded beach. Here you can watch the huge ferries and cruiseships coming in and leaving the port to Scandinavia.
Most tourists stay for a week and visit places nearby such as the cities of Hamburg, Schwerin, Wismar or Rostock, the seaside resorts Timmendorfer Strand, Scharbeutz, Grömitz or Boltenhagen, going on a cycling tour on the coast of the Baltic Sea, the Hansa-Park amusement park, the SeaLife Center in Timmendorf, the Island of Fehmarn, and some even on a day trip to Denmark.
Much of the old town has kept a medieval appearance with old buildings and narrow streets. At one time, the town could only be entered by any of four town gates, two of which remain today, the well-known Holstentor (1478) and the Burgtor (1444).
The old town centre is dominated by seven church steeples. The oldest are the Lübecker Dom (the city's cathedral) and the Marienkirche (Saint Mary's), both from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Built in 1286, the Holy Spirit Hospital at Koberg is one of the oldest existing social institutions in the world and one of the most important buildings in the city. The Holy Spirit Hospital is in parts an old-folk and nursing home. Historic parts can be visited.
Other sights include:
Like many other places in Germany, Lübeck has a long tradition of a Christmas market in December, which includes the famous handicrafts market inside the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital (Hospital of the Holy Spirit), located at the northern end of Königstrasse.
Lübeck has many small museums, such as the St. Anne's Museum Quarter, Lübeck, the Behnhaus, the European Hansemuseum, and the Holstentor. Lübeck Museum of Theatre Puppets is a privately run museum. Waterside attractions are a lightvessel that served Fehmarnbelt and the Lisa von Lübeck, a reconstruction of a Hanseatic 15th century caravel.
The marzipan museum in the second floor of Café Niederegger in Breite Strasse explains the history of marzipan, and shows historical wood molds for the production of marzipan blocks and a group of historical figures made of marzipan.
Lübeck is famous for its marzipan industry. According to local legend, marzipan was first made in Lübeck, possibly in response either to a military siege of the city or a famine year. The story, perhaps apocryphal, is that the town ran out of all food except stored almonds and sugar, which were used to make loaves of marzipan "bread". Others believe that marzipan was actually invented in Persia a few hundred years before Lübeck claims to have invented it. The best known producer is Niederegger, which tourists often visit while in Lübeck, especially at Christmas time.
The Lübeck wine trade dates back to Hanseatic times. One Lübeck specialty is Rotspon (), wine made from grapes processed and fermented in France and transported in wooden barrels to Lübeck, where it is stored, aged and bottled.
Like other coastal North German communities, Fischbrötchen and Brathering are popular takeaway foods, given the abundance of fish varieties.
Lübeck has three universities, the University of Lübeck, the Technical University of Applied Sciences Lübeck, and the Lübeck Academy of Music. The Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences is a central faculty of the University and was founded by the German Excellence Initiative.
The International School of New Media is an affiliated institute of the university.
The city of Lübeck is divided into 10 zones. These again are arranged into altogether 35 urban districts. The 10 zones with their official numbers, their associated urban districts and the numbers of inhabitants of the quarters:
The "Innenstadt" is the main tourist attraction and consists of the old town as well as the former ramparts. It is the oldest and smallest part of Lübeck.
"Sankt Jürgen" is one of three historic suburbs of Lübeck (alongside "St. Lorenz" and "St. Gertrud"). It is located south of the city centre and the biggest of all city parts.
"Moisling" is situated in the far South-West. Its history dates back to the 17th century.
"Buntekuh" lies in the West of Lübeck. A big part consists of commercial zones such as the "Citti-Park", Lübeck's biggest mall.
"Sankt Lorenz-Süd" is located right in the South-West of the city centre and has the highest population density. The main train and bus station lie in its Northern part.
"Sankt Lorenz-Nord" is situated in the North-West of Lübeck. It is split from its southern part by the railways.
"Sankt Gertrud" is located in the East of the city centre. This part is mainly characterized by its nature. Many parks, the rivers "Wakenitz" and "Trave" and the forest "Lauerholz" make up a big part of its area.
"Schlutup" lies in the far East of Lübeck. Due to forest "Lauerholz" in its west and river "Trave" in the north, Schlutup is relatively isolated from the other city parts.
North of river Trave lies "Kücknitz". It is the old main industrial area of Lübeck.
"Travemünde" is located in far northeastern Lübeck at the Baltic Sea. With its long beach and coast line, Travemünde is the second biggest tourist destination.
Lübeck is twinned with:
Lubec, Maine, the easternmost town in the United States, is named after Lübeck.
Lübeck is connected to three Main Motorways (Autobahnen). The A1 Motorway is heading north to the Island of Fehmarn and Copenhagen (Denmark) and south to Hamburg, Bremen and Cologne. The A20 Motorway is heading east to Wismar, Rostock and Szczecin (Poland) and west to Bad Segeberg and to the North Sea. The A226 Motorway starts in Central Lübeck and is heading to the north-east and the Seaport-City of Travemünde.
Lübeck has multiple train Stations. The biggest of them is Lübeck Central Station. With about 31.000 passengers per day, it's the largest station in Schleswig-Holstein. The station is most likely being served by regional rail services to Hamburg, Lüneburg, Kiel, The Island of Fehmarn and Szczecin (Poland). There are some Long distance trains to Munich, Frankfurt a.m. and Cologne. During the summer holidays, there are many extra rail services. Till the end of 2019, Lübeck was a stop on the "Vogelfluglinie" train line from Hamburg to Copenhagen (Denmark).
Public transport by bus is organized by the Lübeck City-Traffic-Company (Lübecker Stadtverkehr). There are 40 buslines serving the City and the area around Lübeck. There are some other regional Bus services.
In Lübeck's district of Travemünde is on the Baltic Sea and has the city's main port. The Scandinavienkai (the quay of Scandinavia) has ferry routes are to (Malmo, Sweden, Trelleborg, Denmark, Liepaja, Latvia, Helsinki, Finland and St.Petersburg, Russia). It is the second-biggest German port on the Baltic Sea.
Lübeck Airport is located in the south of Lübeck in the Town of Blankensee. It provides regional flights to Munich and Stuttgart and some charter flights to Italy and Croatia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17750 |
Laos
Laos (, ; , "Lāo" ), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (; ), is a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese peninsula, Laos is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast and Thailand to the west and southwest.
Present Laos traces its historic and cultural identity to Lan Xang, which existed from the 14th century to the 18th century as one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Due to its central geographical location in Southeast Asia, the kingdom became a hub for overland trade, and became wealthy economically and culturally. After a period of internal conflict, Lan Xang broke into three separate kingdoms—Luang Phrabang, Vientiane, and Champasak. In 1893, the three territories came under a French protectorate and were united to form what is now known as Laos. It briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation, but was recolonised by France until it won autonomy in 1949. Laos became independent in 1953, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong. A post-independence civil war began, which saw the communist resistance, supported by the Soviet Union, fight against the monarchy that later came under influence of military regimes supported by the United States. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the communist Pathet Lao came to power, ending the civil war. Laos was then dependent on military and economic aid from the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991.
In 2018, the country had the fourth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Southeast Asia, after Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand and country ranked 139th on the Human Development Index (HDI), indicating medium development. Laos is a member of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, the ASEAN, East Asia Summit, and La Francophonie. Laos applied for membership of the World Trade Organization in 1997; on 2 February 2013, it was granted full membership. It is a one-party socialist republic, espousing Marxism–Leninism governed by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, under which non-governmental organizations have routinely characterized the country's human rights record as poor, citing repeated abuses such as torture, restrictions on civil liberties, and persecution of minorities.
In Laos, the politically and culturally dominant Lao people make up 53.2% of the population, mostly in the lowlands. Mon-Khmer groups, the Hmong, and other indigenous hill tribes live in the foothills and mountains. Laos's strategies for development are based on generating electricity from rivers and selling the power to its neighbours, namely Thailand, China, and Vietnam, as well as its initiative to become a "land-linked" nation, as evidenced by the construction of four new railways connecting Laos and neighbours. Laos has been referred to as one of Southeast Asia and Pacific's Fastest Growing Economies by the World Bank with annual GDP growth averaging 7.7% since 2009.
The English word "Laos" was coined by the French, who united the three Lao kingdoms in French Indochina in 1893 and named the country as the plural of the dominant and most common ethnic group, the Lao people. English-speakers often mispronounce the word 'Laos', falsely believing that it should be pronounced with a silent 's', however the 's' in Laos should not be silent. In the Lao language, the country's name is "Muang Lao" () or "Pathet Lao" (), both of which literally mean 'Lao Country'.
An ancient human skull was recovered in 2009 from the Tam Pa Ling Cave in the Annamite Mountains in northern Laos; the skull is at least 46,000 years old, making it the oldest modern human fossil found to date in Southeast Asia. Stone artifacts including Hoabinhian types have been found at sites dating to the Late Pleistocene in northern Laos. Archaeological evidence suggests an agriculturist society developed during the 4th millennium BC. Burial jars and other kinds of sepulchers suggest a complex society in which bronze objects appeared around 1500 BC, and iron tools were known from 700 BC. The proto-historic period is characterised by contact with Chinese and Indian civilisations. According to linguistic and other historical evidence, Tai-speaking tribes migrated southwestward to the modern territories of Laos and Thailand from Guangxi sometime between the 8th–10th centuries.
Laos traces its history to the kingdom of Lan Xang ('million elephants'), which was founded in the 14th century by a Lao prince, Fa Ngum, whose father had his family exiled from the Khmer Empire. Fa Ngum, with 10,000 Khmer troops, conquered many Lao principalities in the Mekong River Basin, culminating in the capture of Vientiane. Ngum was descended from a long line of Lao kings that traced back to Khoun Boulom. He made Theravada Buddhism the state religion and Lan Xang prospered. Within 20 years of its formation, the kingdom expanded eastward to Champa and along the Annamite mountains in Vietnam. His ministers, unable to tolerate his ruthlessness, forced him into exile to the present-day Thai province of Nan in 1373, where he died. Fa Ngum's eldest son, Oun Heuan, ascended to the throne under the name Samsenthai and reigned for 43 years. Lan Xang became an important trade centre during Samsenthai's reign, but after his death in 1421 it collapsed into warring factions for nearly a century.
In 1520, Photisarath came to the throne and moved the capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane to avoid a Burmese invasion. Settathirath became king in 1548, after his father was killed, and ordered the construction of what became the symbol of Laos, That Luang. Settathirath disappeared in the mountains on his way back from a military expedition into Cambodia and Lan Xang fell into more than seventy years of instability, involving both Burmese invasion and civil war.
It was not until 1637, when Sourigna Vongsa ascended the throne, that Lan Xang further expanded its frontiers. His reign is often regarded as Laos's golden age. When he died without an heir, the kingdom split into three principalities. Between 1763 and 1769, Burmese armies overran northern Laos and annexed Luang Phrabang, while Champasak eventually came under Siamese suzerainty.
Chao Anouvong was installed as a vassal king of Vientiane by the Siamese. He encouraged a renaissance of Lao fine arts and literature and improved relations with Luang Phrabang. Under Vietnamese pressure, he rebelled against the Siamese in 1826. The rebellion failed and Vientiane was ransacked. Anouvong was taken to Bangkok as a prisoner, where he died.
A Siamese military campaign in Laos in 1876 was described by a British observer as having been "transformed into slave-hunting raids on a large scale".
In the late-19th century, Luang Prabang was ransacked by the Chinese Black Flag Army. France rescued King Oun Kham and added Luang Phrabang to the Protectorate of French Indochina. Shortly after, the Kingdom of Champasak and the territory of Vientiane were added to the protectorate. King Sisavang Vong of Luang Phrabang became ruler of a unified Laos and Vientiane once again became the capital.
Laos never held any importance for France other than as a buffer state between Thailand and the more economically important Annam and Tonkin.
During their rule, the French introduced the corvée, a system that forced every male Lao to contribute 10 days of manual labour per year to the colonial government. Laos produced tin, rubber, and coffee, but never accounted for more than one percent of French Indochina's exports. By 1940, around 600 French citizens lived in Laos. Under French rule, the Vietnamese were encouraged to migrate to Laos, which was seen by the French colonists as a rational solution to a labour shortage within the confines of an Indochina-wide colonial space. By 1943, the Vietnamese population stood at nearly 40,000, forming the majority in the largest cities of Laos and enjoying the right to elect its own leaders. As a result, 53% of the population of Vientiane, 85% of Thakhek, and 62% of Pakse were Vietnamese, with only the exception of Luang Prabang where the population was predominantly Lao. As late as 1945, the French drew up an ambitious plan to move massive Vietnamese population to three key areas, i.e., the Vientiane Plain, Savannakhet region, and the Bolaven Plateau, which was only derailed by the Japanese invasion of Indochina. Otherwise, according to Martin Stuart-Fox, the Lao might well have lost control over their own country.
During World War II in Laos, Vichy France, Thailand, Imperial Japan and Free France occupied Laos. On 9 March 1945, a nationalist group declared Laos once more independent, with Luang Prabang as its capital but on 7 April 1945 two battalions of Japanese troops occupied the city. The Japanese attempted to force Sisavang Vong (the King of Luang Phrabang) to declare Laotian independence but on 8 April he instead simply declared an end to Laos's status as a French protectorate. The King then secretly sent Prince Kindavong to represent Laos to the Allied forces and Prince Sisavang as representative to the Japanese. When Japan surrendered, some Lao nationalists (including Prince Phetsarath) declared Laotian independence, but by early-1946, French troops had reoccupied the country and conferred limited autonomy on Laos.
During the First Indochina War, the Indochinese Communist Party formed the Pathet Lao independence organisation. The Pathet Lao began a war against the French colonial forces with the aid of the Vietnamese independence organisation, the Viet Minh. In 1950 the French were forced to give Laos semi-autonomy as an "associated state" within the French Union. France remained in de facto control until 22 October 1953, when Laos gained full independence as a constitutional monarchy.
The First Indochina War took place across French Indochina and eventually led to French defeat and the signing of a peace accord for Laos at the Geneva Conference of 1954. In 1955, the US Department of Defense created a special Programs Evaluation Office to replace French support of the Royal Lao Army against the communist Pathet Lao as part of the US containment policy.
In 1960, amidst a series of rebellions in the Kingdom of Laos, fighting broke out between the Royal Lao Army and the communist North Vietnam-backed, and Soviet Union-backed Pathet Lao guerillas. A second Provisional Government of National Unity formed by Prince Souvanna Phouma in 1962 was unsuccessful, and the situation steadily deteriorated into large scale civil war between the Royal Laotian government and the Pathet Lao. The Pathet Lao were backed militarily by the NVA and Vietcong.
Laos was a key part of the Vietnam War since parts of Laos were invaded and occupied by North Vietnam for use as a supply route for its war against the South. In response, the United States initiated a bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese positions, supported regular and irregular anticommunist forces in Laos and supported South Vietnamese incursions into Laos (see ).
In 1968 the North Vietnamese Army launched a multi-division attack to help the Pathet Lao to fight the Royal Lao Army. The attack resulted in the army largely demobilising, leaving the conflict to irregular ethnic Hmong forces of the "U.S. Secret Army" backed by the United States and Thailand, and led by General Vang Pao.
Massive aerial bombardment against the Pathet Lao and invading People's Army of Vietnam forces were carried out by the United States to prevent the collapse of the Royal Kingdom of Laos central government, and to deny the use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to attack US forces in the Republic of Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos, nearly equal to the 2.1 million tons of bombs the U.S. dropped on Europe and Asia during all of World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population; "The New York Times" noted this was "nearly a ton for every person in Laos". Some 80 million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country, rendering vast swathes of land impossible to cultivate and killing or maiming approximately 50 Laotians every year. Due to the particularly heavy impact of cluster bombs during this war, Laos was a strong advocate of the Convention on Cluster Munitions to ban the weapons, and was host to the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in November 2010.
In 1975 the Pathet Lao, along with the Vietnam People's Army, and backed by the Soviet Union, overthrew the royalist Lao government, forcing King Savang Vatthana to abdicate on 2 December 1975. He later died in prison. Between 20,000 and 62,000 Laotians died during the Civil War.
On 2 December 1975, after taking control of the country, the Pathet Lao government under Kaysone Phomvihane renamed the country as the "Lao People's Democratic Republic" and signed agreements giving Vietnam the right to station armed forces and to appoint advisers to assist in overseeing the country. The close ties between Laos and Vietnam were formalised via a treaty signed in 1977, which has since provided not only directions for Lao foreign policy, but also the basis for Vietnamese involvement at all levels of Lao political and economic life. Laos was requested in 1979 by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to end relations with the People's Republic of China, leading to isolation in trade by China, the United States, and other countries. In 1979 there were 50,000 Vietnamese troops stationed in Laos and as many as 6,000 civilian Vietnamese officials including 1,000 directly attached to the ministries in Vientiane.
The conflict between Hmong rebels and the Vietnam People's Army of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, as well as the Vietnamese-backed Pathet Lao continued in key areas of Laos, including in Saysaboune Closed Military Zone, Xaisamboune Closed Military Zone near Vientiane Province and Xieng Khouang Province. From 1975 to 1996, the United States resettled some 250,000 Lao refugees from Thailand, including 130,000 Hmong (see: Indochina refugee crisis).
On 2 December 2015, Laos celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the republic.
Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, and it lies mostly between latitudes 14° and 23°N (a small area is south of 14°), and longitudes 100° and 108°E. Its thickly forested landscape consists mostly of rugged mountains, the highest of which is Phou Bia at , with some plains and plateaus. The Mekong River forms a large part of the western boundary with Thailand, where the mountains of the Annamite Range form most of the eastern border with Vietnam and the Luang Prabang Range the northwestern border with the Thai highlands. There are two plateaux, the Xiangkhoang in the north and the Bolaven Plateau at the southern end. The climate is tropical and influenced by the monsoon pattern.
There is a distinct rainy season from May to November, followed by a dry season from December to April. Local tradition holds that there are three seasons (rainy, cold and hot) as the latter two months of the climatologically defined dry season are noticeably hotter than the earlier four months. The capital and largest city of Laos is Vientiane and other major cities include Luang Prabang, Savannakhet, and Pakse.
In 1993 the Laos government set aside 21 percent of the nation's land area for habitat conservation preservation. The country is one of four in the opium poppy growing region known as the "Golden Triangle". According to the October 2007 UNODC fact book "Opium Poppy Cultivation in South East Asia", the poppy cultivation area was , down from in 2006.
Laos can be considered to consist of three geographical areas: north, central, and south.
Laos has a mostly tropical savanna climate. A tropical monsoon and humid sub-tropical climate also occurs in places. Laos is vulnerable to climate change and almost all provinces in the country are "at high risk from climate change."
Laos is divided into 17 provinces ("khoueng") and one prefecture ("kampheng nakhon"), which includes the capital city Vientiane ("Nakhon Louang Viangchan"). A new province, Xaisomboun Province, was established on 13 December 2013. Provinces are further divided into districts ("muang") and then villages ("ban"). An "urban" village is essentially a town.
The Lao People's Democratic Republic is one of the world's only socialist states openly endorsing communism. The only legal political party is the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). With one-party state status of Laos, the General Secretary (party leader) holds ultimate power and authority over state and government and serves as the supreme leader. The head of state is President Bounnhang Vorachith, also General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.
The head of government is Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, who is also a member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party's Politburo. Government policies are determined by the party through the all-powerful eleven-member Politburo of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the 61-member Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. Important government decisions are vetted by the Council of Ministers.
Laos's first, French-written and monarchical constitution was promulgated on 11 May 1947, and declared Laos an independent state within the French Union. The revised constitution of 11 May 1957 omitted reference to the French Union, though close educational, health and technical ties with the former colonial power persisted. The 1957 document was abrogated in December 1975, when a communist People's Republic was proclaimed. A new constitution was adopted in 1991 and enshrined a "leading role" for the LPRP. In 1990, deputy minister for science & technology Thongsouk Saysangkhi resigned from the government and party, calling for political reform. He died in captivity in 1998.
In 1992 elections were held for a new 85-seat National Assembly with members, nominated by the one-party communist government, elected by secret ballot to five-year terms. The elections were widely disputed and questioned by Lao and Hmong opposition and dissident groups abroad and in Laos and Thailand. This National Assembly, which essentially acts as a rubber stamp for the LPRP, approves all new laws, although the executive branch retains authority to issue binding decrees. The most recent elections took place in April 2011. The assembly was expanded to 99 members in 1997, to 115 members in 2006 and finally to 132 members during the 2011 elections.
On 17 May 2014 the Defense Minister, who was also Deputy Prime Minister, Major General Douangchay Phichit, with other top ranking officials was killed in a plane crash. The officials were to participate in a ceremony to mark the liberation of the Plain of Jars from the former Royal Lao government forces. Their Russian-built Antonov AN 74–300 with 20 people on board crashed in Xiengkhouang Province.
Some Hmong groups fought as CIA-backed units on the royalist side in the Laotian Civil War. After the Pathet Lao took over the country in 1975, the conflict continued in isolated pockets. In 1977, a communist newspaper promised the party would hunt down the "American collaborators" and their families "to the last root".
As many as 200,000 Hmong went into exile in Thailand, with many ending up in the US. A number of Hmong fighters hid out in mountains in Xiangkhouang Province for many years, with a remnant emerging from the jungle in 2003.
In 1989, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with the support of the US government, instituted the Comprehensive Plan of Action, a programme to stem the tide of Indochinese refugees from Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Under the plan, refugee status was evaluated through a screening process. Recognised asylum seekers were given resettlement opportunities, while the remaining refugees were to be repatriated under guarantee of safety.
After talks with the UNHCR and the Thai government, Laos agreed to repatriate the 60,000 Lao refugees living in Thailand, including several thousand Hmong people. Very few of the Lao refugees, however, were willing to return voluntarily. Pressure to resettle the refugees grew as the Thai government worked to close its remaining refugee camps. While some Hmong people returned to Laos voluntarily, with development assistance from UNHCR, allegations of forced repatriation surfaced. Of those Hmong who did return to Laos, some quickly escaped back to Thailand, describing discrimination and brutal treatment at the hands of Lao authorities.
In 1993, Vue Mai, a former Hmong soldier and leader of the largest Hmong refugee camp in Thailand, who had been recruited by the US Embassy in Bangkok to return to Laos as proof of the repatriation programme's success, disappeared in Vientiane. According to the US Committee for Refugees, he was arrested by Lao security forces and was never seen again.
Following the Vue Mai incident, debate over the Hmong's planned repatriation to Laos intensified greatly, especially in the United States, where it drew strong opposition from many American conservatives and some human rights advocates. In a 23 October 1995 "National Review" article, Michael Johns, the former Heritage Foundation foreign policy expert and Republican White House aide, labelled the Hmong's repatriation a Clinton administration "betrayal", describing the Hmong as a people "who have spilled their blood in defense of American geopolitical interests". Debate on the issue escalated quickly. In an effort to halt the planned repatriation, the Republican-led US Senate and House of Representatives both appropriated funds for the remaining Thailand-based Hmong to be immediately resettled in the United States; Clinton, however, responded by promising a veto of the legislation.
In their opposition of the repatriation plans, Democratic and Republican Members of Congress challenged the Clinton administration's position that the government of Laos was not systematically violating Hmong human rights. US Representative Steve Gunderson (R-WI), for instance, told a Hmong gathering: "I do not enjoy standing up and saying to my government that you are not telling the truth, but if that is necessary to defend truth and justice, I will do that." Republicans called several Congressional hearings on alleged persecution of the Hmong in Laos in an apparent attempt to generate further support for their opposition to the Hmong's repatriation to Laos.
Although some accusations of forced repatriation were denied, thousands of Hmong people refused to return to Laos. In 1996 as the deadline for the closure of Thai refugee camps approached, and under mounting political pressure, the United States agreed to resettle Hmong refugees who passed a new screening process. Around 5,000 Hmong people who were not resettled at the time of the camp closures sought asylum at Wat Tham Krabok, a Buddhist monastery in central Thailand where more than 10,000 Hmong refugees had already been living. The Thai government attempted to repatriate these refugees, but the Wat Tham Krabok Hmong refused to leave and the Lao government refused to accept them, claiming they were involved in the illegal drug trade and were of non-Lao origin.
Following threats of forcible removal by the Thai government, the United States, in a significant victory for the Hmong, agreed to accept 15,000 of the refugees in 2003. Several thousand Hmong people, fearing forced repatriation to Laos if they were not accepted for resettlement in the United States, fled the camp to live elsewhere within Thailand where a sizeable Hmong population has been present since the 19th century.
In 2004 and 2005, thousands of Hmong fled from the jungles of Laos to a temporary refugee camp in the Thai province of Phetchabun. These Hmong refugees, many of whom are descendants of the former-CIA Secret Army and their relatives, claim that they have been attacked by both the Lao and Vietnamese military forces operating inside Laos as recently as June 2006. The refugees claim that attacks against them have continued almost unabated since the war officially ended in 1975, and have become more intense in recent years.
Lending further support to earlier claims that the government of Laos was persecuting the Hmong, filmmaker Rebecca Sommer documented first-hand accounts in her documentary, "Hunted Like Animals", and in a comprehensive report that includes summaries of refugee claims and was submitted to the UN in May 2006.
The European Union, UNHCHR, and international groups have since spoken out about the forced repatriation. The Thai foreign ministry has said that it will halt deportation of Hmong refugees held in Detention Centres in Nong Khai, while talks are underway to resettle them in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States.
For the time being, countries willing to resettle the refugees are hindered in their immigration and settlement procedures because the Thai administration does not grant them access to the refugees. Plans to resettle additional Hmong refugees in the United States have been complicated by provisions of President George W. Bush's Patriot Act and Real ID Act, under which Hmong veterans of the Secret War, who fought on the side of the United States, are classified as terrorists because of their historical involvement in armed conflict.
On 27 December 2009, "The New York Times" reported that the Thai military was preparing to forcibly return 4,000 Hmong asylum seekers to Laos by the end of the year. The BBC later reported that repatriations had started. Both United States and United Nations officials have protested this action. Outside government representatives have not been allowed to interview this group over the last three years. Médecins Sans Frontières has refused to assist the Hmong refugees because of what they have called "increasingly restrictive measures" taken by the Thai military. The Thai military jammed all cellular phone reception and disallowed any foreign journalists from the Hmong camps.
Human rights violations remain a significant concern in Laos. Prominent civil society advocates, human rights defenders, political and religious dissidents, and Hmong refugees have disappeared at the hands of Lao military and security forces.
Ostensibly, the Constitution of Laos that was promulgated in 1991, and amended in 2003, contains most key safeguards for human rights. For example, Article 8 makes it clear that Laos is a multinational state and is committed to equality between ethnic groups. The Constitution also contains provisions for gender equality, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of press and assembly. On 25 September 2009, Laos ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, nine years after signing the treaty. The stated policy objectives of both the Lao government and international donors remain focused upon achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction.
However, the government of Laos frequently breaches its own constitution and the rule of law, since the judiciary and judges are appointed by the ruling communist party—an independent judicial branch does not exist. According to independent non-profit/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Civil Rights Defenders, along with the U.S. State Department, serious human rights violations such as arbitrary detentions, disappearances, free speech restrictions, prison abuses and other violations are an ongoing problem.
Amnesty International raised concerns about the ratification record of the Lao government on human rights standards, and its lack of co-operation with the UN human rights mechanisms and legislative measures—both impact negatively upon human rights. The organisation also raised concerns in relation to freedom of expression, poor prison conditions, restrictions on freedom of religions, protection of refugees and asylum-seekers, and the death penalty.
In October 1999, 30 young people were arrested for attempting to display posters calling for peaceful economic, political and social change in Laos. Five of them were arrested and subsequently sentenced to up to 10 years imprisonment on charges of treason. One has since died due to his treatment by prison guards, while one has been released. The surviving three men should have been released by October 2009, but their whereabouts remain unknown. Later reports have contradicted this, claiming they were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In late February 2017, two of those imprisoned were finally released after 17 years.
Laos and Vietnamese (SRV) troops were reported to have raped and killed four Christian Hmong women in Xiangkhouang Province in 2011, according to the US-based non-governmental public policy research organization The Centre for Public Policy Analysis. CPPA also said other Christian and independent Buddhist and animist believers were being persecuted.
The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Lao Veterans of America, Inc. and other non-governmental organisations (NGO)s have reported egregious human rights violations, religious persecution, the arrest and imprisonment of political and religious dissidents as well as extrajudicial killings, in Laos by government military and security forces. Human rights advocates including Vang Pobzeb, Kerry and Kay Danes and others have also raised concerns about human rights violations, torture, the arrest and detention of political prisoners as well as the detention of foreign prisoners in Laos including at the infamous Phonthong Prison in Vientiane. Concerns have been raised about the high-profile abduction of Laotian civic activist and Lao PDR's only living Ramon Magsaysay Award laureate Sombath Somphone by Lao security forces and police on 15 December 2012.
In The Economist's "Democracy Index 2016" Laos was classified as an "authoritarian regime", ranking lowest of the nine ASEAN nations included in the study.
Laos is mainly an origin country for sexually trafficked persons. A number of citizens, primarily women and girls, from all ethnic groups and foreigners have been victims of sex trafficking in Laos.
The foreign relations of Laos after the takeover by the Pathet Lao in December 1975, were characterised by a hostile posture toward the West, with the government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic aligning itself with the Soviet Bloc, maintaining close ties with the Soviet Union and depending heavily on the Soviets for most of its foreign assistance. Laos also maintained a "special relationship" with Vietnam and formalised a 1977 treaty of friendship and cooperation that created tensions with China.
With the fall of the Soviet Union and with Vietnam's decreased ability to provide assistance, Laos has sought to improve relations with its regional neighbours.
Laos's emergence from international isolation has been marked through improved and expanded relations with other nations such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey, Australia, France, Japan, and Sweden. Trade relations with the United States were normalised in November 2004 through Congress approved legislation.
Laos was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July 1997 and acceded to the World Trade Organization in 2016. In 2005 it attended the inaugural East Asia Summit.
The Lao economy depends heavily on investment and trade with its neighbors, Thailand, Vietnam, and, especially in the north, China. Pakxe has also experienced growth based on cross-border trade with Thailand and Vietnam. In 2009, despite the fact that the government is still officially communist, the Obama administration in the US declared Laos was no longer a Marxist–Leninist state and lifted bans on Laotian companies receiving financing from the US Export-Import Bank. In 2011, the Lao Securities Exchange began trading. In 2012, the government initiated the creation of the Laos Trade Portal, a website incorporating all information traders need to import and export goods into the country.
In 2016, China was the biggest foreign investor in Laos's economy, having invested in US$5.395 billion since 1989, according to Laos Ministry of Planning and Investment 1989–2014 report. Thailand (invested US$4.489 billion) and Vietnam (invested US$3.108 billion) are the second and third largest investors respectively.
Subsistence agriculture still accounts for half of the GDP and provides 80 percent of employment. Only 4.01 percent of the country is arable land, and a mere 0.34 percent used as permanent crop land, the lowest percentage in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The irrigated areas under cultivation account for only 28% of the total area under cultivation which, in turn, represents only 12% of all of the agricultural land in 2012. Rice dominates agriculture, with about 80 percent of the arable land area used for growing rice. Approximately 77 percent of Lao farm households are self-sufficient in rice.
Through the development, release and widespread adoption of improved rice varieties, and through economic reforms, production has increased by an annual rate of five percent between 1990 and 2005, and Lao PDR achieved a net balance of rice imports and exports for the first time in 1999.
Lao PDR may have the greatest number of rice varieties in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Since 1995 the Lao government has been working with the International Rice Research Institute of the Philippines to collect seed samples of each of the thousands of rice varieties found in Laos.
The economy receives development aid from the IMF, ADB, and other international sources; and also foreign direct investment for development of the society, industry, hydropower and mining (most notably of copper and gold). Tourism is the fastest-growing industry in the country. Economic development in Laos has been hampered by brain drain, with a skilled emigration rate of 37.4 percent in 2000.
Laos is rich in mineral resources and imports petroleum and gas. Metallurgy is an important industry, and the government hopes to attract foreign investment to develop the substantial deposits of coal, gold, bauxite, tin, copper, and other valuable metals. In addition, the country's plentiful water resources and mountainous terrain enable it to produce and export large quantities of hydroelectric energy. Of the potential capacity of approximately 18,000 megawatts, around 8,000 megawatts have been committed for exporting to Thailand and Vietnam.
The country's most widely recognised product may well be Beerlao, which is exported to many developed countries around the world such as the US, Britain, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and neighbours Cambodia and Vietnam. It is produced by the Lao Brewery Company.
The mining industry of Laos has received prominent attention with foreign direct investments. This sector, since 2003–04, has made significant contributions to the economic condition of Laos. More than 540 mineral deposits of gold, copper, zinc, lead and other minerals have been identified, explored and mined.
In 2018, the country ranked 139th on the Human Development Index (HDI), indicating medium development. According to the Global Hunger Index (2018), Laos ranks as the 36th hungriest nation in the world out of the list of the 52 nations with the worst hunger situation(s).
In 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights conducted an official visit to Laos, and found that the country's top-down approach to economic growth and poverty alleviation "is all too often counterproductive, leading to impoverishment and jeopardizing the rights of the poor and marginalised."
In March 2019 the government of Laos announced an interest in permitting cannabis to be used for medicinal purposes. The Prime Minister's Office issued an announcement entrusting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other sectors to organise a seminar to discuss and study the medical use of cannabis. Outcomes of the seminar discussion will be reported to the government as a reference for a subsequent decision.
The tourism sector has grown rapidly, from 80,000 international visitors in 1990, to 1.876 million in 2010. Tourism is expected to contribute US$679.1 million to the gross national product in 2010, rising to US$1.5857 billion by 2020. In 2010, one in every 10.9 jobs was in the tourism sector. Export earnings from international visitors and tourism goods are expected to generate 15.5 percent of total exports or US$270.3 million in 2010, growing in nominal terms to US$484.2 million (12.5 percent of the total) in 2020.
The official tourism slogan is "Simply Beautiful". The main attractions for tourists include Buddhist culture and colonial architecture in Luang Prabang; gastronomy and ancient temples in the capital of Vientiane; backpacking in Muang Ngoi Neua and Vang Vieng; ancient and modern culture and history in the Plain of Jars region (main article: Phonsavan); Laos Civil War history in Sam Neua; trekking and visiting hill tribes in a number of areas including Phongsaly and Luang Namtha; spotting tigers and other wildlife in Nam Et-Phou Louey; caves and waterfalls near Thakhek; relaxation, the Irrawaddy dolphin and Khone Phapheng Falls at Si Phan Don or, as they are known in English, the Four Thousand Islands; Vat Phou, an ancient Khmer temple complex; and the Bolaven Plateau for waterfalls and coffee. The European Council on Trade and Tourism awarded the country the "World Best Tourist Destination" designation for 2013 for this combination of architecture and history.
Luang Prabang and Vat Phou are both UNESCO World Heritage sites, with the Plain of Jars expected to join them once more work to clear Unexploded ordnance has been completed. Major festivals include Lao New Year celebrated around 13–15 April and involves a water festival similar but more subdued than that of Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.
The Lao National Tourism Administration, related government agencies and the private sector are working together to realise the vision put forth in the country's National Ecotourism Strategy and Action Plan. This includes decreasing the environmental and cultural impact of tourism; increasing awareness in the importance of ethnic groups and biological diversity; providing a source of income to conserve, sustain and manage the Lao protected area network and cultural heritage sites; and emphasizing the need for tourism zoning and management plans for sites that will be developed as ecotourism destinations.
Laos is known for silk and local handicraft products, which are on display in Luang Prabang's night market, among other places. Another specialty is mulberry tea.
The main international airports are Vientiane's Wattay International Airport and Luang Prabang International Airport with Pakse International Airport also having a few international flights. The national carrier is Lao Airlines. Other carriers serving the country include Bangkok Airways, Vietnam Airlines, AirAsia, Thai Airways International, China Eastern Airlines and Silk Air.
Much of Laos lacks adequate infrastructure. Laos has no railways, except a short link to connect Vientiane with Thailand over the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge. A short portage railway, the Don Det–Don Khon narrow gauge railway was built by the French in Don Det and Don Khon in Champasak Province but has been closed since the 1940s. In the late 1920s, work began on the Thakhek–Tan Ap railway that would have run between Thakhek, Khammouane Province and Tân Ấp Railway Station, Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam through the Mụ Giạ Pass. The scheme was aborted in the 1930s. The major roads connecting the major urban centres, in particular Route 13, have been significantly upgraded in recent years, but villages far from major roads can be reached only through unpaved roads that may not be accessible year-round.
There is limited external and internal telecommunication, but mobile phones have become widespread in urban centres. In many rural areas electricity is at least partly available. Songthaews (pick-up trucks with benches) are used in the country for long-distance and local public transport.
Laos has made particularly noteworthy progress increasing access to sanitation and has already met its 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target. Laos's predominantly rural (68 percent, source: Department of Statistics, Ministry of Planning and Investment, 2009) population makes investing in sanitation difficult. In 1990 only eight percent of the rural population had access to improved sanitation. Access rose rapidly from 10 percent in 1995 to 38 percent in 2008. Between 1995 and 2008 approximately 1,232,900 more people had access to improved sanitation in rural areas.
Laos's progress is notable in comparison to similar developing countries. This success is in part due to small-scale independent providers emerging in a spontaneous manner or having been promoted by public authorities. The authorities in Laos have recently developed an innovative regulatory framework for Public–Private partnership contracts signed with small enterprises, in parallel with more conventional regulation of State-owned water enterprises.
According to the World Bank data conducted in 2014, Laos has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets on water and sanitation regarding UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme. However, as of today, there are approximately 1.9 million Lao population could not access to improved water supply and 2.4 million people without access to improved sanitation due to a large inequalities access between areas that are close to good roads and remote inaccessible locations.
The term "Laotian" does not necessarily refer to the Lao language, ethnic Lao people, language or customs. It is a political term that includes the non-ethnic Lao groups within Laos and identifies them as "Laotian" because of their political citizenship. Laos has the youngest population of any country in Asia with a median age of 21.6 years.
Laos's population was estimated at 7.45 million in 2020, dispersed unevenly across the country. Most people live in valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries. Vientiane prefecture, the capital and largest city, had about 683,000 residents in 2020.
The people of Laos are often categorised by their distribution by elevation: (lowlands, midlands and upper high lands) as this somewhat correlates with ethnic groupings.
More than half of the nation's population is ethnic Lao—the principal lowland inhabitants, and the politically and culturally dominant people of Laos. The Lao belong to the Tai linguistic group who began migrating south from China in the first millennium CE. Ten percent belong to other "lowland" groups, which together with the Lao people make up the Lao Loum.
In the central and southern mountains, Mon-Khmer-speaking groups, known as Lao Theung or mid-slope Laotians, predominate. Other terms are Khmu, Khamu (Kammu) or Kha as the Lao Loum refer to them to indicate their Austroasiatic language affiliation. However, the latter is considered pejorative, meaning 'slave'. They were the indigenous inhabitants of northern Laos. Some Vietnamese, Laotian Chinese and Thai minorities remain, particularly in the towns, but many left after independence in the late 1940s, many of whom relocated either to Vietnam, Hong Kong, or to France. Lao Theung constitute about 30 percent of the population.
Hill people and minority cultures of Laos such as the Hmong, Yao (Mien) (Hmong-Mien), Dao, Shan, and several Tibeto-Burman speaking peoples have lived in isolated regions of Laos for many years. Mountain/hill tribes of mixed ethno/cultural-linguistic heritage are found in northern Laos, which include the Lua and Khmu people who are indigenous to Laos. Collectively, they are known as Lao Soung or highland Laotians. Lao Soung account for only about 10 percent of the population.
The official and majority language is Lao, a language of the Tai-Kadai language family. However, only slightly more than half of the population speaks Lao natively. The remainder, particularly in rural areas, speak ethnic minority languages. The Lao alphabet, which evolved sometime between the 13th and 14th centuries, was derived from the ancient Khmer script and is very similar to Thai, and easily understood by readers of Thai script. Languages like Khmu (Austroasiatic) and Hmong (Hmong-Mien) are spoken by minorities, particularly in the midland and highland areas. A number of Laotian sign languages are used in areas with high rates of congenital deafness.
French is still commonly used in government and commerce and over a third of Laos's students are educated through the medium of French with French being compulsory for all other students. Throughout the country signage is bilingual in Lao and French, with French being predominant. English, the language of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has become increasingly studied in recent years. It is also a member of the French organisation La Francophonie.
Sixty-six percent of Laotians were Theravada Buddhist, 1.5 percent Christian, 0.1 percent Muslim, 0.1 percent Jewish, and 32.3 percent were other or traditional (mostly practitioners of Satsana Phi) in 2010. Buddhism has long been one of the most important social forces in Laos. Theravada Buddhism has coexisted peacefully since its introduction to the country with the local polytheism.
Male life expectancy at birth was at 62.6 years and female life expectancy was at 66.7 years in 2017. Healthy life expectancy was 54 years in 2007. In 2008, 43 percent of the population did not have access to sanitary water resources. By 2010 this had been reduced to 33 percent of the population. Government expenditure on health is about four percent of GDP, about US$18 (PPP) in 2006.
The adult literacy rate exceeds two thirds. The male literacy rate exceeds the female literacy rate. The total literacy rate is 73 percent (2010 estimate).
In 2004 the net primary enrollment rate was at 84 percent.
The National University of Laos is the Lao state's public university.
As a low-income country, Laos faces a brain-drain problem as the most educated people migrate to developed countries. It is estimated that about 37% of educated Laotians live outside of Laos.
Theravada Buddhism is a dominant influence in Lao culture. It is reflected throughout the country from language to the temple and in art, literature, performing arts, etc. Many elements of Lao culture predate Buddhism, however. For example, Laotian music is dominated by its national instrument, the khaen, a type of bamboo pipe that has prehistoric origins. The khaen traditionally accompanied the singer in "lam", the dominant style of folk music. Among the "lam" styles, the "lam saravane" is probably the most popular.
Sticky rice is a characteristic staple food and has cultural and religious significance to the Lao people. Sticky rice is generally preferred over jasmine rice, and sticky rice cultivation and production is thought to have originated in Laos. There are many traditions and rituals associated with rice production in different environments and among many ethnic groups. For example, Khammu farmers in Luang Prabang plant the rice variety Khao Kam in small quantities near the hut in memory of dead parents, or at the edge of the rice field to indicate that parents are still alive.
Sinh is a traditional garment worn by Laotian women in daily life. It is a hand-woven silk skirt that can identify the woman who wears it in a variety of ways. In particular, it can indicate which region the wearer is from.
Since the founding of the Lao PDR in 1975 only very few films have been made in Laos. The first feature-length film made after the monarchy was abolished is "Gun Voice from the Plain of Jars", directed by Somchith Pholsena in 1983, although its release was prevented by a censorship board. One of the first commercial feature-length films was "Sabaidee Luang Prabang", made in 2008.
The 2017 documentary feature film Blood Road was predominantly shot and produced in Laos with assistance from the Lao government, it was recognized with a News and Documentary Emmy Award in 2018.
Australian filmmaker Kim Mordount's first feature film was made in Laos and features a Laotian cast speaking their native language. Entitled "The Rocket", the film appeared at the 2013 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) and won three awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. One production company's film that has succeeded to produce Lao feature films and gain international recognition.is Lao New Wave Cinema's "At the Horizon", directed by Anysay Keola, that was screened at the OzAsia Film Festival and Lao Art Media's "Chanthaly" (Lao: ຈັນທະລີ) directed by Mattie Do, which was screened at the 2013 Fantastic Fest.
In September 2017, Laos submitted "Dearest Sister" (Lao: ນ້ອງຮັກ), Mattie Do's second feature film, to the 90th Academy Awards (or the Oscars) for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film, marking the country's first submission for the Oscars.
As of 2018, Laos has only three operating theatres dedicated to showing films.
There are some public holidays, festivities and ceremonies in Laos.
All newspapers are published by the government, including two foreign language papers: the English-language daily "Vientiane Times" and the French-language weekly "Le Rénovateur". Additionally, the Khao San Pathet Lao, the country's official news agency, publishes English and French versions of its eponymous paper. Laos has nine daily newspapers, 90 magazines, 43 radio stations, and 32 TV stations operating throughout the country. , Nhân Dân (The People) and the Xinhua News Agency are the only foreign media organisations permitted to open offices in Laos—both opened bureaus in Vientiane in 2011.
The Lao government controls all media channels to prevent critique of its actions. Lao citizens who have criticised the government have been subjected to enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and torture.
Polygamy is officially a crime in Laos, though the penalty is minor. The constitution and Family Code bar the legal recognition of polygamous marriages, stipulating that monogamy is the principal form of marriage in the country. Polygamy, however, is still customary among some Hmong people.
The martial art of muay Lao, the national sport, is a form of kickboxing similar to Thailand's Muay Thai, Burmese Lethwei and Cambodian Pradal Serey.
Football has become the most popular sport in Laos. The Lao League is now the top professional league for association football clubs in the country. Since the start of the League, Lao Army FC has been the most successful club with 8 titles (following the 2007–2008 season), the highest number of championship wins.
Unlike its neighbours, Laos has no tradition in other team sports. In 2017, the country sent a team for the first time to the team events at the Southeast Asian Games. The national basketball team competed at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games where it beat Myanmar in the eighth place game. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17752 |
History of Laos
Evidence for modern human presence in the northern and central highlands of Indochina, that constitute the territories of the modern Laotian nation-state dates back to the Lower Paleolithic. These earliest human migrants are Australo-Melanesians — associated with the Hoabinhian culture and have populated the highlands and the interior, less accessible regions of Laos and all of South-east Asia to this day. The subsequent Austroasiatic and Austronesian marine migration waves affected landlocked Laos only marginally and direct Chinese and Indian cultural contact had a greater impact on the country.
The modern nation-state Laos emerged from the French Colonial Empire as an independent country in 1953. Laos exists in truncated form from the thirteenth century Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. Lan Xang existed as a unified kingdom from 1357–1707, divided into the three rival kingdoms of Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and Champasak from 1707–1779, fell to Siamese suzerainty from 1779–1893, and was reunified under the French Protectorate of Laos in 1893. The borders of the modern state of Laos were established by the French colonial government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Archaeological exploration in Laos has been limited due to rugged and remote topography, a history of twentieth century conflicts which have left over two million tons of unexploded ordnance throughout the country, and local sensitivities to history which involve the Communist government of Laos, village authorities and rural poverty. The first archaeological explorations of Laos began with French explorers acting under the auspices of the École française d'Extrême-Orient. However, due to the Lao Civil War it is only since the 1990s that serious archaeological efforts have begun in Laos. Since 2005, one such effort, The Middle Mekong Archaeological Project (MMAP) has excavated and surveyed numerous sites along the Mekong and its tributaries around Luang Prabang in northern Laos, with the goal of investigating early human settlement of the valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries.
Anatomically modern human hunter-gatherer migration into Southeast Asia before 50,000 years ago has been confirmed by the fossil record of the region. These immigrants might have, to a certain extent, merged and reproduced with members of the archaic population of "Homo erectus", as the 2009 fossil discoveries in the Tam Pa Ling Cave suggest. Dated to between 46,000 and 63,000 years old, it is the oldest fossil found in the region that bears modern human morphological features.
Recent research also supports more accurate understanding of migration patterns of early humans, who migrated in successive waves moving west to east following the coastlines, but also used river valleys further inland and further north than previously theorized.
An early tradition is discernible in the Hoabinhian, the name given to an industry and cultural continuity of stone tools and flaked cobble artifacts that appears around 10,000 BP in caves and rock shelters first described in "Hòa Bình", Vietnam and later also in Laos.
The earliest inhabitants of Laos – Australo-Melanesians – were followed by members of the Austro-Asiatic language family. These earliest societies contributed to the ancestral gene pool of the upland Lao ethnicities known collectively as “Lao Theung,” with the largest ethnic groups being the Khamu of northern Laos, and the Brao and Katang in the south.
Subsequent Neolithic immigration waves are considered dynamic, very complex and are intensely debated. Researchers resort to linguistic terms and argumentation for group identification and classification.
Wet-rice and millet farming techniques were introduced from the Yangtze River valley in southern China since around 2,000 years BC. Hunting and gathering remained an important aspect of food provision; particularly in forested and mountainous inland areas. Earliest known copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia has been confirmed at the site of Ban Chiang in modern north-east Thailand and among the Phung Nguyen culture of northern Vietnam since around 2000 BCE.
From the 8th century BCE to as late as the 2nd century CE an inland trading society emerged on the Xieng Khouang Plateau, around the megalithic site called the Plain of Jars. The Plain, nominated to the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 is still being cleared from unexploded ordnance since 1998. The jars are stone sarcophagi, date from the early Iron Age (500 BCE to 800 CE) and contained evidence of human remains, burial goods and ceramics. Some sites contain more than 250 individual jars. The tallest jars are more than in height. Little is known about the culture which produced and used the jars. The jars and the existence of iron ore in the region suggest that the creators of the site engaged in profitable overland trade.
The first indigenous kingdom to emerge in Indochina was referred to in Chinese histories as the Kingdom of Funan and encompassed an area of modern Cambodia, and the coasts of southern Vietnam and southern Thailand since the 1st century CE. Funan was an Indianised kingdom,
that had incorporated central aspects of Indian institutions, religion, statecraft, administration, culture, epigraphy, writing and architecture and engaged in profitable Indian Ocean trade.
By the 2nd century CE, Austronesian settlers had established an Indianised kingdom known as Champa along modern central Vietnam. The Cham people established the first settlements near modern Champasak in Laos. Funan expanded and incorporated the Champasak region by the sixth century CE, when it was replaced by its successor polity Chenla. Chenla occupied large areas of modern-day Laos as it accounts for the earliest kingdom on Laotian soil.
The capital of early Chenla was Shrestapura which was located in the vicinity of Champasak and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Wat Phu. Wat Phu is a vast temple complex in southern Laos which combined natural surroundings with ornate sandstone structures, which were maintained and embellished by the Chenla peoples until 900 CE, and were subsequently rediscovered and embellished by the Khmer in the 10th century.
By the 8th century CE Chenla had divided into “Land Chenla” located in Laos, and “Water Chenla” founded by Mahendravarman near Sambor Prei Kuk in Cambodia. Land Chenla was known to the Chinese as “Po Lou” or “Wen Dan” and dispatched a trade mission to the Tang Dynasty court in 717 CE. Water Chenla, would come under repeated attack from Champa, the Medang sea kingdoms in Indonesia based in Java, and finally pirates. From the instability the Khmer emerged.
Under the king Jayavarman II the Khmer Empire began to take shape in the 9th century CE. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17753 |
Geography of Laos
Laos is an independent republic, and a landlocked nation in Southeast Asia, northeast of Thailand, west of Vietnam. It covers 236,800 square kilometers in the center of the Southeast Asian peninsula and it is surrounded by Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Vietnam. About seventy percent of its geographic area is made up of mountain ranges, highlands, plateaux, and rivers cut through.
Its location has often made it a buffer state between more powerful neighboring states, as well as a crossroads for trade and communication. Migration and international conflict have contributed to the present ethnic composition of the country and to the geographic distribution of its ethnic groups.
Most of the western border of Laos is demarcated by the Mekong river, which is an important artery for transportation. The Dong Falls at the southern end of the country prevent access to the sea, but cargo boats travel along the entire length of the Mekong in Laos during most of the year. Smaller power boats and pirogues provide an important means of transportation on many of the tributaries of the Mekong.
The Mekong has thus not been an obstacle but a facilitator for communication, and the similarities between Laos and northeast Thai society—same people, almost same language—reflect the close contact that has existed across the river for centuries. Also, many Laotians living in the Mekong Valley have relatives and friends in Thailand.
Prior to the twentieth century, Laotian kingdoms and principalities encompassed areas on both sides of the Mekong, and Thai control in the late nineteenth century extended to the left bank. Although the Mekong was established as a border by French colonial forces, travel from one side to the other has been significantly limited only since the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR, or Laos) in 1975.
The eastern border with Vietnam extends for 2,130 kilometres, mostly along the crest of the Annamite Chain, and serves as a physical barrier between the Chinese-influenced culture of Vietnam and the Indianized states of Laos and Thailand. These mountains are sparsely populated by tribal minorities who traditionally have not acknowledged the border with Vietnam any more than lowland Lao have been constrained by the 1,754-kilometre Mekong River border with Thailand. Thus, ethnic minority populations are found on both the Laotian and Vietnamese sides of the frontier. Because of their relative isolation, contact between these groups and lowland Lao has been mostly confined to trading.
Laos shares its short—only 541 kilometres—southern border with Cambodia, and ancient Khmer ruins at Wat Pho and other southern locations attest to the long history of contact between the Lao and the Khmer. In the north, the country is bounded by a mountainous 423-kilometre border with China and shares the 235-kilometre-long Mekong River border with Myanmar.
The topography of Laos is largely mountainous, with the Annamite Range in the northeast and east and the Luang Prabang Range in the northwest, among other ranges typically characterized by steep terrain. Elevations are typically above 500 metres with narrow river valleys and low agricultural potential. This mountainous landscape extends across most of the north of the country, except for the plain of Vientiane and the Plain of Jars in the Xiangkhoang Plateau.
The southern "panhandle" of the country contains large level areas in Savannakhét and Champasak provinces that are well suited for extensive paddy rice cultivation and livestock raising. Much of Khammouan Province and the eastern part of all the southern provinces are mountainous. Together, the alluvial plains and terraces of the Mekong and its tributaries cover only about 20% of the land area.
Only about 4% of the total land area is classified as arable. The forested land area has declined significantly since the 1970s as a result of commercial logging and expanded swidden, or slash-and-burn, farming.
Laos has a tropical climate, with a pronounced rainy season from May through October, a cool dry season from November through February, and a hot dry season in March and April. Generally, monsoons occur at the same time across the country, although that time may vary significantly from one year to the next.
Rainfall varies regionally, with the highest amounts— annually—recorded on the Bolovens Plateau in Champasak Province. City rainfall stations have recorded that Savannakhét averages of rain annually; Vientiane receives about , and Louangphrabang (Luang Prabang) receives about .
Rainfall is not always adequate for rice cultivation and the relatively high average precipitation conceals years where rainfall may be only half or less of the norm, causing significant declines in rice yields. Such droughts often are regional, leaving production in other parts of the country unaffected.
The average temperatures in January, coolest month, are, Luang Prabang 20.5 °C (minimum 0.8 °C), Vientiane 20.3 °C (minimum 3.9 °C), and Pakse 23.9 °C (minimum 8.2 °C); the average temperatures for April, usually the hottest month, are, Luang Prabang 28.1 °C (maximum 44.8 °C), Vientiane 39.4 °C). Temperature does vary according to the altitude, there is an average drop of 1.7 °C for every 1000 feet (or 300 meters). Temperatures in the upland plateux and in the mountains are considered lower than on the plains around Vientiane.
Laos is highly vulnerable to the effects of global climate change; nearly all provinces in Laos are at high risks from climate change.
Agriculture in Laos is the most important sector of the economy. Five million out of 23,680,000 hectares of Laos's total land area is suitable for cultivation, and seventeen percent of the land area, between 850,000 and 900,000 hectares, is cultivated. Rice is the main crop grown during the rainy season both upland and wet. There is also a significant amount of fishing.
Agricultural cultivation is possible during with varying weather on a small portion of land area apart from the Vientiane plain and the lowlands along the Mekong Valley. These cultivated areas are situated in the valley cuts by the rivers or the plateau regions of Xieng Khouang in the North and in the Bolovens in the south. Typically there are only two ways to cultivate: either the wet-field paddy system practiced among the Lao Loum or lowland in Lao, or the swidden cultivation system practiced in the hills.
Laos has a smaller population than most countries in South East Asia. The first comprehensive national population census of Laos was taken in 1985; it recorded a population of about 3.57 million. In 1987, the population was officially stated as 3,830,000 and the capital city, Vientiane, had a population of 120,000. The annual growth was estimated at between 2.6 and 3.0 percent. The national birth rate is estimated at about forty-five per 1,000, while the death rate estimates at around sixteen per 1,000. The fertility rates are higher between ages twenty and forty which highlights the average woman giving birth to an average of 6.8 children.
The overall population density was only eighteen persons per square kilometer, and in many districts the density was fewer than ten persons per square kilometer. Population density per cultivated hectare was considerably high ranging from 3.3 to 7.8 persons per hectare. The population is ethnically diverse, but a complete classification of all ethnic groups has never been undertaken. Discrepancies in the number of groups resulted from inconsistent definitions of what constitutes an ethnic group as opposed to a subgroup, as well as incomplete knowledge about the groups themselves.
Because of its mountainous topography and lack of development, Laos has few reliable transportation routes. This inaccessibility has historically limited the ability of any government to maintain a presence in areas distant from the national or provincial capitals and has limited interchange and communication among villages and ethnic groups.
The Mekong and Nam Ou are the only natural channels suitable for large-draft boat transportation, and from December through May low water limits the size of the draft that may be used over many routes. Laotians in lowland villages located on the banks of smaller rivers have traditionally traveled in pirogues for fishing, trading, and visiting up and down the river for limited distances.
Otherwise, travel is by ox-cart over level terrain or by foot. The steep mountains and lack of roads have caused upland ethnic groups to rely entirely on pack baskets and horse packing for transportation.
The road system is not extensive. A rudimentary network begun under French colonial rule and continued from the 1950s has provided an important means of increased inter-village communication, movement of market goods, and a focus for new settlements. In mid-1994, travel in most areas was difficult and expensive, and most Laotians traveled only limited distances, if at all. As a result of ongoing improvements in the road system started during the early 1990s, it is expected that in the future villagers will more easily be able to seek medical care, send children to schools at district centers, and work outside the village.
In October 2015 the first highway through the country was completed connecting southern China to Thailand.[1]
Inland waterways, including the Mekong River, is the second most important source of transport network. About 4,600 kilometers of navigable waterways are located within the Mekong, the Ou, and nine other rivers. The Mekong River is only navigable for about seventy percent of its length due to rapids and low water levels in the dry season.
Residents in the lower lands and villages of smaller river banks have traditionally traveled in pirogues for fishing, trading, or visiting up and down the river for limited distances. The public and private trade associations handle river traffic. There are a series of warehouses and ports in Savannakhet, Xeno, and Vientiane. The river transportation has improved since government policy expanded trade with Vietnam and other rural regions.
Expanding commercial exploitation of forests, plans for additional hydroelectric facilities, foreign demands for wild animals and nonwood forest products for food and traditional medicines, and a growing population have brought new and increasing attention to the forests. Traditionally, forests have been important sources of wild foods, herbal medicines, and timber for house construction.
Soils are found commonly throughout the floodplains. Typically, soils are formed from alluvium deposited by the rivers as either sandy clay in light colors or sand clay with gray or yellow colors. Upland soils derive from granitic, schistose, or sandstone parent rocks more acidic and less fertile. Southern Laos has areas of laterite soils, and basaltic soils in the Bolovens Plateau.
Northern Laos has tropical rainforests with broader-leaved evergreens and monsoon forests of mixed evergreen and in the south is filled with deciduous trees. In the monsoon forest, the ground is covered with tall, coarse grass. The trees mostly only reach their secondary growth. Typically, bamboo, scrub, and wild banana are abundant. Laos is also home to hundreds of species of orchids and palms.
Forests and fields serve as support for wildlife. Wildlife in Laos includes nearly 200 species of mammals, about the same number for reptiles and amphibians, and about 700 varieties of birds. Common mammals are gaurs (wild oxen), deer, bears, and monkeys. Endangered animals include elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, several types of wild oxen, monkeys, and gibbons. Snakes, skinks, frogs, and geckoes are abundant. Warblers, babblers, woodpeckers, thrushes, and large raptors inhabit the canopy and floor of the forest. Numerous species of birds live in the lowlands. Lastly, several of Laos's bird species are threatened, including most hornillo, ibises, and storks.
Laos is increasingly suffering from environmental problems, with deforestation a particularly significant issue, as expanding commercial exploitation of the forests, plans for additional hydroelectric facilities, foreign demand for wild animals and nonwood forest products for food and traditional medicines, and a growing population all create increasing pressure.
The United Nations Development Programme warns: "Protecting the environment and sustainable use of natural resources in Lao PDR is vital for poverty reduction and economic growth."
In April 2011, "The Independent" newspaper reported that Laos had started work on the controversial Xayaburi Dam on the Mekong River without getting formal approval. Environmentalists say the dam will adversely affect 60 million people and Cambodia and Vietnam—concerned about the flow of water further downstream—are officially opposed to the project. The Mekong River Commission, a regional intergovernmental body designed to promote the "sustainable management" of the river, famed for its giant catfish, carried out a study that warned if Xayaburi and subsequent schemes went ahead, it would "fundamentally undermine the abundance, productivity and diversity of the Mekong fish resources". Neighbouring Vietnam warned that the dam would harm the Mekong Delta, which is the home to nearly 20 million people and supplies around 50 percent of Vietnam's rice output and over 70 percent of both its seafood and fruit output. By building dams Laos is willing to become the battery of Asia by selling electricity to its neighboring countries.
Milton Osborne, Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy who has written widely on the Mekong, warns: "The future scenario is of the Mekong ceasing to be a bounteous source of fish and guarantor of agricultural richness, with the great river below China becoming little more than a series of unproductive lakes."
Illegal logging is also a major problem. Environmental groups estimate that of logs are being cut by Vietnam People's Army (VPA) forces, and companies it owns, in co-operation with the Lao People's Army and then transported from Laos to Vietnam every year, with most of the furniture eventually exported to western countries by the VPA military-owned companies.
A 1992 government survey indicated that forests occupied about 48 percent of Laos's land area. Forest coverage decreased to 41 percent in a 2002 survey. Lao authorities have said that, in reality, forest coverage might be no more than 35 percent because of development projects such as dams, on top of the losses to illegal logging.
Most of the deforestation during the 1980s stemmed from the northern region in which the poor destroyed about 300,000 hectares annually. A study conducted in Savannakhet Province revealed a pattern in which the households extracting resources from the forest tended to be the rural poor. It cross referenced the data collected from two groups, the poor and the wealthy to identify possible correlations between welfare and the dependency on the extraction of natural resources to support one's livelihood. Compared to the wealthy group, the poor had higher levels of exposure to environmental, health, and economic shocks in addition to having little capital such as education and financial assets. While the poor depended more on nonwood commodities from the forest to increase food security, the wealthier group would harvest timber and wood for environmental income. A study found a correlation between the loss of forest coverage with socio-economic development and physical factors, such as the elevation and slope of the land or its distance to main roads. The closer a forest was situated to a main road, the increased chances of deforestation; the same applied to the proximity of villages to nearby forests. Furthermore, high elevation areas in the mountains tended to faced higher deforestation rates compared to the flat lands or lower areas. While there is a higher amount of settlements and villages in the lower flat lands, most of the human activities is concentrated in the higher areas thus explaining the different rates. A plethora of environmental issues contributing to the deforestation include problems with the urban environment, mismanaged mineral exploitation, and careless development planning for industrial and transportation sectors.
Among the many ongoing issues threatening Lao's ecosystem with deforestation, there is a growing concern about Invasive Alien Species (IAS) contributing to the environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity. Bringing in alien species to promote economic development has brought notable success such as coffee, which is now one of Lao's main exports. However, as non native plants or species proliferate, new diseases and pests also become an issue which upsets the natural balance of the ecosystem. This prompts farmers to use extensive commercial herbicides to protect their crops from species such as the Mimosa Invisa and Mimosa Pigra weeds, further damaging the land in the long run. Ever since the Golden Apple Snail (GAS) was introduced to Laos from Vietnam in 1994 as a new source of food, it has spread through waterways and human transport to 10 of Lao's 17 provinces causing many fields to become infested with snails. One of the unintended consequences of this alien species being brought to Laos was the unforeseeable damage to rice paddies, prompting farmers to forgo hand-picking and instead use pesticides for the heavily infested fields leading to chemical runoff. In addition to the chemical pollution in the water threatening the health of aquatic animals and people working in the paddies, many farmers also experienced severe injuries in the field from stepping on the snail shells.
Government intervention policies have been implemented to address concerns such as unsustainable timber harvesting, slash-and-burn cultivation, and the allocation of forestland to other purposes such as agriculture, industry, and infrastructure development. The major causes of continued forest degradation from that point onward was not due to policy failure, but rather a lack of multiple factors which include: funding, law enforcement, experienced workers, and organization in the economic sector. Despite all this, there have been other policy attempts and interventions that have been successful in aiding the problem. Reducing the rural population, allowing for tree plantation development, and transitioning from upland rice cultivation to commercial market oriented agricultural practices, contributed to the efforts increasing the amount of forest coverage in Laos. Of the commercial market oriented agricultural practices, the one that saw great success in forest coverage increase is linked to the Southern region's rubber plantations, which has been increasing in number due to rubber being a valuable commodity giving farmers incentive to plant more trees. While it did increase forest coverage, native forests and shifting cultivation lands were subject to change and decline as they transformed into rubber plantations especially during the boom periods of rubber prices, altering the overall biodiversity in the ecosystem.
As a means of regulating the country's environmental degradation, the Laos government implemented a new article to the Environmental Protection Law in 2013 that requires the natural resources and environment sector to develop a report every three years to assess the current state of the environment. Amidst the implementation of new laws, however, to regulate the logging industry, there has not been much transparency regarding the provincial government's involvement with the smuggling and foreign investors. Despite implementing the national export ban on timber in 2016, logs are still being smuggled on a regular basis to Lao's neighboring countries, particularly China and Vietnam to be used as materials for luxury furniture. An anonymous witness account revealed that particular provincial governors are safeguarding the hidden illegal lumber, manipulating the reports, and hiding the total number of seized logs to protect the interests of their foreign investors. As such there seems to be a lack of oversight in the ongoing matter.
USAID also implemented a program called Lowering Emissions in Asia's Forests (LEAF) from 2011 to 2016 to reduce greenhouse gases and minimize the consequences of deforestation. While USAID LEAF was overseeing one of the National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) in Nam Xam, Laos, Climate Protection Through Avoided Deforestation (CliPAD) also simultaneously initiated their project in the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area (NPA) which provided a complementary foundation for USAID LEAF to work upon. USAID LEAF worked in conjunction with the CliPAD project to provide participatory land use planning as well as animal husbandry to prepare the communities for future provincial REDD+ strategies. In introducing participatory land use planning into the provinces, districts developed management plans to allocate natural resources or approved land in a substantially more eco-friendly manner by allowing for better community security and conditions over forest resources. They also were involved in monitoring livestock management for quality over quantity, and in doing so decreased the concerns of excessive forest grazing while collectively increasing community income. They also were involved in monitoring livestock management for quality over quantity, and in doing so decreased the concerns of excessive forest grazing while collectively increasing community income. However, due to a lack of strong political leadership, the collaborative efforts between LEAF and CliPAD were impeded, resulting in LEAF downsizing the scope of the programs and processes. Furthermore, constant regulatory and legislative changes continued to occur in the national and provincial levels, which discouraged the plans of LEAF, but ultimately shifted the focus more on the local level leading to successful outcomes with local stakeholders.
Funded by the German government through the KfW development bank, the GIZ CliPAD project oversaw the creation of a national and provincial REDD+ framework through local-level mitigation measures and sustainable financing models. Similarly to the USAID LEAF project, it provided support through capacity building measures such as conducting participatory land use planning in 87 villages. In addition, it arranged law enforcement training for 162 officers from the Provincial Office of Forest Inspection as a means to effectively deal with poachers and illegal logging. Local communities were prompted to apply the learned sustainable practices regarding natural resource management and explore alternative means of income, to reduce the dependency on the environment's natural resources. In addition to the capacity building measures, CliPAD also provided support for establishing the necessary legal framework to launch REDD+ by aiding in the forest law revision process.
Area:
"total:" 236,800 km²
"land:" 230,800 km²
"water:" 6,000 km²
Area - comparative: slightly larger than the US state of Minnesota slightly smaller than half of the Canadian territory of the Yukon slightly smaller than the United Kingdom
Land boundaries:
"total:" 5,083 km
"border countries:" Myanmar 235 km, Cambodia 541 km, the People's Republic of China 423 km, Thailand 1,754 km, Vietnam 2,130 km
Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)
Elevation extremes:
"lowest point:" Mekong River 70 m
"highest point:" Phou Bia 2,817 m
"Laos". "Encyclopædia Britannica Online". Encyclopædia Britannica, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2016.
Kittikhoun, Anoulak. "Small State, Big Revolution: Geography and the Revolution in Laos". "Theory & Society" 38.1 (2009): 25-55. Print.
Savada, Andrea Matles, et al. "Laos : A Country Study". 3rd ed. ed. Washington, DC: Washington, DC : Federal Research Division, Library of Congress : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O, 1995. Print. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17754 |
Demographics of Laos
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Laos, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Laos' population was estimated at about /1e6 round 2 million in , dispersed unevenly across the country. Most people live in valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries. Vientiane Prefecture, which includes Vientiane, the capital and largest city of the country, had about 569,000 residents in 1999. The country's population density is 23.4/km2.
In March 2005, the total population was 5.62 million (2.82 million females, 2.80 million males) in the 2005 census, an increase of 1.047 million since the previous 1995 census.
The demographic makeup of the population is uncertain as the government divides the people into three groups according to the altitude at which they live, rather than according to ethnic origin. The lowland Lao (Lao Loum) account for 68%, upland Lao (Lao Theung) for 22%, and the highland Lao (Lao Soung, including the Hmong and the Yao) for 9%.
Ethnic Lao, the principal lowland inhabitants and politically and culturally dominant group, make up the bulk of the Lao Loum and around 60% of the total population. The Lao are a branch of the Tai people who began migrating southward from China in the first millennium A.D. In the north, there are mountain tribes of Miao–Yao, Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman Hmong, Yao, Akha, and Lahu who migrated into the region in the 19th century. Collectively, they are known as Lao Sung or highland Lao.
In the central and southern mountains, Mon–Khmer tribes known as Lao Theung or upland Lao, predominate. Some Chinese minorities remain, particularly in the towns, but many Laotian Chinese were forced to leave during 1975-80 when Laos followed the anti-Chinese policy of Vietnam.
The predominant religion is Theravada Buddhism. Animism is common among the mountain tribes. Buddhism and spirit worship coexist easily. There is a small number of Christians and Muslims.
The official and dominant language is Lao, a tonal language of the Tai linguistic group. Midslope and highland Lao speak tribal languages. French, once common in government and commerce, has declined in use, while knowledge of English — the language of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — has increased in recent years.
With a median age of 19.3, Laos has the youngest population of Asia.
According to , the population of Laos increased from 1.7 million in 1950 to /1e6 round 1 million in . Until the year 2000 the proportion of children 0–14 years of age was over 40% of the total population. Due to decreasing fertility rates this proportion decreased to 34.5% in 2010. The proportion of elderly people is still very low (3.9%), although the proportion doubled between 1950 and 2010.
Structure of the population (March 2005; census):
Structure of the population (01.03.2015) (Census) :
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
Total fertility rate and other related statistics by province, as of 2011-2012:
Source: "UN World Population Prospects"
Specialists are largely in agreement as to the ethnolinguistic classification of the ethnic groups of Laos. For the purposes of the 1995 census, the government of Laos recognized 149 ethnic groups within 47 main ethnicities. whereas the Lao Front for National Construction (LFNC) recently revised the list to include 49 ethnicities consisting of over 160 ethnic groups.
The term "ethnic minorities" is used by some to classify the non-Lao ethnic groups, while the term "indigenous peoples" is not used by the Lao PDR. These 160 ethnic groups speak a total of 82 distinct living languages.
Lao 53.2%, Khmu 11%, Hmong 9.2%, and other (over 100 minor ethnic groups) 26.6% (2015 census).
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Sex ratio:
"at birth:" 1.1 male(s)/female
"under 15 years:" 1.01 male(s)/female
"15-64 years:" 0.98 male(s)/female
"65 years and over:" 0.76 male(s)/female
"total population:" 0.98 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
"total population:" 62.39 years (2011 est.)
"male:" 60.50 years (2011 est.)
"female:" 64.36 years (2011 est.)
Nationality:
"noun:" Lao(s) or Laotian(s)
"adjective:" Lao or Laotian
Religions:
Buddhist 67%, Christian 1.5%, other and unspecified 31.5% (see Religion in Laos)
Languages:
Lao (official), French, English, Vietnamese, and various ethnic languages
Literacy:
"definition:" age 15 and over can read and write
"total population:" 73%
"male:" 83%
"female:" 63% (2005 est.) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17755 |
Economy of Laos
The economy of Laos is a rapidly growing lower-middle income developing economy. Being one of five remaining socialist states, the Lao economic model resembles the Chinese socialist market and/or Vietnamese socialist-oriented market economies by combining high degrees of state ownership with an openness to foreign direct investment and private ownership in a predominantely market-based framework.
Following independence, Laos established a Soviet-type planned economy. As part of economic restructuring that aimed to integrate Laos into the globalized world market, Laos underwent reforms called the "New Economic Mechanism" in 1986 that decentralized government control and encouraged private enterprise alongside state-owned enterprises. Currently, Laos ranks amongst the fastest growing economies in the world, averaging 8% a year in GDP growth. It is also forecasted that Laos will sustain at least 7% growth through 2019 as well.
Key goals for the government includes pursuing poverty reduction and education for all children, also with its initiative to become a "land-linked" country. This is showcased through the ongoing construction of the nearly $6 billion high-speed rail from Kunming, China to Vientiane, Laos. The country opened a stock exchange, the Lao Securities Exchange in 2011, and has become a rising regional player in its role as a hydroelectric power supplier to neighbors such as China, Vietnam and Thailand. In the current period, the economy of Laos relies largely on foreign direct investment to attract the capital from overseas to support its continual economic rigorousness. The long-term goal of the Lao economy as enshrined in the constitution is economic development in the direction of socialism by creating the material conditions to move towards socialism.
Despite rapid growth, Laos remains one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. A landlocked country, it has inadequate infrastructure and a largely unskilled work force. Nonetheless, Laos continues to attract foreign investment as it integrates with the larger ASEAN Economic Community, its plentiful, young workforce, and favorable tax treatment.
With the overthrow of the Laotian monarchy in 1975, the Pathet Lao's communist government instituted a planned economy of the Soviet-style command economy system, replacing the private sector with state enterprises and cooperatives; centralizing investment, production, trade, and pricing; and creating barriers to internal and foreign trade.
Seizure of power by the Communists also resulted in a withdrawal of mainly American external investment, on which the country had become greatly dependent as a result of the destruction of domestic capital during the Indochina Wars.
Within a few years, the PDR Lao government realized these types of economic policies were preventing, rather than stimulating, growth and development. No substantive reform was introduced, however, until 1986 when the government announced its "new economic mechanism" (NEM). Initially timid, the NEM was expanded to include a range of reforms designed to create conditions conducive to private sector activity.
Prices set by market forces replaced government-determined prices. Farmers were permitted to own land and sell crops on the open market. State firms were granted increased decision-making authority and lost most of their subsidies and pricing advantages. The government set the exchange rate close to real market levels, lifted trade barriers, replaced import barriers with tariffs, and gave private sector firms direct access to imports and credit.
With the growing unrest in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, in 1989, the PDR Lao government reached agreement with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on additional reforms. The government agreed to introduce fiscal and monetary reform, promote private enterprise and foreign investment, privatize or close state firms, and strengthen banking. It also agreed to maintain a market exchange rate, reduce tariffs, and eliminate unneeded trade regulations. A liberal foreign investment code was enacted and appears to be slowly making a positive impact in the market. Enforcement of intellectual property rights is governed by two Prime Minister's Decrees dating from 1995 and 2002.
In an attempt to stimulate further international commerce, the PDR Lao government accepted Australian aid to build a bridge across the Mekong River to Thailand. The "Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge", between Vientiane Prefecture and Nong Khai Province, Thailand, was inaugurated in April 1994. Although the bridge has created additional commerce, the Lao government does not yet permit a completely free flow of traffic across the span.
These reforms led to economic growth and an increased availability of goods. However, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, coupled with the Lao government's own mismanagement of the economy, resulted in spiraling inflation and a steep depreciation of the kip, which lost 87% of its value from June 1997 to June 1999. Tighter monetary policies brought about greater macroeconomic stability in FY 2000, and monthly inflation, which had averaged about 10% during the first half of FY 1999, dropped to an average 1% over the same period in FY 2000.
In FY 1999, foreign grants and loans accounted for more than 20% of GDP and more than 75% of public investment.
The economy continues to be dominated by an unproductive agricultural sector operating largely outside the money economy and in which the public sector continues to play a dominant role. Still, a number of private enterprises have been founded and some are quite successful in industries such as handicrafts, beer, coffee and tourism. With United Nations, Japanese, and German support, a formerly state-controlled chamber of commerce aims to promote private business: the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and its provincial subdivisions.
The latest round of state-owned enterprise reform in 2019 aims to establish SOEs as profitable ventures that can become efficient and sustainable sources of income for the national treasury. These measures include closing unproductive enterprises, ensure businesses in which the state has investments are reformed into profitable ventures, and reduce corruption. As of 2019, the State-Owned Enterprise Development and Insurance Department of the Lao government has 183 enterprises under its supervision.
Agriculture, mostly subsistence rice farming, dominates the economy, employing an estimated 85% of the population and producing 51% of GDP. Domestic savings are low, forcing Laos to rely heavily on foreign assistance and concessional loans as investment sources for economic development.
Agricultural products include sweet potatoes, vegetables, corn, coffee, sugarcane, tobacco, cotton, tea, peanuts, rice; water buffalo, pigs, cattle, poultry.
In mid-2012, the Laos government issued a four-year moratorium for new mining projects. The reasons cited were environmental and social concerns relating to the use of agricultural land.
Tourism is the fastest growing industry in the economy and plays a vital role in the Lao economy. The government opened Laos to the world in the 1990s, and continues to be a popular destination amongst tourists.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $14.2 billion (2009 est.)
Exchange rate - kips (LAK) per US dollar - 8,556.56 (2009), 8,760.69 (2008), 9,658 (2007), 10,235 (2006), 10,820 (2005)
Of the total foreign investment in Laos in 2012, the mining industry got 27% followed by electricity generation which has 25% share. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17757 |
Mass media in Laos
Mass media in Laos are based on a network of telephone lines and radiotelephone communications in remote areas, as well as mobile phone infrastructure. The system is not well-developed.
In 1997 there were 25,000 telephone lines in use, and in 2007 there were 850,000 mobile cellular subscribers. Laos is served by a Russian Intersputnik satellite that covers the Indian Ocean region.
In 1998 there were 12 AM stations and one FM station. In 1997 there were an estimated 730,000 radios in the country. In 2011 Laos had three television channels. In 2000 there was one Internet service provider, by 2002 serving about 10,000 users. The top-level domain for Laos is .la. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17758 |
Transport in Laos
This article concerns the systems of transportation in Laos. Laos is a country in Asia, which possesses a number of modern transportation systems, including several highways and a number of airports. As a landlocked country, Laos possesses no ports or harbours on the sea, and the difficulty of navigation on the Mekong means that this is also not a significant transport route.
Because of its mountainous topography and lack of development, Laos has few reliable transportation routes. This inaccessibility has historically limited the ability of any government to maintain a presence in areas distant from the national or provincial capitals and has limited interchange and communication among villages and ethnic groups.
The Mekong and Nam Ou are the only natural channels suitable for large-draft boat transportation, and from December through May low water limits the size of the draft that may be used over many routes. Laotians in lowland villages located on the banks of smaller rivers have traditionally traveled in pirogues for fishing, trading, and visiting up and down the river for limited distances.
Otherwise, travel is by ox-cart over level terrain or by foot. The steep mountains and lack of roads have caused upland ethnic groups to rely entirely on pack baskets and horse packing for transportation.
The road system is not extensive. A rudimentary network begun under French colonial rule and continued from the 1950s has provided an important means of increased intervillage communication, movement of market goods, and a focus for new settlements. As of mid-1994, travel in most areas was difficult and expensive, and most Laotians traveled only limited distances, if at all. As a result of ongoing improvements in the road system started during the early 1990s, it is expected that in the future villagers will more easily be able to seek medical care, send children to schools at district centers, and work outside the village.
Rail transport does not play a significant part in Laos's transport sector, since the country largely lacks the required infrastructure. A short portage railway, the Don Det – Don Khon narrow gauge railway, was built by the French while Laos was a part of French Indochina. The railway crossed over the islands of Don Det and Don Khon, enabling vessels, freight and passengers to travel along the Mekong River. The railway was abandoned and fell into disrepair, although some of the infrastructure is still in place.
In the late 1920s, work began on the Thakhek–Tan Ap railway, that would have run between Thakhek, Khammouane Province and Tân Ấp Railway Station, Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam through the Mụ Giạ Pass. However, the scheme was eventually aborted in the 1930s.
In January 2007 work began on a extension of the metre-gauge State Railway of Thailand network across the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge to Thanaleng Railway Station, a new passenger and freight terminal in Dongphosy village, east of Vientiane. Test trains began running on July 4, 2008, and Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand formally inaugurated the line on March 5, 2009. As of November 2010, Lao officials plan to convert the station into a rail cargo terminal for freight trains, allowing cargo to be transported from Bangkok into Laos at a lower cost than would be possible with road transport.
In 2007, the Laotian Ministry of Transportation entered into discussion with Vietnam to discuss the possibility of opening a new railway line from Thakhek in Laos through the Mụ Giạ Pass to Tân Ấp Railway Station in Vietnam's Quảng Bình Province, on the North–South Railway. The proposed line would continue to the coast at Vung Ang, a port in Hà Tĩnh Province, which would provide landlocked Laos with access to the South China Sea. According to plans established by ASEAN, the line may also be extended via Thakhek all the way to the Laotian capital Vientiane. Both Laos and Thailand have expressed interest in the project as a shorter export gateway to the Pacific Ocean.
By 2012, the Thakhek project was not in the news anymore; but a project for another, somewhat more southern, line to Vietnam, now from Savannakhet, was announced instead. An agreement for the construction of this , $5 billion line, was signed on Nov 5, 2012 with a Malaysian company called Giant Consolidated Limited. The work is supposed to begin in 2013 and be completed in 4 years. On the 11th April 2016, the Laotian Ministry of Public Works and Transport approved a new rail corridor after it was reported that the previous route would have unacceptable social and environmental impacts. Installation of corridor posts along the proposed railway right-of-way was completed in December 2016, with major construction to commence immediately after final approval from the Lao government.
Laos has a long history of negotiating with China regarding the possibility of a joint railway project.
In October 2010, plans were announced for a standard gauge railway linking Vientiane to Xishuangbanna, in Yunnan province in China. Construction was expected to begin in 2011, for completion in 2014. There were plans to extend this railway south from Vientiane to Bangkok. However, in April 2011 it was reported that construction of the railway has been postponed indefinitely, while the Chinese Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun has been arrested on corruption charges.
In October 2012, it was announced again that an agreement with China about the construction of a railway from Vientiane to the Chinese border is to be signed "within days". The project cost is quoted at $7 billion, and the construction will be done by Chinese companies. The ground-breaking ceremony was planned for November 2012, and the completion of the project was expected by 2017. In November 2012, the Laotian press was reporting that the money for the construction of the railway would be borrowed from the EXEM Bank of China; the construction would be started in 2013, and complete in 2018.. As of March 2020 construction is well advanced, with completion scheduled for December 2021.
The rail link will go through Yunnan province, linking together Kunming, China with Vientiane via Bangkok, Thailand to Dawei, Myanmar. On February 23, 2013, part of the new railway line started operations. It spans from Yuxi, south of Kunming, capital of China's Yunnan province, to Mengzi on the route to the Vietnamese border, and is mainly intended for freight transport with a maximum speed of . The new line replaces the 100-year-old, Kunming-Haiphone line, which had a speed of just .
On 2 December 2015, Laos with China officially began about the construction of a railway from Vientiane to the Chinese border. The railway will stretch , from the Laos-China borderline in Phongsaly Province to Vientiane. The rail will be connected with the new railway bridge spanning the Mekong between Vientiane and Thailand's Nongkhai Province. The total project cost is estimated at 38.7 billion yuan (over US$6 billion), which is about 90.6 million yuan (approx. US$14 million) per kilometre. China will be responsible for 70 per cent of the total investment, while Laos will bear the remainder.
In Laos, there are of roadway, of which are paved, leaving unpaved. Right-hand traffic (RHT) is observed in Laos.
Laos constructed a new highway in 2007 connecting Savannakhet to the Vietnamese border at Lao Bao, with funding from the Japanese government. This has greatly improved transport across Laos. This highway can be traversed in a few hours, while in 2002 the trip took over nine hours.
Laos is connected across the Mekong River to Thailand by First and Second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridges. Vientiane is linked to Nong Khai by the First Friendship Bridge. The Third Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge began construction in March 2009 linking Nakhon Phanom Province in northeastern Thailand and Khammouane Province in Laos. It was completed on 11 November 2011.
Laos opened a highway connection to Kunming in April 2008. The Fourth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge opened to the public on 11 December 2013 linking Kunming to Bokeo, Laos and Chiang Rai. It reduces travel time to five hours.
, the Vientiane–Vang Vieng Expressway, the first expressway in Laos, is 70 percent complete. Authorities expect to open the road to traffic before Lao National Day on 2 December 2020. Construction began at the end of 2018 and was initially scheduled to finish in 2021, but will be completed early. The road, which includes twin tunnels almost 900 metres long through Phoupha Mountain, will shorten the route by 43 km as compared with the existing Route No 13. The expressway toll will be 550 kip per kilometre, or about 62,000 kip for a one-way trip between Vientiane and Vang Vieng. The Vientiane-Vang Vieng expressway is the first section of a planned expressway from Vientiane through the northern provinces to Boten in Luang Namtha Province, which borders China.
About of navigable water routes exist in Laos, primarily the Mekong and its tributaries. There are an additional of water routes, which is sectionally navigable by craft drawing less than .
Laos has an ocean-going merchant marine consisting of one cargo ship of .
Laos has of pipelines for the transport of petroleum products.
Laos possesses 52 airports, of which nine have paved runways. Of the airports with paved runways, Wattay International Airport in Vientiane has a runway length of . Of the remainder, four have runways to length, and a further four have lengths between and .
Of the airports without paved runways, one has a runway length of more than . Seventeen have runway lengths between and , leaving 25 with a lengths below . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17759 |
Lao People's Armed Forces
The Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF) is the name of the armed forces of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the institution of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, who are charged with protecting the country.
The army of 29,100 is equipped with 30 main battle tanks. The army marine section, equipped with 16 patrol craft, has 600 personnel. The air force, with 3,500 personnel, is equipped with anti-aircraft missiles and 24 combat aircraft (no longer in service).
Militia self-defence forces number approximately 100,000 organised for local defence. The small arms utilised mostly by the Laotian Army are the Soviet AKM assault rifle, PKM machine gun, Makarov PM pistol, and the RPD light machine gun.
Until 1975, the Royal Lao Army were the armed forces of the Kingdom of Laos.
Serving one of the world's least developed communist countries, the Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF) is small, poorly funded, and ineffectively resourced. Its mission focus is border and internal security, primarily in internal suppression of Laotian dissident and opposition groups.
This includes the brutal crushing of the peaceful 1999 Lao Students Movement of Democracy demonstrations in Vientiane, and in countering ethnic Hmong insurgent groups and other groups of Laotian and Hmong people opposing the one-party Marxist Pathet Lao government and the support it receives from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Together with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the government, the Lao People's Army (LPA) is the third pillar of state machinery, and as such is expected to suppress political and civil unrest and similar national emergencies faced by the authoritarian, communist government in Vientiane. The LPA also has reportedly upgraded skills to respond to avian influenza outbreaks. At present, there is no major perceived external threat to the state and the LPA maintains very strong ties with the neighbouring Vietnamese military (2008).
According to numerous independent journalists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, Lao Human Rights Council, United League for Democracy in Laos and humanitarian and human rights organisations, the Lao People's Army has repeatedly engaged in egregious human rights violations and the practice of corruption in Laos.
Human rights violations committed by the Lao military include kidnapping, rape, torture, extrajudicial killing, military attacks against civilians, mass starvation against the ethnic minority, Hmong people, illegal logging in co-operation with the Vietnam People's Army-owned front companies and other violations of international law, the Geneva conventions, and acceptable norms of behaviour. According to a report by Amnesty International in 2007: "Thousands of ethnic Hmong women, men and children live in scattered groups in the Lao jungles, hiding from the authorities, particularly the military. Amnesty International is calling for an immediate end to armed attacks on these people."
In 2013, attacks by the Lao People's Army against the Hmong people and others intensified, with soldiers killing four unarmed Hmong school teachers in addition to engaging in other human rights abuses according to the Lao Human Rights Council, the Centre for Public Policy Analysis and others. The LPAF and its military intelligence play a major role in the arrest, imprisonment and torture of foreign prisoners in Vientiane's notorious Phonthong Prison and the communist Lao gulag system where Australians Kerry and Kay Danes were imprisoned and where civic activist Sombath Somphone may be imprisoned following his arrest in December 2012.
Laotian and Hmong veterans who fought against North Vietnam, Vietnam People's Army (VPA), communist Pathet Lao forces, and LPAF to defend the Kingdom of Laos and US, Laos and the Kingdom of Thailand's national security interests during the Vietnam war and its aftermath, including the Lao Veterans of America, established the Laos Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in 1997.
The United League for Democracy in Laos, Amnesty International, the Centre for Public Policy Analysis, the Lao Veterans of America and other NGOs continue to raise concerns about the LPAF's serious human rights violations, internal suppression of the population, systemic corruption, brutal attacks against unarmed Laotian and Hmong political and religious dissident and opposition groups, one-party authoritarian rule in Laos as well as the LPAF's very close relationship with the VPA and VPA military-owned companies engaged in illegal logging in Laos. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17760 |
Foreign relations of Laos
The foreign relations of Laos, internationally designated by its official name as the Lao People's Democratic Republic, after the takeover by the Pathet Lao in December 1975, were characterized by a hostile posture toward the West, with the government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic aligning itself with the Soviet bloc, maintaining close ties with the Soviet Union and depending heavily on the Soviets for most of its foreign assistance. Laos also maintained a "special relationship" with Vietnam and formalized a 1977 treaty of friendship and cooperation that created tensions with China.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and with Vietnam's decreased ability to provide assistance, Laos has sought to improve relations with its regional neighbors and has emerged from international isolation through improved and expanded relations with other nations such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey, Australia, France, Japan, and Sweden. Trade relations with the United States were normalized in 2004. Laos was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July 1997 and applied to join the World Trade Organization in 1998. In 2005 it attended the inaugural East Asia Summit.
Laos is a member of the following international organizations: Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT), ASEAN, ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), ASEAN Regional Forum, Asian Development Bank, Colombo Plan, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Group of 77, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Development Association (IDA), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Intelsat (nonsignatory user), and Interpol.
Laos is also a member of the International Olympic Commission (IOC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Mekong Group, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Pacific Alliance (as observer), Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), United Nations, United Nations Convention on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Universal Postal Union (UPU), World Federation of Trade Unions, World Health Organization (WHO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), World Tourism Organization, World Trade Organization (observer).
Laos has established relations with 134 countries (including the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and the State of Palestine) and the European Union.
Laos has not yet established diplomatic relations with: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17761 |
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions. Other forms of nuclear matter are also studied. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the atom as a whole, including its electrons.
Discoveries in nuclear physics have led to applications in many fields. This includes nuclear power, nuclear weapons, nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance imaging, industrial and agricultural isotopes, ion implantation in materials engineering, and radiocarbon dating in geology and archaeology. Such applications are studied in the field of nuclear engineering.
Particle physics evolved out of nuclear physics and the two fields are typically taught in close association. Nuclear astrophysics, the application of nuclear physics to astrophysics, is crucial in explaining the inner workings of stars and the origin of the chemical elements.
The history of nuclear physics as a discipline distinct from atomic physics starts with the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896 while investigating phosphorescence in uranium salts. The discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson a year later was an indication that the atom had internal structure. At the beginning of the 20th century the accepted model of the atom was J. J. Thomson's "plum pudding" model in which the atom was a positively charged ball with smaller negatively charged electrons embedded inside it.
In the years that followed, radioactivity was extensively investigated, notably by Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Ernest Rutherford and others. By the turn of the century physicists had also discovered three types of radiation emanating from atoms, which they named alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. Experiments by Otto Hahn in 1911 and by James Chadwick in 1914 discovered that the beta decay spectrum was continuous rather than discrete. That is, electrons were ejected from the atom with a continuous range of energies, rather than the discrete amounts of energy that were observed in gamma and alpha decays. This was a problem for nuclear physics at the time, because it seemed to indicate that energy was not conserved in these decays.
The 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Becquerel, for his discovery and to Marie and Pierre Curie for their subsequent research into radioactivity. Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 for his "investigations into the disintegration of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances".
In 1905 Albert Einstein formulated the idea of mass–energy equivalence. While the work on radioactivity by Becquerel and Marie Curie predates this, an explanation of the source of the energy of radioactivity would have to wait for the discovery that the nucleus itself was composed of smaller constituents, the nucleons.
In 1906 Ernest Rutherford published "Retardation of the α Particle from Radium in passing through matter." Hans Geiger expanded on this work in a communication to the Royal Society with experiments he and Rutherford had done, passing alpha particles through air, aluminum foil and gold leaf. More work was published in 1909 by Geiger and Ernest Marsden, and further greatly expanded work was published in 1910 by Geiger. In 1911–1912 Rutherford went before the Royal Society to explain the experiments and propound the new theory of the atomic nucleus as we now understand it.
The key experiment behind this announcement was performed in 1910, at the University of Manchester: Ernest Rutherford's team performed a remarkable experiment in which Geiger and Marsden under Rutherford's supervision fired alpha particles (helium nuclei) at a thin film of gold foil. The plum pudding model had predicted that the alpha particles should come out of the foil with their trajectories being at most slightly bent. But Rutherford instructed his team to look for something that shocked him to observe: a few particles were scattered through large angles, even completely backwards in some cases. He likened it to firing a bullet at tissue paper and having it bounce off. The discovery, with Rutherford's analysis of the data in 1911, led to the Rutherford model of the atom, in which the atom had a very small, very dense nucleus containing most of its mass, and consisting of heavy positively charged particles with embedded electrons in order to balance out the charge (since the neutron was unknown). As an example, in this model (which is not the modern one) nitrogen-14 consisted of a nucleus with 14 protons and 7 electrons (21 total particles) and the nucleus was surrounded by 7 more orbiting electrons.
Around 1920, Arthur Eddington anticipated the discovery and mechanism of nuclear fusion processes in stars, in his paper "The Internal Constitution of the Stars". At that time, the source of stellar energy was a complete mystery; Eddington correctly speculated that the source was fusion of hydrogen into helium, liberating enormous energy according to Einstein's equation "E = mc2". This was a particularly remarkable development since at that time fusion and thermonuclear energy, and even that stars are largely composed of hydrogen (see metallicity), had not yet been discovered.
The Rutherford model worked quite well until studies of nuclear spin were carried out by Franco Rasetti at the California Institute of Technology in 1929. By 1925 it was known that protons and electrons each had a spin of . In the Rutherford model of nitrogen-14, 20 of the total 21 nuclear particles should have paired up to cancel each other's spin, and the final odd particle should have left the nucleus with a net spin of . Rasetti discovered, however, that nitrogen-14 had a spin of 1.
In 1932 Chadwick realized that radiation that had been observed by Walther Bothe, Herbert Becker, Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie was actually due to a neutral particle of about the same mass as the proton, that he called the neutron (following a suggestion from Rutherford about the need for such a particle). In the same year Dmitri Ivanenko suggested that there were no electrons in the nucleus — only protons and neutrons — and that neutrons were spin particles, which explained the mass not due to protons. The neutron spin immediately solved the problem of the spin of nitrogen-14, as the one unpaired proton and one unpaired neutron in this model each contributed a spin of in the same direction, giving a final total spin of 1.
With the discovery of the neutron, scientists could at last calculate what fraction of binding energy each nucleus had, by comparing the nuclear mass with that of the protons and neutrons which composed it. Differences between nuclear masses were calculated in this way. When nuclear reactions were measured, these were found to agree with Einstein's calculation of the equivalence of mass and energy to within 1% as of 1934.
Alexandru Proca was the first to develop and report the massive vector boson field equations and a theory of the mesonic field of nuclear forces. Proca's equations were known to Wolfgang Pauli who mentioned the equations in his Nobel address, and they were also known to Yukawa, Wentzel, Taketani, Sakata, Kemmer, Heitler, and Fröhlich who appreciated the content of Proca's equations for developing a theory of the atomic nuclei in Nuclear Physics.
In 1935 Hideki Yukawa proposed the first significant theory of the strong force to explain how the nucleus holds together. In the Yukawa interaction a virtual particle, later called a meson, mediated a force between all nucleons, including protons and neutrons. This force explained why nuclei did not disintegrate under the influence of proton repulsion, and it also gave an explanation of why the attractive strong force had a more limited range than the electromagnetic repulsion between protons. Later, the discovery of the pi meson showed it to have the properties of Yukawa's particle.
With Yukawa's papers, the modern model of the atom was complete. The center of the atom contains a tight ball of neutrons and protons, which is held together by the strong nuclear force, unless it is too large. Unstable nuclei may undergo alpha decay, in which they emit an energetic helium nucleus, or beta decay, in which they eject an electron (or positron). After one of these decays the resultant nucleus may be left in an excited state, and in this case it decays to its ground state by emitting high-energy photons (gamma decay).
The study of the strong and weak nuclear forces (the latter explained by Enrico Fermi via Fermi's interaction in 1934) led physicists to collide nuclei and electrons at ever higher energies. This research became the science of particle physics, the crown jewel of which is the standard model of particle physics, which describes the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces.
A heavy nucleus can contain hundreds of nucleons. This means that with some approximation it can be treated as a classical system, rather than a quantum-mechanical one. In the resulting liquid-drop model, the nucleus has an energy that arises partly from surface tension and partly from electrical repulsion of the protons. The liquid-drop model is able to reproduce many features of nuclei, including the general trend of binding energy with respect to mass number, as well as the phenomenon of nuclear fission.
Superimposed on this classical picture, however, are quantum-mechanical effects, which can be described using the nuclear shell model, developed in large part by Maria Goeppert Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen. Nuclei with certain "magic" numbers of neutrons and protons are particularly stable, because their shells are filled.
Other more complicated models for the nucleus have also been proposed, such as the interacting boson model, in which pairs of neutrons and protons interact as bosons, analogously to Cooper pairs of electrons.
Ab initio methods try to solve the nuclear many-body problem from the ground up, starting from the nucleons and their interactions.
Much of current research in nuclear physics relates to the study of nuclei under extreme conditions such as high spin and excitation energy. Nuclei may also have extreme shapes (similar to that of Rugby balls or even pears) or extreme neutron-to-proton ratios. Experimenters can create such nuclei using artificially induced fusion or nucleon transfer reactions, employing ion beams from an accelerator. Beams with even higher energies can be used to create nuclei at very high temperatures, and there are signs that these experiments have produced a phase transition from normal nuclear matter to a new state, the quark–gluon plasma, in which the quarks mingle with one another, rather than being segregated in triplets as they are in neutrons and protons.
Eighty elements have at least one stable isotope which is never observed to decay, amounting to a total of about 254 stable isotopes. However, thousands of isotopes have been characterized as unstable. These "radioisotopes" decay over time scales ranging from fractions of a second to trillions of years. Plotted on a chart as a function of atomic and neutron numbers, the binding energy of the nuclides forms what is known as the valley of stability. Stable nuclides lie along the bottom of this energy valley, while increasingly unstable nuclides lie up the valley walls, that is, have weaker binding energy.
The most stable nuclei fall within certain ranges or balances of composition of neutrons and protons: too few or too many neutrons (in relation to the number of protons) will cause it to decay. For example, in beta decay a nitrogen-16 atom (7 protons, 9 neutrons) is converted to an oxygen-16 atom (8 protons, 8 neutrons) within a few seconds of being created. In this decay a neutron in the nitrogen nucleus is converted by the weak interaction into a proton, an electron and an antineutrino. The element is transmuted to another element, with a different number of protons.
In alpha decay (which typically occurs in the heaviest nuclei) the radioactive element decays by emitting a helium nucleus (2 protons and 2 neutrons), giving another element, plus helium-4. In many cases this process continues through several steps of this kind, including other types of decays (usually beta decay) until a stable element is formed.
In gamma decay, a nucleus decays from an excited state into a lower energy state, by emitting a gamma ray. The element is not changed to another element in the process (no nuclear transmutation is involved).
Other more exotic decays are possible (see the first main article). For example, in internal conversion decay, the energy from an excited nucleus may eject one of the inner orbital electrons from the atom, in a process which produces high speed electrons but is not beta decay and (unlike beta decay) does not transmute one element to another.
In nuclear fusion, two low-mass nuclei come into very close contact with each other so that the strong force fuses them. It requires a large amount of energy for the strong or nuclear forces to overcome the electrical repulsion between the nuclei in order to fuse them; therefore nuclear fusion can only take place at very high temperatures or high pressures. When nuclei fuse, a very large amount of energy is released and the combined nucleus assumes a lower energy level. The binding energy per nucleon increases with mass number up to nickel-62. Stars like the Sun are powered by the fusion of four protons into a helium nucleus, two positrons, and two neutrinos. The uncontrolled fusion of hydrogen into helium is known as thermonuclear runaway. A frontier in current research at various institutions, for example the Joint European Torus (JET) and ITER, is the development of an economically viable method of using energy from a controlled fusion reaction. Nuclear fusion is the origin of the energy (including in the form of light and other electromagnetic radiation) produced by the core of all stars including our own Sun.
Nuclear fission is the reverse process to fusion. For nuclei heavier than nickel-62 the binding energy per nucleon decreases with the mass number. It is therefore possible for energy to be released if a heavy nucleus breaks apart into two lighter ones.
The process of alpha decay is in essence a special type of spontaneous nuclear fission. It is a highly asymmetrical fission because the four particles which make up the alpha particle are especially tightly bound to each other, making production of this nucleus in fission particularly likely.
From certain of the heaviest nuclei whose fission produces free neutrons, and which also easily absorb neutrons to initiate fission, a self-igniting type of neutron-initiated fission can be obtained, in a chain reaction. Chain reactions were known in chemistry before physics, and in fact many familiar processes like fires and chemical explosions are chemical chain reactions. The fission or "nuclear" chain-reaction, using fission-produced neutrons, is the source of energy for nuclear power plants and fission-type nuclear bombs, such as those detonated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II. Heavy nuclei such as uranium and thorium may also undergo spontaneous fission, but they are much more likely to undergo decay by alpha decay.
For a neutron-initiated chain reaction to occur, there must be a critical mass of the relevant isotope present in a certain space under certain conditions. The conditions for the smallest critical mass require the conservation of the emitted neutrons and also their slowing or moderation so that there is a greater cross-section or probability of them initiating another fission. In two regions of Oklo, Gabon, Africa, natural nuclear fission reactors were active over 1.5 billion years ago. Measurements of natural neutrino emission have demonstrated that around half of the heat emanating from the Earth's core results from radioactive decay. However, it is not known if any of this results from fission chain reactions.
According to the theory, as the Universe cooled after the Big Bang it eventually became possible for common subatomic particles as we know them (neutrons, protons and electrons) to exist. The most common particles created in the Big Bang which are still easily observable to us today were protons and electrons (in equal numbers). The protons would eventually form hydrogen atoms. Almost all the neutrons created in the Big Bang were absorbed into helium-4 in the first three minutes after the Big Bang, and this helium accounts for most of the helium in the universe today (see Big Bang nucleosynthesis).
Some relatively small quantities of elements beyond helium (lithium, beryllium, and perhaps some boron) were created in the Big Bang, as the protons and neutrons collided with each other, but all of the "heavier elements" (carbon, element number 6, and elements of greater atomic number) that we see today, were created inside stars during a series of fusion stages, such as the proton-proton chain, the CNO cycle and the triple-alpha process. Progressively heavier elements are created during the evolution of a star.
Since the binding energy per nucleon peaks around iron (56 nucleons), energy is only released in fusion processes involving smaller atoms than that. Since the creation of heavier nuclei by fusion requires energy, nature resorts to the process of neutron capture. Neutrons (due to their lack of charge) are readily absorbed by a nucleus. The heavy elements are created by either a "slow" neutron capture process (the so-called "s"-process) or the "rapid", or "r"-process. The "s" process occurs in thermally pulsing stars (called AGB, or asymptotic giant branch stars) and takes hundreds to thousands of years to reach the heaviest elements of lead and bismuth. The "r"-process is thought to occur in supernova explosions, which provide the necessary conditions of high temperature, high neutron flux and ejected matter. These stellar conditions make the successive neutron captures very fast, involving very neutron-rich species which then beta-decay to heavier elements, especially at the so-called waiting points that correspond to more stable nuclides with closed neutron shells (magic numbers). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21285 |
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; ; ; East Franconian: or , locally ) is the second-largest city of the German federal state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 511,628 (2016) inhabitants make it the 14th largest city in Germany. On the Pegnitz River (from its confluence with the Rednitz in Fürth onwards: Regnitz, a tributary of the River Main) and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it lies in the Bavarian administrative region of Middle Franconia, and is the largest city and the unofficial capital of Franconia. Nuremberg forms a continuous conurbation with the neighbouring cities of Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach with a total population of 798,867 (2018), while the larger Nuremberg Metropolitan Region has approximately 3.6 million inhabitants. The city lies about north of Munich. It is the largest city in the East Franconian dialect area (colloquially: "Franconian"; ), Nuremberg was one of the host cities of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
There are many institutions of higher education in the city, including the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (). With 39,780 students in 2017, it is Bavaria's third-largest and Germany's 11th-largest university, with campuses in Erlangen and Nuremberg and a university hospital in Erlangen (Universitätsklinikum Erlangen). and are also located within the city. Nuremberg Airport () is the second-busiest airport in Bavaria after Munich Airport, and the tenth-busiest airport in Germany.
Nuremberg was the site of major Nazi rallies, and it provided the site for the Nuremberg trials, which held to account many major Nazi officials.
The first documentary mention of the city, in 1050, mentions Nuremberg as the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau. From 1050 to 1571 the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade-routes. King Conrad III (reigning as King of Germany from 1138 to 1152) established the Burgraviate of Nuremberg, with the first burgraves coming from the Austrian House of Raab. With the extinction of their male line around 1190, the last Raabs count's son-in-law, Frederick I from the House of Hohenzollern, inherited the burgraviate in 1192.
From the late 12th century to the Interregnum (1254–73), however, the power of the burgraves diminished as the Hohenstaufen emperors transferred most non-military powers to a castellan, with the city administration and the municipal courts handed over to an Imperial mayor () from 1173/74. The strained relations between the burgraves and the castellans, with gradual transferral of powers to the latter in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, finally broke out into open enmity, which greatly influenced the history of the city.
Nuremberg is often referred to as the "unofficial capital" of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because the Imperial Diet ("Reichstag") and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg played an important role in the administration of the empire. The increasing demands of the Imperial court and the increasing importance of the city attracted increased trade and commerce in Nuremberg. In 1219 Emperor Frederick II granted the ('Great Letter of Freedom'), including town rights, Imperial immediacy (), the privilege to mint coins, and an independent customs policy - almost wholly removing the city from the purview of the burgraves. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade-centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe.
In 1298 the Jews of the town were falsely accused of having desecrated the host, and 698 of them were killed in one of the many Rintfleisch massacres. Behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz. The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague pandemic of the mid-14th century.
In 1349 Nuremberg's Jews suffered a pogrom. They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter. The plague returned to the city in 1405, 1435, 1437, 1482, 1494, 1520 and 1534.
The largest growth of Nuremberg occurred in the 14th century. Charles IV's Golden Bull of 1356, naming Nuremberg as the city where newly elected kings of Germany must hold their first Imperial Diet, made Nuremberg one of the three most important cities of the Empire. Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche, built between 1352 and 1362 (the architect was likely Peter Parler), where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. The royal and Imperial connection grew stronger in 1423 when the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg granted the Imperial regalia to be kept permanently in Nuremberg, where they remained until 1796, when the advance of French troops required their removal to Regensburg and thence to Vienna.
In 1349 the members of the guilds unsuccessfully rebelled against the patricians in a ('Craftsmen's Uprising'), supported by merchants and some by councillors, leading to a ban on any self-organisation of the artisans in the city, abolishing the guilds that were customary elsewhere in Europe; the unions were then dissolved, and the oligarchs remained in power while Nuremberg was a free city (until the early-19th century). Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, thereby placing it upon a politically equal footing with the princes of the Empire. Frequent fights took place with the burgraves - without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. After fire destroyed the castle in 1420 during a feud between Frederick IV (from 1417 Margrave of Brandenburg) and the duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, the city purchased the ruins and the forest belonging to the castle (1427), resulting in the city's total sovereignty within its borders.
Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory. The Hussite Wars (1419-1434), a recurrence of the Black Death in 1437, and the First Margrave War (1449-1450) led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century. Siding with Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria-Munich, in the Landshut War of Succession of 1503-1505 led the city to gain substantial territory, resulting in lands of , making it one of the largest Imperial cities.
During the Middle Ages, Nuremberg fostered a rich, varied, and influential literary culture.
The cultural flowering of Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries, made it the centre of the German Renaissance. In 1525, Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation, and in 1532, the Nuremberg Religious Peace was signed there, preventing war between Protestants and Catholics for 15 years. During the 1552 revolution against Charles V, Nuremberg tried to purchase its neutrality, but the city was attacked without a declaration of war and was forced into a disadvantageous peace. At the Peace of Augsburg, the possessions of the Protestants were confirmed by the Emperor, their religious privileges extended and their independence from the Bishop of Bamberg affirmed, while the 1520s' secularisation of the monasteries was also approved.
The state of affairs in the early 16th century, increased trade routes elsewhere and the ossification of the social hierarchy and legal structures contributed to the decline in trade. Frequent quartering of Imperial, Swedish and League soldiers, the financial costs of the war and the cessation of trade caused irreparable damage to the city and a near-halving of the population. In 1632, the city, occupied by the forces of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was besieged by the army of Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein. The city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre. Even after the Thirty Years' War, however, there was a late flowering of architecture and culture – secular Baroque architecture is exemplified in the layout of the civic gardens built outside the city walls, and in the Protestant city's rebuilding of St. Egidien church, destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 18th century, considered a significant contribution to the baroque church architecture of Middle Franconia.
After the Thirty Years' War, Nuremberg attempted to remain detached from external affairs, but contributions were demanded for the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War and restrictions of imports and exports deprived the city of many markets for its manufactures. The Bavarian elector, Charles Theodore, appropriated part of the land obtained by the city during the Landshut War of Succession, to which Bavaria had maintained its claim; Prussia also claimed part of the territory. Realising its weakness, the city asked to be incorporated into Prussia but Frederick William II refused, fearing to offend Austria, Russia and France. At the Imperial diet in 1803, the independence of Nuremberg was affirmed, but on the signing of the Confederation of the Rhine on 12 July 1806, it was agreed to hand the city over to Bavaria from 8 September, with Bavaria guaranteeing the amortisation of the city's 12.5 million guilder public debt.
After the fall of Napoleon, the city's trade and commerce revived; the skill of its inhabitants together with its favourable situation soon made the city prosperous, particularly after its public debt had been acknowledged as a part of the Bavarian national debt. Having been incorporated into a Catholic country, the city was compelled to refrain from further discrimination against Catholics, who had been excluded from the rights of citizenship. Catholic services had been celebrated in the city by the priests of the Teutonic Order, often under great difficulties. After their possessions had been confiscated by the Bavarian government in 1806, they were given the Frauenkirche on the Market in 1809; in 1810 the first Catholic parish was established, which in 1818 numbered 1,010 souls.
In 1817, the city was incorporated into the district of Rezatkreis (named for the river Franconian Rezat), which was renamed to Middle Franconia () on 1 January 1838. The first German railway, the Bavarian Ludwigsbahn, from Nuremberg to nearby Fürth, was opened in 1835. The establishment of railways and the incorporation of Bavaria into Zollverein (the 19th-century German Customs Union), commerce and industry opened the way to greater prosperity. In 1852, there were 53,638 inhabitants: 46,441 Protestants and 6,616 Catholics. It subsequently grew to become the more important industrial city of Southern Germany, one of the most prosperous towns of southern Germany, but after the Austro-Prussian War it was given to the Prussia as part of their telegraph stations they had to give up. In 1905, its population, including several incorporated suburbs, was 291,351: 86,943 Catholics, 196,913 Protestants, 3,738 Jews and 3,766 members of other creeds.
Nuremberg held great significance during the Nazi Germany era. Because of the city's relevance to the Holy Roman Empire and its position in the centre of Germany, the Nazi Party chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions — the Nuremberg rallies. The rallies were held in 1927, 1929 and annually from 1933 through 1938. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the Nuremberg rallies became huge Nazi propaganda events, a centre of Nazi ideals. The 1934 rally was filmed by Leni Riefenstahl, and made into a propaganda film called "Triumph des Willens" ("Triumph of the Will").
At the 1935 rally, Hitler specifically ordered the Reichstag to convene at Nuremberg to pass the Nuremberg Laws which revoked German citizenship for all Jews and other non-Aryans. A number of premises were constructed solely for these assemblies, some of which were not finished. Today many examples of Nazi architecture can still be seen in the city. The city was also the home of the Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, the publisher of "Der Stürmer".
During the Second World War, Nuremberg was the headquarters of "Wehrkreis" (military district) XIII, and an important site for military production, including aircraft, submarines and tank engines. A subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp was located here, and extensively used slave labour. The city was severely damaged in Allied strategic bombing from 1943 to 1945. On 29 March 1944, the RAF endured its heaviest losses in the bombing campaign of Germany. Out of more than 700 planes participating, 106 were shot down or crash-landed on the way home to their bases, and more than 700 men were missing, as many as 545 of them dead. More than 160 became prisoners of war.
On 2 January 1945, the medieval city centre was systematically bombed by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces and about ninety percent of it was destroyed in only one hour, with 1,800 residents killed and roughly 100,000 displaced. In February 1945, additional attacks followed. In total, about 6,000 Nuremberg residents are estimated to have been killed in air raids.
Nuremberg was a heavily fortified city that was captured in a fierce battle lasting from 17 to 21 April 1945 by the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, 42nd Infantry Division and 45th Infantry Division, which fought house-to-house and street-by-street against determined German resistance, causing further urban devastation to the already bombed and shelled buildings. Despite this intense degree of destruction, the city was rebuilt after the war and was to some extent restored to its pre-war appearance, including the reconstruction of some of its medieval buildings. Much of this reconstructive work and conservation was done by the organisation 'Old Town Friends Nuremberg'. However, over half of the historic look of the center, and especially the northeastern half of the old Imperial Free City was not restored.
Between 1945 and 1946, German officials involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity were brought before an international tribunal in the Nuremberg trials. The Soviet Union had wanted these trials to take place in Berlin. However, Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials for specific reasons:
Following the trials, in October 1946, several prominent German Nazi politicians and military leaders were executed in Nuremberg.
The same courtroom in Nuremberg was the venue of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, organized by the United States as occupying power in the area.
Several old villages now belong to the city, for example Grossgründlach, Kraftshof, Thon, and Neunhof in the north-west; Ziegelstein in the northeast, Altenfurt and Fischbach in the south-east; and Katzwang, Kornburg in the south. Langwasser is a modern suburb.
Nuremberg has an oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb") with a certain humid continental influence ("Dfb"), categorized in the latter by the 0 °C isotherm. The city's climate is influenced by its inland position and higher altitude. Winters are changeable, with either mild or cold weather: the average temperature is around to , while summers are generally warm, mostly around at night to in the afternoon. Precipitation is evenly spread throughout the year, although February and April tend to be a bit drier whereas July tends to have more rainfall.
Nuremberg has been a destination for immigrants. 39.5% of the residents had an immigrant background in 2010 (counted with MigraPro).
Nuremberg for many people is still associated with its traditional gingerbread ("Lebkuchen") products, sausages, and handmade toys. Pocket watches — "Nuremberg eggs" — were made here in the 16th century by Peter Henlein. Only one of the districts in the 1797-1801 sample was early industrial; the economic structure of the region around Nuremberg was dominated by metal and glass manufacturing, reflected by a share of nearly 50% handicrafts and workers. In the 19th century Nuremberg became the "industrial heart" of Bavaria with companies such as Siemens and MAN establishing a strong base in the city. Nuremberg is still an important industrial centre with a strong standing in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe. Items manufactured in the area include electrical equipment, mechanical and optical products, motor vehicles, writing and drawing paraphernalia, stationery products and printed materials.
The city is also strong in the fields of automation, energy and medical technology. Siemens is still the largest industrial employer in the Nuremberg region but a good third of German market research agencies are also located in the city. The Nuremberg International Toy Fair is the largest of its kind in the world.
Nuremberg is Bavaria’s second largest city after Munich, and a popular tourist destination for foreigners and Germans alike. It was a leading city 500 years ago, but 90% of the town was destroyed in 1945 during the war. After World War II, many medieval-style areas of the town were rebuilt.
Beyond its main attractions of the Imperial Castle, St. Lorenz Church, and Nazi Trial grounds, there are 54 different museums for arts and culture, history, science and technology, family and children, and more niche categories, where visitors can see the world's oldest globe (built in 1492), a 500-year-old Madonna, and Renaissance-era German art. There are several types of tours offered in the city, including historic tours, those that are Nazi-focused, underground and night tours, walking tours, sightseeing buses, self guided tours, and an old town tour on a mini train. Nuremberg also offers several parks and green areas, as well as indoor activities such as bowling, rock wall climbing, escape rooms, cart racing, and mini golf, theaters and cinemas, pools and thermal spas. There are also six nearby amusement parks. The city's tourism board sells the Nurnberg Card which allows for free use of public transportation and free entry to all museums and attractions in Nuremberg for a two-day period.
Nuremberg is also a destination for food lovers. Culinary tourists can taste the city's famous lebkuchen, gingerbread, local beer, and Nürnberger Rostbratwürstchen, or Nuremberg sausages. There are hundreds of restaurants for all tastes, including traditional franconian restaurants and beer gardens. Also offers 17 vegan and vegetarian restaurants, seven fully organic restaurants. Nuremberg also boasts a two Michelin Star rated restaurant, Essigbrätlein.
Like many European cities, Nuremberg offers a pedestrian-only zone covering a large portion of the old town, which is a main destination for shopping and specialty retail, including year-round Christmas stores where tourists and locals alike can purchase Christmas ornaments, gifts, decorations, and additions to their toy Christmas villages. The Craftsmen's Courtyard, or Handwerkerhof, is another tourist shopping destination in the style of a medieval village. It houses several local family-run businesses which sell handcrafted items from glass, wood, leather, pottery, and precious metals. The Handwerkerhof is also home to traditional German restaurants and beer gardens.
The Pedestrian zones of Nuremberg host festivals and markets throughout the year, most well known being Christkindlesmarkt, Germany's largest Christmas market and the gingerbread capital of the world. Visitors to the Christmas market can peruse the hundreds of stalls and purchase local wood crafts, nutcrackers, smokers, and prune people, while sampling Christmas sweets and traditional gluhwein.
In 2017, Nuremberg saw a total of 3.3 million overnight stays, a record for the town, and is expected to have surpassed that in 2018, with more growth in tourism anticipated in the coming years. There are over 175 registered places of accommodation in Nuremberg, ranging from hostels to luxury hotels, bed and breakfasts, to multi-hundred room properties. As of 19 April 2019, Nuremberg had 306 AirBnB listings.
Nuremberg was an early centre of humanism, science, printing, and mechanical invention. The city contributed much to the science of astronomy. In 1471 Johannes Mueller of Königsberg (Bavaria), later called Regiomontanus, built an astronomical observatory in Nuremberg and published many important astronomical charts.
In 1515, Albrecht Dürer, a native of Nuremberg, created woodcuts of the first maps of the stars of the northern and southern hemispheres, producing the first printed star charts, which had been ordered by Johannes Stabius. Around 1515 Dürer also published the "Stabiussche Weltkarte", the first perspective drawing of the terrestrial globe.
Printers and publishers have a long history in Nuremberg. Many of these publishers worked with well-known artists of the day to produce books that could also be considered works of art. In 1470 Anton Koberger opened Europe's first print shop in Nuremberg. In 1493, he published the "Nuremberg Chronicles", also known as the "World Chronicles" ("Schedelsche Weltchronik"), an illustrated history of the world from the creation to the present day. It was written in the local Franconian dialect by Hartmann Schedel and had illustrations by Michael Wohlgemuth, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, and Albrecht Dürer. Others furthered geographical knowledge and travel by map making. Notable among these was navigator and geographer Martin Behaim, who made the first world globe.
Sculptors such as Veit Stoss, Adam Kraft and Peter Vischer are also associated with Nuremberg.
Composed of prosperous artisans, the guilds of the Meistersingers flourished here. Richard Wagner made their most famous member, Hans Sachs, the hero of his opera "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg". Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel was born here and was organist of St. Sebaldus Church.
The academy of fine arts situated in Nuremberg is the oldest art academy in central Europe and looks back to a tradition of 350 years of artistic education.
Nuremberg is also famous for its Christkindlesmarkt (Christmas market), which draws well over a million shoppers each year. The market is famous for its handmade ornaments and delicacies.
The Nuremberg State Theatre, founded in 1906, is dedicated to all types of opera, ballet and stage theatre. During the season 2009/2010, the theatre presented 651 performances for an audience of 240,000 persons. The State Philharmonic Nuremberg (Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg) is the orchestra of the State Theatre. Its name was changed in 2011 from its previous name: The Nuremberg Philharmonic ("Nürnberger Philharmoniker"). It is the second-largest opera orchestra in Bavaria. Besides opera performances, it also presents its own subscription concert series in the Meistersingerhalle. Christof Perick was the principal conductor of the orchestra between 2006–2011. Marcus Bosch heads the orchestra since September 2011 .
The Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra ("Nürnberger Symphoniker") performs around 100 concerts a year to a combined annual audience of more than 180,000. The regular subscription concert series are mostly performed in the "Meistersingerhalle" but other venues are used as well, including the new concert hall of the "Kongresshalle" and the "Serenadenhof". Alexander Shelley has been the principal conductor of the orchestra since 2009.
The Nuremberg International Chamber Music Festival ("Internationales Kammermusikfestival Nürnberg") takes place in early September each year, and in 2011 celebrated its tenth anniversary. Concerts take place around the city; opening and closing events are held in the medieval "Burg". The Bardentreffen, an annual folk festival in Nuremberg, has been deemed the largest world music festival in Germany and takes place since 1976. 2014 the Bardentreffen starred 368 artists from 31 nations.
Nuremberg is known for Nürnberger Bratwurst, which is shorter and thinner than other bratwurst sausages.
Another Nuremberg speciality is Nürnberger Lebkuchen, a kind of gingerbread eaten mainly around Christmas time.
Nuremberg offers 51 public and 6 private elementary schools in nearly all of its districts. Secondary education is offered at 23 Mittelschulen, 12 Realschulen, and 17 Gymnasien (state, city, church, and privately owned). There are also several other providers of secondary education such as Berufsschule, Berufsfachschule, Wirtschaftsschule etc.
Nuremberg hosts the joint university Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, two Fachhochschulen (Technische Hochschule Nürnberg and "Evangelische Hochschule Nürnberg"), an art school ("Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg"), and a music conservatoire (Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg). There are also private schools such as the "Akademie Deutsche POP Nürnberg" offering higher education.
The city's location next to numerous highways, railways, and a waterway has contributed to its rising importance for trade with Eastern Europe.
Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof is a stop for IC and ICE trains on the German long-distance railway network. The Nuremberg–Ingolstadt–Munich high-speed line with operation opened 28 May 2006, and was fully integrated into the rail schedule on 10 December 2006. Travel times to Munich have been reduced to as little as one hour. The Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway opened in December 2017.
The Nuremberg tramway network was opened in 1881. , it extended a total length of , had six lines, and carried 39.152 million passengers annually. The first segment of the Nuremberg U-Bahn metro system was opened in 1972. Nuremberg's trams, buses and metro system are operated by the VAG Nürnberg ("Verkehrsaktiengesellschaft Nürnberg" or Nuremberg Transport Corporation), itself a member of the VGN ("Verkehrsverbund Grossraum Nürnberg" or Greater Nuremberg Transport Network).
There is also a Nuremberg S-Bahn suburban metro railway and a regional train network, both centred on Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof.
Since 2008, Nuremberg has had the first U-Bahn in Germany (U2/U21 and U3) that works without a driver. It also was the first subway system worldwide in which both driver-operated trains and computer-controlled trains shared tracks.
Nuremberg is located at the junction of several important Autobahn routes. The A3 ("Netherlands"–Frankfurt–Würzburg–"Vienna") passes in a south-easterly direction along the north-east of the city. The A9 (Berlin–Munich) passes in a north–south direction on the east of the city. The A6 ("France"–Saarbrücken–"Prague") passes in an east–west direction to the south of the city. Finally, the A73 begins in the south-east of Nuremberg and travels north-west through the city before continuing towards Fürth and Bamberg.
Nuremberg Airport has flights to major German cities and many European destinations. The largest operators are currently Eurowings and TUI fly Deutschland, while the low-cost Ryanair and Wizz Air companies connect the city to various European centres. A significant amount of the airport's traffic flies to and from mainly touristic destinations during the peak winter season. The airport (Flughafen) is the terminus of subway line 2; it is the only airport in Germany served by a subway.
Nuremberg is an important port on the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal.
1. FC Nürnberg, known locally as "Der Club" (English: "The Club"), was founded in 1900 and currently plays in the Bundesliga. The official colours of the association are red and white, but the traditional colours are red and black. They won their first regional title in the Southern German championship in 1916 closely followed by their first national title in 1920. Besides the eleven regional championships they won they were the German championship for a total of seven times. With this they held the record for the most German championship titles until 1986 when the current record holder FC Bayern München surpassed them. The current chairmen are Nils Rossow and Robert Palikuca. They play in Max-Morlock-Stadion which was refurbished for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and accommodates 50,000 spectators.
TuS Bar Kochba is a league that was founded in 1913 as a social-sport club for the Jewish community in Nürnberg. Established as the "Jewish Gymnastics and Sports Club Nuremberg", the league was dissolved by the Nazi party in 1939. It was reformed in 1966. The club plays in the senior A-league of the Bavarian Football Association.
The "SELLBYTEL Baskets Nürnberg" played in the Basketball Bundesliga from 2005 to 2007. Since then, teams from Nuremberg have attempted to return to Germany's elite league. The recently founded Nürnberg Falcons BC have already established themselves as one of the main teams in Germany's second division ProA and aim to take on the heritage of the SELLBYTEL Baskets Nürnberg. The Falcons play their home games at the "Halle im Berufsbildungszentrum (BBZ)".
Nuremberg is twinned with:
Apart from the official twin towns (sister cities), there are a number with which Nuremberg maintains "cordial relations":
Nuremberg also engages in cooperation with various other cities internationally: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21287 |
Nicholas Lemann
Nicholas Berthelot Lemann is the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism and Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been a staff writer at "The New Yorker" since 1999.
Nicholas Lemann was born, raised, and educated in a Jewish family in New Orleans. He describes his family's faith as a "kind of super-Reform Judaism" where there were "no kosher laws, no bar mitzvahs, no tallit, no kippot".
Lemann was educated at Metairie Park Country Day School, a private school in New Orleans, from which he graduated in 1972, followed by Harvard College, where he studied American history and literature, and was president of "The Harvard Crimson", where he wrote the "Brass Tacks" column, and from which he graduated "magna cum laude" in 1976.
Lemann began his journalism career as a 17-year-old writer for an alternative weekly newspaper, the "Vieux Carre Courier", in his home city of New Orleans. In 1975, amid reports of mass murder in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge, Lemann wrote, "I continue to support the Khmer Rouge in its principles and goals but I have to admit that I deplore the way they are going about it." After graduation, he worked at the "Washington Monthly", as an associate editor and then managing editor; at "Texas Monthly", as an associate editor and then executive editor; at "The Washington Post", as a member of the national staff; at "The Atlantic Monthly", as national correspondent; and at "The New Yorker", as staff writer and then Washington correspondent.
On September 1, 2003, Lemann became dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. During Lemann's time as dean, the Journalism School launched and completed its first capital fundraising campaign, added 20 members to its full-time faculty, built a student center, started its first new professional degree program since the 1930s, and launched initiatives in investigative reporting, digital journalism, executive leadership for news organizations, and other areas. He stepped down as dean in 2013, following two five-year terms.
In 2015, Lemann launched "Columbia Global Reports", a university-funded publishing imprint that produces four to six ambitious works of journalism and analysis a year, each on a different underreported story in the world.
Lemann has published five books, most recently "Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War" (2006); "The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy" (1999); and "The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America" (1991), which won several book prizes. He has written widely for such publications as "The New York Times", "The New York Review of Books", "The New Republic", and "Slate"; worked in documentary television with Blackside, Inc., "Frontline", the Discovery Channel, and the BBC; and lectured at many universities.
Lemann serves on the boards of directors of the Authors Guild, the National Academy of Sciences’ Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, and the Academy of Political Science, and is a member of the New York Institute for the Humanities. He was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April 2010.
Lemann has been married twice. His first wife was Dominique Alice Browning, who later became an editor in chief of "House & Garden" until 2007; they married on May 20, 1983, have two sons, Alexander and Theodore, and later divorced. His second wife is Judith Anne Shulevitz, who was a columnist for "Slate" "The New York Times Book Review," and "The New Republic" and the cousin of noted independent filmmaker Robert Shulevitz; married on November 7, 1999, they have a son and a daughter. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21288 |
N
N or n is the fourteenth letter in the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is "en" (pronounced ), plural "ens".
One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like the English , because the Egyptian word for "snake" was "djet". It is speculated by many that Semitic people working in Egypt adapted hieroglyphics to create the first alphabet, and that they used the same snake symbol to represent N, because their word for "snake" may have begun with that sound. However, the name for the letter in the Phoenician, Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic alphabets is "nun", which means "fish" in some of these languages. The sound value of the letter was —as in Greek, Etruscan, Latin and modern languages.
represents a dental or alveolar nasal in virtually all languages that use the Latin alphabet, and in the International Phonetic Alphabet. A common digraph with is , which represents a velar nasal in a variety of languages, usually positioned word-finally in English. Often, before a velar plosive (as in "ink" or "jungle"), alone represents a velar nasal. In Italian and French, represents a palatal nasal . The Portuguese and Vietnamese spelling for this sound is , while Spanish, Breton, and a few other languages use the letter .
In English, is generally silent when it is preceded by an at the end of words, as in "hymn"; however, it is pronounced in this combination when occurring word medially, as in "hymnal".
On the other hand, other consonants are often silent when they precede an at the beginning of an English word. Examples include "gnome", "knife", "mnemonic", and "pneumonia".
In mathematics, the italic form "n" is a particularly common symbol for a variable quantity which represents a natural number. The set of natural numbers is referred to as . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21290 |
Nail (fastener)
In woodworking and construction, a nail is a small object made of metal (or wood, called a tree nail or "trunnel") which is used as a fastener, as a peg to hang something, or sometimes as a decoration. Generally, nails have a sharp point on one end and a flattened head on the other, but headless nails are available. Nails are made in a great variety of forms for specialized purposes. The most common is a "wire nail". Other types of nails include "pins", "tacks", "brads", "spikes", and "cleats."
Nails are typically driven into the workpiece by a hammer or pneumatic nail gun. A nail holds materials together by friction in the axial direction and shear strength laterally. The point of the nail is also sometimes bent over or "clinched" after driving to prevent pulling out.
The history of the nail is divided roughly into three distinct periods:
The first nails were made of wrought iron. Nails date back at least to Ancient Egypt — bronze nails found in Egypt have been dated 3400 BC. The Bible provides a number of references to nails, including the story in Judges of Jael the wife of Heber, who drives a nail (or tent-peg) into the temple of a sleeping Canaanite commander; the provision of iron for nails by King David for what would become Solomon's Temple; and in connection with the crucifixion of Christ.
The Romans made extensive use of nails. The Roman army, for example, left behind seven tons of nails when it evacuated the fortress of Inchtuthil in Perthshire in the United Kingdom in 86 to 87 CE.
The term "penny", as it refers to nails, probably originated in medieval England to describe the price of a hundred nails. Nails themselves were sufficiently valuable and standardized to be used as an informal medium of exchange.
Until around 1800 artisans known as "nailers" or "nailors" made nails by hand – note the surname Naylor.
At the time of the American Revolution, England was the largest manufacturer of nails in the world. Nails were expensive and difficult to obtain in the American colonies, so that abandoned houses were sometimes deliberately burned down to allow recovery of used nails from the ashes. This became such a problem in Virginia that a law was created to stop people from burning their houses when they moved. Families often had small nail-manufacturing setups in their homes; during bad weather and at night, the entire family might work at making nails for their own use and for barter. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter: "In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail maker." The growth of the trade in the American colonies was theoretically held back by the prohibition of new slitting mills in America by the Iron Act of 1750, though there is no evidence that the Act was actually enforced.
The production of wrought-iron nails continued well into the 19th century, but ultimately was reduced to nails for purposes for which the softer cut nails were unsuitable, including horseshoe nails.
The slitting mill, introduced to England in 1590, simplified the production of nail rods, but the real first efforts to mechanise the nail-making process itself occurred between 1790 and 1820, initially in the United States and England, when various machines were invented to automate and speed up the process of making nails from bars of wrought iron. Also in Sweden in the early 1700s Christopher Polhem produced a nail cutting machine as part of his automated factory. These nails were known as "cut nails" or "square nails" because of their roughly rectangular cross section. Cut nails were one of the important factors in the increase in balloon framing beginning in the 1830s and thus the decline of timber framing with wooden joints. Though still used for historical renovations, and for heavy-duty applications, such as attaching boards to masonry walls, "cut nails" are much less common today than "wire nails".
The cut-nail process was patented in America by Jacob Perkins in 1795 and in England by Joseph Dyer, who set up machinery in Birmingham. The process was designed to cut nails from sheets of iron, while making sure that the fibres of the iron ran down the nails. The Birmingham industry expanded in the following decades, and reached its greatest extent in the 1860s, after which it declined due to competition from wire nails, but continued until the outbreak of World War I.
Wire nails are formed from wire. Usually coils of wire are drawn through a series of dies to reach a specific diameter, then cut into short rods that are then formed into nails. The nail tip is usually cut by a blade; the head is formed by reshaping the other end of the rod under high pressure. Other dies are used to cut grooves and ridges. Wire nails were also known as "French nails" for their country of origin. Belgian wire nails began to compete in England in 1863. Joseph Henry Nettlefold was making wire nails at Smethwick by 1875. Over the following decades, the nail-making process was almost completely automated. Eventually the industry had machines capable of quickly producing huge numbers of inexpensive nails with little or no human intervention.
With the introduction of cheap wire nails, the use of wrought iron for nail making quickly declined, as more slowly did the production of cut nails. In the United States, in 1892 more steel-wire nails were produced than cut nails. In 1913, 90% of manufactured nails were wire nails. Nails went from being rare and precious to being a cheap mass-produced commodity. Today almost all nails are manufactured from wire, but the term "wire nail" has come to refer to smaller nails, often available in a wider, more precise range of gauges than is typical for larger common and finish nails.
Nails were formerly made of bronze or wrought iron and were crafted by blacksmiths and nailors. These crafts people used a heated square iron rod that they forged before they hammered the sides which formed a point. After reheating and cutting off, the blacksmith or nailor inserted the hot nail into an opening and hammered it. Later new ways of making nails was created using machines to sheer the nails before wiggling the bar sideways to produce a shank. For example, the Type A cut nails were sheared from an iron bar type guillotine using early machinery. This method was slightly altered until the 1820s when new heads on the nails' ends were pounded via a separate mechanical nail heading machine. In the 1810s, iron bars were flipped over after each stroke while the cutter set was at an angle. Every nail was then sheared off of taper allowing for an automatic grip of each nail which also formed their heads. Type B nails were created this way. In 1886, 10 percent of the nails that were made in the United States were of the soft steel wire variety and by 1892, steel wire nails overtook iron cut nails as the main type of nails that were being produced. In 1913, wire nails were 90 percent of all nails that were produced.
Today's nails are typically made of steel, often dipped or coated to prevent corrosion in harsh conditions or to improve adhesion. Ordinary nails for wood are usually of a soft, low-carbon or "mild" steel (about 0.1% carbon, the rest iron and perhaps a trace of silicon or manganese). Nails for concrete are harder, with 0.5–0.75% carbon.
Types of nail include:
Most countries, except the United States, use a metric system for describing nail sizes. A "50 × 3.0" indicates a nail 50 mm long (not including the head) and 3 mm in diameter. Lengths are rounded to the nearest millimetre.
For example, finishing nail* sizes typically available from German suppliers are:
In the United States, the length of a nail is designated by its penny size.
Nails have been used in art, such as the Nail Men—a form of fundraising common in Germany and Austria during World War I.
Before the 1850s bocce and pétanque boules were wooden balls, sometimes partially reinforced with hand-forged nails. When cheap, plentiful machine-made nails became available, manufacturers began to produce the "boule cloutée"—a wooden core studded with nails to create an all-metal surface. Nails of different metals and colors (steel, brass, and copper) were used to create a wide variety of designs and patterns. Some of the old "boules cloutées" are genuine works of art and valued collector's items.
Once nails became cheap and widely available, they were often used in folk art and outsider art as a method of decorating a surface with metallic studs. Another common artistic use is the construction of sculpture from welded or brazed nails.
Nails were sometimes inscribed with incantations or signs intended for religious or mystical benefit, used at shrines or on the doors of houses for protection. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21291 |
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean; it shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Being the driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since early times by the San, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority.
In 1878, the Cape of Good Hope, then a British colony, annexed the port of Walvis Bay and the offshore Penguin Islands; these became an integral part of the new Union of South Africa at its creation in 1910. In 1884 the German Empire established rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa. It developed farming and infrastructure. Between 1904 and 1908 it perpetrated a genocide against the Herero and Nama people. German rule ended in 1915 with a defeat by South African forces. In 1920, after the end of World War I, the League of Nations mandated administration of the colony to South Africa. As Mandatory power, South Africa imposed its laws, including racial classifications and rules. From 1948, with the National Party elected to power, this included South Africa applying apartheid to what was then known as South West Africa.
In the later 20th century, uprisings and demands for political representation by native African political activists seeking independence resulted in the UN assuming direct responsibility over the territory in 1966, but South Africa maintained rule. In 1973 the UN recognised the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) as the official representative of the Namibian people; the party is dominated by the Ovambo, who are a large plurality in the territory. Following continued guerrilla warfare, South Africa installed an interim administration in Namibia in 1985. Namibia obtained full independence from South Africa in 1990. However, Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands remained under South African control until 1994.
Namibia has a population of 2.6 million people and a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy. Agriculture, herding, tourism and the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver and base metals – form the basis of its economy. The large, arid Namib Desert has resulted in Namibia being overall one of the least densely populated countries in the world.
The name of the country is derived from the Namib Desert, the oldest desert in the world. The name "Namib" itself is of Nama origin and means "vast place". Before its independence in 1990, the area was known first as German South-West Africa ("Deutsch-Südwestafrika"), then as South-West Africa, reflecting the colonial occupation by the Germans and the South Africans.
The dry lands of Namibia have been inhabited since early times by San, Damara, and Nama. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu people began to arrive during the Bantu expansion from central Africa.
From the late 18th century onward, Oorlam people from Cape Colony crossed the Orange River and moved into the area that today is southern Namibia. Their encounters with the nomadic Nama tribes were largely peaceful. They received the missionaries accompanying the Oorlam very well, granting them the right to use waterholes and grazing against an annual payment. On their way further north, however, the Oorlam encountered clans of the OvaHerero at Windhoek, Gobabis, and Okahandja, who resisted their encroachment. The Nama-Herero War broke out in 1880, with hostilities ebbing only after the German Empire deployed troops to the contested places and cemented the status quo among the Nama, Oorlam, and Herero.
The first Europeans to disembark and explore the region were the Portuguese navigators Diogo Cão in 1485 and Bartolomeu Dias in 1486, but the Portuguese did not try to claim the area. Like most of interior Sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia was not extensively explored by Europeans until the 19th century. At that time traders and settlers came principally from Germany and Sweden. In the late 19th century, Dorsland Trekkers crossed the area on their way from the Transvaal to Angola. Some of them settled in Namibia instead of continuing their journey.
Namibia became a German colony in 1884 under Otto von Bismarck to forestall perceived British encroachment and was known as German South West Africa ("Deutsch-Südwestafrika"). The Palgrave Commission by the British governor in Cape Town determined that only the natural deep-water harbour of Walvis Bay was worth occupying and thus annexed it to the Cape province of British South Africa.
From 1904 to 1907, the Herero and the Namaqua took up arms against brutal German colonialism. In calculated punitive action by the German occupiers, government officials ordered extinction of the natives in the OvaHerero and Namaqua genocide. In what has been called the "first genocide of the 20th century", the Germans systematically killed 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Herero (about 80% of the population). The survivors, when finally released from detention, were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation, and discrimination in a system that in many ways anticipated the apartheid established by South Africa in 1948.
Most Africans were confined to so-called native territories, which under South African rule after 1949 were turned into "homelands" (Bantustans). Some historians have speculated that the German genocide in Namibia was a model for the Nazis in the Holocaust. The memory of genocide remains relevant to ethnic identity in independent Namibia and to relations with Germany. The German government formally apologised for the Namibian genocide in 2004.
During World War I, South African troops under General Louis Botha occupied the territory and deposed the German colonial administration. The end of the war and the Treaty of Versailles resulted in South West Africa remaining a possession of South Africa as a League of Nations mandate until 1990. The mandate system was formed as a compromise between those who advocated for an Allied annexation of former German and Turkish territories and a proposition put forward by those who wished to grant them to an international trusteeship until they could govern themselves. It permitted the South African government to administer South West Africa until that territory's inhabitants were prepared for political self-determination. South Africa interpreted the mandate as a veiled annexation and made no attempt to prepare South West Africa for future autonomy.
As a result of the Conference on International Organization in 1945, the League of Nations was formally superseded by the United Nations (UN) and former League mandates by a trusteeship system. Article 77 of the United Nations Charter stated that UN trusteeship "shall apply...to territories now held under mandate"; furthermore, it would "be a matter of subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing territories will be brought under the trusteeship system and under what terms". The UN requested all former League of Nations mandates be surrendered to its Trusteeship Council in anticipation of their independence. South Africa declined to do so and instead requested permission from the UN to formally annexe South West Africa, for which it received considerable criticism. When the UN General Assembly rejected this proposal, South Africa dismissed its opinion and began solidifying control of the territory. The UN Generally Assembly and Security Council responded by referring the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which held a number of discussions on the legality of South African rule between 1949 and 1966.
South Africa began imposing "apartheid," its codified system of racial segregation and discrimination, on South West Africa during the late 1940s. Black South West Africans were subject to pass laws, curfews, and a host of draconian residential regulations that heavily restricted their movement. Development was concentrated in the region of the country immediately adjacent to South Africa, formally called the "Police Zone", where most of the German colonial era settlements and mines were. Outside the Police Zone, indigenous peoples were restricted to theoretically self-governing tribal homelands.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, pressure for global decolonisation and national self-determination began mounting on the African continent; these factors had a radical impact on South West African nationalism. Early nationalist organisations such as the South West African National Union (SWANU) and South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) made determined attempts to establish indigenous political structures for an independent South West Africa. In 1966, following the ICJ's controversial ruling that it had no legal standing to consider the question of South African rule, SWAPO launched an armed insurgency that escalated into part of a wider regional conflict known as the South African Border War.
As SWAPO's insurgency intensified, South Africa's case for annexation in the international community continued to decline. The UN declared that South Africa had failed in its obligations to ensure the moral and material well-being of South West Africa's indigenous inhabitants and had thus disavowed its own mandate. On 12 June 1968, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming that, in accordance with the desires of its people, South West Africa be renamed "Namibia". United Nations Security Council Resolution 269, adopted in August 1969, declared South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia illegal. In recognition of this landmark decision, SWAPO's armed wing was renamed the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN).
Namibia became one of several flashpoints for Cold War proxy conflicts in southern Africa during the latter years of the PLAN insurgency. The insurgents sought out weapons and sent recruits to the Soviet Union for military training. SWAPO's political leadership, dependent on military aid from the Soviets, Cuba, and Angola, positioned the movement within the socialist bloc by 1975. This practical alliance reinforced the prevailing perspective of SWAPO as a Soviet proxy, which dominated Cold War ideology in South Africa and the United States. For its part, the Soviet Union supported SWAPO partly because it viewed South Africa as a regional Western ally.
Growing war weariness and the reduction of tensions between the superpowers compelled South Africa, Angola, and Cuba to accede to the Tripartite Accord, under pressure from both the Soviet Union and the United States. South Africa accepted Namibian independence in exchange for Cuban military withdrawal from the region and an Angolan commitment to cease all aid to PLAN. PLAN and South Africa adopted an informal ceasefire in August 1988, and a United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was formed to monitor the Namibian peace process and supervise the return of refugees. The ceasefire was broken after PLAN made a final incursion into the territory, possibly as a result of misunderstanding UNTAG's directives, in March 1989. A new ceasefire was later imposed with the condition that the insurgents were to be confined to their external bases in Angola until they could be disarmed and demobilised by UNTAG.
By the end of the 11-month transition period, the last South African troops had been withdrawn from Namibia, all political prisoners granted amnesty, racially discriminatory legislation repealed, and 42,000 Namibian refugees returned to their homes. Just over 97% of eligible voters participated in the country's first parliamentary elections held under a universal franchise. The United Nations plan included oversight by foreign election observers in an effort to ensure a free and fair election. SWAPO won a plurality of seats in the Constituent Assembly with 57% of the popular vote. This gave the party 41 seats, but not a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to draft the constitution on its own.
The Namibian Constitution was adopted in February 1990. It incorporated protection for human rights and compensation for state expropriations of private property, and established an independent judiciary, legislature, and an executive presidency (the constituent assembly became the national assembly). The country officially became independent on 21 March 1990. Sam Nujoma was sworn in as the first President of Namibia at a ceremony attended by Nelson Mandela of South Africa (who had been released from prison the previous month) and representatives from 147 countries, including 20 heads of state. In 1994, following the first multiracial elections in South Africa, that country ceded Walvis Bay to Namibia.
Since independence Namibia has completed the transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy. Multiparty democracy was introduced and has been maintained, with local, regional and national elections held regularly. Several registered political parties are active and represented in the National Assembly, although the SWAPO has won every election since independence. The transition from the 15-year rule of President Nujoma to his successor Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2005 went smoothly.
Since independence, the Namibian government has promoted a policy of national reconciliation. It issued an amnesty for those who fought on either side during the liberation war. The civil war in Angola spilled over and adversely affected Namibians living in the north of the country. In 1998, Namibia Defence Force (NDF) troops were sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) contingent.
In 1999, the national government quashed a secessionist attempt in the northeastern Caprivi Strip. The Caprivi conflict was initiated by the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA), a rebel group led by Mishake Muyongo. It wanted the Caprivi Strip to secede and form its own society.
At , Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country (after Venezuela). It lies mostly between latitudes 17° and 29°S (a small area is north of 17°), and longitudes 11° and 26°E.
Being situated between the Namib and the Kalahari deserts, Namibia has the least rainfall of any country in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation, with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib, the Great Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert.
The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by the Skeleton Coast to the northwest, the Namib Desert and its coastal plains to the southwest, the Orange River to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east. The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation .
The Namib is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel plains and dunes that stretches along Namibia's entire coastline. It varies between 100 km (60 miles) and 200 km (120 miles) in width. Areas within the Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast.
The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over . Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase further inland from the cold Atlantic waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish. Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it is significantly more productive than the Namib Desert. As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation.
The Bushveld is found in north-eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the Caprivi Strip. The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the country, averaging around per year. The area is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water and support agriculture.
The Kalahari Desert, an arid region that extends into South Africa and Botswana, is one of Namibia's well-known geographical features. The Kalahari, while popularly known as a desert, has a variety of localised environments, including some verdant and technically non-desert areas. The Succulent Karoo is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; approximately 10 percent of the world's succulents are found in the Karoo. The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation.
Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world. Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world. Because of the location of the shoreline, at the point where the Atlantic's cold water reaches Africa's hot climate, often extremely dense fog forms along the coast. Near the coast there are areas where the dune-hummocks are vegetated. Namibia has rich coastal and marine resources that remain largely unexplored.
Namibia extends from 17°S to 25°S latitude: climatically the range of the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt. Its overall climate description is arid, descending from the Sub-Humid [mean rain above ] through Semi-Arid [between ] (embracing most of the waterless Kalahari) and Arid [from ] (these three regions are inland from the western escarpment) to the Hyper-Arid coastal plain [less than ]. Temperature maxima are limited by the overall elevation of the entire region: only in the far south, Warmbad for instance, are maxima above recorded.
Typically the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt, with frequent clear skies, provides more than 300 days of sunshine per year. It is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the Tropic of Capricorn cuts the country about in half. The winter (June – August) is generally dry. Both rainy seasons occur in summer: the small rainy season between September and November, the big one between February and April. Humidity is low, and average rainfall varies from almost zero in the coastal desert to more than in the Caprivi Strip. Rainfall is highly variable, and droughts are common. The rainy season with rainfall far below the annual average occurred in summer 2006/07.
Weather and climate in the coastal area are dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean, which accounts for very low precipitation ( per year or less), frequent dense fog, and overall lower temperatures than in the rest of the country. In Winter, occasionally a condition known as ' (German for "mountain breeze") or ' (Afrikaans for "east weather") occurs, a hot dry wind blowing from the inland to the coast. As the area behind the coast is a desert, these winds can develop into sand storms, leaving sand deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are visible on satellite images.
The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas have wide diurnal temperature ranges of up to 30 °C (86 °F).
"Efundja", the annual seasonal flooding of the northern parts of the country, often causes not only damage to infrastructure but loss of life. The rains that cause these floods originate in Angola, flow into Namibia's Cuvelai basin, and fill the "oshanas" (Oshiwambo: flood plains) there. The worst floods occurred in March 2011 and displaced 21,000 people.
Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and depends largely on groundwater. With an average rainfall of about per annum, the highest rainfall occurs in the Caprivi in the northeast (about per annum) and decreases in a westerly and southwesterly direction to as little as and less per annum at the coast. The only perennial rivers are found on the national borders with South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and the short border with Botswana in the Caprivi. In the interior of the country, surface water is available only in the summer months when rivers are in flood after exceptional rainfalls. Otherwise, surface water is restricted to a few large storage dams retaining and damming up these seasonal floods and their run-off. Where people do not live near perennial rivers or make use of the storage dams, they are dependent on groundwater. Even isolated communities and those economic activities located far from good surface water sources, such as mining, agriculture, and tourism, can be supplied from groundwater over nearly 80% of the country.
More than 100,000 boreholes have been drilled in Namibia over the past century. One third of these boreholes have been drilled dry. An aquifer called Ohangwena II, on both sides of the Angola-Namibia border, was discovered in 2012. It has been estimated to be capable of supplying the 800,000 people in the North for 400 years, at the current (2018) rate of consumption. Experts estimate that Namibia has of underground water.
Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address conservation and protection of natural resources in its constitution. Article 95 states, "The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future."
In 1993, Namibia's newly formed government received funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Living in a Finite Environment (LIFE) Project. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism, with financial support from organisations such as USAID, Endangered Wildlife Trust, WWF, and Canadian Ambassador's Fund, together form a Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) support structure. The project's main goal is to promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism.
Namibia is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic. The President of Namibia is elected to a five-year term and is both the head of state and the head of government. All members of the government are individually and collectively responsible to the legislature.
The Constitution of Namibia outlines the following as the organs of the country's government:
While the constitution envisaged a multi-party system for Namibia's government, the SWAPO party has been dominant since independence in 1990.
Namibia has a largely independent foreign policy, with persisting affiliations with states that aided the independence struggle, including Cuba. With a small army and a fragile economy, the Namibian government's principal foreign policy concern is developing strengthened ties within the Southern African region. A dynamic member of the Southern African Development Community, Namibia is a vocal advocate for greater regional integration. It became the 160th member of the UN on 23 April 1990. On its independence it became the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
In early 2020, The Global Firepower Index (GFP) reported that Namibia's military is ranked as one of the weakest in the world, at 126th out of 137 countries. Among 34 African countries, Namibia is also poorly ranked at the 28th position. Despite this, government spending for the Ministry of Defence stood at N$5,885 million (a 1.2% decrease from the previous financial year). With close to 6 million Namibian dollars, the Ministry of Defence receives the fourth highest amount of money from Government per ministry.
Namibia does not have any enemies in the region, though it has been involved in various disputes regarding borders and construction plans.
The Namibian constitution defines the role of the military as ""defending the territory and national interests."" Namibia formed the Namibian Defence Force (NDF), comprising former enemies in a 23-year bush war: the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) and South West African "Territorial Force" (SWATF). The British formulated the plan for integrating these forces and began training the NDF, which consists of a small headquarters and five battalions.
The United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (UNTAG)'s Kenyan infantry battalion remained in Namibia for three months after independence to help train the NDF and to stabilise the north. According to the Namibian Defence Ministry, enlistments of both men and women will number no more than 7,500.
The chief of the Namibian Defence Force is Air Vice Marshal Martin Kambulu Phineas (with effect from 1 April 2020).
In 2017, Namibia signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Namibia is divided into 14 regions and subdivided into 121 constituencies. The administrative division of Namibia is tabled by "Delimitation Commissions" and accepted or declined by the National Assembly. Since state foundation four Delimitation Commissions have delivered their work, the last one in 2013 under the chairmanship of Judge Alfred Siboleka.
Regional councillors are directly elected through secret ballots (regional elections) by the inhabitants of their constituencies.
Local authorities in Namibia can be in the form of municipalities (either Part 1 or Part 2 municipalities), town councils or villages.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Namibia and discrimination, as well as intolerance, against LGBT people is still widespread. However, LGBT Namibians face virtually no violence or harassment from the Namibian police, military or government and no LGBT Namibians have ever been arrested or charged with sodomy in the last 20–25 years. Some Namibian government officials and high-profile figures, such as Namibia's Ombudsman John Walters and First Lady Monica Geingos, have called for sodomy and homosexuality to be decriminalised and are in favour of LGBT rights.
In November 2018, it was reported that 32% of women aged 15–49 have experienced violence and domestic abuse from their spouses/partners and 29.5% of men believe that physical abuse towards their wife/partner is acceptable. On the other hand, the Namibian constitution guarantees the rights, freedoms and equal treatment of women in Namibia and SWAPO, the ruling party in Namibia, has adopted a “zebra system”, which ensures a fair balance of both genders in government and equal representation of women in the Namibian government.
Namibia is considered one of the most free and democratic countries in Africa, with a government that maintains and protects basic human rights and freedoms.
Namibia's economy is tied closely to South Africa’s due to their shared history. The largest economic sectors are mining (10.4% of the gross domestic product in 2009), agriculture (5.0%), manufacturing (13.5%), and tourism.
Namibia has a highly developed banking sector with modern infrastructure, such as online banking and cellphone banking. The Bank of Namibia (BoN) is the central bank of Namibia responsible for performing all other functions ordinarily performed by a central bank. There are 5 BoN authorised commercial banks in Namibia: Bank Windhoek, First National Bank, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Small and Medium Enterprises Bank.
According to the Namibia Labour Force Survey Report 2012, conducted by the , the country's unemployment rate is 27.4%. "Strict unemployment" (people actively seeking a full-time job) stood at 20.2% in 2000, 21.9% in 2004 and spiralled to 29.4% in 2008. Under a broader definition (including people that have given up searching for employment) unemployment rose to 36.7% in 2004. This estimate considers people in the informal economy as employed. Labour and Social Welfare Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko praised the 2008 study as "by far superior in scope and quality to any that has been available previously", but its methodology has also received criticism.
In 2004 a labour act was passed to protect people from job discrimination stemming from pregnancy and HIV/AIDS status. In early 2010 the Government tender board announced that "henceforth 100 per cent of all unskilled and semi-skilled labour must be sourced, without exception, from within Namibia".
In 2013, global business and financial news provider, Bloomberg, named Namibia the top emerging market economy in Africa and the 13th best in the world. Only four African countries made the Top 20 Emerging Markets list in the March 2013 issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine, and Namibia was rated ahead of Morocco (19th), South Africa (15th) and Zambia (14th). Worldwide, Namibia also fared better than Hungary, Brazil and Mexico. Bloomberg Markets magazine ranked the top 20 based on more than a dozen criteria. The data came from Bloomberg's own financial-market statistics, IMF forecasts and the World Bank. The countries were also rated on areas of particular interest to foreign investors: the ease of doing business, the perceived level of corruption and economic freedom. To attract foreign investment, the government has made improvement in reducing red tape resulted from excessive government regulations, making Namibia one of the least bureaucratic places to do business in the region. Facilitation payments are occasionally demanded by customs due to cumbersome and costly customs procedures. Namibia is also classified as an Upper Middle Income country by the World Bank, and ranks 87th out of 185 economies in terms of ease of doing business.
The cost of living in Namibia is relatively high because most goods, including cereals, need to be imported. Its capital city, Windhoek, is the 150th most expensive place in the world for expatriates to live.
Taxation in Namibia includes personal income tax, which is applicable to total taxable income of an individual. All individuals are taxed at progressive marginal rates over a series of income brackets. The value added tax (VAT) is applicable to most of the commodities and services.
Despite the remote nature of much of the country, Namibia has seaports, airports, highways, and railways (narrow-gauge). It seeks to become a regional transportation hub; it has an important seaport and several landlocked neighbours. The Central Plateau already serves as a transportation corridor from the more densely populated north to South Africa, the source of four-fifths of Namibia's imports.
Namibia is a country with a substantial income disparity. The data indicates that the current income share held by the highest 10% is approximately 51.8%. This disparity illustrates the large gap between the rich and the poor. An additional figure describes the poverty gap: people living on US$2 or less in the country are approximately 17.72% of the population.
About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood, but Namibia must still import some of its food. Although per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa's poorest countries, the majority of Namibia's people live in rural areas and have a subsistence way of life. Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cashless economy. The inequality figures thus take into account people who do not actually rely on the formal economy for their survival. Although arable land accounts for only 1% of Namibia, nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture.
About 4,000, mostly white, commercial farmers own almost half of Namibia's arable land. The governments of Germany and the United Kingdom will finance Namibia's land reform process, as Namibia plans to start expropriating land from white farmers to resettle landless black Namibians.
Agreement has been reached on the privatisation of several more enterprises in coming years, with hopes that this will stimulate much needed foreign investment, but reinvestment of environmentally derived capital has hobbled Namibian per capita income. One of the fastest growing areas of economic development in Namibia is the growth of wildlife conservancies. These are particularly important to the rural, generally unemployed, population.
Providing 25% of Namibia's revenue, mining is the single most important contributor to the economy. Namibia is the fourth largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa and the world's fourth largest producer of uranium. There has been significant investment in uranium mining and Namibia is set to become the largest exporter of uranium by 2015. Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. While Namibia is known predominantly for its gem diamond and uranium deposits, a number of other minerals are extracted industrially such as lead, tungsten, gold, tin, fluorspar, manganese, marble, copper and zinc. There are offshore gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are planned to be extracted in the future. According to "The Diamond Investigation", a book about the global diamond market, from 1978, De Beers, the largest diamond company, bought most of the Namibian diamonds, and would continue to do so, because "whatever government eventually comes to power they will need this revenue to survive".
Domestic supply voltage is 220 V AC. Electricity is generated mainly by thermal and hydroelectric power plants. Non-conventional methods of electricity generation also play some role. Encouraged by the rich uranium deposits the Namibian government plans to erect its first nuclear power station by 2018, also uranium enrichment is envisaged to happen locally.
Although much of the world's diamond supply comes from what have been called African blood diamonds, Namibia has managed to develop a diamond mining industry largely free of the kinds of conflict, extortion, and murder that have plagued many other African nations with diamond mines. This has been attributed to political dynamics, economic institutions, grievances, political geography, and the effects of neighbourhoods, and is the result of a joint agreement between the government and De Beers that has led to a taxable base, strengthening state institutions.
Tourism is a major contributor (14.5%) to Namibia's GDP, creating tens of thousands of jobs (18.2% of all employment) directly or indirectly and servicing over a million tourists per year. The country is a prime destination in Africa and is known for ecotourism, which features Namibia's extensive wildlife.
There are many lodges and reserves to accommodate ecotourists. Sport and trophy hunting is also a large and growing component of the Namibian economy, accounting for 14% of total tourism in the year 2000, or 19.6 million U.S. dollars, with Namibia boasting numerous species sought after by international sport hunters.
In addition, extreme sports such as sandboarding, skydiving and 4x4ing have become popular, and many cities have companies that provide tours. The most visited places include the capital city of Windhoek, Caprivi Strip, Fish River Canyon, Sossusvlei, the Skeleton Coast Park, Sesriem, Etosha Pan and the coastal towns of Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Lüderitz.
Windhoek plays a very important role in Namibia's tourism due to its central location and close proximity to Hosea Kutako International Airport. According to The Namibia Tourism Exit Survey, which was produced by the Millennium Challenge Corporation for the Namibian Directorate of Tourism, 56% of all tourists visiting Namibia in 2012–13 visited Windhoek. Many of Namibia's tourism-related parastatals and governing bodies such as Namibia Wildlife Resorts, Air Namibia and the Namibia Tourism Board as well as Namibia's tourism-related trade associations such as the Hospitality Association of Namibia are headquartered in Windhoek. There are also a number of notable hotels in Windhoek, such as Windhoek Country Club Resort, and some international hotel chains, such as Avani Hotels and Resorts and Hilton Hotels and Resorts.
Namibia's primary tourism-related governing body, the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB), was established by an Act of Parliament: the "Namibia Tourism Board Act, 2000" (Act 21 of 2000). Its primary objectives are to regulate the tourism industry and to market Namibia as a tourist destination. There are also a number of trade associations that represent the tourism sector in Namibia, such as the Federation of Namibia Tourism Associations (the umbrella body for all tourism associations in Namibia), the Hospitality Association of Namibia, the Association of Namibian Travel Agents, Car Rental Association of Namibia and the Tour and Safari Association of Namibia.
Namibia is the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa to provide water through municipal departments. The only bulk water supplier in Namibia is NamWater, which sells it to the respective municipalities which in turn deliver it through their reticulation networks. In rural areas, the Directorate of Rural Water Supply in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is in charge of drinking water supply.
The UN evaluated in 2011 that Namibia has improved its water access network significantly since independence in 1990. A large part of the population can not, however, make use of these resources due to the prohibitively high consumption cost and the long distance between residences and water points in rural areas. As a result, many Namibians prefer the traditional wells over the available water points far away.
Compared to the efforts made to improve access to safe water, Namibia is lagging behind in the provision of adequate sanitation. This includes 298 schools that have no toilet facilities. Over 50% of child deaths are related to lack of water, sanitation, or hygiene; 23% are due to diarrhoea alone. The UN has identified a "sanitation crisis" in the country.
Apart from residences for upper and middle class households, sanitation is insufficient in most residential areas. Private flush toilets are too expensive for virtually all residents in townships due to their water consumption and installation cost. As a result, access to improved sanitation has not increased much since independence: in Namibia's rural areas 13% of the population had more than basic sanitation, up from 8% in 1990. Many of Namibia's inhabitants have to resort to "flying toilets", plastic bags to defecate into, which after use are flung into the bush. The use of open areas close to residential land for urination and defecation is very common and has been identified as a major health hazard.
Namibia has the second-lowest population density of any sovereign country, after Mongolia. In 2017 there were on average 3.08 people per km². The total fertility rate in 2015 was 3.47 children per woman according to the UN.
The majority of the Namibian population is of Bantu-speaking origin—mostly of the Ovambo ethnicity, which forms about half of the population—residing mainly in the north of the country, although many are now resident in towns throughout Namibia. Other ethnic groups are the Herero and Himba people, who speak a similar language, and the Damara, who speak the same "click" language as the Nama.
In addition to the Bantu majority, there are large groups of Khoisan (such as Nama and San), who are descendants of the original inhabitants of Southern Africa. The country also contains some descendants of refugees from Angola. There are also two smaller groups of people with mixed racial origins, called "Coloureds" and "Basters", who together make up 8.0% (with the Coloureds outnumbering the Basters two to one). There is a substantial Chinese minority in Namibia; it stood at 40,000 in 2006.
Whites (mainly of Afrikaner, German, British and Portuguese origin) make up between 4.0 and 7.0% of the population. Although their proportion of the population decreased after independence due to emigration and lower birth rates, they still form the second-largest population of European ancestry, both in terms of percentage and actual numbers, in Sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa). The majority of Namibian whites and nearly all those who are mixed race speak Afrikaans and share similar origins, culture, and religion as the white and coloured populations of South Africa. A large minority of whites (around 30,000) trace their family origins back to the German settlers who colonised Namibia prior to the British confiscation of German lands after World War I, and they maintain German cultural and educational institutions. Nearly all Portuguese settlers came to the country from the former Portuguese colony of Angola. The 1960 census reported 526,004 persons in what was then South West Africa, including 73,464 whites (14%).
Namibia conducts a census every ten years. After independence the first Population and Housing Census was carried out in 1991; further rounds followed in 2001 and 2011. The data collection method is to count every person resident in Namibia on the census reference night, wherever they happen to be. This is called the "de facto" method. For enumeration purposes the country is demarcated into 4,042 "enumeration areas". These areas do not overlap with constituency boundaries to get reliable data for election purposes as well.
The 2011 Population and Housing Census counted 2,113,077 inhabitants. Between 2001 and 2011 the annual population growth was 1.4%, down from 2.6% in the previous ten-year period.
Namibia has 13 cities, governed by municipalities and 26 towns, governed by town councils. The capital Windhoek is by far the largest urban settlement in Namibia.
The Christian community makes up 80%–90% of the population of Namibia, with at least 75% being Protestant, of which at least 50% are Lutheran. Lutherans are the largest religious group, a legacy of the German and Finnish missionary work during the country's colonial times. 10%–20% of the population hold indigenous beliefs.
Missionary activities during the second half of the 19th century resulted in many Namibians converting to Christianity. Today most Christians are Lutheran, but there also are Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, African Methodist Episcopal, Dutch Reformed and Latter-day Saints.
Islam in Namibia is subscribed to by about 9,000 people, many of them Nama. Namibia is home to a small Jewish community of about 100 people.
Up to 1990, English, German, and Afrikaans were official languages. Long before Namibia's independence from South Africa, SWAPO was of the opinion that the country should become officially monolingual, choosing this approach in contrast to that of its neighbour South Africa (which granted all 11 of its major languages official status), which it saw as "a deliberate policy of ethnolinguistic fragmentation." Consequently, SWAPO instituted English as Namibia's sole official language though only about 3% of the population speaks it as a home language. Its implementation is focused on the civil service, education and the broadcasting system, especially the state broadcaster NBC. Some other languages have received semi-official recognition by being allowed as medium of instruction in primary schools. Private schools are expected to follow the same policy as state schools, and "English language" is a compulsory subject. Some critics argue that, as in other postcolonial African societies, the push for monolingual instruction and policy has resulted in a high rate of school drop-outs and of individuals whose academic competence in any language is low.
According to the 2011 census, the most common languages are Oshiwambo (the most spoken language for 49% of households), Khoekhoegowab (11.3%), Afrikaans (10.4%), RuKwangali (9%), and Otjiherero (9%). The most widely understood national language is Afrikaans, the country's lingua franca. Both Afrikaans and English are used primarily as a second language reserved for public communication. A complete list of languages according to the 2011 census is 48.9% Oshiwambo, 11.3% Khoekhoegowab, 10.4% Afrikaans, 8.6% Otjiherero, 8.5% RuKwangali, 4.8% siLozi, 3.4% English, 1.2% Other African Languages, 0.9% German, 0.8% San, 0.7% Other European Languages, 0.3% Setswana, and 0.1% Asian Languages.
Most of the white population speaks either German or Afrikaans. Even today, 105 years after the end of the German colonial era, German plays a role as a commercial language. Afrikaans is spoken by 60% of the white community, German by 32%, English by 7% and Portuguese by 4–5%. Geographical proximity to Portuguese-speaking Angola explains the relatively high number of Portuguese speakers; in 2011 these were estimated to be 100,000, or 4–5% of the total population.
The most popular sport in Namibia is association football. The Namibia national football team qualified for the 1998, 2008 and 2019 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, but has yet to qualify for the World Cup.
The most successful national team is the Namibian rugby team, having competed in six separate World Cups. Namibia were participants in the 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups. Cricket is also popular, with the national side having qualified both for 2003 Cricket World Cup and 2020 ICC T20 World Cup. In December 2017, Namibia Cricket reached the final of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial One Day Challenge for the first time. In February 2018 Namibia hosted the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 with Namibia, Kenya, UAE, Nepal, Canada and Oman to compete for the final two ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier positions in Zimbabwe.
The most famous athlete from Namibia is Frankie Fredericks, sprinter in the 100 and 200 m events. He won four Olympic silver medals (1992, 1996) and also has medals from several World Athletics Championships. Golfer Trevor Dodds won the Greater Greensboro Open in 1998, one of 15 tournaments in his career. He achieved a career high world ranking of 78th in 1998. Professional cyclist and Namibian Road Race champion Dan Craven represented Namibia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in both the road race and individual time trial. Boxer Julius Indongo is the unified WBA, IBF, and IBO world champion in the Light welterweight division.
Although Namibia's population is fairly small, the country has a diverse choice of media; two TV stations, 19 radio stations (without counting community stations), 5 daily newspapers, several weeklies and special publications compete for the attention of the audience. Additionally, a mentionable amount of foreign media, especially South African, is available. Online media are mostly based on print publication contents. Namibia has a state-owned Press Agency, called NAMPA. Overall 300 journalists work in the country.
The first newspaper in Namibia was the German-language "Windhoeker Anzeiger", founded 1898. During German rule, the newspapers mainly reflected the living reality and the view of the white German-speaking minority. The black majority was ignored or depicted as a threat. During South African rule, the white bias continued, with mentionable influence of the Pretoria government on the "South West African" media system. Independent newspapers were seen as a menace to the existing order, and critical journalists were often threatened.
Current daily newspapers are the private publications "The Namibian" (English and other languages), "Die Republikein" (Afrikaans), Allgemeine Zeitung (German) and "Namibian Sun" (English) as well as the state-owned "New Era" (predominantly English). Except for the largest newspaper, "The Namibian", which is owned by a trust, the other mentioned private newspapers are part of the Democratic Media Holdings. Other mentionable newspapers are the tabloid "Informanté" owned by TrustCo, the weekly "Windhoek Observer", the weekly "Namibia Economist", as well as the regional "Namib Times". Current affairs magazines include "Insight Namibia", "Vision2030 Focus magazine" and "Prime FOCUS". The "Sister Namibia" magazine stands out as the longest running NGO magazine in Namibia, while "Namibia Sport" is the only national sport magazine. Furthermore, the print market is complemented with party publications, student newspapers and PR publications.
Radio was introduced in 1969, TV in 1981. The broadcasting sector today is dominated by the state-run Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). The public broadcaster offers a TV station as well as a "National Radio" in English and nine language services in locally spoken languages. The nine private radio stations in the country are mainly English-language channels, except for Radio Omulunga (Oshiwambo) and Kosmos 94.1 (Afrikaans).
Privately held One Africa TV has competed with NBC since the 2000s.
Compared to neighbouring countries, Namibia has a large degree of media freedom. Over the past years, the country usually ranked in the upper quarter of the Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders, reaching position 21 in 2010, being on par with Canada and the best-positioned African country. The African Media Barometer shows similarly positive results. However, as in other countries, there is still mentionable influence of representatives of state and economy on media in Namibia. In 2009, Namibia dropped to position 36 on the Press Freedom Index. In 2013, it was 19th, 22nd in 2014 and 23rd in 2019, meaning that it is currently the highest ranked African country in terms of press freedom.
Media and journalists in Namibia are represented by the Namibian chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Editors' Forum of Namibia. An independent media ombudsman was appointed in 2009 to prevent a state-controlled media council.
Namibia has free education for both primary and secondary education levels. Grades 1–7 are primary level, grades 8–12 are secondary. In 1998, there were 400,325 Namibian students in primary school and 115,237 students in secondary schools. The pupil–teacher ratio in 1999 was estimated at 32:1, with about 8% of the GDP being spent on education. Curriculum development, educational research, and professional development of teachers is centrally organised by the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) in Okahandja.
Most schools in Namibia are state-run, but there are some private schools, which are also part of the country's education system. There are four teacher training universities, three colleges of agriculture, a police training college, and three universities: University of Namibia (UNAM), International University of Management (IUM) and Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST).
Life expectancy at birth is estimated to be 64 years in 2017 – among the lowest in the world.
Namibia launched a National Health Extension Programme in 2012 deployment 1,800 (2015) of a total ceiling of 4,800 health extension workers trained for six months in community health activities including first aid, health promotion for disease prevention, nutritional assessment and counseling, water sanitation and hygiene practices, HIV testing and community-based antiretroviral treatment.
Namibia faces non-communicable disease burden. The Demographic and Health Survey (2013) summarises findings on elevated blood pressure, hypertension, diabetes and obesity:
The HIV epidemic remains a public health issue in Namibia despite significant achievements made by the Ministry of Health and Social Services to expand HIV treatment services. In 2001, there were an estimated 210,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, and the estimated death toll in 2003 was 16,000. According to the 2011 UNAIDS Report, the epidemic in Namibia "appears to be leveling off." As the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reduced the working-aged population, the number of orphans has increased. It falls to the government to provide education, food, shelter and clothing for these orphans. A Demographic and Health Survey with an HIV biomarker was completed in 2013 and served as the fourth comprehensive, national-level population and health survey conducted in Namibia as part of the global Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) programme. The DHS observed important characteristics associated to the HIV epidemic:
As of 2015, the Ministry of Health and Social Services and UNAIDS produced a Progress Report in which UNAIDS projected HIV prevalence among 15–49-year-olds at 13.3% [12.2–14.5%] and an estimated 210,000 [200,000–230,000] living with HIV.
The malaria problem seems to be compounded by the AIDS epidemic. Research has shown that in Namibia the risk of contracting malaria is 14.5% greater if a person is also infected with HIV. The risk of death from malaria is also raised by approximately 50% with a concurrent HIV infection. The country had only 598 physicians in 2002. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21292 |
Geography of Namibia
At , Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country. After Mongolia, Namibia is the second least densely populated country in the world ().
The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib Desert, the Great Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert.
The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by the Skeleton Coast to the northwest, the Namib Desert and its coastal plains to the southwest, the Orange River to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east. The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation . Within the wide, flat Central Plateau is the majority of Namibia’s population and economic activity. Windhoek, the nation’s capital, is located here, as well as most of the arable land. Although arable land accounts for only 1% of Namibia, nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture.
The abiotic conditions here are similar to those found along the Escarpment; however, the topographic complexity is reduced. Summer temperatures in the area can reach , and frosts are common in the winter.
The Namib Desert is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel, gravel with no moisture, plains and dunes that stretches along the entire coastline, which varies in width between 100 and many hundreds of kilometres. Areas within the Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast. The sands that make up the sand sea are a consequence of erosional processes that take place within the Orange River valley and areas further to the south. As sand-laden waters drop their suspended loads into the Atlantic, onshore currents deposit them along the shore. The prevailing south west winds then pick up and redeposit the sand in the form of massive dunes in the widespread sand sea, the largest sand dunes in the world. In areas where the supply of sand is reduced because of the inability of the sand to cross riverbeds, the winds also scour the land to form large gravel plains. In many areas within the Namib Desert, there is little vegetation with the exception of lichens found in the gravel plains, and in dry river beds where plants can access subterranean water.
The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over . Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase as you move further inland from the cold Atlantic waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish. Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it is nonetheless significantly more productive than the Namib Desert. As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation. The water, along with rapidly changing topography, is responsible for the creation of microhabitats which offer a wide range of organisms, many of them endemic. Vegetation along the escarpment varies in both form and density, with community structure ranging from dense woodlands to more shrubby areas with scattered trees. A number of Acacia species are found here, as well as grasses and other shrub vegetation.
The Bushveld is found in north eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the Caprivi Strip which is the vestige of a narrow corridor demarcated for the German Empire to access the Zambezi River. The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the country, averaging around per year. Temperatures are also cooler and more moderate, with approximate seasonal variations of between . The area is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water. Located adjacent to the Bushveld in north-central Namibia is one of nature’s most spectacular features: the Etosha pan. For most of the year it is a dry, saline wasteland, but during the wet season, it forms a shallow lake covering more than . The area is ecologically important and vital to the huge numbers of birds and animals from the surrounding savannah that gather in the region as summer drought forces them to the scattered waterholes that ring the pan. The Bushveld area has been demarcated by the World Wildlife Fund as part of the Angolan Mopane woodlands ecoregion, which extends north across the Cunene River into neighbouring Angola.
The Kalahari Desert is perhaps Namibia’s best known geographical feature. Shared with South Africa and Botswana, it has a variety of localised environments ranging from hyper-arid sandy desert, to areas that seem to defy the common definition of desert. One of these areas, known as the Succulent Karoo, is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; fully one-third of the world’s succulents are found in the Karoo.
The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation. The Karoo apparently does not experience drought on a regular basis, so even though the area is technically desert, regular winter rains provide enough moisture to support the region’s interesting plant community. Another feature of the Kalahari, indeed many parts of Namibia, are inselbergs, isolated mountains that create microclimates and habitat for organisms not adapted to life in the surrounding desert matrix.
Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world. Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world.
The Namib Desert and the Namib-Naukluft National Park is located here. The Namibian coastal deserts are the richest source of diamonds on earth, making Namibia the world's largest producer of diamonds. It is divided into the northern Skeleton Coast and the southern Diamond Coast. Because of the location of the shoreline—at the point where the Atlantic's cold water reaches Africa—there is often extremely dense fog.
Sandy beach comprises 54% and mixed sand and rock add another 28%. Only 16% of the total length is rocky shoreline. The coastal plains are dune fields, gravel plains covered with lichen and some scattered salt pans. Near the coast there are areas where the dunes are vegetated with hammocks. Namibia has rich coastal and marine resources that remain largely unexplored.
Namibia has more than 300 days of sunshine per year. It is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the Tropic of Capricorn cuts the country about in half. The winter (June–August) is generally dry, both rainy seasons occur in summer, the small rainy season between September and November, the big one between February and April. Humidity is low, and average rainfall varies from almost zero in the coastal desert to more than 600 mm in the Caprivi Strip. Rainfall is however highly variable, and droughts are common. The bad rainy season occurred in summer 2006/07. Due to the dry winters snowfall has a very rare occurrence and prompts media coverage whenever it happens. The snow was reported at Spreetshoogte Pass in the Namib-Naukluft Park in June 2011.
Weather and climate in the coastal area are dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean which accounts for very low precipitation (50 mm per year or less), frequent dense fog, and overall lower temperatures than in the rest of the country. In winter, occasionally a condition known as "Berg wind" or "Oosweer" (Afrikaans: East weather) occurs, a hot dry wind blowing from the inland to the coast. As the area behind the coast is a desert, these winds can develop into sand storms with sand deposits in the Atlantic Ocean visible on satellite images.
The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas have wide diurnal temperature ranges of up to 30C.
Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and depends largely on groundwater. With an average rainfall of about per annum, the highest rainfall occurs in the Caprivi in the northeast (about per annum) and decreases in a westerly and southwesterly direction to as little as and less per annum at the coast. The only perennial rivers are found on the national borders with South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and the short border with Botswana in the Caprivi. In the interior of the country, surface water is available only in the summer months when rivers are in flood after exceptional rainfalls. Otherwise, surface water is restricted to a few large storage dams retaining and damming up these seasonal floods and their runoff. Where people do not live near perennial rivers or make use of the storage dams, they are dependent on groundwater. Even isolated communities and those economic activities located far from good surface water sources, such as mining, agriculture, and tourism, can be supplied from groundwater over nearly 80% of the country. The longest river in Namibia is the Fish River with a length of .
More than 100,000 boreholes have been drilled in Namibia over the past century. One third of these boreholes have been drilled dry. An aquifer called "Ohangwena II", located on both sides of the Angola-Namibia border, was discovered in 2012. This aquifer has been estimated to be capable of supplying the 800,000 people in the North for 400 years, at the current (2018) rate of consumption. Experts estimate that Namibia has of underground water.
"Efundja", the annual flooding of the northern parts of the country, often causes not only damage to infrastructure but loss of life. The rains that cause these floods originate in Angola, flow into Namibia's Cuvelai basin, and fill the "Oshanas" (Oshiwambo: flood plains) there. The worst floods occurred in March 2011 and displaced 21,000 people.
The capital and largest city, Windhoek, is in the centre of the country. It is home to the country's Central Administrative Region, Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport and the country's railhead. Other important towns are:
Location:
Southern Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Angola and South Africa
Geographic coordinates:
Area:
"total:"
824,292 km²
"land:"
823,290 km²
"water:"
1,002 km²
Land boundaries:
"total:"
4,220 km
"border countries:"
Angola 1,427 km, Botswana 1,544 km, South Africa 1,005 km, Zambia 244 km
Coastline:
1,572 km
Maritime claims:
"territorial sea:"
"contiguous zone:"
"exclusive economic zone:"
Terrain:
Mostly high plateau; Namib Desert along coast; Kalahari Desert in east. In the north near the border with Angola there is a flat area that has been designated by the World Wildlife Fund as part of the Angolan Mopane woodlands ecoregion.
Elevation extremes:
"lowest point:"
Atlantic Ocean 0 m
"highest point:"
Königstein 2,606 m
Natural resources:
diamonds, copper, uranium, gold, silver, lead, tin, lithium, cadmium, tungsten, zinc, salt, hydropower, fish
"note:"
suspected deposits of oil, coal, and iron ore
Land use:
"agricultural land:"
47.2% (2011)
"arable land:"
1% (2011)
"permanent crops:"
0% (2011)
"permanent pasture:"
46.2% (2011)
"forest:"
8.8% (2011)
"other:"
44% (2011)
Irrigated land:
80 km2 (2011), 75.73 km2 (2003), 70 km² (1998 est.), 60 km² (1993 est.)
Total renewable water resources:
17.72 km3 (2011)
Natural hazards:
prolonged periods of drought
Environment - current issues:
depletion and degradation of water and aquatic resources; desertification; land degradation; loss of biodiversity and biotic resources; wildlife poaching
Environment - international agreements:
"party to:"
Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
This is a list of the extreme points of Namibia, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21294 |
Demographics of Namibia
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Namibia, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
As required by the Namibian "Statistics Act" #66 of 1976, and in accordance with United Nations recommendations, a census is conducted every ten years. After Namibian independence the first Population and Housing Census was carried out in 1991, further rounds followed in 2001 and 2011. The data collection method is to count every person resident in Namibia wherever they happen to be. This is called the "de facto" method. For enumeration purposes the country is demarcated into 4,042 "enumeration areas". These areas do not overlap with constituency boundaries in order to get reliable data for election purposes as well.
The 2011 Population and Housing Census counted 2,113,077 inhabitants of Namibia. Between 2001 and 2011 the annual population growth was 1.4%, down from 2.6% in the previous ten–year period.
In 2011 the total fertility rate was 3.6 children per woman, down from 4.1 in 2001.
According to the total population was in , compared to only 485 000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 36.4%, 59.9% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.7% was 65 years or older
.
Registration of vital events in Namibia is not complete. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (followed by wanted fertility rate in brackets) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
Fertility data as of 2013 (DHS Program):
Life expectancy from 1950 to 2015 ("UN World Population Prospects"):
Namibians are of diverse ethnic origins. The principal groups are the Ovambo, Kavango, Herero, Himba, Damara, mixed race (Coloured and Rehoboth Baster), White Namibians (Afrikaner, German, Swedish, British and Portuguese), Nama, Caprivian (Lozi), San, and Tswana. The Coloureds and Basters share similar genealogical origins and cultural attributes (such as home language) but nonetheless maintain distinctly separate communal identities, as do most white Namibians and black Namibians, respectively.
The Ovambo make up about half of Namibia's people. The Ovambo, Kavango, and East Caprivian peoples, who occupy the relatively well-watered and wooded northern part of the country, are settled farmers and herders. Historically, they have shown little interest in the central and southern parts of Namibia, where conditions do not suit their traditional way of life.
Until the early 20th century, these tribes had little contact with the Nama, Damara, and Herero, who settled around the central part of the country vying for control of sparse pastureland. German colonial rule destroyed the warmaking ability of the tribes but did not erase their identities or traditional organization. People from the more populous north have settled throughout the country in recent decades as a result of urbanization, industrialization, and the demand for labor.
The minority white population is primarily of South African, British, and German descent, with a few Portuguese. About 60% of the whites speak Afrikaans (a language derived from the 17th century Dutch), 32% speak German, and 7% speak English.
Missionary work during the 19th century drew many Namibians to Christianity, especially Lutheranism. While most Namibian Christians are Lutheran, there also are Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, African Methodist Episcopal, and Dutch Reformed Christians represented.
Modern education and medical care have been extended in varying degrees to most rural areas in recent years. The literacy rate of Africans is generally low except in sections where missionary and government education efforts have been concentrated, such as Ovamboland. The Africans speak various indigenous languages.
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019.
The following demographic are from the CIA World Factbook unless otherwise indicated.
"at birth:"
1.03 male(s)/female (2017 est.)
"under 15 years:"
1.02 male(s)/female (2017 est.)
"15–64 years:"
0.99 male(s)/female (2017 est.)
"65 years and over:"
0.75 male(s)/female (2017 est.)"total population:"
0.96 male(s)/female (2017 est.)
adult prevalence rate: 12.1% (2017 est.)
people living with HIV/AIDS: 280,000 (2017 est.)
deaths: 2,700 (2017 est.)
"noun:"
Namibian(s)
"adjective:"
Namibian
definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2015 est.) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21295 |
Politics of Namibia
Politics of Namibia takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Namibia is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by both the President and the Government. Legislative power is vested in both the Government and the two chambers of Parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Additional to the government political structure Namibia has a network of traditional leadership with currently 51 recognised traditional authorities and their leaders. These authorities cover the entire Namibian territory. Traditional leaders are entrusted with the allocation of communal land and the formulation of the traditional group's customary laws. They also take over minor judicial work.
The Constituent Assembly of Namibia produced a constitution which established a multi-party system and a bill of rights. It also limited the executive president to two five-year terms and provided for the private ownership of property. The three branches of government are subject to checks and balances, and a provision is made for judicial review. The constitution also states that Namibia should have a mixed economy, and foreign investment should be encouraged.
The constitution is noted for being one of the first to incorporate protection of the environment into its text. Namibia is a democratic but one party dominant state with the South-West Africa People's Organisation in power. Opposition parties are allowed, but are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power.
While the ethnic-based, three-tier, South African-imposed governing authorities have been dissolved, the current government pledged for the sake of national reconciliation to retain civil servants employed during the colonial period. The government is still organising itself on both national and regional levels.
The Constituent Assembly converted itself into the National Assembly on 16 February 1990, retaining all the members elected on a straight party ticket.
The Namibian head of state is the president, elected by popular vote every five years. Namibia's founding president is Sam Nujoma, who was in office for three terms from 21 March 1990 (Namibia's Independence Day) until 21 March 2005. Hifikepunye Pohamba was Namibia's second president serving from 2005 to 2015. Since 2015 Hage Geingob has been president of Namibia.
While the separation of powers is enshrined in the country's constitution, Namibia's civil society and the opposition repeatedly have criticised the overlap between executive and legislature. All cabinet members also sit in the National Assembly and dominate that body—not numerically but by being the superiors to ordinary members.
The government is headed by the prime minister, who, together with their cabinet, is appointed by the president. SWAPO, the primary force behind independence, is still the country's largest party. Hage Geingob was Namibia's first prime minister. He was appointed on 21 March 1990 and served until 28 August 2002. Theo-Ben Gurirab was prime minister from 28 August 2002 to 21 March 2005, and Nahas Angula occupied this position from 21 March 2005 to 4 December 2012. He was succeeded by Hage Geingob, who in turn was succeeded as prime minister by Saara Kuugongelwa when he became president of Namibia on 21 March 2015.
Parliament has two chambers, consisting of a National Assembly (lower house), elected for a five-year term, and a National Council (upper house), elected for a six-year term. The Assembly is the primary legislative body, with the Council playing more of an advisory role.
From Namibian independence until 2014 the National Assembly consisted of 78 members, 72 members elected by proportional representation and 6 members appointed by the president. The National Council had 26 representatives of the Regional Councils. Every Regional Council in the 13 regions of Namibia elected two representatives to serve on this body. Prior to the 2014 general elections the constitution was amended. Since then there are 104 seats in the National Assembly (96 elected, 8 appointed), and 42 seats in the National Council (3 from each region, with the number of regions increased to 14).
The highest judicial body is the Supreme Court, whose judges are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission. The judicial structure in Namibia parallels that of South Africa. In 1919, Roman-Dutch law was declared the common law of the territory and remains so to the present.
Elections were held in 1992, to elect members of 13 newly established Regional Councils, as well as new municipal officials. Two members from each Regional Council serve simultaneously as members of the National Council, the country's second house of Parliament. Nineteen of its members are from the ruling SWAPO party, and seven are from the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA). In December 1994, elections were held for the President and the National Assembly.
Namibia has about 40 political groups, ranging from modern political parties to traditional groups based on tribal authority. Some represent single tribes or ethnic groups while others encompass several. Most participate in political alliances, some of which are multiracial, with frequently shifting membership.
SWAPO is the ruling party, and all but one of the new government's first cabinet posts went to SWAPO members. A marxist-oriented movement, SWAPO has become more right wing and now espouses the need for a mixed economy. SWAPO has been a legal political party since its formation and was cautiously active in Namibia, although before implementation of the UN Plan, it was forbidden to hold meetings of more than 20 people, and its leadership was subject to frequent detention. In December 1976, the UN General Assembly recognised SWAPO as "the sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people," a characterisation other internal parties did not accept.
In the 1999 presidential and parliamentary elections, SWAPO continued its history of political dominance, taking 55 of the 72 Assembly seats, and returning President Sam Nujoma to the office for his third term. The principal opposition parties are the Congress of Democrats (CoD) and the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), with each possessing seven seats in the National Assembly.
In 2019 Hage Geingob won the presidential election and received a second term as president. His percentage of votes gained, however, dropped significantly from 87% in 2014 to 56% in 2019. While rural areas predominantly supported Geingob, many urban centres voted for the independent candidate, Panduleni Itula, who received 29% of the overall votes. No other candidate achieved a two-digit result. SWAPO, yet again, won a majority of seats in the National Assembly, but closely missed the threshold for a two-thirds majority, which it held since 1994. Consequently, opposition parties also gained seats, most prominently the PDM, which obtained 16 seats in the National Assembly. The PDM's 16.60% vote share is its best electoral performance since the 1994 election.
Namibian government has so far recognised 51 traditional authorities, and a further 40 applications are pending. These institutions are based on ethnicity and headed by the traditional leader of that ethnic group or clan. These positions are not paid by the state. Instead the traditional group's members are expected to sustain their leadership. Government did, however, give one car each to the recognised authorities, and awards allowances for fuel and administrative work. The parallel existence of traditional authorities and the Namibian government in Namibia is controversial.
Namibia is divided into 14 regions: Zambezi, Erongo, Hardap, ǁKaras, Kavango East, Kavango West, Khomas, Kunene, Ohangwena, Omaheke, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto, and Otjozondjupa.
Namibia is member of
ACP,
AfDB,
C,
ECA,
FAO,
G-77,
IAEA,
IBRD,
ICAO,
ICCt,
ICFTU,
ICRM,
IFAD,
IFC,
IFRCS,
ILO,
IMF,
IMO,
Interpol,
IOC,
IOM (observer),
ISO (correspondent),
ITU,
NAM,
OAU,
OPCW,
SACU,
SADC,
UN,
UNCTAD,
UNESCO,
UNHCR,
UNIDO,
UNMEE,
UPU,
WCL,
WHO,
WIPO,
WMO,
WToO,
WTrO | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21296 |
Economy of Namibia
The economy of Namibia has a modern market sector, which produces most of the country's wealth, and a traditional subsistence sector. Although the majority of the population engages in subsistence agriculture and herding, Namibia has more than 200,000 skilled workers and a considerable number of well-trained professionals and managerials.
Namibia is a higher middle income country with an estimated annual GDP per capita of US$5,828 but has extreme inequalities in income distribution and standard of living. It leads the list of countries by income inequality with a Gini coefficient of 59.7 (CIA) and 74.3 (UN), respectively.
Since independence, the Namibian Government has pursued free-market economic principles designed to promote commercial development and job creation to bring disadvantaged Namibians into the economic mainstream. To facilitate this goal, the government has actively courted donor assistance and foreign investment. The liberal Foreign Investment Act of 1990 provides guarantees against nationalisation, freedom to remit capital and profits, currency convertibility, and a process for settling disputes equitably. Namibia also is addressing the sensitive issue of agrarian land reform in a pragmatic manner. However, Government runs and owns a number of companies such as Air Namibia, Transnamib and NamPost, most of which need frequent financial assistance to stay afloat.
The country's sophisticated formal economy is based on capital-intensive industry and farming. However, Namibia's economy is heavily dependent on the earnings generated from primary commodity exports in a few vital sectors, including minerals, especially diamonds, livestock, and fish. Furthermore, the Namibian economy remains integrated with the economy of South Africa, as the bulk of Namibia's imports originate there.
In 1993, Namibia became a signatory of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) signatory, and the Minister of Trade and Industry represented Namibia at the Marrakech signing of the Uruguay Round Agreement in April 1994. Namibia also is a member of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and has acceded to the European Union's Lomé Convention.
Given its small domestic market but favourable location and a superb transport and communications base, Namibia is a leading advocate of regional economic integration. In addition to its membership in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Namibia presently belongs to the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) with South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Within SACU, there is no customs on goods produced in, and being transported amidst, its members. Namibia is a net receiver of SACU revenues; they are estimated to contribute 13.9 billion NAD in 2012.
The Namibian economy is closely linked to South Africa with the Namibian dollar pegged to the South African rand. Privatisation of several enterprises in coming years may stimulate long-run foreign investment, although with the trade union movement opposed, so far most politicians have been reluctant to advance the issue. In September 1993, Namibia introduced its own currency, the Namibia Dollar (N$), which is linked to the South African Rand at a fixed exchange rate of 1:1. There has been widespread acceptance of the Namibia Dollar throughout the country and, while Namibia remains a part of the Common Monetary Area, it now enjoys slightly more flexibility in monetary policy although interest rates have so far always moved very closely in line with the South African rates.
Namibia imports almost all of its goods from South Africa. Many exports likewise go to the South African market, or transit that country. Namibia's exports consist mainly of diamonds and other minerals, fish products, beef and meat products, karakul sheep pelts, and light manufactures. In recent years, Namibia has accounted for about 5% of total SACU exports, and a slightly higher percentage of imports.
Namibia is seeking to diversify its trading relationships away from its heavy dependence on South African goods and services. Europe has become a leading market for Namibian fish and meat, while mining concerns in Namibia have purchased heavy equipment and machinery from Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. The Government of Namibia is making efforts to take advantage of the American-led African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which will provide preferential access to American markets for a long list of products. In the short term, Namibia is likely to see growth in the apparel manufacturing industry as a result of AGOA.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1990–2017.
Namibia is heavily dependent on the extraction and processing of minerals for export. Taxes and royalties from mining account for 25% of its revenue. The bulk of the revenue is created by diamond mining, which made up 7.2% of the 9.5% that mining contributes to Namibia's GDP in 2011. Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. Namibia is a large exporter of uranium and over the years the mining industry has seen a decline in the international commodity prices such as uranium, which has led to the reason behind several uranium projects being abandoned. Experts say that the prices are expected to rise in the next 3 years because of an increase in nuclear activities from both Japan and China. The mining industry in Namibia is supposedly going to reach US1.79bn by the year 2018.
Diamond production totalled 1.5 million carats (300 kg) in 2000, generating nearly $500 million in export earnings. Other important mineral resources are uranium, copper, lead, and zinc. The country also extracts gold, silver, tin, vanadium, semiprecious gemstones, tantalite, phosphate, sulphur, and mines salt.
Namibia is the fourth-largest exporter of nonfuel minerals in Africa, the world's fifth-largest producer of uranium, and the producer of large quantities of lead, zinc, tin, silver, and tungsten. Namibia has two uranium mines that are capable of providing 10% of the world mining output. The mining sector employs only about 3% of the population while about half of the population depends on subsistence agriculture for its livelihood. Namibia normally imports about 50% of its cereal requirements; in drought years food shortages are a major problem in rural areas.
During the pre-independence period, large areas of Namibia, including off-shore, were leased for oil prospecting. Some natural gas was discovered in 1974 in the Kudu Field off the mouth of the Orange River, but the extent of this find is only now being determined.
About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood, but Namibia must still import some of its food. Although per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa's poorest countries, the majority of Namibia's people live in rural areas and exist on a subsistence way of life. Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cash-less economy. The inequality figures thus take into account people who do not actually rely on the formal economy for their survival. Although arable land accounts for only 1% of Namibia, nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture.
About 4,000, mostly white, commercial farmers own almost half of Namibia's arable land. Agreement has been reached on the privatisation of several more enterprises in coming years, with hopes that this will stimulate much needed foreign investment. However, reinvestment of environmentally derived capital has hobbled Namibian per capita income. One of the fastest growing areas of economic development in Namibia is the growth of wildlife conservancies. These conservancies are particularly important to the rural generally unemployed population.
An aquifer called "Ohangwena II" has been discovered, capable of supplying the 800,000 people in the North for 400 years. Experts estimate that Namibia has 7720 km3 of underground water.
Agriculture is increasingly under pressure, due to factors such as frequent and prolonged droughts as well as bush encroachment. These render conventional agriculture unsustainable for a growing number of land owners, with many diverting their economic activities to alternative of additional sources of income. Frequently farms are turned into guestfarms, providing accommodation facilities targeted at international and local tourists.
In recent years the utilisation of woody biomass from encroacher bush has gained traction with many land owners diversifying their income through charcoal and firewood production and substituting commercial animal fodder with on-farm production of bush-based animal fodder. In 2019 it was estimated that 10,000 workers were employed in the growing sub-sector of biomass utilisation, rendering it one of the biggest sub-sectors in terms of employment. Biomass utilisation bears significant potential for income diversification in rural areas and can serve to increase climate change resilience.
The clean, cold South Atlantic waters off the coast of Namibia are home to some of the richest fishing grounds in the world, with the "potential" for sustainable yields of 1.5 million metric tonnes per year. Commercial fishing and fish processing is the fastest-growing sector of the Namibian economy in terms of employment, export earnings, and contribution to GDP.
The main species found in abundance off Namibia are pilchards (sardines), anchovy, hake, and horse mackerel. There also are smaller but significant quantities of sole, squid, deep-sea crab, rock lobster, and tuna.
At the time of independence, fish stocks had fallen to dangerously low levels, due to the lack of protection and conservation of the fisheries and the over-exploitation of these resources. This trend appears to have been halted and reversed since independence, as the Namibian Government is now pursuing a conservative resource management policy along with an aggressive fisheries enforcement campaign. The government seeks to develop fish-farming as an alternative.
On 12 November 2019, WikiLeaks published thousands of documents and email communication by Samherji's employees, called the Fishrot Files, that indicated hundreds of millions ISK had been paid to high ranking politicians and officials in Namibia with the objective of acquiring the country’s coveted fishing quota.
In 2000, Namibia's manufacturing sector contributed about 20% of GDP. Namibian manufacturing is inhibited by a small domestic market, dependence on imported goods, limited supply of local capital, widely dispersed population, small skilled labour force and high relative wage rates, and subsidised competition from South Africa.
Walvis Bay is a well-developed, deepwater port, and Namibia's fishing infrastructure is most heavily concentrated there. The Namibian Government expects Walvis Bay to become an important commercial gateway to the Southern African region.
Namibia also boasts world-class civil aviation facilities and an extensive, well-maintained land transportation network. Construction is underway on two new arteries—the Trans-Caprivi Highway and Trans-Kalahari Highway—which will open up the region's access to Walvis Bay.
The Walvis Bay Export Processing Zone operates in the key port of Walvis Bay.
Tourism is a major contributor (14.5%) to Namibia's GDP, creating tens of thousands of jobs (18.2% of all employment) directly or indirectly and servicing over a million tourists per annum. The country is among the prime destinations in Africa and is known for ecotourism which features Namibia's extensive wildlife.
There are many lodges and reserves to accommodate eco-tourists. Sport Hunting is also a large, and growing component of the Namibian economy, accounting for 14% of total tourism in the year 2000, or $19.6 million US dollars, with Namibia boasting numerous species sought after by international sport hunters. In addition, extreme sports such as sandboarding, skydiving and 4x4ing have become popular, and many cities have companies that provide tours. The most visited places include the Caprivi Strip, Fish River Canyon, Sossusvlei, the Skeleton Coast Park, Sesriem, Etosha Pan and the coastal towns of Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Lüderitz.
While many Namibians are economically active in one form or another, the bulk of this activity is in the informal sector, primarily subsistence agriculture. A large number of Namibians seeking jobs in the formal sector are held back due to a lack of necessary skills or training. The government is aggressively pursuing education reform to overcome this problem.
Namibia has a high unemployment rate. "Strict unemployment" (people actively seeking a full-time job) stood at 20.2% in 1999, 21.9% in 2002, and spiraled to 29,4 per cent in 2008. A 2012 study by the Namibia Statictics Agency (NSA) determined the rate of unemployment to be 27.4%. This study included subsistence farmers, work without pay, and any non-zero amount of weekly working hours, and did not count as unemployed people not actively seeking for a job.
Under a much broader definition (including people that have given up searching for employment) two different studies determined the unemployment rate to be 36.7% (2004) and 51.2% (2008), respectively. This estimate considers people in the informal economy as employed. 72% of jobless people have been unemployed for two years or more. Labour and Social Welfare Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko praised the 2008 study as "by far superior in scope and quality to any that has been available previously", but its methodology has also received criticism. The total number of formally employed people stood at 400,000 in 1997 and fell 330,000 in 2008, according to a government survey. The NSA 2012 study counted 396,000 formal employees. Of annually 25,000 school leavers only 8,000 gain formal employment—largely a result of a failed education system.
Namibians in the informal sector as well as in low-paid jobs like homemakers, gardeners or factory workers are unlikely to be covered by medical aid or a pension fund. All in all only a quarter or the working population have medical aid, and about half have a pension fund.
Namibia's largest trade union federation, the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) represents workers organised into seven affiliated trade unions. NUNW maintains a close affiliation with the ruling SWAPO party.
In the financial year March 2009 – February 2010, every Namibian earned 15,000 N$ (roughly 2,000 US$) on average. Household income was dominated by wages (49.1%) and subsistence farming (23%), with further significant sources of income being business activities (8.1%, farming excluded), old-age pensions from government (9.9%), and cash remittance (2.9%). Commercial farming only contributed 0.6%.
Every Namibian resident had on average 10,800 US$ of wealth accumulated in 2016, putting Namibia on third place in Africa. Individual wealth is, however, distributed very unequally; the country's Gini coefficient of 0.61 is one of the highest in the world. There are 3,300 US$-millionaires in Namibia, 1,400 of which live in the capital Windhoek. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21297 |
Telecommunications in Namibia
Telecommunications in Namibia include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Since Independence in 1990, Namibia has seen a dramatic growth in radio stations, with both commercial (for instance Radio 99, Radio Wave, Radio Energy, Omulunga Radio, West Coast FM, etc.) and community (UNAM Radio, Katutura Community Radio, etc.) receiving licences. Most of these stations broadcast various types of music format, and political discussions, news and phone-in programs remain mostly the domain of the national broadcaster (NBC) which broadcasts nine radio services nationally (in various Namibian languages, including German - the only full-time German service outside of Europe), plus the new !Ha service, broadcasting to the San community in Tsumkwe.
The television network with the widest transmission range is the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC, not to be confused with the American NBC network). The NBC is the successor to the South Africa–run South West African Broadcasting Corporation (SWABC), which was modeled on the original SABC. Like the radio services of the NBC, the television service tries to cater to all the linguistic audiences in Namibia, although the dominant language is English (Namibia's official language).
The commercial "free to air" station is One Africa Television, the successor to the now defunct TV Africa. It has expanded its transmitter network and is now available in most major towns and cities in Namibia. In 2007 it commenced broadcasting a local television news bulletin each evening.
The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is a religion television station, with some material originating locally, although also carrying relays from the United States. It is based in Windhoek and holds a community television licence granted in 2001.
Telecom Namibia, which has offered ADSL access since late 2006, has a de facto monopoly on ADSL access. Their monopoly was unsuccessfully challenged in the courts by MWeb Namibia in May 2007 and again in August 2011.
In February 2007, ISP Namibia Mweb began offering broadband wireless services through WiMax, making Namibia the second African country (after Mozambique) to do so.
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet; however, the Communications Act provides that the intelligence services can monitor e-mail and Internet usage with authorization from any magistrate. There have been some allegations and rumors that the government reviewed ways to block or curtail social media sites, but there is no concrete evidence of such action.
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respects these rights. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21298 |
Transport in Namibia
This article deals with the system of transport in Namibia, both public and private.
The beginnings of organised travel and transport routes in the territory of South West Africa, today Namibia, have not yet been established. This is due to the lack of any written records relating to roads prior to the twilight of the 19th century. Archaeological work has dated one stretch of road in the south-western Brandberg Massif to 1250 AD. Although no other such early examples have been found, it is certain that this road was not the only one of its kind.
The first permanent road, established for ox wagons, was built at the initiative of Heinrich Schmelen, Rhenish missionary in Bethanie in the early 19th century. It led from Bethanie to Angra Pequeña, today the town of Lüderitz, and was intended to serve the natural harbour there in order to become independent of the Cape Colony.
Namibia's road network is regarded as one of the best on the continent; road construction and maintenance adheres to international standards. The countrys 48,875.27 km roads (2017) are administered by the "Roads Authority", a state-owned enterprise established by Act #17 of 1999. Due to low traffic volumes the majority of roads are not tarred. The distribution of road surfaces is:
The major highways in Namibia are as follows:
2018 there were about 393,062 cars registered in Namibia (169,911 in the capital Windhoek). Namibia has a relatively high prevalence of road accidents, compared to its sparse population. In 2011, 491 people died in 2,846 crashes. Causes are often speeding and reckless driving, as well as general non-observance of traffic rules. Stray animals are also a major cause of accidents, particularly in the Kavango Region.
Rail transport in Namibia is operated on a 2,687-kilometre network by TransNamib.
none (2002, 1999 est.)
135 (2002, 1999 est.)
Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport is the main international airport in the country, though there is only one other: the Walvis Bay Airport.
"total:"
21 (2002), 22 (1999 est.)
"over 3,047 m:"
2 (2002, 1999 est.)
"2,438 to 3,047 m:"
2 (2002, 1999 est.)
"1,524 to 2,437 m:"
13 (2002), 15 (1999 est.)
"914 to 1,523 m:"
4 (2002, 3 (1999 est.)
"total:"
114 (2002) 113 (1999 est.)
"2,438 to 3,047 m:"
2 (2002, 1999 est.)
"1,524 to 2,437 m:"
22 (2002 est.), 21 (1999 est.)
"914 to 1,523 m:"
71 (2002), 69 (1999 est.)
"under 914 m:"
19 (2002), 21 (1999 est.) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21299 |
Namibian Defence Force
The Namibian Defence Force (NDF) is the military of Namibia. It was created when South West Africa gained full independence from South Africa in 1990. The constitution of Namibia defines the role of the military as ""defending the territory and national interests.""
Namibia's military was born from the integration of the formerly belligerent People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), military wing of the South West African People's Organization, and the South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) – a security arm of the former South African administration. The British formulated the force integration plan and began training the NDF, which consists of five battalions and a small headquarters element. The United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (UNTAG)'s Kenyan infantry battalion remained in Namibia for three months after independence to assist in training the NDF and stabilize the north. Martin Shalli and Charles 'Ho Chi Minh' Namoloh were involved in the negotiations that allowed the Kenyan infantry battalion to remain for that period.
The main roles of the Namibian Defence Force are to ensure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country by guarding against external aggression, both conventional and unconventional; prevent violation of Namibia's territorial integrity; and provide assistance to civil authorities in guarding and protecting government buildings and key installations as provided in the Defence Act.
Defence spending and percentage of GDP included $90 million in 1997/98, 2.6% of GDP. The 73.1 million figure in 2002 was 2.4% of GDP. These figures are almost certainly CIA World Factbook estimates.
Major General A W Dennis, CB, OBE (rtd), British Army, previously Director of Military Assistance Overseas, made the following comments on the initial phase in Namibia at a conference in Pretoria, South Africa on 6 August 1992:
You will no doubt recall that the Angola accords were signed in Luanda on 22 December 1988. In November 1989 SWAPO won 57% of the votes in the Namibian General Election and immediately requested the help of a British Military Advisory and Training Team following independence on 21 March 1990. The team, initially 55 strong, was duly deployed on 26 March 1990 and the first leaders cadre, for the 1st and 2nd Battalions, was run from 17 April to 2 June. By 1 July, the 1st Battalion, about 1 000 men strong, accompanied by 5 BMATT Advisors, had deployed to the northern border. By November 1990, only four months later, the 5th Battalion had deployed and in early 1991 the 21st Guards Battalion had also been formed, four staff courses had been run, support weapons and logistics training was well advanced (indeed a logistics battalion deployed as early as July 1990) and an operational test exercise had been conducted. In addition the Ministry of Defence, a mixture of civilian and military personnel, was operating as a department of state. No-one would pretend that everything was working perfectly, nevertheless, a great deal had been achieved in the first year following independence. Most people would probably agree that at some 7 500 strong the Army is unnecessarily large, but sensible plans will need to be made for the employment of any surplus soldiers before they are discharged. Integration has not been easy to achieve, at least in part, because of the need to use several interpreters to cope with the wide variety of languages involved. Battalions are made up of approximately 70% ex-PLAN and 30% ex-SWATF. This mixture could have proved explosive but hounded by their BMATT instructors they united in a common task (or perhaps in the face of a common enemy!) and soon realised that they could work well together. At the higher levels, integration has been more patchy, at least in part because of the departure of most white South African and SWATF officers. But the Government's intentions seem clear in that it decided to split the four MOD directorates evenly, appointing two white and two black (ex PLAN) directors. In all this, BMATT Namibia has played a role remarkably similar to that of BMATT Zimbabwe.
In August 1999, a separatist Lozi faction in the Caprivi Strip launched a coup attempt (see Caprivi conflict) which was summarily put down by the Namibian Defence Force. The army has conducted security operations along the northern border with Angola. In the process of these operations, there were allegations in 2001 that the army has tortured people suspected of being UNITA sympathisers. IRIN reported that the Ministry of Defence had admitted that two Namibian soldiers died fighting suspected UNITA rebels in southern Angola in July 2001. The Namibian Defence Force assists in putting out wildfires.
As of 13 October 2010, Sibbinda councillor Felix Mukupi has requested a meeting with the regional army commander in order to request 'the NDF to deploy its troops [on the Namibia/Zambia border area] stretching from Wenela to Kongola' in order to curtail stock thefts by gangs of cattle thieves from Zambia.
On 24 May 2010, Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army and member of the Central Military Commission, met Charles Namoloh and Peter Nambundunga, acting commander of the Namibian Defence Forces, in Windhoek. At their meeting, the two sides had in-depth discussions on further strengthening exchanges and cooperation between the two armed forces. Chen was accompanied by the chief of staff of the Second Artillery Corps and two PLA Military Region chiefs of staff. Chen also met President Pohamba that day.
In 2012, NDF officials announced the suspension of its recruitment campaign due to a lack of "accommodation facilities" for new personnel for a two-year period. The suspension how ever did not include the recruitment of specialist personnel as the Namibian Navy in 2013 had a recruitment exercise for sailors(officers and men) and marines. In 2014 recruitment resumed after accommodation issues were resolved.
The Chief Of Defence Force is the highest-ranking officer and exercises overall executive command of the force. Service Chiefs are two star General Officers, Air Officers and Flag Officers in command of their respective arms of service. NDF directorates are led by one star General Officers, Air Officers and Flag Officers. The exception however is the Joint Operations Directorate whose head is a Major General, who also doubles up as the GOC Special Forces. The Joint Operations Directorate is responsible for Force deployment in the Military.
The Chief of the Defence Force (Namibia) is always a commissioned three star General/Air/Flag Officer from the officer corps. The first chief of the NDF was Lieutenant-General Dimo Hamaambo. He was previously the leader of PLAN, and a survivor of the Battle of Cassinga. Lieutenant-General Hamaambo was the first to be laid to rest at the Heroes' Acre memorial outside Windhoek, a few days after its official opening in 2002. Lieutenant-General Solomon Huwala replaced Hamaambo as Chief of the NDF on Hamaambo's retirement. After Lieutenant-General Huwala retired in October 2006, Lieutenant General Martin Shalli headed the NDF.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba suspended Lieutenant-General Shalli from his post as Chief of Defence Force in 2009 over corruption allegations, dating back to the time when Shalli served as Namibia's High Commissioner to Zambia. During the time of the suspension, Army Commander Major General Peter Nambundunga acted as Chief. Shalli was eventually forced to retire in January 2011; the post of Chief of the NDF was given to Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah. Ndaitwah served until 31 December 2013 when the NDF Chief's position was given to Maj Gen John Mutwa.
As of February 2012, it was reported that a Chinese company paid US$499,950 into Shalli's account in Zambia while he was the NDF chief. Poly Technologies was supplying equipment to the NDF at the time.
NDF Sergeant Major is the highest appointment a Non Commission Officer may receive. Duties of the NDF Sergeant Major includes making sure that discipline, drills, dressing code, performance
standards and morale of the non-commissioned officers are maintained. The current NDF Sergeant Major is Warrant Officer Class 1(WO1) Leonard Iiyambo,He head succeeded WO1 Albert Siyaya,who in turn took over from retired Namibian Navy WO1 Isak Nankela.
Previous Sergeant Major are:
The Joint Operations Directorate is the only directorate headed by a two star Flag/Air/General Officer. Its role is to coordinate and conduct combined Operations, implement plans and doctrines in the force.The first Director of Operation in 1990 was Brigadier General Martin Shalli.
The Force's Defence Health Services provides medical services to service personnel, it operates sick bays at all bases and units as well the military hospitals.
The Logitistcs Directorate is responsible for the supplying materiel to the force.The first Director for Logistics was Colonel Peter Nambundunga
The Defence Inspector General's Directorate is responsible for maintaining the efficiency and effectivennes of the Force. It also investigates both internal and external complaints. The current Defence inspector General is Brigadier General Fiina Amupolo.
NDF ranks are based on the Commonwealth rank structure. There is no approved four star General rank in the NDF. The Chief of Defence Force is a singular appointment comes with an elevation to the rank of Lieutenant General for an Army officer, Air Marshal for an Air Force officer and Vice Admiral for a Navy officer. Arms of Services Commanders i.e. Army, Air Force and Navy Commanders have a rank of Major General, Air Vice Marshal and Rear Admiral. The rank of Brigadier has also been transformed into Brigadier General. Directorate heads are always Brigadier Generals, i.e. the Chief of Staff for Defence Intelligence.
Warrant Officer Class 1 Appointments
Any warrant officer class 1 could be posted to substantive posts, including
The landward arm of service for the Defence force is the Namibian Army, it is also the largest of the NDF's service branches.
The aerial warfare branch is small, but was bolstered with deliveries of some fighter jets in 2006 and 2008.
Development of the maritime warfare branch has been slow, and the force was only formally established in 2004, 14 years after independence. Today, it numbers over 1100 personnel and deploys a small number of lightly armed patrol vessels. Extensive Brazilian aid assisted in its development.
The Joint Headquarters is an Arm of Service level institution in the Defence Force and is created by the Minister of Defence in terms of section 13 of the Defence Act.
Situated at the Oshivelo Army base, the school offers units and battle groups to test their combat fighting skills in conventional and non-conventional warfare. The school also offers courses such as:
Established in 2011 the technical centre impart students with knowledge repair and maintain army systems and installations. The centre was commissioned on 27 February 2015.
The Namibian Military School is the main training and academic unit of the Namibian Defence Force. It offers Officer Cadets and NDF officers an opportunity to get a military-oriented academic qualification. Training and teaching in the institution ranges from Basic Military Training to technical mechanical training.
The Namibia Command and Staff College offers the Junior Staff Course (JSC) and the Senior Command and Staff Course (SCSC). It provides staff training to prepare students for staff appointments. The NCSC's commandant is Brigadier General Mathew Shipulwa.
The force's parachute airborne school is based at the Grootfontein Air Force Base. Here students from all service branches are training to qualify as Parachute specialists. The school was set up with help by the South African private military parachute training company Chute Systems who are training Namibia's airborne forces and associated staff e.g. parachute riggers.
Established on 22 November 2009, the Naval Training School was commissioned by President Hage Geingob on 22 July 2016. Administratively divided into two sections, Sailors Training Wing and Marine Training Wing.Its Commanding Officer is Captain (N) Lazarus Erastus. It offers the following courses:
The School of Air Power Studies run in conjunction with the Namibia Aviation Training Academy trains Pilots and Technicians.
The School of Military Science, run in conjunction with the University of Namibia, offers officers in the Defence force qualifications ranging from bachelor of Science Honors' degrees in the field of nautical, Army and Aeronautical, to a post-graduate diploma in Security and strategics studies, and a Master of Arts in Security and Strategic Studies (MA-SSS).
The School of Signals provides training to all personnel wishing to specialize in the communications field. The signals school was formed in 2015 from the old Signals Training Wing and Computer Training Centre of the military school . The school is co-located at the Military school.It consists of 4 wings, one admininistation wing and three training wings. The school offers the following courses: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21300 |
Nauru
Nauru ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Nauru () and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania, in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. It further lies northwest of Tuvalu, northeast of the Solomon Islands, east-northeast of Papua New Guinea, southeast of the Federated States of Micronesia and south of the Marshall Islands. With only a area, Nauru is the third-smallest country in the world behind Vatican City, and Monaco, making it the smallest republic. Additionally, its population of is the world's third smallest, after Vatican City and Tuvalu.
Settled by people from Micronesia and Polynesia , Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops, and was bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. After the war ended, the country entered into United Nations trusteeship. Nauru gained its independence in 1968, and became a member of the Pacific Community (SPC) in 1969.
Nauru is a phosphate-rock island with rich deposits near the surface, which allowed easy strip mining operations. Its remaining phosphate resources are not economically viable for extraction. When the phosphate reserves were exhausted, and the island's environment had been seriously harmed by mining, the trust that had been established to manage the island's wealth diminished in value. To earn income, Nauru briefly became a tax haven and illegal money laundering centre. From 2001 to 2008, and again from 2012, it accepted aid from the Australian Government in exchange for hosting the Nauru Regional Processing Centre, an offshore Australian immigration detention facility. As a result of heavy dependence on Australia, some sources have identified Nauru as a client state of Australia. The sovereign state is a member of the United Nations, Pacific Islands Forum, Commonwealth of Nations and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States.
Nauru was first inhabited by Micronesians and Polynesians at least 3,000 years ago. There were traditionally 12 clans or tribes on Nauru, which are represented in the twelve-pointed star on the country's flag. Traditionally, Nauruans traced their descent matrilineally. Inhabitants practised aquaculture: they caught juvenile "ibija" fish, acclimatised them to freshwater, and raised them in the Buada Lagoon, providing a reliable source of food. The other locally grown components of their diet included coconuts and pandanus fruit. The name "Nauru" may derive from the Nauruan word "", which means 'I go to the beach'.
In 1798, the British sea captain John Fearn, on his trading ship "Hunter" (300 tons), became the first Westerner to report sighting Nauru, calling it "Pleasant Island", because of its attractive appearance. From at least 1826, Nauruans had regular contact with Europeans on whaling and trading ships who called for provisions and fresh drinking water. The last whaler to call during the age of sail visited in 1904.
Around this time, deserters from European ships began to live on the island. The islanders traded food for alcoholic palm wine and firearms. The firearms were used during the 10-year Nauruan Civil War that began in 1878.
After an agreement with Great Britain, Nauru was annexed by Germany in 1888 and incorporated into Germany's Marshall Islands Protectorate for administrative purposes. The arrival of the Germans ended the civil war, and kings were established as rulers of the island. The most widely known of these was King Auweyida. Christian missionaries from the Gilbert Islands arrived in 1888. The German settlers called the island "Nawodo" or "Onawero". The Germans ruled Nauru for almost three decades. Robert Rasch, a German trader who married a Nauruan woman, was the first administrator, appointed in 1890.
Phosphate was discovered on Nauru in 1900 by the prospector Albert Fuller Ellis. The Pacific Phosphate Company began to exploit the reserves in 1906 by agreement with Germany, exporting its first shipment in 1907. In 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, Nauru was captured by Australian troops. In 1919 it was agreed by the Allied and Associated Powers that His Britannic Majesty should be the administering authority under a League of Nations mandate. The Nauru Island Agreement forged in 1919 between the governments of the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand provided for the administration of the island and extraction of the phosphate deposits by an intergovernmental British Phosphate Commission (BPC). The terms of the League of Nations mandate were drawn up in 1920.
The island experienced an influenza epidemic in 1920, with a mortality rate of 18 per cent among native Nauruans.
In 1923, the League of Nations gave Australia a trustee mandate over Nauru, with the United Kingdom and New Zealand as co-trustees. On 6 and 7 December 1940, the German auxiliary cruisers "Komet" and "Orion" sank five supply ships in the vicinity of Nauru. "Komet" then shelled Nauru's phosphate mining areas, oil storage depots, and the shiploading cantilever.
Japanese troops occupied Nauru on 25 August 1942. The Japanese built an airfield which was bombed for the first time on 25 March 1943, preventing food supplies from being flown to Nauru. The Japanese deported 1,200 Nauruans to work as labourers in the Chuuk Islands, which was also occupied by Japan. As part of the Allied strategy of island hopping from the Pacific islands towards the main islands of Japan, Nauru was bypassed and left to "wither on the vine". Nauru was finally liberated on 13 September 1945, when commander Hisayaki Soeda surrendered the island to the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Navy. The surrender was accepted by Brigadier J. R. Stevenson, who represented Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee, the commander of the First Australian Army, aboard the warship HMAS "Diamantina". Arrangements were made to repatriate from Chuuk the 737 Nauruans who survived Japanese captivity there. They were returned to Nauru by the BPC ship "Trienza" in January 1946.
In 1947, a trusteeship was established by the United Nations, with Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom as trustees. Under those arrangements, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand were a joint administering authority. The Nauru Island Agreement provided for the first administrator to be appointed by Australia for five years, leaving subsequent appointments to be decided by the three governments. However, in practice, administrative power was exercised by Australia alone.
In 1948, Chinese guano mining workers went on strike over pay and conditions. The Administrator for Nauru, Eddie Ward, imposed a state of emergency with Native Police and armed volunteers of locals and Australian officials being mobilised. This force, using sub-machine guns and other firearms, opened fire on the Chinese workers killing two and wounding sixteen. Around 50 of the workers were arrested and two of these were bayoneted to death while in custody. The trooper who bayoneted the prisoners was charged but later acquitted on grounds that the wounds were "accidentally received." The governments of the Soviet Union and China made official complaints against Australia at the United Nations over this incident.
In 1964, it was proposed to relocate the population of Nauru to Curtis Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia. By that time, Nauru had been extensively mined for phosphate by companies from Australia, Britain and New Zealand damaging the landscape so much that it was thought the island would be uninhabitable by the 1990s. Rehabilitating the island was seen as financially impossible. In 1962, Australian Prime Minister, Bob Menzies, said that the three countries involved in the mining had an obligation to provide a solution for the Nauruan people, and proposed finding a new island for them. In 1963, the Australian Government proposed to acquire all the land on Curtis Island (which was considerably larger than Nauru) and then offer the Nauruans freehold title over the island and that the Nauruans would become Australian citizens. The cost of resettling the Nauruans on Curtis Island was estimated to be , which included housing and infrastructure and the establishment of pastoral, agricultural, and fishing industries. However, the Nauruan people did not wish to become Australian citizens and wanted to be given sovereignty over Curtis Island to establish themselves as an independent nation, which Australia would not agree to. Nauru rejected the proposal to move to Curtis Island, instead choosing to become an independent nation operating their mines in Nauru.
Nauru became self-governing in January 1966, and following a two-year constitutional convention, it became independent in 1968 under founding president Hammer DeRoburt. In 1967, the people of Nauru purchased the assets of the British Phosphate Commissioners, and in June 1970 control passed to the locally owned Nauru Phosphate Corporation (NPC). Income from the mines made Nauruans among the richest people in the world. In 1989, Nauru took legal action against Australia in the International Court of Justice over Australia's administration of the island, in particular, Australia's failure to remedy the environmental damage caused by phosphate mining. "Certain Phosphate Lands: Nauru v. Australia" led to an out-of-court settlement to rehabilitate the mined-out areas of Nauru.
Nauru is a , oval-shaped island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, south of the equator. The island is surrounded by a coral reef, which is exposed at low tide and dotted with pinnacles. The presence of the reef has prevented the establishment of a seaport, although channels in the reef allow small boats access to the island. A fertile coastal strip wide lies inland from the beach.
Coral cliffs surround Nauru's central plateau. The highest point of the plateau, called the Command Ridge, is above sea level.
The only fertile areas on Nauru are on the narrow coastal belt where coconut palms flourish. The land around Buada Lagoon supports bananas, pineapples, vegetables, pandanus trees, and indigenous hardwoods, such as the tamanu tree.
Nauru was one of three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean, along with Banaba (Ocean Island), in Kiribati, and Makatea, in French Polynesia. The phosphate reserves on Nauru are now almost entirely depleted. Phosphate mining in the central plateau has left a barren terrain of jagged limestone pinnacles up to high. Mining has stripped and devastated about 80 per cent of Nauru's land area, leaving it uninhabitable, and has also affected the surrounding exclusive economic zone; 40 per cent of marine life is estimated to have been killed by silt and phosphate runoff.
There are limited natural sources of freshwater on Nauru. Rooftop storage tanks collect rainwater. The islanders are mostly dependent on three desalination plants housed at Nauru's Utilities Agency.
Nauru's climate is hot and very humid year-round because of its proximity to the equator and the ocean. Nauru is hit by monsoon rains between November and February, but rarely has cyclones. Annual rainfall is highly variable and is influenced by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, with several significant recorded droughts. The temperature on Nauru ranges between during the day and is quite stable at around at night.
Streams and rivers do not exist in Nauru. Water is gathered from roof catchment systems. Water is brought to Nauru as ballast on ships returning for loads of phosphate.
Fauna is sparse on the island because of a lack of vegetation and the consequences of phosphates mining. Many indigenous birds have disappeared or become rare owing to the destruction of their habitat. There are about 60 recorded vascular plant species native to the island, none of which are endemic. Coconut farming, mining, and introduced species have seriously disturbed the native vegetation.
There are no native land mammals, but there are native insects, land crabs, and birds, including the endemic Nauru reed warbler. The Polynesian rat, cats, dogs, pigs, and chickens have been introduced to Nauru from ships. The diversity of the reef marine life makes fishing a popular activity for tourists on the island; also popular are scuba diving and snorkelling.
The president of Nauru is Lionel Aingimea, who heads a 19-member unicameral parliament. The country is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Asian Development Bank and the Pacific Islands Forum. Nauru also participates in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. Recently Nauru became a member country of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The Republic of Nauru became the 189th member of the International Monetary Fund in April 2016.
Nauru is a republic with a parliamentary system of government. The president is both head of state and head of government and is dependent on parliamentary confidence to remain president. A 19-member unicameral parliament is elected every three years. The parliament elects the president from its members, and the president appoints a cabinet of five to six members.
Nauru does not have any formal structure for political parties, and candidates typically stand for office as independents; fifteen of the 19 members of the current Parliament are independents. Four parties that have been active in Nauruan politics are the Nauru Party, the Democratic Party, Nauru First and the Centre Party. However, alliances within the government are often formed based on of extended family ties rather than party affiliation.
From 1992 to 1999, Nauru had a local government system known as the Nauru Island Council (NIC). This nine-member council was designed to provide municipal services. The NIC was dissolved in 1999 and all assets and liabilities became vested in the national government. Land tenure on Nauru is unusual: all Nauruans have certain rights to all land on the island, which is owned by individuals and family groups. Government and corporate entities do not own any land, and they must enter into a lease arrangement with landowners to use land. Non-Nauruans cannot own land on the island.
Nauru had 17 changes of administration between 1989 and 2003. Bernard Dowiyogo died in office in March 2003 and Ludwig Scotty was elected as the president, later being re-elected to serve a full term in October 2004. Following a vote of no confidence on 19 December 2007, Scotty was replaced by Marcus Stephen. Stephen resigned in November 2011, and Freddie Pitcher became President. Sprent Dabwido then filed a motion of no confidence in Pitcher, resulting in him becoming president. Following parliamentary elections in 2013, Baron Waqa was elected president.
Its Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice, is paramount on constitutional issues. Other cases can be appealed to the two-judge Appellate Court. Parliament cannot overturn court decision. Historically, Appellate Court rulings could be appealed to the High Court of Australia, though this happened only rarely and the Australian court's appellate jurisdiction ended entirely on 12 March 2018 after the Government of Nauru unilaterally ended the arrangement. Lower courts consist of the District Court and the Family Court, both of which are headed by a Resident Magistrate, who also is the Registrar of the Supreme Court. There are two other quasi-courts: the Public Service Appeal Board and the Police Appeal Board, both of which are presided over by the Chief Justice.
Following independence in 1968, Nauru joined the Commonwealth of Nations as a Special Member; it became a full member in 2000. The country was admitted to the Asian Development Bank in 1991 and the United Nations in 1999. Nauru is a member of the Pacific Islands Forum, the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, the South Pacific Commission, and the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission. The US Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program operates a climate-monitoring facility on the island.
Nauru has no armed forces, though there is a small police force under civilian control. Australia is responsible for Nauru's defence under an informal agreement between the two countries. The September 2005 memorandum of understanding between Australia and Nauru provides the latter with financial aid and technical assistance, including a Secretary of Finance to prepare the budget, and advisers on health and education. This aid is in return for Nauru's housing of asylum seekers while their applications for entry into Australia are processed. Nauru uses the Australian dollar as its official currency.
Nauru has used its position as a member of the United Nations to gain financial support from both Taiwan (officially the Republic of China or ROC) and mainland China (officially the People's Republic of China or PRC) by changing its recognition from one to the other under the One-China policy. On 21 July 2002, Nauru signed an agreement to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC, accepting US$130 million from the PRC for this action. In response, the ROC severed diplomatic relations with Nauru two days later. Nauru later re-established links with the ROC on 14 May 2005, and diplomatic ties with the PRC were officially severed on 31 May 2005. However, the PRC continues to maintain a representative office on Nauru.
In 2008, Nauru recognised Kosovo as an independent country, and in 2009 Nauru became the fourth country, after Russia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, to recognise Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia. Russia was reported to be giving Nauru US$50 million in humanitarian aid as a result of this recognition. On 15 July 2008, the Nauruan government announced a port refurbishment programme, financed with US$9 million of development aid received from Russia. The Nauru government claims this aid is not related to its recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
A significant portion of Nauru's income has been in the form of aid from Australia. In 2001, the MV "Tampa", a Norwegian ship that had rescued 438 refugees from a stranded 20-metre-long boat, was seeking to dock in Australia. In what became known as the "Tampa" affair, the ship was refused entry and boarded by Australian troops. The refugees were eventually loaded onto Royal Australian Navy vessel HMAS "Manoora" and taken to Nauru to be held in detention facilities which later became part of the Howard government's Pacific Solution. Nauru operated two detention centres known as State House and Topside for these refugees in exchange for Australian aid. By November 2005, only two refugees, Mohammed Sagar and Muhammad Faisal remained on Nauru from those first sent there in 2001, with Sagar finally resettling in early 2007. The Australian government sent further groups of asylum-seekers to Nauru in late 2006 and early 2007. The refugee centre was closed in 2008, but, following the Australian government's re-adoption of the Pacific Solution in August 2012, it has re-opened it.
In March 2017, at the 34th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council, Vanuatu made a joint statement on behalf of Nauru and some other Pacific nations raising human rights violations in the Western New Guinea, which has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963, and requested that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights produced a report. Indonesia rejected allegations. More than 100,000 Papuans have died during a 50-year Papua conflict.
Amnesty International has since described the conditions of the refugees of war living in Nauru, as a "horror", with reports of children as young as eight attempting suicide and engaging in acts of self-harm. In 2018, the situation gained attention as a "mental health crisis", with an estimated thirty children suffering from traumatic withdrawal syndrome, also known as resignation syndrome. The condition is a deteriorating psychiatric condition wherein the sufferer can eventually become unresponsive and their body can begin to shut down. This condition has also been observed in other groups of asylum seekers.
Nauru is divided into fourteen administrative districts which are grouped into eight electoral constituencies and are further divided into villages. The most populous district is Denigomodu with 1,804 residents, of which 1,497 reside in an NPC settlement called "Location". The following table shows population by district according to the 2011 census.
The Nauruan economy peaked in the mid-1970s, when its GDP per capita was estimated to be US$50,000, second only to Saudi Arabia. Most of this came from phosphate mining, which declined from the early 1980s. There are few other resources, and most necessities are imported. Small-scale mining is still conducted by RONPhos, formerly known as the Nauru Phosphate Corporation. The government places a percentage of RONPhos's earnings into the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust. The trust manages long-term investments, which were intended to support the citizens after the phosphate reserves were exhausted.
Because of mismanagement, the trust's fixed and current assets were reduced considerably and may never fully recover. The failed investments included financing "" in 1993. The Mercure Hotel in Sydney and Nauru House in Melbourne were sold in 2004 to finance debts and Air Nauru's only Boeing 737 was repossessed in December 2005. Normal air service resumed after the aircraft was replaced with a Boeing 737-300 airliner in June 2006. In 2005, the corporation sold its remaining real estate in Melbourne, the vacant Savoy Tavern site, for $7.5 million.
The value of the trust is estimated to have shrunk from A$1.3 billion in 1991 to A$138 million in 2002. Nauru currently lacks money to perform many of the basic functions of government; for example, the National Bank of Nauru is insolvent. The CIA World Factbook estimated a GDP per capita of US$5,000 in 2005. The Asian Development Bank 2007 economic report on Nauru estimated GDP per capita at US$2,400 to US$2,715. The United Nations (2013) estimates the GDP per capita to 15,211 and ranks it 51 on its GDP per capita country list.
There are no personal taxes in Nauru. The unemployment rate is estimated to be 23 percent, and of those who have jobs, the government employs 95 per cent. The Asian Development Bank notes that, although the administration has a strong public mandate to implement economic reforms, in the absence of an alternative to phosphate mining, the medium-term outlook is for continued dependence on external assistance. Tourism is not a major contributor to the economy.
In the 1990s, Nauru became a tax haven and offered passports to foreign nationals for a fee. The inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) identified Nauru as one of 15 "non-cooperative" countries in its fight against money laundering. During the 1990s, it was possible to establish a licensed bank in Nauru for only US$25,000 with no other requirements. Under pressure from FATF, Nauru introduced anti-avoidance legislation in 2003, after which foreign hot money left the country. In October 2005, after satisfactory results from the legislation and its enforcement, FATF lifted the non-cooperative designation.
From 2001 to 2007, the Nauru detention centre provided a significant source of income for the country. The Nauruan authorities reacted with concern to its closure by Australia. In February 2008, the Foreign Affairs minister, Dr Kieren Keke, stated that the closure would result in 100 Nauruans losing their jobs, and would affect 10 per cent of the island's population directly or indirectly: "We have got a huge number of families that are suddenly going to be without any income. We are looking at ways we can try and provide some welfare assistance but our capacity to do that is very limited. Literally we have got a major unemployment crisis in front of us." The detention centre was re-opened in August 2012.
In July 2017 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) upgraded its rating of Nauru's standards of tax transparency. Previously Nauru had been listed alongside fourteen other countries that had failed to show that they could comply with international tax transparency standards and regulations. The OECD subsequently put Nauru through a fast-tracked compliance process and the country was given a "largely compliant" rating.
The Nauru 2017–2018 budget, delivered by Minister for Finance David Adeang, forecasted A$128.7 million in revenues and A$128.6 million in expenditures and projected modest economic growth for the nation over the next two years.
Nauru had residents as of July , making it the second smallest sovereign state after Vatican City. The population was previously larger, but in 2006 1,500 people left the island during a repatriation of immigrant workers from Kiribati and Tuvalu. The repatriation was motivated by large force reductions in phosphate mining.
Nauru is one of the most Westernized countries in the South Pacific.
Fifty-eight percent of people in Nauru are ethnically Nauruan, 26 percent are other Pacific Islander, 8 percent are European, and 8 percent are Han Chinese. Nauruans descended from Polynesian and Micronesian seafarers. Two of the 12 original tribal groups became extinct in the 20th century.
The official language of Nauru is Nauruan, a distinct Micronesian language, which is spoken by 96 per cent of ethnic Nauruans at home. English is widely spoken and is the language of government and commerce, as Nauruan is not used outside of the country.
The main religion practised on the island is Christianity (the main denominations are Nauru Congregational Church 35.71%, Roman Catholic 32.96% Assemblies of God 12.98% and Baptist 1.48%). The Constitution provides for freedom of religion. The government has restricted the religious practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Jehovah's Witnesses, most of whom are foreign workers employed by the government-owned Nauru Phosphate Corporation. The Catholics are pastorally served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tarawa and Nauru, with see at Tarawa in Kiribati.
Angam Day, held on 26 October, celebrates the recovery of the Nauruan population after the two World Wars and the 1920 influenza epidemic. The displacement of the indigenous culture by colonial and contemporary Western influences is significant. Few of the old customs have been preserved, but some forms of traditional music, arts and crafts, and fishing are still practised.
There are no daily news publications on Nauru, although there is one fortnightly publication, "Mwinen Ko". There is a state-owned television station, Nauru Television (NTV), which broadcasts programs from New Zealand and Australia, and a state-owned non-commercial radio station, Radio Nauru, which carries programs from Radio Australia and the BBC.
Australian rules football is the most popular sport in Nauru—it and weightlifting are considered the country's national sports. There is an Australian rules football league with eight teams. Other sports popular in Nauru include volleyball, netball, fishing and tennis. Nauru participates in the Commonwealth Games and has participated in the Summer Olympic Games in weightlifting and judo.
Nauru's national basketball team competed at the 1969 Pacific Games, where it defeated the Solomon Islands and Fiji.
Rugby sevens popularity has increased over the last two years, so much so that they have a national team.
Nauru competed in the 2015 Oceania Sevens Championship in New Zealand.
Independence Day is celebrated on 31 January.
Literacy on Nauru is 96 per cent. Education is compulsory for children from six to sixteen years old, and two more non-compulsory years are offered (years 11 and 12). The island has three primary schools and two secondary schools, the latter being Nauru College and Nauru Secondary School. There is a campus of the University of the South Pacific on Nauru. Before this campus was built in 1987, students would study either by distance or abroad. Since 2011, the University of New England, Australia has established a presence on the island with around 30 Nauruan teachers studying for an associate degree in education. These students will continue onto the degree to complete their studies. This project is led by Associate Professor Pep Serow and funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The previous community public library was destroyed in a fire. a new one had not yet been built, and no bookmobile services are available as of that year. Sites with libraries include the University of the South Pacific campus, Nauru Secondary, Kayser College, and Aiwo Primary. The Nauru Community Library is in the new University of the South Pacific Nauru Campus building, which was officially opened in May 2018.
Life expectancy on Nauru in 2009 was 60.6 years for males and 68.0 years for females.
By measure of mean body mass index (BMI), Nauruans are the most overweight people in the world; 97 per cent of men and 93 per cent of women are overweight or obese. In 2012, the obesity rate was 71.7 per cent. Obesity in the Pacific islands is common.
Nauru has the world's highest level of type 2 diabetes, with more than 40 per cent of the population affected. Other significant dietary-related problems on Nauru include kidney disease and heart disease.
The island is solely served by Nauru International Airport. Passenger service is provided by Nauru Airlines, with Pacific Air Express also providing cargo service. Flights operate five days a week to well connected airports such as Brisbane and Nadi. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21302 |
History of Nauru
The history of human activity in Nauru, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, began roughly 3,000 years ago when 12 Micronesian and Polynesian clans settled the island.
Nauru was first settled by Micronesian and Polynesian people at least 3,000 years ago. Nauruans subsisted on coconut and pandanus fruit, and engaged in aquaculture by catching juvenile "ibija" fish, acclimated them to freshwater conditions, and raised them in Buada Lagoon, providing an additional reliable source of food. Traditionally only men were permitted to fish on the reef, and did so from canoes or by using trained man-of-war hawks.
There were traditionally 12 clans or tribes on Nauru, which are represented in the 12-pointed star in the nation's flag. Nauruans traced their descent on the female side. The first Europeans to encounter the island were on the British whaling ship "Hunter", in 1798. When the ship approached, "many canoes ventured out to meet the ship. The "Hunter"s crew did not leave the ship nor did Nauruans board, but Captain John Fearn's positive impression of the island and its people" led to its English name, Pleasant Island. This name was used until Germany annexed the island 90 years later.
From around 1830, Nauruans had contact with Europeans from whaling ships and traders who replenished their supplies (such as fresh water) at Nauru. The islanders traded food for alcoholic toddy and firearms. The first Europeans to live on the island, starting perhaps in 1830, were Patrick Burke and John Jones, Irish convicts who had escaped from Norfolk Island, according to "Paradise for Sale". Jones became "Nauru's first and last dictator," who killed or banished several other beachcombers who arrived later, until the Nauruans banished Jones from the island in 1841.
The introduction of firearms and alcohol destroyed the peaceful coexistence of the 12 tribes living on the island. A 10-year internal war began in 1878 and resulted in a reduction of the population from 1,400 (1843) to around 900 (1888). Ultimately, alcohol was banned and some arms were confiscated.
In 1886, Germany was granted the island under the Anglo-German Declaration. The island was annexed by Germany in 1888 and incorporated into Germany's New Guinea Protectorate. On 1 October 1888, the German gunboat SMS "Eber" landed 36 men on Nauru. Accompanied by William Harris the German marines marched around the island and returned with the twelve chiefs, the white settlers and a Gilbertese missionary. The chiefs were kept under house arrest until the next morning, when the annexation ceremony began with the raising of the German flag. The Germans told the chiefs that they had to surrender all weapons and ammunition within 24 hours or the chiefs would be taken prisoner. By the morning of 3 October, 765 guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition had been turned over. The Germans called the island Nawodo or Onawero. The arrival of the Germans ended the war, and social changes brought about by the war established kings as rulers of the island, the most widely known being King Auweyida. Christian missionaries from the Gilbert Islands also arrived in 1888. The Germans ruled Nauru for almost three decades. Robert Rasch, a German trader who married a native woman, was the first administrator, appointed in 1888.
At the time there were twelve tribes on Nauru: Deiboe, Eamwidamit, Eamwidara, Eamwit, Eamgum, Eano, Emeo, Eoraru, Irutsi, Iruwa, Iwi and Ranibok. Today the twelve tribes are represented by the twelve-pointed star in the flag of Nauru.
Phosphate was discovered on Nauru in 1900 by the prospector Albert Ellis. The Pacific Phosphate Company started to exploit the reserves in 1906 by agreement with Germany. The company exported its first shipment in 1907.
In 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, Nauru was captured by Australian troops, after which Britain held control until 1920. Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom signed the Nauru Island Agreement in 1919, creating a board known as the British Phosphate Commission (BPC). This took over the rights to phosphate mining.
According to the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics (now the Australian Bureau of Statistics), "In common with other natives, the islanders are very susceptible to tuberculosis and influenza, and in 1921 an influenza epidemic caused the deaths of 230 islanders." In 1923, the League of Nations gave Australia a trustee mandate over Nauru, with the United Kingdom and New Zealand as co-trustees. In 1932, the first Angam Baby was born.
During World War II, Nauru was subject to significant damage from both Axis (German and Japanese) and Allied forces.
On 6 and 7 December 1940 the Nazi German auxiliary cruisers "Orion" and "Komet" sank four merchant ships. On the next day, "Komet" shelled Nauru's phosphate mining areas, oil storage depots, and the shiploading cantilever. The attacks seriously disrupted phosphate supplies to Australia and New Zealand (mostly used for munition and fertiliser purposes.)
Japanese troops occupied Nauru on 26 August 1942. The native Nauruans were badly treated by the occupying forces. On one occasion thirty nine leprosy sufferers were reputedly loaded onto boats which were towed out to sea and sunk. The Japanese troops built an airfield on Nauru which was bombed for the first time on 25 March 1943, preventing food supplies from being flown to Nauru. In 1943 the Japanese deported 1,200 Nauruans to work as labourers in the Chuuk islands.
Nauru was finally set free from the Japanese on 13 September 1945, when Captain Solda, the commander of all the Japanese troops on Nauru, surrendered the island to the Royal Australian Navy and Army. This surrender was accepted by Brigadier J. R. Stevenson, who represented Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee, the commander of the First Australian Army, on board the warship HMAS "Diamantina" Arrangements were made to repatriate from Chuuk the 737 Nauruans who survived Japanese captivity there. They were returned to Nauru by the BPC ship "Trienza" in on 1 January 1946. In 1947, a trusteeship was established by the United Nations, and Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom became the U.N. trustees of the island, with administration passing mostly to Australia.
Nauru became self-governing in January 1966. On 31 January 1968, following a two-year constitutional convention, Nauru became the world's smallest independent republic. It was led by founding president Hammer DeRoburt. In 1967, the people of Nauru purchased the assets of the British Phosphate Commissioners, and in June 1970, control passed to the locally owned Nauru Phosphate Corporation. Money gained from the exploitation of phosphate was put into the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust and gave Nauruans the second highest GDP Per Capita (second only to the United Arab Emirates) and one of the highest standards of living in the Third World.
In 1989, Nauru took legal actions against Australia in the International Court of Justice over Australia's actions during its administration of Nauru. In particular, Nauru made a legal complaint against Australia's failure to remedy the environmental damage caused by phosphate mining. "Certain Phosphate Lands: Nauru v. Australia" led to an out-of-court settlement to rehabilitate the mined-out areas of Nauru.
By the close of the twentieth century, the finite phosphate supplies were fast running out. Nauru finally joined the UN in 1999.
As its phosphate stores began to run out (by 2006, its reserves were exhausted), the island was reduced to an environmental wasteland. Nauru appealed to the International Court of Justice to compensate for the damage from almost a century of phosphate strip-mining by foreign companies. In 1993, Australia offered Nauru an out-of-court settlement of A$2.5 million annually for 20 years. New Zealand and the UK additionally agreed to pay a one-time settlement of $12 million each. Declining phosphate prices, the high cost of maintaining an international airline, and the government's financial mismanagement combined to make the economy collapse in the late 1990s. By the new millennium, Nauru was virtually bankrupt.
In December 1999, four major United States banks banned dollar transactions with four Pacific island states, including Nauru. The United States Department of State issued a report identifying Nauru as a major money laundering centre, used by narcotics traffickers and Russian organized crime figures.
President Bernard Dowiyogo took office in April 2000 for his fourth and, after a minimal hiatus, fifth stints as Nauru's top executive. Dowiyogo first served as president from 1976 to 1978. He returned to that office in 1989, and was re-elected in 1992. A vote in parliament, however, forced him to yield power to Kinza Clodumar in 1995. Dowiyogo regained the presidency when the Clodumar government fell in mid-1998.
In 2001, Nauru was brought to world attention by the Tampa affair, a Norwegian cargo ship at the centre of a diplomatic dispute between Australia, Norway and Indonesia. The ship carried asylum seekers, hailing primarily from Afghanistan, who were rescued while attempting to reach Australia. After much debate many of the immigrants were transported to Nauru, an arrangement known in Australia as the "Pacific Solution". Shortly thereafter, the Nauruan government closed its borders to most international visitors, preventing outside observers from monitoring the refugees' condition.
In December 2003, several dozen of these refugees, in protest of the conditions of their detention on Nauru, began a hunger strike. The hunger strike was concluded in early January 2004 when an Australian medical team agreed to visit the island. Since then, according to recent reports, all but two of the refugees have been allowed into Australia.
During 2002 Nauru severed diplomatic recognition with Taiwan (Republic of China) and signed an agreement to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. This move followed China's promise to provide more than U.S. $130 million in aid. In 2004, Nauru broke off relations with the PRC and re-established them with the ROC.
Nauru was also approached by the U.S. with a deal to modernize Nauru's infrastructure in exchange for suppression of the island's lax banking laws that allow activities that are illegal in other countries to flourish. Under this deal, allegedly, Nauru would also establish an embassy in China and perform certain "safehouse" and courier services for the U.S. government, in a scheme codenamed "Operation Weasel". Nauru agreed to the deal and instituted banking reform, but the U.S. later denied knowledge of the deal. The matter is being pursued in an Australian court, and initial judgments have been in favor of Nauru.
The government is desperately in need of money to pay off salary arrears of civil servants and to continue funding the welfare state built up in the heyday of phosphate mining (Nauruans pay no taxes). Nauru has yet to develop a plan to remove the innumerable coral pinnacles created by mining and make those lands suitable for human habitation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21303 |
Demographics of Nauru
The demographics of Nauru, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, are known through national censuses, which have been analysed by various statistical bureaus since the 1920s. The Nauru Bureau of Statistics have conducted this task since 1977—the first census since Nauru gained independence in 1968. The most recent census of Nauru was in 2011, when population had reached ten thousand. The population density is 478 inhabitants per square kilometre (185 per square mile), and the overall life expectancy is 59.7 years. The population rose steadily from the 1960s until 2006 when the Government of Nauru repatriated thousands of Tuvaluan and I-Kiribati workers from the country. Since 1992, Nauru's birth rate has exceeded its death rate; the natural growth rate is positive. In terms of age structure, the population is dominated by the 15–64-year-old segment (65.6%). The median age of the population is 21.5, and the estimated gender ratio of the population is 0.91 males per one female.
Nauru is inhabited mostly by Nauruans (93.6%), while minorities include I-Kiribati (1.8%), Chinese (1.5%) and other (3.1%). The demographic history of Nauru is marked by several migrations: the area was first inhabited by Micronesian people about 3,000 years ago. The first European to find the island was John Fearn in 1798. Then, the country was annexed by Germany in the 1888. The next was when Japanese occupied the island during World War II in the 1942. During this time, the Japanese deported several thousands of Nauruans to other islands. In the 1960s, the country gained independence, where the percentage of Nauruans started to increase. The most recent demographic switch was in the 2000s, when the government repatriated several non-Nauruan population from the country.
The Nauruan language is the official language of Nauru, but English is often used in the country. Nauruan is declared as the primary language of 95.3% of the population. The 2011 census revealed that 66.0% of the population spoke English and 11.9% another language. The main religions of Nauru are Nauru Congregational Church (35.71%) and Roman Catholic (32.96%). The literacy rate in Nauru is 96.5%. The proportion of the country's population aged 15 and over attaining academic degrees is one of the lowest in the world, reaching 7.9% in 2011. An estimated 10.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) is spent on education. Nauru has a universal health care system, and in 2012, an estimated 7.5% of its GDP was spent on healthcare. Nauru has the highest obesity ranking in the world; 97 per cent of men and 93 per cent of women are obese. In 2006, the average net monthly income was A$2,597 (A$ in 2014). The most significant sources of employment are phosphate mining, banking industries, and various coconut products. In 2011, the unemployment rate was 23%. The 2011 census enumerated 1,647 total households, averaging 6.0 persons per house. Average urbanisation rate in Nauru is 100%.
With a population of ten thousand in 2011, Nauru ranks around 230th in the world by population. Its population density is 478 inhabitants per square kilometre (185 per square mile). The overall life expectancy in Nauru at birth is 59.7 years. The total fertility rate of 3.70 children per mother is one of the highest in the Oceania. The United Nations projects the population will stay around 10,000 in the 2020s, and the Nauru Bureau of Statistics estimates the population will increase to 20,000 in 2038.
In Nauru's history, there have been six major demographics changes. The island was first inhabited by Micronesian people roughly 3,000 years ago. The first European to find the island was John Fearn in 1798. In 1888, the country was annexed by Germany. The next demographic change came when Japanese occupied the island during World War II in the 1940s. During this time, the Japanese deported several thousands of Nauruans to other islands. The next major demographic change was in the 1960s; the country gained independence, where the percentage of Nauruans started to increase. The last major demographics change was in 2006 when the Government of Nauru repatriated almost all of the remaining Tuvaluan and I-Kiribati workers, following large scale reduction from the Republic of Nauru Phosphate Corporation (RONPhos) and government workers. The census of 2006 stated 9,233 people were in Nauru: down 2.13% per year from the previous census of 2002.
From 2002–11, there has been negative net migration, with an annual 109 net emigrants from 2006–11. In 2009 there were 1,820 arrivals and 1,736 departures, for a positive rate of 84 immigrants. This was the first time since collecting data in 2002, there was a positive rate. Data on arrivals and departures collected by the Nauruan Customs and Immigration Office is not available, so specific immigration data is unavailable. As of the 2011 census, 57% of the population over 15 years old were legally or "de facto" married, 35% were never married, while 7% were either widowed, separated, or divorced. There are 1,647 households in Nauru, making an average household size of 6.0 persons per household.
Nauru is one of the most Westernized regions of the South Pacific.
For births, deaths, and fertility rates, the Nauru Bureau of Statistics was used. For population, the United States Census Bureau's mid-year estimated were used. If a cell is shaded light green and a dagger stands beside a number, it indicates the estimate from "The World Factbook". In 2013, the number of births (366) and birth rate (38.8) was the second-highest during this period. In 2011, the total fertility rate of 4.2 was the highest since 1992 (4.5). Since 2009, there has been a natural change of at least 200 inhabitants—the first since the reparations of the population in 2006.
Nauru, as of 2011, is mainly inhabited by Nauruans (94%), while the main minority groups include Fijians (1%), Chinese (1%), and Solomon Islanders (1%). This shows a major change from the previous major census of 2002, when Nauruans represented 75% of the population. According to the Constitution Nauru does not exclude any ethnic group to become a citizen.
The recent sizable immigration event of Chinese people happened in 1993.
The Nauruan language is the official language of Nauru. English is widely understood and is used for most government and commercial purposes. And is de facto official. According to the 2011 census, 95.3% of the population speaks Nauruan, 66.0% speak English, and 11.9% speak another language. Nauruan is an Austronesian language, however, no adequate written grammar of the language has been compiled, and its relationships to other Micronesian languages are not well understood.
The main religions in Nauru are Nauru Congregational (35.71%), Roman Catholic (32.96%), Assemblies of God (12.98%), and Nauru Independent (9.50%). The biggest changes from 2002–11 were an increase from 0 to 1,291 (Assemblies of God) and 1,417 to 282 (Other). Public holidays include New Year's Day (1 January), Independence Day (31 January), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Easter Tuesday, Constitution Day (17 May), National Youth Day (25 September), Christmas Day, and Boxer Day.
Nauruan Independent was the predominant religion in Nauru before the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when foreign missionaries introduced Christianity to the island. It is still practised by 9.5% of the population, according to 2011 census. There are a few active Christian missionary organisations, including representatives of Anglicanism, Methodism, and Catholicism. The Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the Government restricted this right in some circumstances. The government has restricted the religious practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Jehovah's Witnesses, most of whom are foreign workers employed by RONPhos.
Literacy rate in Nauru, defined as "people who are currently enrolled in school and/or have reached at least grade 5 of primary education", is 96.5%, as of 2011. There are 3,190 students and 104 teachers, as of 2013. The 2011 census stated 4 percent of the population aged 15 years or older have a primary education, 91 percent have a secondary education, and 5 percent have a tertiary education. Education is based on the British system, which requires attendance from 5 to 16 years old. Students spend three years at preschool, six years of primary education, and four years of secondary school. Tertiary school is not required. An estimated 10.7 percent of the GDP was spent on education in 1999. As of 2013, there are five preschools, four primary schools, three secondary schools, and one tertiary school. The lone college, University of South Pacific, opened in the 1970s via distance courses, and in 1987 a campus was built on the island. It offers accounting, management, primary education, and English studies as majors.
The education system had a near-collapse in 2000–2005. During this time, exams were not held, teachers were not paid, and schools did not have enough funding to continue. As a result, over half of the schools closed. In 2009, the Australian Government partnered with the Nauruan Department of Education to help. This agreement resulted in a 5.7% increase in students, teachers with a degree increased from 30% to 93%, and over A$11 million was used to construct a new secondary school.
See Health in Nauru
Net monthly income in 2006 averaged A$2,597 (A$ in 2014). In the same year, gross monthly income averaged A$9,554 (A$ in 2014). This was calculated during the mini-census of 2006, which featured 54.4% response rate of the population. The income was calculated using the following factors: first job salary, subsistence, other business income, second job salary, services to other households, benefits, house gifts consumed and received, and other income. Compared to other countries that use the Australian dollar—Kiribati, Australia, and Tuvalu—Nauru ranks number one in terms of income. Since 2013, Nauru does not have a minimum wage.
Nauru's number of employed people has steadily risen and fallen. According to the 2011 census, there are 2,883 employed persons and 908 unemployed persons, making an unemployment rate of 23%. The Nauru Bureau of Statistics predicted the unemployment rate will decrease to 22% in FY2014/15. The gross domestic product of Nauru was A$69.55 million in 2009, an increase of 40% increase from 2008. The GDP is broken down into three categories: primary (18.7%—agriculture, hunting, forestry, fishing, mining, and quarrying), secondary (36.5%—manufacturing, electric, gas, water, and construction), and tertiary (44.8%—trade, hotel, restaurants, and various services) industries.
A majority of the population are employed in phosphate mining, public administration, education, and transportation. A detention centre was closed in 2008, which caused the unemployment rate to rise to 30%, and approximately ten percent of the population relied on working at the centre. The centre reopened in 2012 and currently serves 1,162 prisoners, as of May 2014. During the 1990s, Nauru was famous for operating offshore banks, helping with money laundering. The United States State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report estimated there were 400 offshore finance centres laundering an estimated $70 billion.
Phosphate mining in Nauru originally made Nauru the richest per capita nation in the world. In 1968, the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust (NPRT) was created to invest profits from mining, so Nauru would have money after the mining was exhausted. The owners of the trust purchased a fleet of ships and aircraft, a brewery in the Solomon Islands, hotels around the world, and real estate in Australia, the United States and Britain, which causes the trust to bankrupt. Phosphate exports peaked in 1973 with 2.3 million tonnes, but has decreased to 0.2 million tonnes in 2001. In 2006, mining of a secondary layer of phosphate began. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21305 |
Politics of Nauru
Politics of Nauru takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Nauru is the head of government of the executive branch. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Nauru's economic viability has historically rested on its phosphate reserves. Phosphate has been mined on the island since 1906. After its independence in 1968, this small Pacific nation generated healthy revenues from this lucrative—but finite—resource. The phosphate supply has been largely exhausted in recent years, and the economy has declined since its peak near 1980.
In this regard, the government has tried to develop the island into an offshore financial centre, imitating the success of the Bahamas and other island nations around the world that have emerged as major offshore banking centres. The government has also invested in property on other islands and the United States through its Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust.
Over the course of recent years, however, offshore banking institutions and instruments have come under increasing scrutiny by international bodies seeking to make international finance a more transparent system. Nauru, as a result, has been a casualty of this movement.
In December 1999, four major international banks banned dollar transactions with Nauru. The United States Department of State issued a report identifying Nauru as a major money laundering centre, used by narcotics traffickers and organized crime figures.
The last few years has seen repeated changes of government. Nauru's unsettled political situation never led to civil disturbances; the transitions were always sanctioned by parliament and occurred peacefully.
President Bernard Dowiyogo took office in April 2000 for his fourth and, after a minimal hiatus, fifth stints as Nauru's top executive. Dowiyogo first served as president from 1976 to 1978. He returned to that office in 1989, and was re-elected in 1992. A vote in parliament, however, forced him to yield power to Kinza Clodumar in 1995. Dowiyogo regained the presidency when the Clodumar government fell in mid-1998.
In April 2000, René Harris, former chairman of the Nauru Phosphate Corporation, became president as he briefly assembled support in parliament. Harris' attempt to put together an administration lasted for only a few days of parliamentary maneuvering. In the end, Harris proved unable to secure parliament's confidence, and Dowiyogo returned yet again to the presidency by the end of the month.
Rene Harris was finally able to claim power as the president of Nauru in March 2001 when he was elected to the presidency by the parliament; his term was to last three years, presumably ending in 2004.
Phosphate depletion will likely be one of the most important considerations for the government in the next few years as the supply is forecast to be exhausted by 2003. Since Nauru imports almost everything it consumes (including food, water and fuel) the need to diversify the economy and to generate other sources of revenue is of paramount importance.
As noted above, offshore banking has been one arena into which Nauru has traversed, however, the rewards are limited by growing concern about the ethical parameters of this business. Tourism is another industry that is also being gradually built.
Yet another concern is the ecological damage that resulted from a century of phosphate mining. Along with the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand were responsible for the large scale and indiscriminate mining of phosphate on the tiny island for most of the 20th century.
The mining left an ecological and economic disaster for Nauru to handle when the country achieved independence in 1968. Not only was the country's principal resource and employment generating activity almost entirely depleted by the rapid mining done by the three countries, the mining companies had also failed to follow the basic principles of restoring and regenerating the lands where mining had been completed. Thus, Nauru was left to handle the immense and expensive task of restoring large chunks of land which were destroyed by the mining.
Nauru demanded compensation from the three nations, but was refused. Finally, in 1993, Nauru was forced to turn to the International Court of Justice at The Hague in The Netherlands. It filed a claim of $73 million against the three countries. The case was soon afterwards settled out of court by Australia, with Britain and New Zealand also contributing to the reparations sought by Nauru.
Today, Nauru is almost totally dependent on trade with New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. Arable land is very limited as are all other natural resources, now that its long-time economic base of phosphate mines has been almost completely depleted.
On the international front, in late July 2002, Taiwan cut its diplomatic ties with Nauru. Taiwan and Nauru had shared diplomatic ties for 22 years; Taiwan has enjoyed diplomatic ties with several Pacific countries even in the face of the "One China policy" by Beijing. Nevertheless, this particular 22-year-long legacy was broken when Nauru's president decided to change its allegiance and establish formal relations with China. The move effectively shifted diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, thus angering the government of Taiwan, which described the shift in policy as "reckless."
Nauru's decision to recognize Beijing via the signing of diplomatic papers and a joint communique ultimately resulted in the cessation of Taiwanese aid. Nauru instead received a US$150 million aid package from Beijing.
In April 2005, during a state visit to the Marshall Islands, President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan met and spoke with the Nauruan President Ludwig Scotty. On 14 May 2005, the two countries signed the necessary documents to restore formal ties and reopen embassies. The People's Republic of China consequently severed ties two weeks later on 31 May.
In early 2003, a fight for power emerged between President Rene Harris and former President Bernard Dowiyogo. The power struggle occurred following a non-confidence vote in parliament, which effectively ejected Harris from the position of president. Reports suggested that Harris was ousted because of rising anxieties regarding economic mismanagement. At the time, Dowiyogo referred to Nauru's political scenario as being "critical."
It was reported that Dowiyogo became the president replacing Harris, however, information surrounding the shift in power was sparse. There was very little international coverage of the matter. Regardless, Dowiyogo's tenure did not last for long. In March 2003, Dowiyogo had heart surgery in the United States and died.
In May 2003, elections were held within the parliament to select a new president. In those elections, Ludwig Scotty gained the most support and became the new president. The actual results of the parliamentary vote were as follows: Ludwig Scotty—10 parliamentary votes, Kinza Clodumar—7 parliamentary votes. President Scotty became president on 29 May 2003. He served only until August 2003 when he was ousted in a non-confidence measure. Rene Harris was elected as president.
Meanwhile, in parliamentary elections held in May 2003, Nauru First Party won 3 seats and independents garnered 15 in total.
In late June 2004, Nauru's former parliament speaker Ludwig Scotty became the country's new president. His presidency followed the exit of outgoing President Rene Harris following yet another non-confidence measure.
For his part, Scotty had resigned as parliamentary speaker in April 2004 in protest of the Nauru's financial crisis which included the commencement of receivership proceedings by corporate giant, General Electric. During that period, Nauru faced the seizure of its assets if the country failed to honor its debt payments.
Since Scotty's resignation as parliamentary speaker, the parliament was unable to convene as members of parliament could not decide whom to appoint as his replacement. The scenario led to a political crisis, the financial crisis notwithstanding.
In mid-2004, the government of Australia sent envoys to help Nauru deal with its financial crisis. By August 2004, a report by the Australian Centre for Independent Studies suggested that Nauru might consider relinquishing its independent status in favor of becoming an Australian territory. The report called for radical economic reform as well as the restructuring of both governmental instruments and public service. The author of the report has offered Nauru economic advice in the past.
Scotty was re-elected to serve a full term in October 2004. Following a vote of "no confidence" by Parliament against President Scotty on 19 December 2007, Marcus Stephen became the President. Following Stephen's resignation in November 2011, Freddie Pitcher became President. Sprent Dabwido then moved a motion of no confidence in Pitcher, and Dabwido was duly elected President by the parliament, with nine votes supporting his nomination and eight votes opposing.
Elections for Parliament were held in 2013, after which Baron Waqa was elected by Parliament as President.
In January 2014, Nauru's President Baron Waqa fired the country's only magistrate Peter Law and its Chief Justice Geoffrey Eames (both Australian-based justices). Eames, himself, was fired after issuing an injunction to temporarily halt Law's deportation.
In May and June 2014, Waqa suspended 5 of the 7 members of Nauru's Opposition from Parliament indefinitely.
Three of the MPs, Mathew Batsiua, Kieren Keke and Roland Kun, were suspended in May 2014 for making comments to international media critical of the government and the alleged breakdown of the rule of law. Another two, Sprent Dabwido (a former president) and Squire Jeremiah were suspended a month later for behaving in an unruly manner.
In June 2015, Jeremiah, Dabwido, and Batsiua were arrested and Kun had his passport cancelled amid claims that they had been trying to destabilize the Government by talking to foreign media.
The Parliament elects a president from amongst its members, who appoints a Cabinet of 5–6 people. The President is both the head of state and head of government.
A series of no-confidence votes, resignations and elections between 1999 and 2003 saw René Harris and Bernard Dowiyogo as President for numerous short periods during a period of political instability. Dowigoyo died in office on 10 March 2003, in Washington, D.C., after heart surgery. Ludwig Scotty was elected President on 29 May 2003, but this did not bring to an end the years of political uncertainty as he was replaced by Harris a few months later. Scotty regained the presidency in 2004, only to be ousted in a vote of no confidence in 2007.
Parliament has 19 members, elected for a three-year term in multi-seat constituencies. Each constituency returns 2 members to the Nauruan Parliament, except for Ubenide which returns 4.
Voting is compulsory for all citizens aged 20 or more.
Nauru does not have a formal structure for political parties; candidates typically stand as independents. 15 of the 18 members of the current parliament are independents, and alliances within the government are often formed on the basis of extended family ties. Four parties that have been active in Nauruan politics are the Nauru Party, the Democratic Party, Nauru First and the Centre Party.
For its size, Nauru has a complex legal system. The Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice, is paramount on constitutional issues. Other cases can be appealed to the two-judge Appellate Court. Parliament cannot overturn court decisions, but Appellate Court rulings can be appealed to the High Court of Australia; in practice, this rarely happens. Lower courts consist of the District Court and the Family Court, both of which are headed by a Resident Magistrate, who also is the Registrar of the Supreme Court. Finally, there also are two quasi-courts: the Public Service Appeal Board and the Police Appeal Board, both of which are presided over by the Chief Justice.
Since 1992, local government has been the responsibility of the Nauru Island Council (NIC). The NIC has limited powers and functions as an advisor to the national government on local matters. The role of the NIC is to concentrate its efforts on local activities relevant to Nauruans. An elected member of the Nauru Island Council cannot simultaneously be a member of parliament. Land tenure in Nauru is unusual: all Nauruans have certain rights to all land on the island, which is owned by individuals and family groups; government and corporate entities do not own land and must enter into a lease arrangement with the landowners to use land. Non-Nauruans cannot own lands.
Australia is responsible for Nauru's defense under an informal agreement between the two countries. However, there is a 100-person regular police force under civilian command, backed by volunteer reservists trained to provide support in the event of serious unrest. While officers are typically unarmed while on routine patrol, the Nauruan police force does possess 60 firearms. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21306 |
Economy of Nauru
The economy of Nauru is tiny, based on a population in 2014 of only 11,000 people. The economy is primarily based on phosphate mining, offshore banking, and processing of coconut products. Mining of phosphate ceased after the exhaustion of the primary phosphate reserves, but in 2006–07 mining of a deeper layer of "secondary phosphate" began. It is hoped that this economic activity might lift Nauru from the bottom rung of global GDP per capita. The only other major source of government revenue is sale of fishing rights in Nauru's territorial waters.
Nauru is dependent on foreign aid, chiefly from Australia, Taiwan and New Zealand.
In the years after independence in 1968, Nauru possessed the highest GDP per capita in the world due to its rich phosphate deposits. In anticipation of the exhaustion of its phosphate deposits, substantial amounts of the income from phosphates were invested in trust funds aimed to help cushion the transition and provide for Nauru's economic future. However, because of heavy spending from the trust funds, including some wasteful foreign investment activities, the government is now facing virtual bankruptcy. To cut costs the government has called for a freeze on wages, a reduction of over-staffed public service departments, privatization of numerous government agencies, and closure of some of Nauru's overseas consulates. Economic uncertainty caused by financial mismanagement and corruption, combined with shortages of basic goods, has resulted in some domestic unrest. In 2004 Nauru was faced with chaos amid political strife and the collapse of the island's telecommunications system. Moreover, the deterioration of housing and hospitals has continued.
Few comprehensive statistics on the Nauru economy exist, with estimates of Nauru's GDP varying widely. According to the U.S. State Department, Nauru's GDP volume was US$1 million in 2004. Nauru receives about US$20 million foreign aid a year from Australia.
The most recent 2017/2018 Nauru Budget indicates modest economic growth, with $128.7 million in revenues and $128.6 million in expenditures estimated.
Phosphate is Nauru's only export product, although the government also receives relatively significant foreign exchange income from licensing its rich skipjack tuna fishing grounds to foreign fishing vessels, which land an annual average of 50,000 tonnes of Nauru zone-caught tuna overseas. In 2004 income from phosphate export was US$640,000, with Australia, New Zealand and Japan serving as the country's major export markets. In the same year the Nauru government budget shows that income from licensing foreign fishing vessels was over US$3,000,000.
Nauru needs to import almost all basic and capital goods, including food, water, fuel, and manufactured goods, with Australia and New Zealand as its major import sources. In 2004 Nauru's imports totaled about US$19.8 million.
Nauru has been a cash economy since at least 2004, after the Bank of Nauru and the Republic of Nauru Finance Corporation went bankrupt and ceased operations in the early 2000s and the licenses of all offshore banks were revoked by the Nauru government in 2004. Nauru uses the Australian dollar for its currency. Deposit-taking institutions do not exist on the island, and community savings are required to be held in the form of cash, and all transactions are conducted using cash. The government is required to periodically fly in Australian currency to maintain liquidity.
The Australian government shut down Nauru's banking system in 2006. Nauru's government has been talking with Bendigo & Adelaide Bank Ltd., Australia's fifth-largest lender, to set up a branch on the island and move to a system where the entire population uses a bank. Effective from the end of April 2016, Westpac, one of Australia's largest banks, ceased having any dealings with the Nauru government. On 21 April 2016, it was announced that the Bendigo Bank was facing pressure to also close its operation in Nauru. There are indications that the Australian banks have legal problems in Australia over efforts to combat money laundering.
On October 1, 2014, an income tax was imposed in Nauru for the first time, with high income earners paying a flat rate of 10%. The government spending in 2015 was forecast to be under US$92 million. Taxes include an airport departure tax and a bed tax at the Meneñ Hotel. The 2007–08 Budget saw the increase of existing excises on cigarettes and duty on imports. A tax on sugary foods was also introduced, chiefly to help combat Nauru's diabetes epidemic.
Historically Nauru was regarded as a tax haven due to the operation of its international financial centre, which offered amongst other things offshore banking services. In 2001, Nauru was blacklisted internationally over concerns it had become a haven for money laundering. Amendments made in 2004 abolished Nauru's Offshore Banking sector and, as recognised in Nauru's latest anti money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) review, Nauru's offshore sector is now limited to a small offshore company register.
In July 2017 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) upgraded its rating of Nauru's standards of tax transparency. Nauru had been listed alongside fourteen other countries that had failed to show that they could comply with international tax transparency standards and regulations. The OECD subsequently put Nauru through a fast-tracked compliance process and the country was given a "largely compliant" rating.
Currently, Nauru is heavily dependent on Australia as its major source of financial support. In 2001 Nauru signed an agreement with Australia to accommodate asylum seekers (mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan) on the island, in return for millions of dollars in aid. This agreement, referred to as the "Pacific Solution", came to an end in 2007, prompting Nauruan concerns about the future of the island's revenue. Australia has also sent financial experts to Nauru to help the tiny nation overcome its economic problems. However, serious questions remain about the long-term viability of Nauru's economy, with uncertainties about the rehabilitation of mined land and the replacement of income from phosphates.
In 2008, talks began between Australia and Nauru regarding the future of the former's economic development aid to the latter. Nauruan Foreign and Finance Minister Dr. Kieren Keke stated that his country did not want aid handouts. One possible solution currently being explored would be for Australia to assist Nauru in setting up a "boat repair industry" for regional fishing vessels.
The Nauru detention centre was established by the Australian government, with Nauruan agreement, in 2001 to cater for up to 800 refugees and asylum seekers under Australia's Pacific solution. The centre is seen by Nauruans as an important source of employment opportunities, in addition to the pledge of A$20 million for development activities.
The fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21307 |
Telecommunications in Nauru
Nauru has one government-owned radio station and two television stations. One station is government-owned and mainly rebroadcasts CNN and the other is a private sports network. The island's Internet service is provided by CenPacNet.
Telephones - main lines in use:
2,000 (1994)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
450 (1994)
Telephone system:
adequate local and international radiotelephone communications provided via Australian facilities
"domestic:"
NA
"international:"
satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 0, FM 1, shortwave 0 (1998) The AM signal went off the air years ago, the government owned radio station is "FM105"
Radios:
7,000 (1997)
Television broadcast stations:
1 (1997)
Televisions:
500 (1997)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
1 (CenpacNet)
Country code (Top level domain): .nr
In 2015, the Nauruan government blocked websites including Facebook as part of a crackdown on Internet pornography, especially child pornography. Opposition MP Matthew Batsiua has said that the Facebook ban is actually intended to stifle criticism of the government. The ban has now been lifted as of 2018. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21308 |
Navassa Island
Navassa Island (; ; also "La Navasse", "La Navase") is a small uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. Located northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba, west of Jérémie on the south west peninsula of Haiti, the island is subject to an ongoing territorial dispute between Haiti and the United States, which administers the island through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The U.S. has claimed the island since 1857, based on the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Haiti's claim over Navassa goes back to the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 that established French possessions in mainland Hispaniola, that were transferred from Spain by the treaty. As well as the western half of the main island and certain other specifically named nearby islands, Haiti's also claimed "other adjacent ("but unnamed") islands", though Navassa was not mentioned by name. Since its 1874 Constitution, and after the establishment of the 1857 U.S. claim, Haiti has explicitly named "la Navase" as one of the territories it claims. Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, best known for his publications on Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti), referred to "la Navasse" as the "small French island of Saint-Domingue" in 1798.
Navassa Island is about in area. It is located west of Haiti's southwest peninsula, south of the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and about one-quarter of the way from mainland Haiti to Jamaica in the Jamaica Channel.
Navassa reaches an elevation of at Dunning Hill south of the lighthouse, Navassa Island Light. This location is from the southwestern coast or east of Lulu Bay.
The terrain of Navassa Island consists mostly of exposed coral and limestone, the island being ringed by vertical white cliffs high, but with enough grassland to support goat herds. The island is covered in a forest of four tree species: short-leaf fig ("Ficus populnea" var. "brevifolia"), pigeon plum ("Coccoloba diversifolia"), mastic ("Sideroxylon foetidissimum"), and poisonwood ("Metopium brownei").
Navassa Island's topography, ecology, and modern history are similar to that of Mona Island, a small limestone island located in the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which were once centers of guano mining, and are nature reserves for the United States. Transient Haitian fishermen and others camp on the island but the island is otherwise uninhabited. It has no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages, and its only natural resource is guano. Economic activity consists of subsistence fishing and commercial trawling activities.
There were eight species of native reptiles, all of which are believed to be, or to have been, endemic to Navassa Island: "Celestus badius" (an anguid lizard), "Aristelliger cochranae" (a gecko), "Sphaerodactylus becki" (a gecko), "Anolis longiceps" (an anole), "Cyclura (cornuta) onchiopsis" (a rock iguana), "Leiocephalus eremitus" (a curly-tailed lizard), "Tropidophis bucculentus" (a dwarf boa), and "Typhlops sulcatus" (a tiny snake). Of these the first four remain common with the last four likely extinct. Feral cats, dogs and pigs currently inhabit the island.
In 2012, a rare coral species, "Acropora palmata" (Elkhorn coral), was found underwater near the island. The remaining coral was found to be in good condition.
In 1504, Christopher Columbus, stranded on Jamaica during his fourth voyage, sent some crew members by canoe to Hispaniola for help. They ran into the island on the way, but it had no water. They called it Navaza (from "nava-" meaning plain, or field), and it was avoided by mariners for the next 350 years.
From 1801 to 1867 the successive constitutions of Haiti claimed national sovereignty over adjacent islands, both named "and" unnamed, although Navassa was not specifically enumerated until 1874. Navassa Island was also claimed for the United States on September 19, 1857 by Peter Duncan, an American sea captain, under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, for the rich guano deposits found on the island, and for not being within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government, nor occupied by another government's citizens.
Haiti protested the annexation, but on July 7, 1858, U.S. President James Buchanan issued an Executive Order upholding the American claim, which also called for military action to enforce it. Navassa Island has since been maintained by the United States as an unincorporated territory (according to the Insular Cases). The United States Supreme Court on November 24, 1890, in "Jones v. United States", 137 U.S. 202 (1890) Id. at 224 found that Navassa Island must be considered as appertaining to the United States, creating a legal history for the island under US law unlike many other islands originally claimed under the Guano Islands Act. As listed in its 1987 constitution, Haiti maintains its claim to the island.
Guano phosphate is a superior organic fertilizer that became a mainstay of American agriculture in the mid-19th century. Duncan transferred his discoverer's rights to his employer, an American guano trader in Jamaica, who sold them to the newly formed Navassa Phosphate Company of Baltimore. After an interruption for the American Civil War, the company built larger mining facilities on Navassa with barrack housing for 140 black contract laborers from Maryland, houses for white supervisors, a blacksmith shop, warehouses, and a church.
Mining began in 1865. The workers dug out the guano by dynamite and pick-axe and hauled it in rail cars to the landing point at Lulu Bay, where it was put into sacks and lowered onto boats for transfer to the Company barque, the S.S. "Romance". The living quarters at Lulu Bay were called "Lulu Town", as appears on old maps. Railway tracks eventually extended inland.
Hauling guano by muscle-power in the fierce tropical heat, combined with general disgruntlement with conditions on the island, eventually provoked a rebellion in 1889, in which five supervisors died. A U.S. warship returned eighteen of the workers to Baltimore for three separate trials on murder charges. A black fraternal society, the Order of Galilean Fisherman, raised money to defend the miners in federal court, and the defense built its case on the contention that the men acted in self-defense or in the heat of passion, and that the United States did not have jurisdiction over the island. E. J. Waring, the first black lawyer to pass the Maryland bar, was a part of the defense's legal team.
The cases, including "Jones v. United States", went to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 1890, which ruled the Guano Act constitutional, and three of the miners were scheduled for execution in the spring of 1891. A grass-roots petition driven by black churches around the country, also signed by white jurors from the three trials, reached President Benjamin Harrison, who commuted the sentences to imprisonment and mentioned the case in a State of the Union Address. Guano mining resumed on Navassa at a much reduced level. The Spanish–American War of 1898 forced the Phosphate Company to evacuate the island and file for bankruptcy, and the new owners abandoned the island after 1901.
Navassa became significant again with the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Shipping between the American eastern seaboard and the Canal goes through the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti. Navassa, a hazard to navigation, needed a lighthouse. The U.S. Lighthouse Service built Navassa Island Light, a tower on the island in 1917, above sea level. A keeper and two assistants were assigned to live there until the Lighthouse Service installed an automatic beacon in 1929.
After absorbing the Lighthouse Service in 1939, the U.S. Coast Guard serviced the light twice each year. The U.S. Navy set up an observation post for the duration of World War II. The island has been uninhabited since then. Fishermen, mainly from Haiti, fish the waters around Navassa.
A scientific expedition from Harvard University studied the land and marine life of the island in 1930. After World War II amateur radio operators occasionally visited to operate from the territory, which is accorded "entity" (country) status by the American Radio Relay League. The callsign prefix is KP1. From 1903 to 1917, Navassa was a dependency of the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and from 1917 to 1996 it was under United States Coast Guard administration.
In 1996 the Coast Guard dismantled the light on Navassa, which ended its interest in the island. Consequently, the Department of the Interior assumed responsibility for the civil administration of the area, and placed the island under its Office of Insular Affairs. For statistical purposes, Navassa was grouped with the now-obsolete term United States Miscellaneous Caribbean Islands and is now grouped with other islands claimed by the U.S. under the Guano Islands Act as the United States Minor Outlying Islands.
In 1997 an American salvager made a claim to Navassa to the Department of State based on the Guano Islands Act. On March 27, 1997, the Department of the Interior rejected the claim on the basis that the Guano Islands Act applies only to islands which, at the time of the claim, are not "appertaining to" the United States. The department's opinion said that Navassa is and remains a U.S. possession "appertaining to" the United States and is "unavailable to be claimed" under the Guano Islands Act.
A 1998 scientific expedition led by the Center for Marine Conservation in Washington, D.C., described Navassa as "a unique preserve of Caribbean biodiversity." The island's land and offshore ecosystems have survived the 20th century virtually untouched.
In September 1999, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service established the Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses of land and a 12 nautical mile (22.2 km) radius of marine habitat around the island. Later that year, full administrative responsibility for Navassa was transferred from the Office of Insular Affairs to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Due to hazardous coastal conditions, and for preservation of species habitat, the refuge is closed to the general public. Visitors need permission from the Fish and Wildlife Office in Boquerón, Puerto Rico, to enter its territorial waters or land.
Since it became a National Wildlife Refuge, amateur radio operators have repeatedly been denied entry. In October 2014 permission was granted for a two-week DX-pedition in February 2015. The operation made 138,409 contacts.
Due to Haiti's claim of the island of Navassa (which is also supported by Cuba), and subsequently occupied by the United States, the maritime boundaries of Cuba-Haiti-Jamaica are delimited and its meeting points effectively remain in abeyance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21312 |
History of Nepal
The history of Nepal is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions, comprising the areas of South Asia and East Asia.
Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multiracial, multicultural, multi-religious, and multilingual country. The most spoken language is Nepali followed by several other ethnic languages.
The Kingdom of Nepal was established in 1768 and started a campaign of unifying all of Nepal that would form modern territories of Nepal. Some former territories had been lost due to the kingdom having participated in the Sino-Nepalese War which ended in both victory and loses, ultimately accepting as a tribute state of Qing dynasty of China from 1792 to 1865. The Anglo-Nepalese War ended in British victory and ceded some Nepalese territory. In a historical vote for the election of the constituent assembly, the Nepalese parliament voted to abolish the monarchy in June 2006. Nepal became a federal republic on 28 May 2008 and was formally renamed the 'Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal' ending the 200-year-old reign of the Shah monarchs.
In a Licchavi-era inscription found in Tistung, the local people have been addressed as the 'Nepals'. Experts are of the opinion that some or all of the inhabitants of Nepal in the ancient period were likely called 'Nepals', which meant that the word 'Nepal' was used to refer to both the land and its population. These Nepals are considered the progenitors of modern-day Newars. The terms 'Nepal' and 'Newar' are variations of the same term. Other variants found in medieval texts are 'Nepar' and 'Newal'.
The derivation of the word Nepal is also the subject of a number of other theories:
Prehistoric sites of palaeolithic, mesolithic and neolithic origins have been discovered in the Siwalik hills of Dang district. The earliest inhabitants of modern Nepal and adjoining areas are believed to be people from the Indus Valley Civilisation. It is possible that the Dravidian people whose history predates the onset of the bronze age in the Indian subcontinent (around 3300 BC) inhabited the area before the arrival of other ethnic groups like the Tibeto-Burmans and Indo-Aryans from across the border. Tharus, Tibeto-Burmans who mixed heavily with Indians in the southern regions, are natives of the cental Terai region of Nepal. The first documented tribes in Nepal are the Kirat people, who arrived into Nepal from Tibet roughly 4000 to 4500 years ago and moved into the Kathmandu valley and southern parts of Nepal, before being made to retreat elsewhere by the invading Licchavais from India who ruled the Kathmandu valley in modern-day southern parts of Nepal. Other ethnic groups of Indo-Aryan origin later migrated to southern part of Nepal from Indo-Gangetic Plain of northern India.
Another possibility for the first people to have inhabited Nepal are the Kusunda people. According to Hogdson (1847), the earliest inhabitants of Nepal were perhaps the Kusunda people, probably of proto-Australoid origin.Stella Kramrisch ( 1964 ) mentions a substratum of a race of Pre - Dravidians and Dravidians , who were in Nepal even before the Newars , who formed the majority of the ancient inhabitants of the valley of Kathmandu.
Although very little is known about the early history of Nepal, legends and documented references reach far back to the 30th century BC. Also, the presence of historical sites such as the Valmiki ashram, indicates the presence of "Sanatana" (ancient) Hindu culture in parts of Nepal at that period.
According to legendary accounts, the early rulers of Nepal were the "Gopālavaṃśi ("Gopal Bansa) or "cowherd dynasty", who presumably ruled for about five centuries. They are said to have been followed by the "Mahiṣapālavaṃśa" or "buffalo-herder dynasty", established by a Yadav named Bhul Singh.
The Shakya clan formed an independent oligarchic republican state known as the "'Śākya Gaṇarājya"' during the late Vedic period (c. 1000 – c. 500 BCE) and the later so-called second urbanisation period (c. 600 – c. 200 BCE). Its capital was Kapilavastu, which may have been located either in present-day Tilaurakot, Nepal. Gautama Buddha (c. 6th to 4th centuries BCE), whose teachings became the foundation of Buddhism, was the best-known Shakya. He was known in his lifetime as "Siddhartha Gautama" and "Shakyamuni" (Sage of the Shakyas). He was the son of Śuddhodana, the elected leader of the Śākya Gaṇarājya.
The context of Kirats ruling in Nepal before Licchavi dynasty and after Mahispal (Avir) dynasty are depicted in different manuscripts. Delineating the area between the Sun Koshi and Tama Koshi rivers as their native land, the list of Kirati kings is also given in the Gopal genealogy. By defeating the last king of the Avir dynasty Bhuwansingh in a battle, Kirati King Yalung or Yalamber had taken the regime of the valley under his control. In Hindu mythological perspective, this event is believed to have taken place in the final phase of Dwaparyug or initial phase of Kaliyug or around the 6th century BC. Descriptions of 32, 28 and 29 Kirati kings are found according to the Gopal genealogy, language-genealogy and Wright genealogy respectively. By means of the notices contained in the classics of the East and West, the Kiranti people were living in their present whereabouts for the last 2000 to 2500 years, with an extensive dominion, possibly reaching at one time to the delta of the Ganges.
The kings of the Lichhavi dynasty (originally from Vaishali in modern-day India) ruled what is the Kathmandu valley in modern-day Nepal after the Kirats. It is mentioned in some genealogies and Puranas that the "Suryavansi Kshetriyas had established a new regime by defeating the Kirats". The "Pashupati Purana" mentions that "the masters of Vaishali established their own regime by confiding Kiratis with sweet words and defeating them in war". Similar contexts can be found in "'Himbatkhanda"', which also mentions that "the masters of Vaishali had started ruling in Nepal by defeating Kirats". Different genealogies state different names of the last Kirati king. According to the Gopal genealogy, the Lichhavis established their rule in Nepal by defeating the last Kirati King 'Khigu', 'Galiz' according to the language-genealogy and 'Gasti' according to Wright genealogy.
In 641, Songtsen Gampo of the Tibetan Empire sends Narendradeva back to Licchavi with an army and subjugates Nepal. Parts of Nepal and Licchavi was later under the direct influences of the Tibetan empire.
The Simroun, Karnat or Dev dynasty originated with an establishment of a kingdom in 1097 CE headquartered at present day Simroungarh in Bara district. The kingdom controlled the areas today known as Tirhoot or Mithila in Nepal and Bihar of India. The rulers of Simroungarh were as follows:
In 1324 CE, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq attacked Simroungarh and demolished the fort. The remains are still scattered across the Simroungarh region. The king, Harisingh Dev, fled northwards where his son, Jagatsingh Dev, was married to the widow princess of Bhaktapur, Nayak Devi.
The Thakuri dynasty were Rajputs. After Aramudi, who is mentioned in the Kashmirian chronicle, the Rajatarangini of Kalhana (1150 CE), many Thakuri kings ruled over parts of the country up to the middle of the 12th century CE. Raghava Deva is said to have founded a ruling dynasty in 879 CE, when the Lichhavi rule came to an end. To commemorate this important event, Raghava Deva started the 'Nepal Era' which began on 20 October, 879 CE. After Amshuvarma, who ruled from 605 CE onward; the Thakuris had lost power and they could regain it only in 869 CE.
After the death of King Raghava Dev, many Thakuri kings ruled southern Nepal up to the middle of the 12th century CE. Gunakama Deva, who ruled from 949 to 994 CE, commissioned the construction of a big wooden shelter, built from the wood of a single tree, called "Kasthamandapa." The name of the capital, 'Kathmandu', is derived from this. Gunakama Deva founded the town Kantipur (modern-day Kathmandu). The tradition of Indra Jatra started during his reign. Temples to the north of the temple of Pashupatinath were renovated in this period.
Bhola Deva succeeded Gunakama Deva. The next ruler was Laxmikama Deva who ruled from 1024 to 1040 CE. He built the Laksmi Vihara and introduced the tradition of worshiping the Kumari; young prepubescent girls believed to be manifestations of the divine female energy or devi. He was succeeded by his son, Vijayakama Deva, who introduced the worship of the "Naga" and "Vasuki". Vijaykama Deva was the last ruler of this dynasty. After his death, the Thakuri clan of Nuwakot occupied the throne of Nepal.
Bhaskara Deva, a Thakuri from Nuwakot, succeeded Vijayakama Deva and established the Nuwakot-Thakuri rule. He is said to have built Navabahal and Hemavarna Vihara. After Bhaskara Deva, four kings of this line ruled over the country. They were Bala Deva, Padma Deva, Nagarjuna Deva and Shankara Deva.
Shankara Deva (1067–1080 CE) was the most illustrious ruler of this dynasty. He established the image of 'Shantesvara Mahadeva' and 'Manohara Bhagavati'. The custom of pasting the pictures of Nagas and Vasuki on the doors of houses on the day of Nagapanchami was introduced by him. During his rule, the Buddhists wreaked vengeance on the Hindu Brahmins (especially the followers of Shaivism) for the harm they had received earlier from the Shankaracharya. Shankara Deva tried to pacify the Brahmins harassed by the Buddhists.
Bama Deva, a descendant of Amshuvarma, defeated Shankar Deva in 1080 CE. He suppressed the Nuwakot-Thankuris with the help of nobles and restored the old Solar Dynasty rule in Nepal for the second time. Harsha Deva, the successor of Bama Deva was a weak ruler. There was no unity among the nobles and they asserted themselves in their respective spheres of influence. Taking that opportunity Nanya Deva, a Karnat dynasty king, attacked Nepal from Simraungarh. The army successfully defended and won the battle, protecting the Nepal valley from a foreign invasion.
After Harsha Deva, Shivadeva the third ruled from 1099 to 1126 CE. He was a brave and powerful king. He founded the town of Kirtipur and roofed the temple of Pashupatinath with gold. He introduced twenty-five paisa coins. He also constructed wells, canals, and tanks at different places.
After Sivadeva III, Mahendra Deva, Mana Deva, Narendra Deva II, Ananda Deva, Rudra Deva, Amrita Deva, Ratna Deva II, Somesvara Deva, Gunakama Deva II, Lakmikama Deva III and Vijayakama Deva II ruled Nepal in quick succession. Historians differ about the rule of several kings and their respective times. After the fall of the Thakuri dynasty, a new dynasty was founded by Arideva or Ari Malla, known as the 'Malla dynasty'.
Early Malla rule started with Ari Malla in the 12th century. Over the next two centuries, his kingdom expanded widely, into much of the Indian subcontinent and western Tibet, before disintegrating into small principalities, which later came to be known as the Baise Rajya.
Jayasthiti Malla, with whom commences the later Malla dynasty of the Kathmandu valley, began to reign at the end of the 18th century. Malla dynasty was the longest ruling dynasty in Nepalese history, ruling from the 12th century to the 18th century (about 600 years). This era in the valley is eminent for the various social and economic reforms such as the 'Sanskritization' of the valley people, new methods of land measurement and allocation, etc. In this era, new forms of art and architecture was introduced. The monuments in Kathmandu valley which are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites were built during Malla rule. In the 14th century, before Kathmandu was divided into 3 princely states, Araniko was sent to China upon the request of Abhaya Malla for representing the skill of art and architecture, and he introduced the Pagoda style of architecture to China and subsequently, whole of Asia. Yaksha Malla, the grandson of Jayasthiti Malla, ruled the Kathmandu valley until almost the end of the 15th century. After his demise, the valley was divided into three independent kingdoms—Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Patan—in about 1484 CE. This division led the Malla rulers into internecine clashes and wars for territorial and commercial gains. Mutually debilitating wars gradually weakened them, which facilitated the conquest of the valley by Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha. The last Malla rulers were Jaya Prakash Malla, Teja Narasingha Malla and Ranjit Malla of Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur respectively.
Prithvi Narayan Shah (c. 1779–1875) was the ninth generation descendant of Dravya Shah (1559–1570), the founder of the ruling house of Gorkha. Prithvi Narayan Shah succeeded his father Nara Bhupal Shah to the throne of Gorkha in 1743 CE. King Prithvi Narayan Shah was quite aware of the political situation of the valley kingdoms as well as of the Baise and Chaubise principalities. He foresaw the need for unifying the small principalities as an urgent condition for survival in the future and set himself to the task accordingly.
His assessment of the situation among the hill principalities was correct, and the principalities were subjugated fairly easily. King Prithvi Narayan Shah's victory march began with the conquest of Nuwakot, which lies between Kathmandu and Gorkha, in 1744. After Nuwakot, he occupied strategic points in the hills surrounding the Kathmandu valley. The valley's communications with the outside world were thus cut off. The occupation of the Kuti Pass in about 1756 stopped the valley's trade with Tibet. Finally, Prithvi Narayan Shah entered the valley. After the victory in Kirtipur, King Jaya Prakash Malla of Kathmandu sought help from the British and the then East India Company sent a contingent of soldiers under Captain Kinloch in 1767. The British force was defeated in Sindhuli by the Gorkhali army. This defeat of the British completely shattered the hopes of King Jaya Prakash Malla. On 25 September 1768, as the people of Kathmandu were celebrating the festival of Indra Jatra, the Gorkhali army marched into the city. Prithvi Narayan Shah sat on a throne put on the palace courtyard for the king of Kathmandu, proclaiming himself the king. Jaya Prakash Malla somehow managed to escape and took asylum in Patan. When Patan was captured a few weeks later, both Jaya Prakash Malla and Tej Narsingh Malla, the king of Patan took refuge in Bhaktapur, which was captured on the night of 25 November 1769. The Kathmandu valley was thus conquered by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who proclaimed himself King with Kathmandu as the royal capital of the Kingdom of Nepal.
King Prithvi Narayan Shah was successful in bringing together diverse religio-ethnic groups under one rule. He was a true nationalist in his outlook and was in favor of adopting a closed-door policy with regards to the British. Not only his social and economic views guided the country's socio-economic course for a long time, his use of the imagery, 'a yam between two boulders' in Nepal's geopolitical context, formed the principal guideline of the country's foreign policy for future centuries.
After decades of rivalry between the medieval kingdoms, modern Nepal was unified in the latter half of the 18th century, when Prithvi Narayan Shah, the ruler of the small principality of Gorkha, formed a unified country from a number of independent hill high states.
After the death of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the Shah dynasty began to expand their kingdom into much of the Indian subcontinent. Between 1788 and 1791, during the Sino-Nepalese War, Nepal invaded Tibet and robbed Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse. Alarmed, the Qianlong Emperor of the Chinese Qing Dynasty appointed Fuk'anggan commander-in-chief of the Tibetan campaign; Fuk'anggan signed a treaty to protect his troops thus attaining a draw.
After 1800, the heirs of Prithvi Narayan Shah proved unable to maintain firm political control over Nepal. A period of internal turmoil followed. The rivalry between Nepal and the British East India Company over the princely states bordering Nepal and British-India eventually led to the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–16), in which Nepal suffered substantial losses due to lack of guns and ammunitions against the British-Indian forces with advanced weapons. The Treaty of Sugauli was signed in 1816, ceding large parts of the Nepalese controlled territories to the British.
The four noble families involved largely in the active politics of the kingdom were the Shah rulers, the Thapas, the Basnyats, and the Pandes before the rise of the Rana dynasty. From beginning to the mid of 18th century, the Thapas and Pandes had extreme dominance over Nepalese Darbar politics alternatively contesting for central power amongst each other.
Jung Bahadur Rana was the first ruler from this dynasty. Rana rulers were titled ""Shree Teen"" and ""Maharaja"", whereas Shah kings were ""Shree Panch"" and ""Maharajadhiraja"". Jung Bahadur codified laws and modernized the state's bureaucracy. In the coup d'état of 1885, the nephews of Jung Bahadur and Ranodip Singh murdered Ranodip Singh and the sons of Jung Bahadur, adopted the name of Jung Bahadur and took control of Nepal. Nine Rana rulers took the hereditary office of Prime Minister. All were styled (self proclaimed) Maharaja of Lamjung and Kaski.
The Rana regime, a tightly centralized autocracy, pursued a policy of isolating Nepal from external influences. This policy helped Nepal maintain its independence during the British colonial era, but it also impeded the country's economic development and modernisation. The Ranas were staunchly pro-British and assisted the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and later in both World Wars. At the same time, despite of Chinese claims, the British supported Nepalese independence at the beginning of the twentieth century. In December 1923, Britain and Nepal formally signed a "treaty of perpetual peace and friendship" superseding the Sugauli Treaty of 1816 and upgrading the British resident in Kathmandu to an envoy.
Slavery was abolished in Nepal in 1924 under premiership of Chandra Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana.
Following the German invasion of Poland, the Kingdom of Nepal declared war on Germany on September 4, 1939. Once Japan entered the conflict, sixteen battalions of the Nepali Army fought on the Burmese front. In addition to military support, Nepal contributed guns, equipment as well as hundreds of thousand of pounds of tea, sugar and raw materials such as timber to the Allied war effort.
The revolution of 1951 started when dissatisfaction against the family rule of the Ranas started emerging from among the few educated people, who had studied in various South Asian schools and colleges, and also from within the Ranas, many of whom were marginalized within the ruling Rana hierarchy. Many of these Nepalese in exile had actively taken part in the Indian Independence struggle and wanted to liberate Nepal as well from the autocratic Rana occupation. The political parties such as the Praja Parishad and Nepali Congress were already formed in exile by leaders such as B. P. Koirala, Ganesh Man Singh, Subarna Sumsher Rana, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Girija Prasad Koirala, and many other patriotic-minded Nepalis who urged the military and popular political movement in Nepal to overthrow the autocratic Rana regime. The Nepali Congress also formed a military wing Nepali Congress's Liberation Army. Among the prominent martyrs to die for the cause, executed at the hands of the Ranas, were Dharma Bhakta Mathema, Shukraraj Shastri, Gangalal Shrestha, and Dasharath Chand who were the members of the Praja Parisad. This turmoil culminated in King Tribhuvan, a direct descendant of Prithvi Narayan Shah, fleeing from his "palace prison" in 1950, to India, touching off an armed revolt against the Rana administration. This eventually ended in the return of the Shah family to power and the appointment of a non-Rana as prime minister following a tri-partite agreement signed called 'Delhi Compromise'. A period of quasi-constitutional rule followed, during which the monarch, assisted by the leaders of fledgling political parties, governed the country. During the 1950s, efforts were made to frame a constitution for Nepal that would establish a representative form of government, based on a British model. A 10-member cabinet under Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher with 5 members of the Rana family and 5 of the Nepali Congress was formed. This government drafted a constitution called the 'Interim Government Act' which was the first constitution of Nepal. But this government failed to work in consensus as the Ranas and Congressmen were never on good terms. So, on 16 November 1951, the king formed a new government of 14 ministers under Matrika Prasad Koirala, which was later dissolved.
The first democratic elections were held in 1959, and B. P. Koirala was elected prime minister. But declaring parliamentary democracy a failure, King Mahendra carried out a royal coup 18 months later, in 1960. He dismissed the elected Koirala government, declared that a "partyless" system would govern Nepal, and promulgated a new constitution on December 16, 1960. Subsequently, the elected prime minister, members of parliament and hundreds of democratic activists were arrested.
The new constitution established a "partyless" Panchayat system which King Mahendra considered to be a democratic form of government, closer to Nepalese traditions. As a pyramidal structure, progressing from village assemblies to the Rastriya Panchayat, the Panchayat system constitutionalized the absolute power of the monarch and kept the King as head of state with sole authority over all governmental institutions, including the cabinet (council of ministers) and the parliament. One-state-one-language became the national policy in an effort to carry out state unification, uniting various ethnic and regional groups into a singular Nepali nationalist bond. The Back to Village Campaign () launched in 1967, was one of the main rural development programs of the Panchayat system.
King Mahendra was succeeded by his 27-year-old son, King Birendra, in 1972. Amid student demonstrations and anti-regime activities in 1979, King Birendra called for a national referendum to decide on the nature of Nepal's government; either the continuation of the Panchayat system along with democratic reforms or the establishment of a multiparty system. The referendum was held in May 1980, and the Panchayat system gained a narrow victory. The king carried out the promised reforms, including selection of the prime minister by the Rastriya Panchayat.
People in rural areas had expected that their interests would be better represented after the adoption of parliamentary democracy in 1990. The Nepali Congress with the support of the United Left Front decided to launch a decisive agitational movement, the Jana Andolan, which forced the monarchy to accept constitutional reforms and to establish a multiparty parliament. In May 1991, Nepal held its first parliamentary elections in nearly 50 years. The Nepali Congress won 110 of the 205 seats and formed the first elected government in 32 years.
In 1992, in a situation of economic crisis and chaos, with spiraling prices as a result of the implementation of changes in policy of the new Congress government, the radical left stepped up their political agitation. A Joint People's Agitation Committee was set up by the various groups. A general strike was called for April 6. Violent incidents began to occur on the eve of the strike. The Joint People's Agitation Committee had called for a 30-minute 'lights out' in the capital, and violence erupted outside Bir Hospital when activists tried to enforce the 'lights out'. At dawn on April 6, clashes between strike activists and police, outside a police station in Pulchowk, Lalitpur, which left two activists dead. Later in the day, a mass rally of the Agitation Committee at Tundikhel in the capital Kathmandu was attacked by police forces. As a result, riots broke out and the Nepal Telecommunications building was set on fire; police opened fire at the crowd, killing several persons. The Human Rights Organisation of Nepal estimated that 14 persons, including several onlookers, had been killed in police firing.
When promised land reforms failed to appear, people in some districts started to organize to enact their own land reform and to gain some power over their lives in the face of usurious landlords. However, this movement was repressed by the Nepali government, in "Operation Romeo" and "Operation Kilo Sera II", which took the lives of many of the leading activists of the struggle. As a result, many witnesses to this repression became radicalized.
In March 1997, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) started a bid to replace the parliamentary monarchy with a new people's democratic republic, through a Maoist revolutionary strategy known as the people's war, which led to the Nepalese Civil War. Led by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Pushpa Kamal Dahal (also known as "Prachanda"), the insurgency began in five districts in Nepal: Rolpa, Rukum, Jajarkot, Gorkha, and Sindhuli. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) established a provisional "people's government" at the district level in several locations.
On June 1, 2001, Prince Dipendra, went on a shooting-spree, assassinating 9 members of the royal family, including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, before shooting himself. Due to his survival, he temporarily became king before dying of his wounds, after which Prince Gyanendra (King Birendra's brother) inherited the throne, as per tradition. Meanwhile, the rebellion escalated, and in October 2002 the king temporarily deposed the government and took complete control of it. A week later he reappointed another government, but the country was still very unstable.
In the face of unstable governments and a siege on the Kathmandu Valley in August 2004, popular support for the monarchy began to wane. On February 1, 2005, King Gyanendra dismissed the entire government and assumed full executive powers, declaring a state of emergency to quash the revolution. Politicians were placed under house arrest, phone and internet lines were cut, and freedom of the press was severely curtailed.
The king's new regime made little progress in his stated aim to suppress the insurgents. Municipal elections in February 2006 were described by the European Union as "a backward step for democracy", as the major parties boycotted the election and some candidates were forced to run for office by the army. In April 2006 strikes and street protests in Kathmandu forced the king to reinstate the parliament. A seven-party coalition resumed control of the government and stripped the king of most of his powers. On December 24, 2007, seven parties, including the former Maoist rebels and the ruling party, agreed to abolish the monarchy and declare Nepal a federal republic. In the elections held on 10 April 2008, the Maoists secured a simple majority, with the prospect of forming a government to rule the proposed 'Republic of Nepal'.
On May 28, 2008, the newly-elected Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a Federal Democratic Republic, abolishing the 240-year-old monarchy. The motion for the abolition of the monarchy was carried by a huge majority: out of 564 members present in the assembly, 560 voted for the motion while 4 members voted against it. On June 11, 2008, the deposed King Gyanendra left the palace. Ram Baran Yadav of the Nepali Congress became the first President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal on July 23, 2008. Similarly, the Constituent Assembly elected Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) as the first Prime Minister of the republic on August 15, 2008, favoring him over Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress.
After failing to draft a constitution before the deadline, the existing Constituent Assembly was dissolved by the government on 28 May 2012 and a new interim government was formed under the premiership of the Chief Justice of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi. In the Constituent Assembly election of November 2013, the Nepali Congress won the largest share of the votes but failed to get a majority. The CPN (UML) and the Nepali Congress negotiated to form a consensus government, and Sushil Koirala of the Nepali Congress was elected as prime minister. The Constitution of Nepal was finally adopted on 20 September 2015.
On 25 April 2015, a devastating earthquake of moment magnitude of 7.8Mw killed nearly 9,000 people and injured nearly 22,000. It was the worst natural disaster to strike the country since the 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake. The earthquake also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 21. Centuries-old buildings including the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu valley were destroyed. A major aftershock occurred on 12 May 2015 at 12:50 NST with a moment magnitude (Mw) of 7.3, killing more than 200 people and over 2,500 were injured by this aftershock, and many were left homeless. These events led to a major humanitarian crisis which affected the reconstruction after the earthquake.
Minority ethnic groups like Madhesi and Tharu protested vigorously against the constitution which came into effect on 20 September 2015. They pointed out that their concerns had not been addressed and there were few explicit protections for their ethnic groups in the document. At least 56 civilians and 11 police died in clashes over the constitution. In response to the Madhesi protests, India suspended vital supplies to landlocked Nepal, citing insecurity and violence in border areas. The then prime minister of Nepal, KP Sharma Oli, publicly accused India for the blockade calling the act more inhumane than war. India has denied enacting the blockade. The blockade choked imports of not only petroleum, but also medicines and earthquake relief material. The then Unted Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, alleged that the denial of petroleum and medicine to Nepal constituted a violation of human rights, adding to the humanitarian crisis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21323 |
Geography of Nepal
Nepal measures about along its Himalayan axis by across. It has an area of .
Nepal is landlocked by India on three sides and China's Tibet Autonomous Region to the north. West Bengal's narrow "Siliguri Corridor" or "Chicken's Neck" separate Nepal and Bangladesh. To the east are India and Bhutan. Nepal depends on India for goods transport facilities and access to the Indian Ocean, even for most goods imported from China.
For a country of its size, Nepal has tremendous geographic diversity. It rises from as low as elevation in the tropical Terai—the northern rim of the Gangetic Plain, through beyond the perpetual snow line to 90 peaks over including Earth's highest ( Mount Everest or "Sagarmatha"). In addition to the continuum from tropical warmth to cold comparable to polar regions, average annual precipitation varies from as little as in its narrow proportion of the rainshadow north of the Himalayas to as much as on windward slopes, the maximum mainly resting on the magnitude of the South Asian monsoon.
Forming south-to-north transects, Nepal can be divided into three belts: Terai, Pahad and Himal. In the other direction, it is divided into three major river systems, east to west: Koshi, Gandaki/Narayani and Karnali (including the Mahakali along the western border), all tributaries of the Ganges river. The Ganges-Yarlung Zangbo/Brahmaputra watershed largely coincides with the Nepal-Tibet border, save for certain tributaries rising beyond it.
Terai is a low land region containing some hill ranges. Looking out for its coverage, it covers 17% of the total area of Nepal. The Terai (also spelled Tarai) region begins at the Indian border and includes the southernmost part of the flat, intensively farmed Gangetic Plain called the "Outer Terai". By the 19th century, timber and other resources were being exported to India. Industrialization based on agricultural products such as jute began in the 1930s and infrastructure such as roadways, railways and electricity were extended across the border before it reached Nepal's Pahad region.
The Outer Terai is culturally more similar to adjacent parts of India's Bihar and Uttar Pradesh than to the Pahad of Nepal. Nepali is taught in schools and often spoken in government offices, however the local population mostly uses Maithali, Bhojpuri and Tharu languages.
The Outer Terai ends at the base of the first range of foothills called the "Siwaliks" or "Churia". This range has a densely forested skirt of coarse alluvium called the "bhabhar". Below the bhabhar, finer, less permeable sediments force groundwater to the surface in a zone of springs and marshes. In Persian, "terai" refers to wet or marshy ground. Before the use of DDT this was dangerously malarial. Nepal's rulers used this for a defensive frontier called the "char kose jhadi" (four "kos" forest, one kos equaling about three kilometers or two miles).
Above the Bhabhar belt, the Siwaliks rise to about with peaks as high as , steeper on their southern flanks because of faults known as the Main Frontal Thrust. This range is composed of poorly consolidated, coarse sediments that do not retain water or support soil development so there is virtually no agricultural potential and sparse population.
In several places beyond the Siwaliks there are dūn valleys called Inner Terai. These valleys have productive soil but were dangerously malarial except to indigenous Tharu people who had genetic resistance. In the mid-1950s DDT came into use to suppress mosquitos and the way was open to settlement from the land-poor hills, to the detriment of the Tharu.
The Terai ends and the Pahad begin at a higher range of foothills called the Mahabharat Range.
Hilly is a mountain region which does not generally contain snow. It is situated south of the Himal. This region begins at the Mahabharat Range ( Great Indian, the Lesser Himalaya) where a fault system called the "Main Boundary Thrust" creates an escarpment high, to a crest between . It covers 68% of the total area of Nepal.
These steep southern slopes are nearly uninhabited, thus an effective buffer between languages and culture in the Terai and Hilly. Hindu Paharis mainly populate river and stream bottoms that enable rice cultivation and are warm enough for winter/spring crops of wheat and potato. The increasingly urbanized Kathmandu and Pokhara valleys fall within the Hill region. Newars are an indigenous ethnic group with their own Tibeto-Burman language. The Newar were originally indigenous to the Kathmandu valley but have spread into Pokhara and other towns alongside urbanized Pahari.
Other indigenous Janajati ethnic groups -— natively speaking highly localized Tibeto-Burman languages and dialects -— populate hillsides up to about . This group includes Magar and Kham Magar west of Pokhara, Gurung south of the Annapurnas, Tamang around the periphery of Kathmandu Valley and Rai, Koinch Sunuwar and Limbu further east. Temperate and subtropical fruits are grown as cash crops. Marijuana was grown and processed into "Charas" (hashish) until international pressure persuaded the government to outlaw it in 1976. There is increasing reliance on animal husbandry with elevation, using land above for summer grazing and moving herds to lower elevations in winter. Grain production has not kept pace with population growth at elevations above where colder temperatures inhibit double cropping. Food deficits drive emigration out of the Pahad in search of employment.
The Hilly ends where ridges begin substantially rising out of the temperate climate zone into subalpine zone above .
Himal is a mountain region containing snow.
The Mountain Region or "Parbat" begins where high ridges (Nepali: लेक; lekh) begin substantially rising above into the subalpine and alpine zone which are mainly used for seasonal pasturage. By geographical view, it covers 15% of the total area of Nepal. A few tens kilometers further north the high Himalaya abruptly rise along the Main Central Thrust fault zone above the snow line at . Some 90 of Nepal's peaks exceed and eight exceed including Mount Everest at and Kanchenjunga at .
Unlike the Mahabharats, the Himalayas are not continuous across Nepal. Instead, there are some 20 subranges including the Kanchenjunga massif along the Sikkim border, Mahalangur Himal around Mt. Everest. Langtang north of Kathmandu, Annapurna and Manaslu north of Pokhara, then Dhaulagiri further west with Kanjiroba north of Jumla and finally Gurans Himal in the far west.
The main watershed between the Brahmaputra (called "Yarlung Tsangpo" in Tibet) and the Ganges system (including all of Nepal) actually lies north of the highest ranges. Alpine, often semi-arid valleys—including Humla, Jumla, Dolpo, Mustang, Manang and Khumbu—cut between Himalayan sub ranges or lie north of them.
Some of these valleys historically were more accessible from Tibet than Nepal and are populated by people with Tibetan affinities called "Bhotiya" or "Bhutia" including the famous Sherpas in Kumbu valley near Mount Everest. With Chinese cultural hegemony in Tibet itself, these valleys have become repositories of traditional ways. Valleys with better access from the hill regions to the south are culturally linked to Nepal as well as Tibet, notably the Kali Gandaki Gorge where Thakali culture shows influences in both directions.
Permanent villages in the mountain region stand as high as with summer encampments even higher. Bhotiyas graze yaks, grow cold-tolerant crops such as potatoes, barley, buckwheat and millet. They traditionally traded across the mountains, e.g., Tibetan salt for rice from lowlands in Nepal and India. Since trade was restricted in the 1950s they have found work as high altitude porters, guides, cooks and other accessories to tourism and alpinism.
Nepal's latitude is about the same as that of the United States state of Florida, however with elevations ranging from less than to over and precipitation from to over the country has eight climate zones from tropical to perpetual snow.
The tropical zone below experiences frost less than once per decade. It can be subdivided into lower tropical (below 300 meters or 1,000 ft.) with 18% of the nation's land area) and upper (18% of land area) tropical zones. The best mangoes and well as papaya and banana are largely confined to the lower zone. Other fruit such as litchee, jackfruit, citrus and mangoes of lower quality grow in the upper tropical zone as well. Winter crops include grains and vegetables typically grown in temperate climates. The Outer Terai is virtually all in the lower tropical zone. Inner Terai valleys span both tropical zones. The Sivalik Hills are mostly upper tropical. Tropical climate zones extend far up river valleys across the Middle Hills and even into the Mountain regions.
The subtropical climate zone from occupies 22% of Nepal's land area and is the most prevalent climate of the Middle Hills above river valleys. It experiences frost up to 53 days per year, however, this varies greatly with elevation, proximity to high mountains and terrain either draining or ponding cold air drainage. Crops include rice, maize, millet, wheat, potato, stone fruits and citrus.
The great majority of Nepal's population occupies the tropical and subtropical climate zones. In the Middle Hills, upper-caste Hindus are concentrated in tropical valleys which are well suited for rice cultivation while Janajati ethnic groups mostly live above in the subtropical zone and grow other grains more than rice.
The Temperate climate zone from occupies 12% of Nepal's land area and has up to 153 annual days of frost. It is encountered in higher parts of the Middle Hills and throughout much of the Mountain region. Crops include cold-tolerant rice, maize, wheat, barley, potato, apple, walnut, peach, various cole, amaranthus and buckwheat.
The Subalpine zone from occupies 9% of Nepal's land area, mainly in the Mountain and Himalayan regions. It has permanent settlements in the Himalaya, but further south it is only seasonally occupied as pasture for sheep, goats, yak and hybrids in warmer months. There are up to 229 annual days of frost here. Crops include barley, potato, cabbage, cauliflower, amaranthus, buckwheat and apple. Medicinal plants are also gathered.
The Alpine zone from occupies 8% of the country's land area. There are a few permanent settlements above 4,000 meters. There is virtually no plant cultivation although medicinal herbs are gathered. Sheep, goats, yaks and hybrids are pastured in warmer months.
Above 5,000 meters the climate becomes Nival and there is no human habitation or even seasonal use.
Arid and semi-arid land in the rainshadow of high ranges have a Transhimalayan climate. Population density is very low. Cultivation and husbandry conform to subalpine and alpine patterns but depend on snowmelt and streams for irrigation.
Precipitation generally decreases from east to west with increasing distance from the Bay of Bengal, source of the summer monsoon. Eastern Nepal gets about annually; the Kathmandu area about and western Nepal about . This pattern is modified by adiabatic effects as rising air masses cool and drop their moisture content on windward slopes, then warm up as they descend so relative humidity drops. Annual precipitation reaches on windward slopes in the Annapurna Himalaya beyond a relatively low stretch of the Mahabharat Range. In rainshadows beyond the high mountains, annual precipitation drops as low as .
The year is divided into a wet season from June to September—as summer warmth over Inner Asia creates a low pressure zone that draws in moist air from the Indian Ocean—and a dry season from October to June as cold temperatures in the vast interior create a high pressure zone causing dry air to flow outward. April and May are months of intense water stress when cumulative effects of the long dry season are exacerbated by temperatures rising over in the tropical climate belt. Seasonal drought further intensifies in the Siwaliks hills consisting of poorly consolidated, coarse, permeable sediments that do not retain water, so hillsides are often covered with drought-tolerant scrub forest. In fact much of Nepal's native vegetation adapted to withstand drought, but less so at higher elevations where cooler temperatures mean less water stress.
The summer monsoon may be preceded by a buildup of thunderstorm activity that provides water for rice seedbeds. Sustained rain on average arrives in mid-June as rising temperatures over Inner Asia creates a low pressure zone that draws in moist air from the Indian Ocean, but this can vary up to a month. Significant failure of monsoon rains historically meant drought and famine while above-normal rains still cause flooding and landslides with losses in human lives, farmland and buildings.
The monsoon also complicates transportation with roads and trails washing out while unpaved roads and airstrips may become unusable and cloud cover reduces safety margins for aviation. Rains diminish in September and generally end by mid-October, ushering in generally cool, clear, and dry weather, as well as the most relaxed and jovial period in Nepal. By this time, the harvest is completed and people are in a festive mood. The two largest and most important Hindu festivals—Dashain and Tihar (Dipawali)—arrive during this period, about one month apart. The post monsoon season lasts until about December.
After the post monsoon comes the winter monsoon, a strong northeasterly flow marked by occasional, short rainfalls in the lowlands and plains and snowfalls in the high-altitude areas. In this season the Himalayas function as a barrier to cold air masses from Inner Asia, so southern Nepal and northern India have warmer winters than would otherwise be the case. April and May are dry and hot, especially below where afternoon temperatures may exceed .
The dramatic changes in elevation along this transect result in a variety of biomes, from tropical savannas along the Indian border, to subtropical broadleaf and coniferous forests in the hills, to temperate broadleaf and coniferous forests on the slopes of the Himalaya, to montane grasslands and shrublands, and finally rock and ice at the highest elevations.
This corresponds to the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion.
Subtropical forests dominate the lower elevations of the Hill region. They form a mosaic running east–west across Nepal, with Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests between and Himalayan subtropical pine forests between . At higher elevations, to , are found temperate broadleaf forests: eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests to the east of the Gandaki River and western Himalayan broadleaf forests to the west.
The native forests of the Mountain region change from east to west as precipitation decreases. They can be broadly classified by their relation to the Gandaki River. From are the eastern and western Himalayan subalpine conifer forests. To are the eastern and western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.
Nepal has three categories of rivers. The largest systems -— from east to west the Koshi, Gandaki/Narayani, Karnali/Goghra and Mahakali—originate in multiple tributaries rising in or beyond the high Himalaya that maintain substantial flows from snowmelt through the hot, drought stricken spring before the summer monsoon. These tributaries cross the highest mountains in deep gorges, flow south through the Middle Hills, then join in candelabra-like configuration before crossing the Mahabharat Range and emerging onto the plains where they have deposited megafans exceeding in area.
The Koshi is also called "Sapta Koshi" for its seven Himalayan tributaries in eastern Nepal: Indrawati, Sun Koshi, Tama Koshi, Dudh Koshi, Liku, Arun, and Tamor. The Arun rises in Tibet some beyond Nepal's northern border. A tributary of the Sun Koshi, Bhote Koshi also rises in Tibet and is followed by the Arniko Highway connecting Kathmandu and Lhasa.
The "Gandaki/Narayani" has seven Himalayan tributaries in the center of the country: Daraudi, Seti Gandaki, Madi, Kali, Marsyandi, Budhi, and Trisuli also called "Sapta Gandaki". The "Kali Gandaki" rises on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and flows through the semi-independent Kingdom of Mustang, then between the 8,000 meter Dhaulagiri and Annapurna ranges in the world's deepest valley. The Trisuli rises north of the international border inside Tibet. After the seven upper tributaries join, the river becomes the "Narayani" inside Nepal and is joined by the East Rapti from Chitwan Valley. Crossing into India, its name changes to "Gandak".
The Karnali drains western Nepal, with the Bheri and Seti as major tributaries. The upper Bheri drains Dolpo, a remote valley beyond the Dhaulagiri Himalaya with traditional Tibetan cultural affinities. The upper Karnali rises inside Tibet near sacred Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash. The area around these features is the hydrographic nexus of South Asia since it holds the sources of the Indus and its major tributary the Sutlej, the Karnali—a Ganges tributary—and the Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra. It is the center of the universe according to traditional cosmography. The Mahakali or "Kali" along the Nepal-India border on the west joins the Karnali in India, where the river is known as "Goghra" or "Ghaghara".
Second category rivers rise in the Middle Hills and Mahabharat Range, from east to west the Mechi, Kankai and Kamala south of the Kosi; the Bagmati that drains Kathmandu Valley between the Kosi and Gandaki systems, then the West Rapti and the Babai between the Gandaki and Karnali systems. Without glacial sources, annual flow regimes in these rivers are more variable although limited flow persists through the dry season.
Third category rivers rise in the outermost Siwalik foothills and are mostly seasonal.
None of these river systems support significant commercial navigation. Instead, deep gorges create obstacles to establishing transport and communication networks and de-fragmenting the economy. Foot-trails are still primary transportation routes in many hill districts.
Rivers in all three categories are capable of causing serious floods. Koshi River in the first category caused a major flood in August 2008 in Bihar state, India after breaking through a poorly maintained embankment just inside Nepal. The West Rapti in the second category is called "Gorakhpur's Sorrow" for its history of urban flooding. Third category Terai rivers are associated with flash floods.
Since uplift and erosion are more or less in equilibrium in the Himalaya, at least where the climate is humid, rapid uplift must be balanced out by annual increments of millions tonnes of sediments washing down from the mountains; then on the plains settling out of suspension on vast alluvial fans over which rivers meander and change course at least every few decades, causing some experts to question whether manmade embankments can contain the problem of flooding. Traditional "Mithila" culture along the lower Koshi in Nepal and Bihar celebrated the river as the giver of life for its fertile alluvial soil, yet also the taker of life through its catastrophic floods.
Large reservoirs in the Middle Hills may be able to capture peak flows and mitigate downstream flooding, to store surplus monsoon flows for dry season irrigation and to generate electricity. Water for irrigation is especially compelling because the Indian Terai is suspected to have entered a food bubble where dry season crops are dependent on water from tube wells that in the aggregate are unsustainably "mining" groundwater.
Depletion of aquifers without building upstream dams as a sustainable alternative water source could precipitate a Malthusian catastrophe in India's food insecure states Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with over 300 million combined population. With India already experiencing a Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in Bihar, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, Nepalese reluctance to agree to water projects could even seem an existential threat to India.
As Nepal builds barrages to divert more water for irrigation during the dry season preceding the summer monsoon, there is less for downstream users in Bangladesh and India's Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states. The best solution could be building large upstream reservoirs, to capture and store surplus flows during summer monsoon as well as providing flood control benefits to Bangladesh and India. Then water sharing agreements could allocate a portion of the stored water to be left to flow into India during the following dry season.
Nevertheless, building dams in Nepal is controversial for several reasons. First, the region is seismically active. Dam failures caused by earthquakes could cause tremendous death and destruction downstream, particularly on the densely populated Gangetic Plain. Second, global warming has led to the formation of glacial lakes dammed by unstable moraines. Sudden failures of these moraines can cause floods with cascading failures of manmade structures downstream.
Third, sedimentation rates in the Himalaya are extremely high, leading to rapid loss of storage capacity as sediments accumulate behind dams. Fourth, there are complicated questions of cross-border equity in how India and Nepal would share costs and benefits that have proven difficult to resolve in the context of frequent acrimony between the two countries.
ICIMOD’s first and most complete national land cover database of Nepal prepared using public domain Landsat TM data of 2010 shows that show that forest is the dominant form of land cover in Nepal covering 57,538 km2 with a contribution of 39.09% to the total geographical area of the country. Most of this forest cover is broadleaved closed and open forest, which covers 21,200 km2 or 14.4% of the geographical area.
Needleleaved open forest is the least common of the forest areas covering 8267 km2 (5.62%). Agriculture area is significant extending over 43,910 km2 (29.83%). As would be expected, the high mountain area is largely covered by snow and glaciers and barren land.
The Hill region constitutes the largest portion of Nepal, covering 29.5% of the geographical area, and has a large area (19,783 km2) of cultivated or managed lands, natural and semi natural vegetation (22,621 km2) and artificial surfaces (200 km2). The Tarai region has more cultivated or managed land (14,104 km2) and comparatively less natural and semi natural vegetation (4280 km2). The Tarai has only 267 km2 of natural water bodies. The High mountain region has 12,062 km2 of natural water bodies, snow/glaciers and 13,105 km2 barren areas.
25.4% of Nepal's land area, or about is covered with forest according to FAO figures from 2005. FAO estimates that around 9.6% of Nepal's forest cover consists of "primary forest" which is relatively intact. About 12.1% Nepal's forest is classified as "protected" while about 21.4% is "conserved" according to FAO. About 5.1% Nepal's forests are classified as "production forest". Between 2000 and 2005, Nepal lost about of forest. Nepal's 2000–2005 total deforestation rate was about 1.4% per year meaning it lost an average of of forest annually. Nepal's total deforestation rate from 1990 to 2000 was or 2.1% per year. The 2000–2005 true deforestation rate in Nepal, defined as the loss of primary forest, is −0.4% or per year. Forest is not changing in the plan land of Nepal, forest fragmenting on the "Roof of the World".
According to ICIMOD figures from 2010, forest is the dominant form of land cover in Nepal covering 57,538 km2 with a contribution of 39.09% to the total geographical area of the country. Most of this forest cover is broadleaved closed and open forest, which covers 21,200 km2 or 14.4% of the geographical area. Needleleaved open forest is the least common of the forest areas covering 8,267 km2 (5.62%). At national level 64.8% area is covered by core forests of > 500 ha size and 23.8% forests belong to patch and edge category forests. The patch forest constituted 748 km2 at national level, out of which 494 km2 of patch forests are present in hill regions. Middle mountains, Siwaliks and Terai regions have more than 70% of the forest area under core forest category > 500 ha size. The edge forests constituted around 30% of forest area of High Mountain and Hill regions.
Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) which was conducted between 2010 and 2014 by the Ministry of Forest and Soil conservation with the financial and technical help of Government of Finland shows that 40.36% land of Nepal is forested. 4.40% of the land has shrubs and bushes.
Deforestation is driven by multiple processes.
Virtually throughout the nation, over-harvest of firewood remains problematic. Despite the availability of liquefied petroleum gas in towns and cities, firewood is sold more at energy-competitive prices because cutting and selling it is a fallback when better employment opportunities aren't forthcoming. Firewood still supplies 80% of Nepal's energy for heating and cooking. Harvesting construction timber and lopping branches for fodder for cattle and other farm animals are also deforestation/degradation drivers in all geographic zones.
Illegal logging is a problem in the Siwaliks, with sawlogs smuggled into India. Clearing for resettlement and agriculture expansion also causes deforestation as does urban expansion, building infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, electric transmission lines, water tanks, police and army barracks, temples and picnic areas.
In the Middle Hills road construction, reservoirs, transmission lines and extractive manufacturing such as cement factories cause deforestation. In the mountains building hotels, monasteries and trekking trails cause deforestation while timber-smuggling into the Tibet Autonomous Region and over-grazing cause degradation.
While India and Nepal have an open border with no restrictions on movement of their citizens on either side, there are 23 checkpoints for trade purposes. These are listed in clockwise order, east to west. The six in italics are also used for entry/exit by third country nationals. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21324 |
Demographics of Nepal
In the 2011 census, Nepal's population was approximately 26 million people with a population growth rate of 1.35% and a median age of 21.6 years. In 2016, the female median age was approximately 25 years old and the male median age was approximately 22 years old. Only 4.4% of the population is estimated to be more than 65 years old, comprising 681,252 females and 597,628 males. 61% of the population is between 15 and 64 years old, and 34.6% is younger than 14 years. In 2011, the Birth rate is estimated to be 22.17 births per 1,000 people with an infant mortality rate of 46 deaths per 1,000 live births. Compared to the infant mortality rate in 2006 of 48 deaths per 1000 live births, the 2011 IMR is a slight decrease within that 5-year period. Infant mortality rate in Nepal is higher in rural regions at 44 deaths per 1000 live births, whereas in urban regions the IMR is lower at 40 deaths per 1000 live births. This difference is due to a lack of delivery assistance services in rural communities compared to their urban counterparts who have better access to hospitals and neonatal clinics. Life expectancy at birth is estimated to be 67.44 years for females and 64.94 years for males. The mortality rate is estimated to be 681 deaths per 100,000 people. Net migration rate is estimated to be 61 migrants per 100,000 people. According to the 2011 census, 65.9% of the total population is literate.
The population of Nepal has been steadily rising in recent decades. In the June 2001 census, there was a population of about 23 million in Nepal. The population increased by 5 million from the preceding 1991 census; the growth rate is 2.3%. The current population is roughly 30 million which contributes to an increase of about 3 million people every 5 years.
Sixty caste and linguistic subgroups have formed throughout time with the waves of migration from Tibet and India. There was a moderate amount of immigration early in Nepal's history, then the population essentially remained the same without any significant fluctuations for over one hundred years. Natural disasters and the following government resettlement programs in the 1950s led to a spike in internal migration from the hills to the Terai region. In the 1980s the Western Chitwan Valley became a major transportation hub for all of Nepal. Along with this major change came a dramatic increase in government services, business expansion, and growing employment, especially in the agricultural industry. The valley's population grew rapidly through both in-migration and natural increase.
Source:
Births and deaths
Structure of the population (22.06.2011) (Census) :
Source: "UN World Population Prospects"
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
The following demographic statistics are from the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS).
Median birth intervals (Median number of months since preceding birth)
Median age at first birth
Fertility rate - past trend and present
Ideal family size - Mean ideal number of children
Ideal family size by gender and age group
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Nationality
Religions
Literacy
Population
Age structure
Median age
Population growth rate
Birth rate
Death rate
Net migration rate
Total fertility rate
Urbanization
Sex ratio
Nepal's diverse linguistic heritage evolved from three major language groups: Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman languages, and various indigenous language isolates. According to the 2001 national census, 92 different living languages are spoken in Nepal (a 93rd category was "unspecified"). Based upon the 2011 census, the major languages spoken in Nepal (percentage spoken out of the mother tongue language) includes
Nepali (derived from Khas bhasa) is considered to be a member of Indo-European language and is written in Devanagari script. Nepali was the language of the house of Gorkhas in the late 18th century and became the official, national language that serves as the "lingua franca" among Nepalese of different ethnolinguistic groups. Maithili language—along with regional dialects Awadhi and Bhojpuri—are mother tongue Nepalese languages and spoken in the southern Terai Region. There has been a surge in the number and percentage of people who understand English. Majority of the urban and a significant number of the rural schools are English-medium schools. Higher education in technical, medical, scientific and engineering fields are entirely in English. Nepal Bhasa, the mother-tongue of the Newars, is widely used and spoken in and around Kathmandu Valley and in major Newar trade towns across Nepal.
Other languages, particularly in the Inner Terai hill and mountain regions, are remnants of the country's pre-unification history of dozens of political entities isolated by mountains and gorges. These languages typically are limited to an area spanning about one day's walk. Beyond that distance, dialects and languages lose mutual intelligibility. Since Nepal's unification, various indigenous languages have come under threat of extinction as the government of Nepal has marginalized their use through strict policies designed to promote Nepali as the official language. Indigenous languages which have gone extinct or are critically threatened include Byangsi, Chonkha, and Longaba. Since democracy was restored in 1990, however, the government has worked to improve the marginalization of these languages. Tribhuvan University began surveying and recording threatened languages in 2010 and the government intends to use this information to include more languages on the next Nepalese census.
As of the 2011 census, 81.3% of the Nepalese population was Hindu, 9.0% Buddhist, 4.4% Muslim, 3.0% Kirant/Yumaist, 1.42% Christian, and 0.9% followed other or no religion.
Nepal defines itself as a Secular nation according to Constitution of Nepal It is common for many Hindus in the country to also worship Buddhist deities simultaneously with Hindu traditions. The notion of religion in Nepal is more fluid than other countries, particularly Western countries. The Nepali people build their social networks through their religious celebrations, which are a central part to the whole of communities within the country.
There is a general ideal held by the Nepalese people that there is an omnipotent, transcendental "moral order" that is sacred to Hinduism. This ideal exists along with the constant presence of chaos and disorder in the material world. In the Northwestern region of the country, this all-encompassing state of disorder in the world is synonymous with human affliction, for which the religious Shamans can alleviate. Shamans create a world of mythic time and space to restore order and balance to the world to cure the suffers.
Kathmandu Valley is home to the Newars, a major ethnic group in Nepal. The city Bhaktapur is located inside of Kathmandu Valley. Bhaktapur was once an independent Hindu Kingdom. Individual homes typically have at least one shrine devoted to personal deities, with an altar displaying flowers, fruit, and oil among other offerings to the Gods. The perimeter of Kathmandu Valley is lined with shrines devoted to Hindu goddesses, whose purpose is to protect the city from chaotic events.In fact, at least one shrine can be found on the vast majority of streets in Kathmandu. The people of Nepal do not feel the need to segregate or compete based upon religion, so Hindu and Buddhist shrines are often coexisting in the same areas. The areas outside of the city are perceived to always possess some form of wild or disordered nature, so the Nepalese people inside of the city lines regularly worship the Hindu gods through public ceremonies.
The Hindu god Vishnu symbolizes moral order in the Newar society. The natural human shortcomings in maintaining the godly moral order is represented by the Hindu god Shiva. Shiva is destructive and acts in greed, and he threatens the moral order. In ancient myths, Vishnu must step in to contain Shiva and restore the order. In recent times, there has been a rise in political violence, specifically Maoist violence. This increased violence, along with the widespread poverty creates times of hardship for the people of Nepal. During their struggles they find stability and peace in religion.
Nepal's constitution continues long-standing legal provisions prohibiting discrimination against other religions (but also proselytization). The king was defied as the earthly manifestation of the Hindu god Vishnu. On May 19, 2006, the government faced a constitutional crisis, the House of Representatives which had been just reformed, having been previously dissolved, declared Nepal a "secular state".
However, the 2001 census identified 80.6% of the population as Hindu and 10.7% as Buddhist (although many people labeled Hindu or Buddhist often practice a syncretic blend of Hinduism, Buddhism, or animist traditions), 4.2% of the population was Muslim, 3.6% of the population followed the indigenous Kirat Mundhum religion and Christianity was practiced by 0.45% of the population.
Buddhist and Hindu shrines and festivals are respected and celebrated by most Nepalese. Certain animist practices of old indigenous religions survive.
Nepali was the national language and Sanskrit became a required school subject. Children who spoke Nepali natively and who were exposed to Sanskrit had much better chances of passing the national examinations at the end of high school, which meant they had better employment prospects and could continue into higher education. Children who natively spoke local languages of the Madhesh and Hills, or Tibetan dialects prevailing in the high mountains were at a considerable disadvantage. This history of exclusion coupled with poor prospects for improvement created grievances that encouraged many in ethnic communities such as Madhesi and Tharu in the Tharuhat and Madhesh and Kham Magar in the mid-western hills to support the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and various other armed Maoist opposition groups such as the JTMM during and after the Nepalese Civil War. The negotiated end to this war forced King Gyanendra to abdicate in 2008. Issues of ethnic and regional equity have tended to dominate the agenda of the new republican government and continue to be divisive. Today, even after the end of a 10-year-old Maoist conflict, the upper caste dominates every field in Nepal. Although Newars are low in numbers, their urban living habitat gives them a competitive advantage. Thus, Newars are the toppers in Human Development Index. From a gender perspective, Newari women are the most literate and lead in every sector. Brahmins and Chhetris' women have experienced less social and economic mobility compared to Newari women. Specifically, Brahmin women experience less equality due to their predominately rural living conditions which deprives them of access to certain educational and healthcare advantages.
In the 2001 census, approximately 6,000 Nepalese were living in the UK. According to latest figure from Office for National Statistics estimates that 51,000 Nepal-born people are currently resident in the UK. There has been increasing interest in the opportunities offered in the UK by the Nepalese, especially education. Between the years of 2001 to 2006, there were 7,500 applications for student visas.
The Nepali people residing in Hong Kong are primarily made up of children of ex-Gurkhas; born in Hong Kong during their parents' service with the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas, which was based in Hong Kong from the 1970s until the handover. Large groups of Nepali people can be found in Shek Kong and Yuen Long District off of the main bases of the British army. Many ex-Gurkhas remained in Hong Kong after the end of their service under the sponsorship of their Hong Kong-born children, who held right of abode.
Nepalese of middle age or older generations in Hong Kong are predominantly found in security, while those of younger generations are predominantly found in the business industry.
Mostly the people from Kirati ethnic groups such as Rai and Limbu are the ones residing in Hong Kong and other neighbouring nations such as Singapore and Japan
Nepali migrants abroad have suffered tremendous hardships, including some 7,500 deaths in the Middle East and Malaysia alone since the year 2000, some 3,500 in Saudi Arabia.
According to the 2001 census, there were 116,571 foreign born citizens in Nepal; 90% of them were of Indian origin followed by Bhutan, Pakistan and China. This number does not include the refugees from Bhutan and Tibet. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21325 |
Politics of Nepal
The politics of Nepal functions within the framework of a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and his/her cabinet, while legislative power is vested in the Parliament.
It has four political parties recognised in the federal parliament: Nepal Communist Party (NCP), Nepali Congress (NC), Samajbadi Party Nepal (SPN) and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN). While all major parties officially espouse democratic socialism, NCP is considered leftist while Nepali Congress is considered centrist, with most considering it center-left and some center-right. The minor party SPN is leftist and RJPN is center-right to right-wing. During most of the brief periods of democratic exercise in the 1950s as well as the 1990s, Nepali Congress held a majority in parliament. Following the entry of the Maoists into the political process, they were the largest party in the first constituent assembly and Nepali Congress was the largest in the second, with no party winning a majority. In the aftermath of the 2017 elections, the first one according to the new constitution, NCP has become the ruling party at the federal level as well as six out of seven provinces. While Nepali Congress has a significantly reduced representation, it is the only major opposition to the ruling communist party in all levels of government.
while the polity data series considers it to be a democracy.
Early politics in the Kingdom of Nepal was characterised by factionalism, conspiracies and murders, including two major massacres. After almost a century of power-wrangling among the prominent Basnyat, Pande and Thapa families, a fast-rising military leader Bir Narsingh Kunwar emerged on top in the aftermath of the Kot massacre, and established the Rana autocratic regime which consolidated powers of the King as well as prime minister and reigned for another century, with a policy of oppression and isolationism. By the 1930s, Nepali expatriates in India had started smuggling in writings on political philosophies, which gave birth to a vibrant underground political movement in the capital, birthing Nepal Praja Parishad in 1939, which was dissolved only two years later, following the execution of the four great martyrs. Around the same time, Nepalis involved in the Indian Independence Movement started organising into political parties, leading to the birth of Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal. Following Indian Independence, Nepali Congress was successful in overthrowing the Rana regime with support from the Indian government and cooperation from the king. While communism was still trying to find its footing, Nepali Congress enjoyed overwhelming support of the electorate. Following a brief ten-year exercise in democracy, another partyless autocracy was initiated, this time by the King, who deposed the democratically elected government of Nepali Congress, imposed or exiled prominent leaders and issued a ban on party politics.
Many political parties and their leaders remained underground or in exile for the next 30 years of partyless politics in Nepal. BP Koirala was released from prison in 1968 and went into exile in Benaras, returning in 1976 only to immediately be put in house arrest. Although an armed insurgency launched by the major communist faction called the Jhapa movement had failed comprehensively by 1971, it formed the foundation for the dominant communist power, CPN ML, that was officially launched in 1978. A general referendum was held in 1980, which saw the CPN ML campaign for the option of multi-party democracy, along with Nepali Congress, but the Panchayat System was declared the winner to significant controversy. The Panchayat rule saw governments led by a group of monarchy loyalists taking turns, with Surya Bahadur Thapa, Tulsi Giri and Kirti Nidhi Bista becoming prime minister three times each, among others. It introduced a number of reforms, built infrastructures and modernised the country, while significantly curtailing political freedom, imposing the Nepali language and khas culture to the oppression of all others, and spreading Indophobic propaganda the effects of which are experienced to the present day.
In 1990, the joint civil resistance launched by the United left front and Nepali Congress was successful in overthrowing the Panchayat, and the country became a constitutional monarchy. The United Left Front became CPN UML. The Panchayat loyalists formed National Democratic Party which emerged as the third major party. While Nepali Congress ran the government for most of the next ten years of democracy that followed, democracy was mostly a disappointment owing to the immature democratic culture and political infighting in the capital, as well as the civil war that followed the guerrilla insurgency launched by the Maoist Party. Following a four-year autocratic rule by King Gyanendra that failed to defeat the Maoists, a mass civil protest was launched by a coalition of the maoists and the political parties in 2006, which forced the king to stepped down, brought the maoists to the peace process, and established a democratic republic by 2008.
Following the political consensus to draft the new constitution of the Republic via a constituent assembly, Nepali politics saw a rise of nationalist groups and ideologies. While the political power-wrangling caused continuous instability, maintaining the established average of nine months per government, this period saw two constituent assembly elections and the rise of Madhesi nationalist parties, especially in the Eastern Terai region. By 2015, the new constitution had been promulgated and Nepal became "a federal democratic republic striving towards democratic socialism". In 2017, a series of elections were held according to the new constitution, which established Nepal Communist Party (NCP) (formally united after the election) as the ruling party at the federal level as well as six of the seven provinces, Nepali Congress as the only significant opposition in federal and provincial levels, while the Madhesi coalition formed the provincial government in Province No. 2, but boasts negligible presence in the rest of the country.
The Royal Massacre (राजदरबार हत्याकाण्ड) happened
on 1 June 2001, in which members of the royal family, King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, Crown Prince Dipendra, Prince Nirajan, as well as many others, were killed in the massacre. However, after the massacre, the Crown Prince survived for a short while in a coma.
Although the prince never regained consciousness before dying, Crown Prince Dipendra was the monarch under the law of Nepali royal succession. Two days later after his death, the late King's surviving brother Gyanendra was proclaimed as a king.
On 1 February 2002 King Gyanendra suspended the Parliament, appointed a government led by himself, and enforced martial law. The King argued that civil politicians were unfit to handle the Maoist insurgency. Telephone lines were cut and several high-profile political leaders were detained. Other opposition leaders fled to India and regrouped there. A broad coalition called the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) was formed in opposition to the royal takeover, encompassing the seven parliamentary parties who held about 90% of the seats in the old, dissolved parliament.
The UN-OHCHR, in response to events in Nepal, set up a monitoring program in 2005 to assess and observe the human rights situation there
On 22 November 2005, the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) of parliamentary parties and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) agreed on a historic and unprecedented 12-point memorandum of understanding (MOU) for peace and democracy. Nepali people from various walks of life and the international community regarded the MOU as an appropriate political response to the crisis that was developing in Nepal. Against the backdrop of the historical sufferings of the Nepali people and the enormous human cost of the last ten years of violent conflict, the MOU, which proposes a peaceful transition through an elected constituent assembly, created an acceptable formula for a united movement for democracy. As per the 12-point MOU, the SPA called for a protest movement, and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) supported it. This led to a countrywide uprising called the Loktantra Andolan that started in April 2006. All political forces including civil society and professional organisations actively galvanised the people. This resulted in massive and spontaneous demonstrations and rallies held across Nepal against King Gyanendra's autocratic rule.
On 21 April 2006, King Gyanendra declared that "power would be returned to the people". This had little effect on the people, who continued to occupy the streets of Kathmandu and other towns, openly defying the daytime curfew. Finally, King Gyanendra announced the reinstatement of the House of Representatives, thereby conceding one of the major demands of the SPA, at midnight on 24 April 2006. Following this action, the coalition of political forces decided to call off the protests.
At least 14 died during the 19 days of protests.
On 19 May 2006, the parliament assumed total legislative power and gave executive power to the Government of Nepal (previously known as His Majesty's Government). Names of many institutions (including the army) were stripped of the "royal" adjective and the Raj Parishad (a council of the King's advisers) was abolished, with his duties assigned to the Parliament itself. The activities of the King became subject to parliamentary scrutiny and the King's properties were subjected to taxation. Moreover, Nepal was declared a secular state abrogating the previous status of a Hindu Kingdom. However, most of the changes have, as yet, not been implemented. On 19 July 2006, the prime minister, G. P. Koirala, sent a letter to the United Nations announcing the intention of the Nepali government to hold elections to a constituent assembly by April 2007.
On 23 December 2007, an agreement was made for the monarchy to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of state. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party amidst a general atmosphere of fear and intimidation from all sides. A federal republic was established in May 2008, with only four members of the 601-seat Constituent Assembly voting against the change, which ended 240 years of royal rule in Nepal. The government announced a public holiday for three days, (28 – 30 May), to celebrate the country becoming a federal republic.
Major parties such as the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN UML) and the Nepali Congress agreed to write a constitution to replace the interim constitution within 2 years.
The Maoists, as the largest party of the country, took power right after the elections and named Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) as the Prime Minister of Nepal. CPN UML also joined this government, but the Nepali Congress took the part of the main opposition party. Prachanda soon fell into a dispute with the then army chief Rookmanda Katwal and decided to sack him. But the President Ram Baran Yadav, as the supreme head of
military power in the country, revoked this decision and gave the army chief additional time in office. An angry Prachanda and his party quit the government, majorly citing this reason and decided to operate as the main opposition to the government headed by CPN UML and its co-partner Nepali Congress afterward. Madhav Kumar Nepal was named the Prime Minister.
The Maoists demanded civilian supremacy over the army.
The Maoists forced closures – commonly known as "bandhs" – in the country, and also declared autonomous states for almost all the ethnic groups in Nepal.
On May 2012 the constitutional assembly was dissolved and another election to select the new constitutional assembly members were declared by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai.
The Madhes Movement (Nepali: मधेस अान्दोलन) is a political movement launched by various political parties, especially those based in Madhes, for equal rights, dignity and identity of Madhesis and Tharus, Muslims and Janjati groups in Nepal. In nearly a decade, Nepal witnessed three Madhes Movements - the first Madhes Movement erupted in 2007, the second Madhes Movement in 2008 and the third Madhes Movement in 2015. About the origin of the first Madhes Movement, Journalist Amarendra Yadav writes in The Rising Nepal"When the then seven-party alliance of the mainstream political parties and the CPN-Maoist jointly announced the Interim Constitution in 2007, it totally ignored the concept of federalism, the most desired political agenda of Madhesis and other marginalised communities. A day after the promulgation of the interim statute, a group of Madhesi activists under the Upendra Yadav-led Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Nepal (then a socio-intellectual NGO) burnt copies of the interim constitution at Maitighar Mandala, Kathmandu." This triggered the Madhes movement I.
The second Madhes Movement took place in 2008, jointly launched by Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Nepal, Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party and Sadbhawana Party led by Rajendra Mahato with three key agenda: federalism, proportional representation and population-based election constituency, which were later ensured in the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2008.
However, The Constitution of Nepal 2015 backtracked from those issues, that were already ensured by the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2008. Supreme Court of Nepal Advocate Dipendra Jha writes in The Kathmandu Post: "many other aspects of the new constitution are more regressive than the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007. Out of all its deficiencies, the most notable one concerns the issue proportional representation or inclusion in all organs of the state." This triggered the third Madhes Movement by Madhesis in Nepal. Although the first amendment to the constitution was done, the resistance over the document by Madhesi and Tharus in Nepal still continues.
From 1991 to 2002 the Parliament ("Sansad") had two chambers. The House of Representatives ("Pratinidhi Sabha") had 205 members elected for five-year term in single-seat constituencies. The National Council ("Rashtriya Sabha") had 60 members, 35 members elected by the Pratinidhi Sabha, 15 representatives of Regional Development Areas and 10 members appointed by the king.
Parliament was subsequently dissolved by the king in 2002 on the pretext that it was incapable of handling the Maoist rebels.
After the victory of Loktantra Andolan in the spring of 2006, a unicameral interim legislature replaced the previous parliament. The new body consists both of members of the old parliament as well as nominated members. As of December 2007, the legislature had the following composition.
In May 2008 the elections for the Constituent Assembly saw the Communist Party of Nepal as the largest party in the Constituent Assembly, which will have a term of two years.
The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court (सर्बोच्च अदालत), Appellate courts, and various District courts. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council; the other judges were appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the Judicial Council.
Nepal's judiciary is legally separate from the executive and legislative and has increasingly shown the will to be independent of political influence. The judiciary has the right of judicial review under the constitution.
AsDB, MINA, CCC, Colombo Plan, ESCAP, FAO, Group of 77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, International Development Association, IFAD, International Finance Corporation, IFRCS, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, International Maritime Organization, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, International Organization for Standardization (correspondent), ITU, MONUC, Non-Aligned Movement, OPCW, SAARC, United Nations, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOP, UNMOT, UNTAET, UPU, World Federation of Trade Unions, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO CPC Nepal (applicant)
Jonathan Devendra. 2013. "Massacre at the Palace: The Doomed Royal Dynasty of Nepal". New York: Hyperion. . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21326 |
Economy of Nepal
Economic development in Nepal has been complicated and affected by the constant change in political scenarios which has ranged from monarchy to being ruled by the Communist party in 2019. An isolated, agrarian society until the mid-20th century, Nepal entered the modern era in 1951 without schools, hospitals, roads, telecommunications, electric power, industry, or civil service. The country has, however, made progress toward sustainable economic growth since the 1950s and opened the country to economic liberalization leading to economic growth and improvement in living standards than compared to the past. The biggest challenges faced by the country in achieving higher economic development are the frequent changes in political leadership as well as corruption.
Nepal has used a series of five-year plans in an attempt to make progress in economic development. It completed its ninth economic development plan in 2002; its currency has been made convertible, and 17 state enterprises have been privatised. Foreign aid to Nepal accounts for more than half of the development budget. Government priorities over the years have been the development of transportation and communication facilities, agriculture, and industry. Since 1975, improved government administration and rural development efforts have been emphasised.
Agriculture remains Nepal's principal economic activity, employing about 65% of the population and providing 31.7% of GDP. Only about 20% of the total area is cultivable; another 40.7% is forested (i.e., covered by shrubs, pastureland and forest); most of the rest is mountainous. Fruits and vegetables (apples, pears, tomatoes, various salads, peach, nectarine, potatoes), as well as rice and wheat are the main food crops. The lowland Terai region produces an agricultural surplus, part of which supplies the food-deficient hill areas.
GDP is heavily dependent on remittances (9.1%) of foreign workers. Subsequently, economic development in social services and infrastructure in Nepal has not made dramatic progress. A countrywide primary education system is under development, and Tribhuvan University has several campuses. Although eradication efforts continue, malaria had been controlled in the fertile but previously uninhabitable Terai region in the south. Kathmandu is linked to India and nearby hill regions by road and an expanding highway network. The capital was almost out of fuel and transport of supplies caused by a crippling general strike in southern Nepal on 17 February 2008.
Major towns are connected to the capital by telephone and domestic air services. The export-oriented carpet and garment industries have grown rapidly in recent years and together now account for approximately 70% of merchandise exports.
The Cost of Living Index in Nepal is comparatively lower than many countries but not the least. The quality of life has declined to much less desirous value in recent years. Nepal was ranked 54th worst of 81 ranked countries (those with GHI > 5.0) on the Global Hunger Index in 2011, between Cambodia and Togo. Nepal's current score of 19.5 is better than in 2010 (20.0) and much improved than its score of 27.5 in 1990.
Huge numbers of Small Foreign Investments come to Nepal via the Non Resident Nepali, who are investing in shopping malls, plazas, real estate, tourism, etc. Nepal has a huge capacity for hydroelectricity. Accordingly, a large number of foreign companies are in line, but political instability has stopped the process at the same time as it is growing on its own.
Nepal has entered into agreements for avoidance of double taxation (all in credit method) with 10 countries (PSRD) since 2000. Similarly, it has Investment protection agreements with 5 countries (PSRD) since 1983. In 2014, Nepal restricted the Foreign aid by setting a minimum limit for foreign grants, soft and commercial loans from its development partners.
Nepal's merchandise trade balance has improved somewhat since 2000 with the growth of the carpet and garment industries. In the fiscal year 2000–2001, exports posted a greater increase (14%) than imports (4.5%), helping bring the trade deficit down by 4% from the previous year to $749 million. Recently, the European Union has become the largest buyer of ready-made garments; fruits and vegetables (mostly apples, pears, tomatoes, various salads, peach, nectarine, potatoes, rice) from Nepal. Exports to the EU accounted for 46.13 percent of the country's garment exports.
The annual monsoon rain, or lack of it, strongly influences economic growth. From 1996 to 1999, real GDP growth averaged less than 4%. The growth rate recovered in 1999, rising to 6% before slipping slightly in 2001 to 5.5%.
Strong export performance, including earnings from tourism, and external aid have helped improve the overall balance of payments and increase international reserves. Nepal receives substantial amounts of external assistance from the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries.
Several multilateral organisations such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the UN Development Programme also provide assistance. In June 1998, Nepal submitted its memorandum on a foreign trade regime to the World Trade Organization and in May 2000 began direct negotiations on its accession.
Progress has been made in exploiting Nepal's natural resources, tourism and hydroelectricity. With eight of the world's 10 highest mountain peaks, including Mount Everest at 8,848 m. In the early 1990s, one large public sector project and a number of private projects were planned; some have been completed. The most significant private sector financed hydroelectric projects currently in operation are the Khimti Khola (60 MW) and the Bhote Koshi Project (36 MW). The project is still undergoing and has dependency on China, India and Japan to take the further steps.
Nepal has 83,000 MW of theoretical and 42,133 MW of technically/financially viable hydroelectric potential, however the total installed capacity, at present, is mere 730.47 MW.
The environmental impact of Nepal's hydroelectric Own calendar (Bikram Sambat) New year in mid- April projects has been limited by the fact that most are "run-of-the-river" with only one storage project undertaken to date. The largest hydroelectric plant under consideration is the West Seti Dam (750 MW) storage project dedicated to exports to be built by the private sector. Negotiations with India for a power purchase agreement have been underway for several years, but agreement on pricing and financing remains a problem. Currently demand for electricity is increasing at 8-10% a year whereas Nepal's option to have agreement with India will make this fulfilment against demand.
Population pressure on natural resources is increasing. Over-population is already straining the "carrying capacity" of the middle hill areas, particularly the Kathmandu Valley, resulting in the depletion of forest cover for crops, fuel, and fodder and contributing to erosion and flooding. Although steep mountain terrain makes exploitation difficult, mineral surveys have found small deposits of limestone, magnesite, zinc, copper, iron, mica, lead, and cobalt.
The development of hydroelectric power projects also cause some tension with local indigenous groups, recently empowered by Nepal's ratification of ILO Convention 169.
This is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Nepal at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund and EconStats with figures in millions of Nepali Rupees.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2018.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $84.37 Billion (2018 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 21.77% (2017)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity (current international $) - $2700 (2017 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
"agriculture:" 17%
"industry:" 13.5%
"services:" 60.5% (2017 est.)
"tourism:" 9%
Population below poverty line: 21.6% (2017/2018)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
"lowest 10%:" 3.2%
"highest 10%:" 29.8% (1995–96)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4.5% (2017)
Labour force: 4 million (2016 est.) [Citation needed.]
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 19%, services 69%, industry 12% (2014 est.)
Unemployment rate: 3.2% (2017 est.)
Budget:
"revenues:" $5.954 billion
"expenditures:" $5.974 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2017 est.)
Industries:
tourism, carpet, textile; small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed mills; cigarette; cement and brick production
Industrial production growth rate: 10.9% (2017 est.):
Electricity - production: 41,083 GWh (2017)
Electricity - production by source:
"fossil fuel:" 7.5%
"hydro:" 91.5%
"nuclear:" 0.3%
"other:" 0.7% (2001)
Available energy:6257.73 GWh (2017)
NEA Hydro:2290.78 GWh (2014)
NEA Thermal:9.56 GWh (2014)
purchase (total):2331.17 GWh (2014)
India (purchase):2175.04 GWh (2017)
Nepal (IPP):1258.94 GWh (2014)
Electricity - consumption: 4,776.53 GWh (2017)
Electricity - exports: 856 GWh (2001)
Electricity - imports: 12 GWh (2001)
Oil - production: (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption: 2001
Agriculture - products:
Fruits and vegetables, mostly: apples, pears, tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, potatoes, rice, maize, wheat, sugarcane, root crops, milk, and buffalo meat.
Exports: $1.34 billion f.o.b., but does not include unrecorded border trade with India (2017 est.)
Exports - commodities: carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods, grain
Exports - partners: India 56.6%, US 11.5%, Turkey 4% (2016 est.)
Imports: $1.03 billion f.o.b. (2017 est.)
Imports - commodities: gold, machinery and equipment, petroleum products, electrical goods, medicine
Imports - partners: India 70.1%, China 10.3%, UAE 2.6%, Singapore 2.1%, Saudi Arabia 1.2%. (2016 est.)
Debt - external: $5.948 billion (2017 est.)
Economic aid - recipient: $424 million (FY 00/01)
Currency: 1 Nepali rupee (NPR) = 100 paisa
Fiscal year: 16 July - 15 July | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21327 |
Telecommunications in Nepal
Nepal's telecommunication network has increased over the years significantly, with the number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone) reaching 40,789,198 subscribers as on 14 May 2019.
Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) is the regulatory body of telecommunications in the country. According to the latest figures, 8 companies have been licensed to operate voice-based telephony services out of which 5 are heavily invested by foreign companies. The investment market of telecom is a subject of interest for many foreign companies and NTA itself as it has to prepare the regulations on hand.
According to the latest Management Information system (MIS) report of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), 97.65 percent of 26.49 million people in the country have access to telephone service. The report includes data of up to mid-December, 2014. Telephone penetration increased by 12.88 percentage points in the one-year period. It stood at 84.77 percent in mid-December, 2013.
In Nepal, operating any form of telecommunication service dates back to 1970. However, telecom service was formally provided mainly after the establishment of MOHAN AKASHWANI in B.S. 2005. Later as per the plan formulated in the First National Five year plan (2012-2017 BS); Telecommunication Department was established in B.S. 2016. To modernize the telecommunications services and to expand the services, during the third five-year plan (2023-2028), Telecommunication Department was converted into Telecommunications Development Board in B.S. 2026.
After the enactment of Communications Corporation Act 2028, it was formally established as a fully owned Government Corporation called Nepal Telecommunications Corporation in B.S. 2032 for the purpose of providing telecommunications services to Nepalese People. After serving the nation for 29 years with great pride and a sense of accomplishment, Nepal Telecommunication Corporation was transformed into Nepal Doorsanchar Company Limited (NDCL) from Baisakh 1, 2061. NDCL is a company registered under the Companies Act 2053 with 85% government share. However, the company is known to the general public by the brand name Nepal Telecom (NT) as a registered trademark.
Some milestones:
The first telephone exchange was established in Kathmandu in 1960. Since 1960 to 2004, the state-owned Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), also now known as Nepal Telecom, or Nepal Doorsanchar Company Limited (NDCL) had been the monopoly telecom carrier. Now, other competing telecom service providers are United Telecom (UTL), and Ncell.
Telephones - PSTN: 644,347 (May 2013), CDMA
Telephones -
Telephone system:
Nepal currently has three major telecom operators: Nepal Telecom, Ncell, and SmartCell. The fourth one, CG Telecom, is set to launch its services this year.
Development of Broadcasting:
Mobile Subscribers: 18,137,771 (May 2013)
"Radio broadcast stations:"' AM 6, FM 20, shortwave 1 (January 2000)
Radios: 20,00,000 (2006)
Television broadcast stations: 19 (37 registered) (2012)
Televisions: 130,000 (1997)
Registered Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 122 (Jan 2020)
Internet users: 6,685,427 (May 2013)
Country code : 00977
Internet sites:
Some Top ISP in Nepal
List of internet service providers in Nepal
Nepal Telecom has recently announced to launch 5G in the next few years after the deployment of 4G nationwide | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21328 |
Transport in Nepal
Nepal is a landlocked mountainous country where transportation is difficult due to the terrain.
Road is the country's primary transport mode.
The Economic Survey 2014-15 released by the Ministry of Finance (Nepal), shows that the country has a total road network of , which includes of roads constructed and being maintained by the Department of Roads(DoR) and of roads constructed by local government bodies.
There are two railway lines in the country: the Raxaul–Sirsiya and the Jainagar–Janakpur. The former is a line from Raxaul, India to Sirsiya Inland Container Depot (or dry port) near Birganj, Nepal, and is primarily used for freight transport. It allows container traffic to be imported to Nepal through the Sirsiya dry port container depot. The latter is a line from Jaynagar, India to Janakpur, Nepal, and is used primarily for passenger transport.
Nepal and India had agreed to construct railway line linking Raxaul with Kathmandu during Prime Minister KP Oli's visit to India. A team of technical officers visited Kathmandu to study the proposed railway from Raxaul to Kathmandu and they have stated that a feasibility study of the project would begin. They have already identified Chobhar as the terminus of the 113 km-long line.
A line through Kathmandu, linking India with Lhasa in Tibet, has been proposed by the K.P. Oli government. In November 2017, Chinese media reported the arrival of a delegation of Chinese railway experts in Nepal. They discussed the possibility of a rail connection between China and Nepal. In August 2018, the two sides reached an agreement on construction details of the railway.
45 airports operated in Nepal as of 2002. Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu is the only international airport and serves as the main aviation hub.
Nepal is a landlocked country with no ocean borders.
Nepal's three dry "ports" are Birgunj, Biratnagar and Bhairahawa. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21329 |
Nepalese Armed Forces
The Nepalese Armed Forces are the military forces of Nepal. The current Nepal Army (technically the Gorkha Army) traces its direct historic roots from the Royal Nepal Army, renamed in recognition of Nepal's transition from a monarchy to a popularly elected republic in 2006. Composed primarily of the ground-based Nepalese Army, organized into six active combat divisions, the Nepalese Armed Forces also operates the smaller Nepalese Army Air Service designed to support army operations and provide close light combat support. The Nepalese Army also operates smaller formations responsible for the organization of air defense, logistics, military communications, artillery, and airborne forces within Nepalese territory. In addition, the Armed Police Force acts as a paramilitary force tasked with maintaining internal security within Nepal.
The Nepalese Armed Forces are a volunteer force with an estimated 95,000 active duty personnel in 2010, with an estimated annual military budget of around 60 million US dollars, not including military assistance funding from the Republic of India and People's Republic of China or more recently from the United States of America. Although most of Nepal's military equipment are imports from neighboring India or China, Nepal has received 20,000 M-16 rifles, as well as night vision equipment from the United States to assist ongoing efforts in the post-September 11 global War on Terror campaign. The Nepalese Army bought 1,000 Galil rifles from Israel and received 2 V-5 helicopters from Russia.
Article 144 of Interim Constitution of Nepal states that The President of Nepal is the Supreme Commander Chief of Nepal Army.
Currently as the President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari who was elected president of Nepal on 28 oct 2015, is the supreme commander of Nepal Army.
Before 2006 democracy movement in Nepal forced King to restore democracy in 2006, Article 119 of the 1990 constitution stated that the King is the Supreme Commander of the Royal Nepal Army. However, following the People's Power revolution in April 2006, the 1990 constitution has been replaced by an interim constitution which has removed the King from anything to do with the army. On May 28, 2008 the Monarchy was formally abolished and Nepal was declared a Republic.
Nepal's Interim Constitution's Article 145 has envisioned National Defence Council which includes Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Home Minister and other three minister appointed by Prime Minister which recommends to the Council of Ministers on mobilization, operation and use of the Nepal Army. Upon Council of Ministers recommendation, President authorizes mobilization, operation and use of Nepal Army.
Before Interim Constitution replaces Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal 1990, 1990 constitution has prosion for defence council. This Council used to have three members, the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, and the Chief of the Army Staff. In accordance with the Constitution, the King (as Supreme Commander) used to "operate and use" the "Royal Nepal Army on the recommendation" of this council.
Nepalese army fought various battles on the national unification campaigns of the 18th century. These battles of Nepal unification helped the Royal Nepalese army to gain more experience while helping to unify Nepal.
The fortress of Makawanpur has a historical and military significance for the Nepalese. It was here that the Nepalese defeated superior forces of Mir Qasim in 1763 and seized 500 guns and two cannons. Later on, these weapons were used by Nepalese troops and four companies were established regular, namely, Srinath, Kalibox, Barda Bahadur (Bardabahini) and Sabuj. (Purano) Gorakh Company was established a few months later. It was the first rank and file system beginning a proper organizational history for the Royal Nepalese Army. The battle against Mir Qasim troops was the first battle of the Royal Nepalese Army against a foreign power.
Sardar Nandu Shah was the fortress Commander of Makawanpur with 400 troops, some guns and home-made traditional weapons like Dhanu, Khukuri, Talwar, Ghuyatro etc. They devised different hit-and-run strategies to surprise the enemy. A spoiling attack base was set up on the Taplakhar mountain ridge
for night operations.
Mir Qasim's renowned warrior, Gurgin Khan was the commander on the other side with approximately 2,500 troops with cannons, guns, ammunition and a very good logistics back up. Their attack base was at the bottom of the Makawanpur Gadhi hill. They had planned a night attack. When the enemy's heavy forces marched in December 1762 and arrived at Harnamadi in January 1763, they found all the local houses already evacuated and the area short of food provisions. Makawanpur Gadhi was on top of a mountain, about nine kilometers uphill from the Harnamadi area. Although the Nepalese had physically occupied all the fortresses en route, the enemy was able to initially push them back to the Makawanpur Gadhi area.
About 300 enemy launched a strong attack on 20 January 1763 putting the Nepalese still more on the defensive. But they were totally surprised when they were resting in Taplakhar, as Kaji Vamsharaj Pande led a downhill attack on them Kaju Naharsigh Basnyat led an uphill attack from below them and Nandu Shah led a frontal attack. The smooth coordination among the three, leading their, by now battle-hardened, troops in the dark of the night, led the bewildered enemy to scatter. About 1700 of them died and 30 Nepalese soldiers were lost in that battle. The Nepalese captured
500 rifles and two cannons with other military equipment. More importantly, the battle led to the beginning of a proper organization of the Royal Nepalese Army.
The relations started forming sour after the Malla rulers started to mint impure silver coins just before their downfall. The Tibetans demanded that the coins be replaced by pure silver ones. When Prithvi Narayan Shah took over, he found that it would be a great loss to him if he conceded to the Tibetan demands. That case remained unsolved due to his untimely demise. Queen Mother Rajendra Laxmi, the Regent of minor King Rana Bahadur Shah, inherited the coinage problem which reached the culminating point in 1888 AD. Another sore point in Nepal-Tibet relations was Nepal's decision to provide refuge to Syamarpa Lama with his 14 Tibetan followers. He had fled from Tibet to Nepal on religious and political grounds. Yet
another cause for conflict was the low quality salt being provided by Tibetans to Nepal. All salt came from Tibet in those days. Tibet ignored the Nepalese ultimatums and that promoted the preparations for war. Nepal was soon preparing to launch multi-directional attacks.
Kerung Axis: Kaji Balbhadra Shah was the main Commander of the offensive attack from Kerung axis. Kaji Kirtimansingh Basnyat, Sardar Amarsingh Thapa and Kapardar Bhotu Pandey were the subordinate commanders under him. Approximately 6,000 troops and 3,200 porters were despatched for this operation. Their main objective was to capture Dirgacha through Kerung. The march of the troops was delayed because Balbhadra Shah became seriously ill. They crossed
Kerung on 20 July 1788 and captured Jhunga on the 3rd of August 1788. Kapardar Bhotu Pandey was captured by the Tibetans. The Nepalese troops were reinforced with 2,000 more troops and Kapardar Bhotu Pandey was freed from the Tibetans on 14 October 1788.
Kuti Axis (I):Shree Krishna Shah was the Commander and Kaji Ranajit Pande, Sardar Parath Bhandari, Captain Harsa Panta, Captain Naharsingh Basnyat and Captain Shiva Narayan Khatri were the subordinate commanders under him. About 5,800 soldiers and 3,000 porters were allotted for the offensive operation. Later on, Kaji Abhimansingh Basnyat and Ranajit Kunwar also joined this offensive. The Dalai Lama was taken by surprise and to protect his sovereignty, he initiated a parallel approach whereby he asked military help from Sovan Shahi, the King of Jumla in West Nepal, and requested him to launch guerrilla activities and revolt against the Nepalese Army in and around Jumla. Sovan Shahi did revolt at Humla and captured some fortresses. The Dalai Lama also asked for military help from the Chinese Emperor. Additionally, he himself and Panchen Lama of Dirgacha wrote a secret letter to the East India Company seeking military assistance. The Tibetans also initiated propaganda about having constructed a new road through the Tigri valley and establishing a post at the front. They also rumoured that they had assembled an Army of 1,25,000 men. But the Tibetans could get nothing from Jumla, China or the East India Company.
Kuti Axis (II):Kaji Damodar Pande was leading his troops with subordinate commanders Bom Shah, Dev Dutta Thapa and others. He was given about 4,000 troops and his objective was to capture Dirgacha via the Kuti axis. The Battles Nepalese troops, having crossed the Himalayas captured Chhochyang and Kuti in June 1788 and Sikarjong on 3 August 1788, in spite of many difficult logistic limitations. Later, Bahadur Shah was able to provide some reinforcements and improve some logistics arrangements. Still that was not enough and progress was slow. When the Nepalese were about to capture Dirgacha via both Kuti and Kerung, the Tibetans started to make compromises with Nepalese commanders. Bahadur Shah started negotiations, ultimately arriving at a solution. Prisoners were handed back to the Tibetans. Tibet was ready to pay tributes to the tune of Rs. 50,000 in silver coins per annum to Nepal and a treaty was signed on 2 June 1789 in Kerung. The treaty is called the ‘Treaty of Kerung’ by historians Rasuwa Gadhi and Timure were the firm bases in the first Nepal-Tibet war. Syabru Besi and Rasuwa Gadhi were Strategic points in this war. Likewise, Listi and Duguna villages were the main bases for offensive operations against Tibet. They were the forward most dumping places of the Royal Nepalese Army. Although Rasuwa Gadhi and Duguna Gadhi Fortresses were not constructed at the time, the places themselves were important because of their military significance.
In 1974, The Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) was mobilized to disarm the Tibetan Khampas who had been using Nepalese soil to engage guerilla war against the Chinese forces. The Khampas had secretly created their base in Mustang (north-west Nepal) and were operating from there against China. The RNA, under immense diplomatic pressure from China and the international community, moved nine infantry units towards the Khampa post in Mustang and gave them an ultimatum to either disarm themselves and surrender, or face consequences. The terms and conditions of their surrender was that they would be given Nepalese citizenship, land, and some money. The Khampa commander Wang Di agreed to surrender but eventually fled the camp. He was later killed in Doti, far-western Nepal by RNA forces while trying to loot a Nepal Police post. This was first time that the RNA was mobilized in such a large number domestically.
Nepal Army's long association with UN Peace Support Operations began with the deployment of five Military Observers in the Middle East, Lebanon (UNOGIL/ United Nations Observer Group in Lebanon) in 1958. And the first Nepalese contingent, Purano Gorakh battalion was deployed in Egypt in 1974. Nepal's participation in the UN peacekeeping operations spans a period of 50 years covering Nepal army involved UN Missions are 42,of which latest being UNSMIL in Libya, in which over sixty thousand six hundred and fifty two (60,652) Nepalese soldiers have served in support of UN peacekeeping endeavors. The Nepal Army has contributed Force Commanders, military contingent, military observers and staff officers. Nepalese troops have taken part in some of the most difficult operations, and have suffered casualties in the service of the UN. To date, the number of those lost on duty with the UN is 54, while 57 were seriously wounded.
Its most significant contribution has been of peace and stability in Africa. It has demonstrated its capacity of sustaining large troop commitments over prolonged periods. Presently, Nepal is ranked as the sixth largest troop contributing country (TCC) to the UN.
The U.S.-Nepali military relationship focuses on support for democratic institutions, civilian control of the military, and the professional military ethic to include respect for human rights. Both countries have had extensive contact over the years. Nepali Army units and Nepalese Army Air Service units have served with distinction alongside American forces in places such as Haiti, Iraq, and Somalia.
U.S.-Nepali military engagement continues today through IMET, Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities (EIPC), and various conferences and seminars. The U.S. military sends many Nepalese Army officers to America to attend military schooling such as the Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College. The IMET budget for FY2001 was $220,000.
The EPIC program is an interagency program between the Department of Defense and the Department of State to increase the pool of international peacekeepers and to promote interoperability. Nepal received about $1.9 million in EPIC funding.
Commander United States Pacific Command (CDRUSPACOM) coordinates military engagement with Nepal through the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC). The ODC Nepal is located in the American Embassy, Kathmandu.
India has agreed to resume the military aid to Nepal. The aid was in the pipeline before India imposed an embargo in February 2005 following the seizure of power by the then King Gyanendra. In 2009, People's Republic of China pledged military aid worth Rs100 million to Nepal.
The command of the Nepalese army is divided into 8 parts namely.
Military branches: Nepalese Army (includes Nepalese Army Air Service), Armed Police Force Nepal, Nepalese Police Force
Military manpower – military age: 17 years of age
Military manpower – availability:
"males age 15–49:" 6,674,014 (2003 est.)
Military manpower – fit for military service:
"males age 15–49:" 3,467,511 (2003 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
"males:" 303,222 (2003 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $57.22 million (FY02)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.1% (FY02)
Nepal is also notable for the Gurkhas. Significant sections of the British Army and Indian Army are recruited from Nepal. This arrangement comes from the days of the British East India Company's rule of India when Company troops tried to invade Nepal and were beaten back. Both sides were impressed with the other, and Gurkhas were recruited into the Company's forces. The Gurkhas remained loyal during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and were kept on in the Indian Army thereafter. Upon Indian independence in 1947, some units went to British service and some to Indian service, with a Britain-India-Nepal Tripartite Agreement signed between the three nations. The Gurkhas are feared troops, and their signature weapon is the khukuri.
The Nepal Army Air service has operated a flying and helicopter pilots training school since 2004 within the 11no. Brigade, it is the only helicopter pilots training school in Nepal,(there is a fixed-wing pilot training school in Bharatpur, Nepal by private pilots training school) This school produces army air service pilots and civilian too. The school provides the Mil Mi-17, and Eurocopter Ecureuil helicopter flying training. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21330 |
Foreign relations of Nepal
Though the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is the government agency responsible for the conduct of foreign relations of Nepal, historically, it is the Office of Prime Minister (PMO) that has exercised the authority to formulate and conduct policies related to Nepal's foreign affairs. As a landlocked country wedged between two larger and far stronger powers, Nepal has tried to maintain good relations with both of its neighbor, People's Republic of China and Republic of India. However, relationship with India, the country with greater hegemonic power over Nepal, has seen major ups and downs in recent years. Given Nepal's geographical vulnerabilities, traditionally Nepal's southern neighbor India, has been able to shape Nepal's foreign policy to serve India's interest even to the detriment of Nepal's own interest. However, with the ongoing democratization of Nepal, and, shifting of the state-power from the hands of few elitists to communist government institution aligned to China, India has been facing increasing resistance within Nepal. In recent years, Nepal's suppressed madhesi community's attempts to deny landlocked Nepal 'Transit rights' via India as a fundamental right for a member of the UN, as guaranteed in the UN charter, and, the issues of showing of some Indian occupied territories of Nepal by Nepal's new map have significantly hampered the relationship between the two countries. For most part though, Nepal has traditionally maintained a non-aligned policy and enjoys friendly relations with neighboring countries and almost all the major countries of the world.
Constitutionally, foreign policy is to be guided by “the principles of the United Nations Charter, nonalignment, Panchsheel (five principles of peaceful coexistence), international law and the value of world peace.” In practice, foreign policy has not been directed toward projecting influence internationally but toward preserving autonomy and addressing domestic economic and security issues.
Nepal's most substantive international relations are perhaps with international economic institutions, such as the Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a multilateral economic development association. Nepal also has strong bilateral relations with major providers of economic and military aid, such as France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Switzerland, the United States, and particularly the United Kingdom, with whom military ties date to the nineteenth century. The country's external relations, barring relations with India and China, are primarily managed by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs while relationship with India and China, Nepal's most important partners, is still managed by the Prime Minister's Office. Nepal's relation with China has seen a major upswing in the recent years with China now becoming Nepal's 3rd largest aid donor (after the UK and Japan), and the largest source of FDI to Nepal.
Nepal has played an active role in the formation of the economic development-oriented South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and is the site of its secretariat. On international issues, Nepal follows a nonaligned policy and often votes with the Non-Aligned Movement in the United Nations. Nepal participates in a number of UN specialized agencies and is a member of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Colombo Plan, and the Asian Development Bank.
In 2000, the government established the National Human Rights Commission, a government-appointed commission with a mandate to investigate human rights violations. To date, the Commission has investigated 51 complaints.. Although freedom of expression is widely used as constitutional right, some minor problems regarding it have been reported in the country. Trafficking in women and child labour remain serious problems.
A joint border commission continues to work on small disputed sections of the border with India. , Nepal has border disputes with India at Lipulekh and Kalapani in Darchula district and Susta in Bihar. In 2018, EPG (Eminent Persons Group), a joint committee between Nepal & India finished a report on the disputed territories between these two countries. The report is yet to be submitted to the head of governments of both countries.
Nepal has been a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 11 September 2003 and on 24 January 2017 became the 108th WTO member to ratify the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement.
Illicit production of cannabis for domestic and international drug markets continues to be considered as an international problem, as do rumours that the country operates as a transit point for opiates from Southeast Asia and Pakistan to the West.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on 23 May 1972.
Nepal and Argentina established diplomatic relations on January 1, 1962. The relations between Nepal and Argentina are based on goodwill, friendship and mutual understanding. The Argentinean Government has shown interest to extend technical cooperation on leather processing industries in Nepal under the South-South Cooperation. However, the Argentinean proposal has not materialized yet. Nepal's trade balance with Argentina is in favour of Argentina. There is no significant figure of export from Nepal. Major commodities imported by Nepal from Argentina are Crude soybean oil, soybean oil, vegetable waxes, sunflower oil and maize.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on 26 March 1993.
Nepal has good bilateral relations with Bangladesh. Though Nepal views Bangladesh as an access to the sea, and seaports in Bangladesh as alternatives to the Indian seaport in Calcutta, successive governments in Nepal have failed in increasing the connectivity between Nepal and Bangladesh, and consequently, the volume of trade between Bangladesh and Nepal remains inconsequential. Till a decade ago, Bangladesh was the only country in the neighborhood with which Nepal enjoyed a positive trade balance. Recent initiatives like BBIN (Bhutan-Bangladesh-India-Nepal connectivity project), are being discussed as a potential tool for Nepal to address its connectivity issues, which still remains one of the poorest and the least connected country in the world. On May 28, 2009, a four-member delegation from Nepal visited Bangladesh and had talks on increasing trade and other relations. The meeting considered the movement of goods between the two countries in trucks transiting through India occupied Siliguri corridor territory. It also discussed the use of Mongla port in Bangladesh for transporting goods to and from Nepal at a concession rate. To promote tourism, travel agents and tour operators of both countries would jointly coordinate necessary steps.
Bangladesh transport experts note that following the visit of Bangladesh prime minister to India in January 2010, India agreed to provide transit facilities to Nepal by road and rail. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Railway is working to find the most convenient route for rail transit to Nepal after India's positive response, according to Bangladesh Railway officials.
Nepal welcomed Bangladesh's independence on 16 January 1972. The turning point for the two nations occurred in April 1976, when the two nations signed, a four-point agreement on technical cooperation, trade, transit and civil aviation. They both seek cooperation in the fields of power generation and development of water resources. In 1986, relations further improved when Bangladesh insisted Nepal should be included on a deal regarding the distribution of water from the Ganges River. Also recently Nepal and Bangladesh had signed treaty that Nepal would sell 10,000 MW of electricity to Bangladesh once its larger projects are completed.
Many foreign policy experts in Nepal, nowadays, advocate that Bangladesh should be provided a full-fledged ally status, and, that Nepal should seek political, economic, security and all possible assistance from Bangladesh while dealing with Nepal's hegemonic neighbor India to address Nepal's interest, as Nepal on its own lacks the economic and diplomatic weight to deal with India. However, people familiar with the political culture of politics in Nepal remain highly skeptical of such a possibility and instead point to the fact that Nepal is on the verge of losing even more of its strategic autonomy because of the insertion of Indian fifth column – the madheshis, in Nepal's power structure.
Relations with Bhutan have been strained since 1992 over the nationality and possible repatriation of refugees from Bhutan.
Many Nepalese politicians and government officials criticized Canadian diplomats in the aftermath of the Kabul attack on Canadian Embassy guards in which the majority of victims were Nepalese citizens. Members of Parliament were among those who were critical of the way that Canada treated its security contractors at the embassy, leading to meetings in Ottawa between Nepalese and Canadian diplomats, including ambassador Nadir Patel.
Nepal formally established relations with the People's Republic of China on August 1, 1955. The two countries share a range of 1414 kilometers border in the Himalayan range of the northern side of Nepal. Nepal has established its embassy in Beijing, opened consulates general in Lhasa, Hong Kong and Guangzhou and appointed an honorary consul in Shanghai.
Economic:
The Nepal-China economic cooperation dates back to the formalization of bilateral relations in 1950's. The first “Agreement between China and Nepal on “Economic Aid” was signed in October 1956. From the mid-80s the Chinese Government has been pledging grant assistance to the government of Nepal under the Economic and Technical Cooperation Program in order to implement mutually acceptable developmental projects.
The Chinese assistance to Nepal falls into three categories: Grants (aid gratis), interest free loans and concessional loans. These assistance of various kinds would be provided to Nepal via: different sources. The Chinese financial and technical assistance to Nepal has been greatly contributed to Nepal's development efforts in the areas of infrastructure building, industrialization process, human resource development, health, education, water resources, sports and the like.
Some of the major on-going projects under Chinese assistance include:
1. Upper Trishuli Hydropower Project- Power station and Transmission Line Projects (Concessional loan)
2. Food/ Material Assistance (Grant) in 15 bordering districts of northern Nepal.
3. Kathmandu Ring Road Improvement Project with Flyover Bridges -(Grant)
4. Tatopani Frontier Inspection Station Project (Construction of ICDs at Zhangmu-Kodari)- (Grant)
5. Pokhara International Regional Airport (Loan)
With the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative on 12 May 2017 in Kathmandu between Nepal and China, new avenues for bilateral cooperation in the mutually agreed areas are expected to open. Nepal expects to upgrade its vital infrastructures, enhance cross-border connectivity with China and enhance people-to-people relations under this initiative. The major thrust of the MoU is to promote mutually beneficial cooperation between Nepal and China in various fields such as economy, environment, technology and culture. The MoU aims at promoting cooperation on policy exchanges, trade connectivity, financial integration and connectivity of people.
The Government of the People's Republic of China provided substantial and spontaneous support in search, relief and rescue efforts of Nepal following the devastating earthquakes of 2015. China has provided 3 billion Yuan on Nepal's Reconstruction to be used in the jointly selected 25 major projects for 2016–2018 period. On 23 December 2016, Nepal and the People's Republic of China signed Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation in Beijing to provide grant assistance of RMB 1 billion to the Government of Nepal for implementing the Syaphrubesi-Rasuwagadhi Highway Repair and Improvement Project, Upgrading and Renovation Project of Civil Service Hospital, and Mutually agreed Post-Disaster Reconstruction Projects. The Letters of Exchange to initiate Syaphrubesi-Rasuwagadhi Highway Repair and Improvement Project was signed on May 9, 2017.
Trade and Investment:
China is the second largest trading partner of Nepal. In 2015/16, total exports to China stood at US$181 million with marginal increase from US$179 million in the previous fiscal year. In contrast, import from China has been growing at the rate of 39 per cent per year. It rose from US$421 million in fiscal year 2009/10 to US$1,247 million in fiscal year 2015/16. As a result, the trade deficit with China has risen from US$401 million in 2009/10 to US$1228 million in 2015/16. Although, China has given zero tariff entry facility to over 8000 Nepali products starting from 2009, Nepal has not been able to bring the trade deficit down. Nepal exports 370 products including noodles and agro products to China. Nepal regularly participates various trade fairs and exhibitions organized in China. Nepal-China's Tibet Economic and Trade Fair is the regular biannual event hosted by either side alternatively to enhance business interaction and promote economic cooperation between Nepal and TAR. The 15th Nepal China's Tibet Economic and Trade Fair was held on 17–22 November 2015 in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu Nepal.
Nepal-China Non-Governmental Cooperation Forum established in 1996, which is led by the President of the Federation of the Nepali Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) on the Nepali side and the Vice Head of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) from the Chinese side. It is an initiative to mobilize the apex business organization of both sides to enhance cooperation between the private sectors of two sides. The 14th meeting of the Forum concluded in Kathmandu on 25–26 May 2017.
China is the largest source of Foreign Direct Investment in Nepal. Chinese investors have shown intent to spend over $8.3 billion in Nepal during the Nepal Investment Summit concluded in Kathmandu in March 2017.
Tourism:
China is the 2nd largest source of foreign tourist to Nepal. Over 100 thousands Chinese tourists visit Nepal annually. China has designated Nepal as the first tourist destination in South Asia for its people. The Government of Nepal has waived visa fees for the Chinese tourist effective from 1 January 2016. The Chinese Government has announced the year 2017 as Nepal Tourism Promotion Year in China. Both sides have been carrying out joint efforts to promote Nepal in China and encourage Chinese enterprises to invest in Nepal's tourism sectors. Nepal has road connectivity via Rasuwagadhi and Zhangmu for trade and international travelers. There are 4 other border points designated for bilateral trade. Nepal has direct air link with Lhasa, Chengdu, Kunming, Guangzhou and Hong Kong SAR of China.
Education and Cultural Cooperation:
China provides scholarships every year not exceeding a total of 100 Nepali students studying in China. The Chinese side has been providing Chinese language training for 200 tourism entrepreneurs of Nepal for the next five years as per the understanding reached between two sides in March 2016. Both sides have been carrying out activities in culture and youth sectors as per the provisions of the MoU on Cultural Cooperation-1999 and MoU on Youth Exchange-2009. Both sides have been promoting people-to-people relations through regular hosting of cultural festival, friendly visits of the peoples of different walks of public life, exhibition, cultural and film show, food festivals etc. Sister city relations between the cities of two countries are growing and both sides have agreed to push cooperation though such relations. These relations are basically meant for carrying out exchanges and cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, transportation, science and technology, culture, tourism, education, sports and health, personnel, etc.
Regional and International Affairs:
Nepal is the founding member of the AIIB. Nepal holds the observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Both countries are also the member of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue. China is the observer of the SAARC. Both countries have been cooperating each other in various regional and UN forums on the matters of common concerns.
Though Nepal initially let Tibetans Khampa rebels to make use of Nepalese territory in early 1960s, bilateral relations have generally been very good from 1975 onwards, after annexation of Kingdom of Sikkim by India in 1975. As much as twenty thousand Tibetan refugees live in Nepal and this has been a major issue of concern between China and Nepal. Kathmandu has in several instances been cracking down on the activities of the Tibetans receiving international condemnation. In 2005, Nepalese Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey called China "an all weather friend" and King Gyanendra's regime was also instrumental in inducting China into the SAARC. Nepalese in general, hold a positive view about the influence of China. In recent years, China has been one of the largest aid donors to Nepal just behind the UK. China is also Nepal's largest source of FDI.
See Denmark–Nepal relations.
Nepal formally tied diplomatic relations with the EU in 1975. EU established its Technical Office at Kathmandu in 1992. Nepal established residential embassy in Brussels in 1992. EU Delegation office in Kathmandu has been upgraded to the Ambassadorial level since 2009 December.
Development Cooperation:
EU is the largest development partner and the second largest trade partner (if taken as a single trade bloc) of Nepal. Until 2013, EU assistance to Nepal was provided in two main ways: on a bilateral basis through the formulation of successive Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) in close partnership with the Government of Nepal and on a multilateral basis including all actions outside the CSP mainly funded through thematic budget lines. Looking at the history of CSP's for Nepal, the first CSP 2001–2006 allocated €70 million, and, the second CSP 2007–2013 allocated €114 million for Nepal. Cumulative contribution from EU to Nepal's development has reached 360 million Euro spread over more than 70 projects till 2013.
Starting from 2014, the EU has begun channeling its development cooperation under its Multi-Annual Indicative Program (MIP). The EU has increased its development cooperation to Nepal by threefold for the current period of 2014–2020 compared to the proceeding period of the same duration. The MIP had identified three focal sectors for Nepal: €146 million for sustainable rural development, with focus on agricultural productivity and value addition, job creation, market access infrastructure, and nutrition (40.5%); €136.4 million for education, with the aim to improving basic education, quality, livelihood skills and equity for vulnerable and disadvantaged (38%); €74 million for strengthening democracy and decentralization, including its engagement in the area of public finance management reform efforts of the government at local and national level (20.5%); and remaining €3.6 million for other support measures (1%). The EU is also a major donor partner of the Nepal Peace Trust Fund.
Cooperation with European Investment Bank (EIB):
Nepal and EIB signed an umbrella agreement for financial cooperation on the 7th of May 2012 paving the way for major investments from EIB in Nepal's infrastructure and energy sectors. Following the agreement EIB has already committed a loan assistance of Euro 55 million for Tanahu Hydropower Project (140 MW) which has a total cost of US$500 million. EIB has also expressed its commitments on immediate additional concessional loan assistance of Rs. 1.5 billion for the same project. Talks are underway for EIB investment of $120 million for Kaligandaki-Marsyangdi Corridor Transmission Project, and $30 million for upgrading the Trishuli Corridor Transmission Line. Ms. Magdalena Alvarez Arza, Vice President of the European Investment Bank visited Nepal in June 2014 to work out on those commitments.
Trade:
The EU is one of the principal trading partners of Nepal, second largest export market with 13% share. The EU imports mainly handmade carpets, textile, gems and jewellery, wood and paper products, leather products, etc. from Nepal. Nepal imports engineering goods, telecommunication equipment, chemical and minerals, metal and steel, agricultural products, etc. from the EU countries.
The EU started providing duty-free and quota-free facilities to the Nepalese exports under its Everything But Arms (EBA) policy for the LDCs from 2001. EU introduced the new Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) in 2006 which will remain valid till 2015. Under this scheme, for nearly 2,100 products out of 11,000, except arms and ammunitions, the EU duty rate will be zero.
Humanitarian Aid:
The European Commission is one of the biggest sources of humanitarian aid to Nepal. It has long been associated with the efforts of disaster management and mitigation projects in Nepal. EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO) has provided over Euro 74 million worth of humanitarian aid to Nepal since 2001 A.D. As a gesture of European solidarity to help those who are worst affected by the recent monsoon floods, the EU Delegation office in Kathmandu has provided Euro 250,000 assistance to flood affected people of mid-western region of Nepal in September 2014.
Nepal and the French Republic entered into diplomatic relations on 20 April 1949. Bilateral economic cooperation programme commenced in February 1981 when the two countries signed the First Protocol amounting to French Franc 50 million loan which was converted into debt in 1989. Food aid and the counterpart funds that it generated have been the main form of aid since 1991. Main areas of cooperation are national seismologic network, petroleum exploration, restructuring of Water Supply Corporation, the Kavre Integrated Project and Gulmi and Arghakhanchi Rural Development Project, rehabilitation of airports, ‘food for work’, and others.
Nepal and France have signed an agreement concerning Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investment in 1983. The major areas of French investment are hotels, restaurants, medicine, aluminium windows and doors, vehicle body building sectors. Alcatelhad became the leading supplier of the Nepal Telecommunication Corporation, with 200,000 lines installed, and fibre optic cables. Cegelec secured a 24 million dollars contract in respect of the construction of Kali Gandaki hydroelectric project.
The Government of Nepal awarded a contract to Oberthur Technologies of France in 2010, for printing, supply, and delivery of Machine Readable Passports. A significant number of French tourists (24,097 in 2014, 16, 405 in 2015, and, 20,863 in 2016) arrive in Nepal from France each year.
Diplomatic relations between Nepal and the Federal Republic of Germany were established in 1958. Nepal established its embassy in Berlin on 5 July 1965. The Federal Republic of Germany has been maintaining an embassy in Kathmandu since 1963.
Development cooperation:
The Federal Republic of Germany is one of the major donors for Nepal's development efforts. Germany began its development cooperation to Nepal in 1961 with the technical assistance for the establishment of a Technical Training Institute at Thapathali. In 1964, it provided soft loans to Nepal Industrial Development Cooperation (NIDC). The most notable financial assistance from Germany for a single project has been that of DM 250 million for Middle Marsyangdi Hydroelectric Project.
Trade:
Germany is Nepal's third largest trading partner after India and the US, and the biggest export market for Nepali products in Europe. Germany is an important market for Nepal, particularly for carpets and textile products. Nepal's main imports from Germany are machinery and industrial products. In recent years, the bilateral balance of trade has regularly shown a surplus in Nepal's favour. The annual volume of bilateral trade has remained fairly constant over the last few years, at around EUR 50 million. Besides carpet, export to Germany from Nepal include handicraft, silver jewellery, garments, leather, wooden and bamboo goods, lentils, tea, essential oils from herb and aromatic plants. Nepal imports mainly industrial raw materials, chemicals, machinery equipment and parts, electric and electronic goods, vehicles etc. from Germany.
Scientific and Academic Cooperation:
Nepal is also a priority country for the German Research Foundation (DFG) with more than 40 research projects operated in Nepal so far, including a major project by the University of Hamburg to catalogue some 160,000 Nepalese (Tibetan and Newari) manuscripts, which were able to be microfilmed with German support between 1970 and 2002.
Both countries established diplomatic relations in 1985. The Holy See has a nunciature in the country. Nepal Embassy, Berlin is accredited as non-residential embassy for Holy See.*Nepal (nunciature)
Both countries established diplomatic relations on May 25, 1981.
As close neighbours, India and Nepal share a unique relationship of friendship and cooperation characterized by open borders and deep-rooted people-to-people contacts of kinship and culture. There has been a long tradition of free movement of people across the borders. The India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950 forms the bedrock of the special relations that exist between India and Nepal.
Political:
Beginning with the 12-Point understanding reached between the Seven Party Alliance and the Maoists at Delhi in November 2005, Government of India has welcomed the road-map laid down by the historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement of November 2006 towards political stabilization in Nepal, through peaceful reconciliation and inclusive democratic processes. India has consistently responded with a sense of urgency to the needs of the people and Government of Nepal in ensuring the success of the peace process and institutionalization of multi–party democracy through the framing of a new Constitution by a duly elected Constituent Assembly. India has always believed that only an inclusive Constitution with the widest possible consensus by taking on board all stakeholders would result in durable peace and stability in Nepal. India's core interest in Nepal is a united Nepal's peace and stability which has a bearing on India as well because of the long and open border shared between India and Nepal. Nepal's second Constituent Assembly promulgated a Constitution on 20 September 2015 amid protests by Madhes-based parties and other groups. The Government of India has expressed grave concern regarding the ongoing protests and has urged the Government of Nepal to make efforts to resolve all issues including the new citizenship laws through a credible political dialogue.
Economic:
Indian firms are the biggest investors in Nepal, accounting for about 38.3% of Nepal's total approved foreign direct investments. Till 15 July 2013, the Government of Nepal had approved a total of 3004 foreign investment projects with proposed FDI of Rs. 7269.4 crore. There are about 150 operating Indian ventures in Nepal engaged in manufacturing, services (banking, insurance, dry port, education and telecom), power sector and tourism industries. Some large Indian investors include ITC, Dabur India, Hindustan Unilever, VSNL, TCIL, MTNL, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Asian Paints, CONCOR, GMR India, IL&FS, Manipal Group, MIT Group Holdings, Nupur International, Transworld Group, Patel Engineering, Bhilwara Energy, Bhushan Group, Feedback Ventures, RJ Corp, KSK Energy, Berger Paints, Essel Infra Project Ltd. and Tata Power etc.
Development Assistance:
Government of India provides substantial financial and technical development assistance to Nepal, which is a broad-based programme focusing on creation of infrastructure at the grass-root level, under which various projects have been implemented in the areas of infrastructure, health, water resources, education and rural & community development. In recent years, India has been assisting Nepal in development of border infrastructure through upgradation of roads in the Terai areas; development of cross-border rail links at Jogbani–Biratnagar, Jaynagar-Bardibas, Nepalgunj Road-Nepalgunj, Nautanwa-Bhairhawa, and New Jalpaigudi-Kakarbhitta; and establishment of Integrated Check Posts at Raxaul-Birgunj, Sunauli-Bhairhawa, Jogbani-Biratnagar, and Nepalgunj Road-Nepalgunj. The total economic assistance extended under ‘Aid to Nepal’ budget in FY 2014–15 was Rs. 300 crore.
Currently, 36 intermediate and large projects such as construction of a National Police Academy at Panauti, Nepal Bharat Maitri Pashupati Dharmashala at Tilganga, a Polytechnic at Hetauda, and the National Trauma Centre at Kathmandu are at various stages of implementation. In addition, Government of India's Small Development Projects (SDPs) programme in Nepal extends assistance for the implementation of projects costing less than NRs 5 crore (approx.. INR 3.125 crore) in critical sectors such as health, education & community infrastructure development. So far, 243 SDPs have been completed and 233 are under various stages of implementation in 75 districts of Nepal, with a total outlay of over Rs 550 crore. Till date, India has gifted 502 ambulances and 98 school buses to various institutions and health posts across Nepal's 75 districts.
Education:
GOI provides around 3000 scholarships/seats annually to Nepali nationals for various courses at the Ph.D/Masters, Bachelors and plus–two levels in India and in Nepal.
Indian Community in Nepal:
Around 1,500,000 Indians are living/domiciled in Nepal.
Nepal was the first and until recently the only nation in South and Central Asia to establish diplomatic ties with Israel. The bilateral relation between the two countries has been good. Traditionally, Nepal votes in favor of Israel at the UN and abstains from resolution opposed by the Israeli government barring few exceptions. Israel-Nepal relations are based on mutual security concerns.
Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, Prime Minister of Nepal from 1959 to 1960, had a strongly pro-Israel foreign policy. King Mahendra visited Israel in 1963 and maintained Koirala's special relationship. Nepal has continued to maintain strong diplomatic ties with Israel despite numerous change in government.
Nepal-Japan relations date back to the late eighteenth century. The relationship became formal with the establishment of diplomatic relations on 1 September 1956. The Embassy of Nepal was established in Tokyo in 1965 and Japan established its embassy in Kathmandu in 1967. Nepal has honorary consulates in Osaka and Fukuoka. Japan is one of the largest aid donors to Nepal.
Economic Cooperation:
Japan has been contributing to the socio-economic development of Nepal since 1954. Japan has been assisting Nepal in the form of bilateral grant, bilateral loan, multilateral aid and technical assistance. Japan has been assisting Nepal for the promotion of peace and democracy by contributing to the socio-economic development of the country. The major areas of Japan's economic cooperation have been human resource development, social sectors including health, agriculture development, infrastructure development, environment protection, water supply, culture, etc. Japan also provides concessional loan for the infrastructure development in Nepal. Tanahun Hydro and Nagdhunga tunnel projects are ongoing projects under this scheme.
On human resource development, Japan has been providing annual scholarships to Government officials of Nepal in various fields under the JDS scheme starting from 2016. The Government of Japan started providing technical training to Nepali since Japan joined the Colombo Plan in 1954. Japan has also been providing Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) and Senior Volunteers to Nepal under JICA Volunteer Program. JOCV Nepal program was launched in 1970. The Government and people of Japan extended spontaneous support in the aftermath of 2015 earthquakes in Nepal. The Japanese Government made over NRS 26 billion grant for reconstruction works in Nepal.
Trade and Investment:
Japan is one of the important trading partners of Nepal. Nepal exports pashmina products, ready-made garments, woolen goods, carpets, handicrafts, Nepali paper and paper products, leather goods, and silverware and ornaments. Nepal's imports from Japan include vehicles and spare parts, electronic goods, machinery and equipment, iron and steel products, photographic goods, medical equipment and fabric. There is an ample scope of collaborating in trade sector by introducing Japanese production process or integrating product development by exporting niche raw materials in Japan. Japan is one of major sources of Foreign Direct Investment in Nepal. The total FDI amount for the 2015/16 was NRS 223.4 billion.
Nepali Diaspora in Japan:
The number of Nepali nationals living in Japan is now more than 60,000, which was only 31,531 at the end of 2013. Nepali community is 5th largest foreign communities in Japan. Every year over 10,000 Nepali students go to Japan to pursue higher studies and Japanese languages. Japan is the 2nd most preferred destination for abroad study to the Nepali students.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on May 18, 2010.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on December 4, 2012.
Malaysia has an embassy in Kathmandu, and Nepal has an embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Both countries established diplomatic relations on 1 January 1960, with bilateral relations between Malaysia and Nepal have developed from historic grounds.
Both nations established diplomatic relations in 1975.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on January 6, 1998.
Diplomatic relations were established on 26 January 1973. Norway established an embassy in Kathmandu in 2000. Norway's aid to Nepal was around 32 million USD in 2017. Norwegian aid prioritizes education, good governance and energy.
In 2008, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim visited Nepal. In 2009, Prime Minister Prachanda visited Norway. In May 2008, a small bomb exploded outside the Norwegian embassy in Kathmandu. No one was injured.
The bilateral relations between Nepal and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan were fully established between 1962 and 1963. Both nations have since sought to expand trade, strategic cooperation.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on April 12, 2013.
Nepal and the Soviet Union had established diplomatic relations in 1956. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nepal extended full diplomatic recognition to the Russian Federation as its legal successor. Since then numerous bilateral meetings have taken place between both sides. Since 1992 numerous Nepalese students have gone to Russia for higher studies on a financial basis. In October 2005 the Foreign ministers of both countries met to discuss cooperation on a variety of issues including political, economic, military, educational, and cultural. Both countries maintain embassies in each other's capitals. Russia has an embassy in Kathmandu while Nepal has an embassy in Moscow.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on September 27, 2007.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on December 15, 2011.
In addition to the in-kind and monetary donations and emergency relief workers sent by the government of the Republic of Korea immediately after the latest earthquake in Nepal the Korean government provided grant aid worth 10 million US dollars to assist with Nepal’s recovery and reconstruction efforts.
Both countries established diplomatic relations in October 2018.
Diplomatic relations between Nepal and Switzerland were established in November 1959. Nepal has its embassy in Geneva. Switzerland opened its first residential embassy in Nepal on August 17, 2009.
Development Cooperation:
Switzerland's cooperation to Nepal dates back to 1950s. Economic cooperation programme was initiated in 1956 with technical assistance scheme for cheese production in the eastern high hills. The Swiss Government, through the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), has been initiating various development projects ranging from Technical Instructor Training Project to Maternity Child Health Care Project. Nepal is among 16 priority countries to receive Swiss assistance worldwide.
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET):
The history of Swiss cooperation in TVET in Nepal began in 1962 with the establishment of Balaju School of Engineering and Technology-BTTC (previously known as Mechanical Training Centre – MTC). The BTTC has trained estimated 10,000 youths. Similarly, SDC established Jiri Technical School (JTS) as another milestone of TVET in 1982. The JTS is estimated to have trained another 6,000 youths. Training Institute for Technical Instruction (TITI), previously known as Technical Instructors Training Institute was established in 1991 with the assistance from the Swiss Government, SDC, and Swisscontact, the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation. TITI, already a centre of excellence in Nepal, has trained 19,000 instructional, managerial and curriculum developers from Nepal and other countries. Under Technical Support to Universities and CTEVT SDC supported to strengthening engineering education in Nepal through financial and technical support to Pulchowk Engineering Institute of TU, and its support to KU.
Trade:
Nepal-Switzerland trade relation has witnessed growth over the years. The balance of trade is mostly unfavorable to Nepal. Major Nepalese exports to Switzerland consist of tea, spices, plants and parts of plants, homeopathic medicaments, hand knotted woolen carpets, ready-made garments, handicrafts, woolen goods, Nepalese paper and paper products, hides and silverware &jewellery. Similarly Nepal imports time pieces, pharmaceutical products, chemicals, construction material, transport equipment (bus, truck and parts), machinery and parts, medical equipment, photographic paper, footwear, aluminium foil, air conditioner, etc. from Switzerland.
Both countries established diplomatic relations on September 13, 2005.
Nepal established diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom in 1816. Nepal established its legation in London in 1934, which was the first Nepalese diplomatic mission established at the foreign country. It was elevated to the ambassador level in 1947 A.D.
The UK remains one of the top development partners of Nepal with the annual British aid on an increasing trend. Tourism, trade, education, and the British Gurkha connection remained the key dimensions of the bilateral relations. Since then, relations between the two countries have continued to grow, with a new Treaty of Perpetual Peace and Friendship signed in 1950 which expanded areas of cooperation and an exchange of State Visits. Amicable relations continue today; Nepal continues to be the source of recruitment of Gurkha soldiers into the British army – a tradition dating back to the nineteenth century but still an essential part of Britain's modern army – and the United Kingdom remains one of the most significant providers of development assistance to Nepal.
Nepal and the United States of America (USA) established the diplomatic relations between them on 25 April 1947. Nepal established its embassy in Washington D.C. on 3 February 1958. On 6 August 1959, American Embassy in Kathmandu was opened.
According to the 2012 U.S. Global Leadership Report, 41% of Nepalese people approve of U.S. leadership. Since 1951, the United States has provided more than $7 billion in bilateral economic assistance to Nepal. In recent years, annual bilateral U.S. economic assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has averaged $40 million per year.
Development Cooperation:
The USA extended development assistance to Nepal with its Point Four Program in 1951. USAID/Nepal is the development assistance arm of the US Mission to Nepal. Various sectors such as transport, communication, public health, family planning, malaria eradication, agriculture, forestry, energy etc. have come to benefit from the development assistance spanning more than 5 decades. Of late, US cooperation is also geared towards the institutionalization of peace and democracy and protection and promotion of human rights in accordance with its country strategy document. The US cooperation has equally been instrumental in the fields of human resource development and institution building. There have been regular exchanges of visits and sharing of expertise and experiences between the armies of the two countries in the area of training, disaster management, logistics management, counter terrorism, interoperability and so on.
Trade/Investment:
The US is one of the important trading partners of Nepal. It is also the biggest source of hard currency for Nepal primarily from the export of garments and carpets as well as from tourist incomes. After the end of the quota system under Multi-fibre Agreement (MFA) in 2004 the export of Nepali readymade garments to the United States of America has declined significantly. Nepal has been consistently advocating for duty-free facilities for its exports to the US, especially the ready-made garments.
Trade Preferences for Nepal: Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act 2015 (H.R.1907):
The duty-free program, specially designed for Nepal, came into effect on December 15, 2016 following introduction of the US Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act by former US President Barack Obama. The Act was introduced to support Nepal's economic recovery in the aftermath of devastating 2015 earthquakes.
Under this program, 66 Nepali products are granted duty-free entry into the US till December 31, 2025. This means goods like carpets and rugs, shawls, scarves, luggage articles, handbags, pocket goods, such as wallets, travel bags and other containers, headbands, blankets, hats and gloves, which previously used to be subject to tariffs ranging from 5 percent to over 20 percent can now enter the US market at zero tariff. However, such goods must be grown, produced, or manufactured in Nepal, with the cost of the Nepali materials plus the cost of processing standing at at least 35 percent of the product's sales price.
Millennium Challenge Corporation:
Nepal joined MCC in 2010 when it was considered eligible for its “Threshold Program”, after passing through a scorecard consisting of 20 indicators related to political, economic and social situation of the country. Threshold Program aimed to assist a country in becoming compact eligible by supporting targeted policy and institutional reforms. MCC works with Threshold Program – eligible countries on these reforms through country-specific threshold program. In December 2014, MCC decided to include Nepal for its Compact Development Program, The Readout of the MCC's Board of Directors mentioned: ‘Nepal has consistently passed the scorecard criteria for the past four years and continues to demonstrate clear progress in institutionalizing democratic processes’.
At present an MCC Compact for Nepal (worth US$630 million) is under consideration and is likely to be signed by Nepali and the US authorities soon.
US Peace Corps Volunteers:
The Peace Corps Nepal, which temporarily suspended its operations and activities from September 2004, has resumed its operations from January 17, 2012. The volunteers have been working in rural areas in various sectors including teaching in schools. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21331 |
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles (, ; Papiamentu: "Antia Hulandes") was a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The country consisted of several island territories located in the Caribbean Sea. The islands were also informally known as the Dutch Antilles. The country came into being in 1954 as the autonomous successor of the Dutch colony of Curaçao and Dependencies and was dissolved in 2010. The Dutch colony of Surinam, although it was relatively close by on the continent of South America, did not become part of the Netherlands Antilles but became a separate autonomous country in 1954. All the island territories that belonged to the Netherlands Antilles remain part of the kingdom today, although the legal status of each differs. As a group they are still commonly called the Dutch Caribbean, regardless of their legal status.
The islands of the Netherlands Antilles are all part of the Lesser Antilles island chain. Within this group, the country was spread over two smaller island groups: a northern group (part of Leeward Islands) and a western group (part of the Leeward Antilles). No part of the country was in the southern Windward Islands.
This island subregion was located in the eastern Caribbean Sea, to the east of Puerto Rico. There were three islands, collectively known as the "SSS Islands":
They lie approximately north-east of the ABC Islands.
This island subregion was located in the southern Caribbean Sea off the north coast of Venezuela. There were three islands collectively known as the "ABC Islands":
The Netherlands Antilles have a tropical trade-wind climate, with hot weather all year round. The Leeward islands are subject to hurricanes in the summer months, while those islands located in the Leeward Antilles are warmer and drier.
Spanish-sponsored explorers discovered both the leeward (Alonso de Ojeda, 1499) and windward (Christopher Columbus, 1493) island groups. However, the Spanish Crown only founded settlements in the Leeward Islands. In the 17th century the islands were conquered by the Dutch West India Company and colonized by Dutch settlers. From the last quarter of the 17th century, the group consisted of six Dutch islands: Curaçao (settled in 1634), Aruba (settled in 1636), Bonaire (settled in 1636), Sint Eustatius (settled in 1636), Saba (settled in 1640) and Sint Maarten (settled in 1648). In the past, Anguilla (1631–1650), the present-day British Virgin Islands (1612–1672), St. Croix and Tobago had also been Dutch. During the American Revolution Sint Eustatius, along with Curaçao, was a major trade center in the Caribbean, with Sint Eustatius a major source of supplies for the Thirteen Colonies. It had been called "the Golden Rock" because of the number of wealthy merchants and volume of trade there. The British sacked its only town, Oranjestad, in 1781 and the economy of the island never recovered. Unlike many other regions, few immigrants went to the Dutch islands, due to the weak economy. However, with the discovery of oil in Venezuela in the nineteenth century, British-Dutch Shell Oil Company established refineries in Curaçao, while the U.S. processed Venezuelan crude oil in Aruba. This resulted in booming economies on the two islands, which turned to bust in the 1980s when the oil refineries were closed. The various islands were united as a single country — the Netherlands Antilles — in 1954, under the Dutch crown. The country was dissolved on 10 October 2010.
Curaçao and Sint Maarten became distinct constituent countries alongside Aruba which had become a distinct constituent country in 1986; whereas Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba (the "BES Islands") became special municipalities within the Netherlands proper.
From 1815 onwards Curaçao and Dependencies formed a colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Slavery was abolished in 1863, and in 1865 a government regulation for Curaçao was enacted that allowed for some very limited autonomy for the colony. Although this regulation was replaced by a constitution () in 1936, the changes to the government structure remained superficial and Curaçao continued to be ruled as a colony.
The island of Curaçao was hit hard by the abolition of slavery in 1863. Its prosperity (and that of neighboring Aruba) was restored in the early 20th century with the construction of oil refineries to service the newly discovered Venezuelan oil fields.
Colonial rule ended after the conclusion of the Second World War. Queen Wilhelmina had promised in a 1942 speech to offer autonomy to the overseas territories of the Netherlands. During the war, the British and American occupation of the islands—with the consent of the Dutch government—led to increasing demands for autonomy within the population as well.
In May 1948 a new constitution for the territory entered into force, allowing the largest amount of autonomy possible under the Dutch constitution of 1922. Among other things, universal suffrage was introduced. The territory was also renamed "Netherlands Antilles". After the Dutch constitution was revised in 1948, a new interim Constitution of the Netherlands Antilles was enacted in February 1951. Shortly afterwards, on 3 March 1951, the Island Regulation of the Netherlands Antilles () was issued by royal decree, giving fairly wide autonomy to the various island territories in the Netherlands Antilles. A consolidated version of this regulation remained in force until the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010.
The new constitution was only deemed an interim arrangement, as negotiations for a Charter for the Kingdom were already under way. On 15 December 1954 the Netherlands Antilles, Suriname and the Netherlands acceded as equal partners to an overarching Kingdom of the Netherlands, established by the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. With this move, the United Nations deemed decolonization of the territory complete and removed the Netherlands Antilles from the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles on 1 January 1986, paving the way for a series of referenda among the remaining islands on the future of the Netherlands Antilles. Whereas the ruling parties campaigned for the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, the people voted for a restructuring of the Netherlands Antilles. The coalition campaigning for this option became the Party for the Restructured Antilles, which ruled the Netherlands Antilles for much of the time until its dissolution on 10 October 2010.
Even though the referendums held in the early 1990s resulted in a vote in favour of retaining the Netherlands Antilles, the arrangement continued to be an unhappy one. Between June 2000 and April 2005, each island of the Netherlands Antilles had a new referendum on its future status. The four options that could be voted on were the following:
Of the five islands, Sint Maarten and Curaçao voted for "status aparte", Saba and Bonaire voted for closer ties with the Netherlands, and Sint Eustatius voted to stay within the Netherlands Antilles.
On 26 November 2005, a Round Table Conference (RTC) was held between the governments of the Netherlands, Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles, and each island in the Netherlands Antilles. The final statement to emerge from the RTC stated that autonomy for Curaçao and Sint Maarten, plus a new status for Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba (BES) would come into effect by 1 July 2007.
On 12 October 2006, the Netherlands reached an agreement with Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba: this agreement would make these islands special municipalities.
On 3 November 2006, Curaçao and Sint Maarten were granted autonomy in an agreement, but this agreement was rejected by the then island council of Curaçao on 28 November. The Curaçao government was not sufficiently convinced that the agreement would provide enough autonomy for Curaçao. On 9 July 2007 the new island council of Curaçao approved the agreement previously rejected in November 2006. A subsequent referendum approved the agreement as well.
The acts of parliament integrating the "BES" islands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba) into the Netherlands were given royal assent on 17 May 2010. After ratification by the Netherlands (6 July), the Netherlands Antilles (20 August), and Aruba (4 September), the "Kingdom act amending the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands with regard to the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles" was signed by the three countries in the closing Round Table Conference on 9 September 2010 in The Hague.
The Island Regulation had divided the Netherlands Antilles into four island territories: Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao (ABC), and the islands in the Leeward Islands. In 1983, the island territory of the Leeward was split up to form the new island territories of Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius (SSS). In 1986, Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles, reducing the number of island territories to five. After the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, Curaçao and Sint Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (BES) became special municipalities of the Netherlands.
The islands of the former country of the Netherlands Antilles are currently divided are two main groups for political and constitutional purposes:
There are also several smaller islands, like Klein Curaçao and Klein Bonaire, that belong to one of the island countries or special municipalities.
There are three Caribbean islands that are countries () within the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten. (The Netherlands is the fourth constituent country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.)
Sint Maarten covers approximately 40% of the island of Saint Martin; the remaining northern part of the island—the "Collectivity of Saint-Martin"—is an overseas territory of France.
There are three Caribbean islands that are special municipalities of the Netherlands alone: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. Collectively, these special municipalities of the Netherlands are also known as the BES islands.
The Constitution of the Netherlands Antilles was proclaimed on 29 March 1955 by Order-in-Council for the Kingdom. Together with the Islands Regulation of the Netherlands Antilles it formed the constitutional basis for the Netherlands Antilles. Because the Constitution depended on the Islands Regulation, which gave fairly large autonomy to the different island territories, and the Islands Regulation was older than the Constitution, many scholars describe the Netherlands Antilles as a federal arrangement.
The head of state was the monarch of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who was represented in the Netherlands Antilles by a governor. The governor and the council of ministers, chaired by a prime minister, formed the government. The Netherlands Antilles had a unicameral legislature called the Estates of the Netherlands Antilles. Its 22 members were fixed in number for the islands making up the Netherlands Antilles: fourteen for Curaçao, three each for Sint Maarten and Bonaire, and one each for Saba and Sint Eustatius.
The Netherlands Antilles were not part of the European Union, but instead listed as overseas countries and territories (OCTs). This status was kept for all the islands after dissolution, and will be kept until at least 2015.
Tourism, petroleum transshipment and oil refinement (on Curaçao), as well as offshore finance were the mainstays of this small economy, which was closely tied to the outside world. The islands enjoyed a high per capita income and a well-developed infrastructure as compared with other countries in the region.
Almost all consumer and capital goods were imported, with Venezuela, the United States, and Mexico being the major suppliers, as well as the Dutch government which supports the islands with substantial development aid. Poor soils and inadequate water supplies hampered the development of agriculture. The Antillean guilder had a fixed exchange rate with the United States dollar of 1.79:1.
A large percentage of the Netherlands Antilleans descended from European colonists and African slaves who were brought and traded here from the 17th to 19th centuries. The rest of the population originated from other Caribbean islands as well as Latin America, East Asia and elsewhere in the world. In Curaçao there was a strong Jewish element going back to the 17th century.
The language Papiamentu was predominant on Curaçao and Bonaire (as well as the neighboring island of Aruba). This creole descended from Portuguese and West African languages with a strong admixture of Dutch, plus subsequent lexical contributions from Spanish and English. An English-based creole dialect, formally known as Netherlands Antilles Creole, was the native dialect of the inhabitants of Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten.
After a decades-long debate, English and Papiamentu were made official languages alongside Dutch in early March 2007.
Legislation was produced in Dutch, but parliamentary debate was in Papiamentu or English, depending on the island. Due to a massive influx of immigrants from Spanish-speaking territories such as the Dominican Republic in the Windward Islands, and increased tourism from Venezuela in the Leeward Islands, Spanish had also become increasingly used.
The majority of the population were followers of the Christian faith, with a Protestant majority in Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten, and a Roman Catholic majority in Bonaire, Curaçao and Saba. Curaçao also hosted a sizeable group of followers of the Jewish religion, descendants of a Portuguese group of Sephardic Jews that arrived from Amsterdam and Brazil from 1654. In 1982, there was a population of about 2,000 Muslims, with an Islamic association and a mosque in the capital.
Most Netherlands Antilleans were Dutch citizens and this status permitted and encouraged the young and university-educated to emigrate to the Netherlands. This exodus was considered to be to the islands' detriment, as it created a brain drain. On the other hand, immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Anglophone Caribbean and Colombia had increased their presence on these islands in later years.
The origins of the population and location of the islands gave the Netherlands Antilles a mixed culture.
Tourism and overwhelming media presence from the United States increased the regional United States influence. On all the islands, the holiday of Carnival had become an important event after its importation from other Caribbean and Latin American countries in the 1960s. Festivities included "jump-up" parades with beautifully colored costumes, floats, and live bands as well as beauty contests and other competitions. Carnival on the islands also included a middle-of-the-night j'ouvert (juvé) parade that ended at sunrise with the burning of a straw King Momo, cleansing the island of sins and bad luck.
Netherlands Lesser Antilles competed in the Winter Olympics of 1988, notably finishing 29th in the bobsled, ahead of Jamaica who famously competed but finished 30th.
Baseball is by far the most popular sport. Several players have made it to the Major Leagues, such as Xander Bogaerts, Andrelton Simmons, Hensley Meulens, Randall Simon, Andruw Jones, Kenley Jansen, Jair Jurrjens, Roger Bernadina, Sidney Ponson, Didi Gregorius, Shairon Martis, Wladimir Balentien, and Yurendell DeCaster. Xander Bogaerts competed in the 2013 World Series for the Boston Red Sox against the St. Louis Cardinals. Andruw Jones played for the Atlanta Braves in the 1996 World Series hitting two home runs in his first game against the New York Yankees.
Three athletes from the former Netherlands Antilles competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics. They, alongside one athlete from South Sudan, competed under the banner of Independent Olympic Athletes.
The Netherlands Antilles, though a non-existing entity since 2010, are allowed to field teams at the Chess Olympiad under this name, because the Curaçao Chess Federation remains officially registered as representing the dissolved country in the FIDE Directory.
Unlike the metropolitan Netherlands, same-sex marriages were not performed in the Netherlands Antilles, but those performed in other jurisdictions were recognised.
The main prison of the Netherlands Antilles was Koraal Specht, later known as Bon Futuro. It was known for ill treatment of prisoners and bad conditions throughout the years.
The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez claimed that the Netherlands was helping the United States to invade Venezuela due to military games in 2006. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21332 |
Demographics of the Netherlands Antilles
This article is about the demographic features of the population of the former Netherlands Antilles, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
According to the official estimates of the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Netherlands Antilles, the five islands had a combined population of 211,871 as at 1 January 2013. The population of the individual islands was as follows:
For comparison: Aruba - 103,400
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
The capital and largest city was Willemstad.
Age structure:
Population growth rate: 0,79% (2006 est.)
Birth rate: 14,78 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Death rate: 6,45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Human sex ratio:
Infant mortality rate: 9,76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
Total fertility rate: 1.98 children born/woman (2008 est.)
Nationality:
Ethnic groups: mixed black 85%, Carib Amerindian, white, East Asian 15%
Religions: Roman Catholic 72%, Pentecostal 4,9%, Protestant 3.5%, Seventh-day Adventist 3,1%, Methodist 2,9%, other Christian 4,2%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1,7%, Jewish 1,3%
Languages: Dutch, English and Papiamento are official languages. Papiamento (a Portuguese-West African creole with Dutch and Spanish influence) predominates on Curaçao and Bonaire, while English is widely spoken. English is the most commonly spoken language on Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius.
Literacy: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21335 |
Economy of the Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was formally dissolved in 2010.
Tourism, petroleum transshipment, and offshore finance were the mainstays of the economy, which was closely tied to the outside world. The islands enjoyed a high per capita income and a well-developed infrastructure as compared with other countries in the region at the time of the dissolution. Almost all consumer and capital goods were imported, with Venezuela, the United States, and Mexico being the major suppliers. Poor soils and inadequate water supplies hampered the development of agriculture.
Gross Domestic product- $3.81 billion
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $3 600 million (3,6 G$) (2007 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
4,0% (2007 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $19 000 (2007 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
"agriculture:"
1%
"industry:"
15%
"services:"
84% (2007 est.)
Population below poverty line:
NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
"lowest 10%:"
± 1,5%
"highest 10%:"
± 31%
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
3,0% (2007)
Labour force:
83 600 (2005)
Labour force - by occupation:
agriculture 1%, industry 20%, services 79% (2007 est.)
Unemployment rate:
9% (2007 est.)
Budget:
"revenues:"
$757,9 million
"expenditures:"
$949,5 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (2004 est.)
Industries:
tourism (Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Bonaire), petroleum refining (Curaçao), petroleum transhipment facilities (Curaçao and Bonaire), light manufacturing (Curaçao)
Industrial production growth rate:
NA%
Electricity - production:
1 005 GWh (2004)
Electricity - production by source:
"fossil fuel:"
100%
"hydro:"
0%
"nuclear:"
0%
"other:"
0% (1998)
Electricity - consumption:
934,7 GWh (2004)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2004)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2004)
Agriculture - products:
aloes, sorghum, peanuts, vegetables, tropical fruit
Exports:
$2.076 million (f.o.b., 2004)
Exports - commodities:
petroleum products
Exports - partners:
US 32%, Panama 10.1%, Guatemala 7,9%, Haiti 6,4%, The Bahamas 5,1% (2005)
Imports:
$4.383 billion (c.i.f., 2004)
Imports - commodities:
crude petroleum, food, manufactures
Imports - partners:
Venezuela 50%, US 22,2%, Italy 5.2%, Netherlands 5% (2005)
Debt - external:
$2 680 million (2004)
Economic aid - recipient:
IMF provided $61 million in 2000, and the Netherlands continued its support with $40 million (2004)
Currency:
1 Netherlands Antillean guilder, gulden, or florin (NAf.) = 100 cents
Exchange rates:
Netherlands Antillean guilders, gulden, or florins (NAf.) per US$1 – 1.790 (fixed rate since 1989)
Fiscal year:
calendar year | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21337 |
New Caledonia
New Caledonia (; ) is a special collectivity of France, currently governed under the Nouméa Accord, located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, to the south of Vanuatu, about east of Australia and from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. French people, and especially locals, refer to Grande Terre as "" ("the pebble").
New Caledonia has a land area of divided into three provinces. The North and South Provinces are located on the New Caledonian mainland, while the Loyalty Islands Province is a series of islands off the mainland. Its population of 271,407 (October 2019 census) consists of a mix of the original inhabitants, Kanak people, who are the majority in the North Province and the Loyalty Islands Province and people of European descent (Caldoches and Metropolitan French), Polynesian people (mostly Wallisians), and Southeast Asian people, as well as a few people of Pied-Noir and North African descent who are the majority in the South Province. The capital of the territory is Nouméa.
The earliest traces of human presence in New Caledonia date back to the Lapita period c. 1600 BC to c. 500 AD. The Lapita were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists with influence over a large area of the Pacific.
British explorer Captain James Cook was the first European to sight New Caledonia, on 4 September 1774, during his second voyage. He named it "New Caledonia", as the northeast of the island reminded him of Scotland. The west coast of Grande Terre was approached by the Comte de Lapérouse in 1788, shortly before his disappearance, and the Loyalty Islands were first visited between 1793 and 1796 when Mare, Lifou, Tiga, and Ouvea were mapped by William Raven. The English whaler encountered the island named then Britania, and today known as Maré (Loyalty Is.), in November 1793. From 1796 until 1840, only a few sporadic contacts with the archipelago were recorded. About fifty American whalers (identified by Robert Langdon from their log books) have been recorded in the region (Grande Terre, Loyalty Is., Walpole and Hunter) between 1793 and 1887. Contacts with visiting ships became more frequent after 1840, because of their interest in sandalwood.
As trade in sandalwood declined, it was replaced by a new business enterprise, "blackbirding", a euphemism for taking Melanesian or Western Pacific Islanders from New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, New Hebrides, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands into indentured or forced labour in the sugar cane plantations in Fiji and Queensland by various methods of trickery and deception. Blackbirding was practiced by both French and British-Australian traders, but in New Caledonia's case, the trade in the early decades of the twentieth century involved relocating children from the Loyalty Islands to the Grand Terre for labour in plantation agriculture. New Caledonia's primary experience with blackbirding revolved around a trade from the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) to the Grand Terre for labour in plantation agriculture, mines, as well as guards over convicts and in some public works. The historian Dorothy Shineberg's milestone study, The People Trade, discusses this 'migration'. In the early years of the trade, coercion was used to lure Melanesian islanders onto ships. In later years indenture systems were developed; however, when it came to the French slave trade, which took place between its Melanesian colonies of the New Hebrides and New Caledonia, very few regulations were implemented. This represented a departure from the British experience, since increased regulations were developed to mitigate the abuses of blackbirding and 'recruitment' strategies on the coastlines.
The first missionaries from the London Missionary Society and the Marist Brothers arrived in the 1840s. In 1849, the crew of the American ship "Cutter" was killed and eaten by the Pouma clan. Cannibalism was widespread throughout New Caledonia.
On 24 September 1853, under orders from Emperor Napoleon III, Admiral Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of New Caledonia. Captain Louis-Marie-François Tardy de Montravel founded Port-de-France (Nouméa) on 25 June 1854. A few dozen free settlers settled on the west coast in the following years. New Caledonia became a penal colony in 1864, and from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897, France sent about 22,000 criminals and political prisoners to New Caledonia. The "Bulletin de la Société générale des prisons" for 1888 indicates that 10,428 convicts, including 2,329 freed ones, were on the island as of 1 May 1888, by far the largest number of convicts detained in French overseas penitentiaries. The convicts included many Communards, arrested after the failed Paris Commune of 1871, including Henri de Rochefort and Louise Michel. Between 1873 and 1876, 4,200 political prisoners were "relegated" to New Caledonia. Only 40 of them settled in the colony; the rest returned to France after being granted amnesty in 1879 and 1880.
In 1864, nickel was discovered on the banks of the Diahot River; with the establishment of the Société Le Nickel in 1876, mining began in earnest. To work the mines the French imported labourers from neighbouring islands and from the New Hebrides, and later from Japan, the Dutch East Indies, and French Indochina. The French government also attempted to encourage European immigration, without much success.
The indigenous population or Kanak people were excluded from the French economy and from mining work, and ultimately confined to reservations. This sparked a violent reaction in 1878, when High Chief Atal of La Foa managed to unite many of the central tribes and launched a guerrilla war that killed 200 Frenchmen and 1,000 Kanaks. A second guerrilla war took place in 1917, with Catholic missionaries like Maurice Leenhardt functioning as witnesses to the events of this war. Leenhardt would pen a number of ethnographic works on the Kanak of New Caledonia. Noël of Tiamou led the 1917 rebellion, which resulted in a number of orphaned children, one of whom was taken into the care of Protestant missionary Alphonse Rouel. This child, Wenceslas Thi, would become the father of Jean-Marie Tjibaou (1936–1989).
Europeans brought new diseases such as smallpox and measles, which caused the deaths of many natives. The Kanak population declined from around 60,000 in 1878 to 27,100 in 1921, and their numbers did not increase again until the 1930s.
In June 1940, after the fall of France, the "Conseil General" of New Caledonia voted unanimously to support the Free French government, and in September the pro-Vichy governor was forced to leave for Indochina. In March 1942, with the assistance of Australia, the territory became an important Allied base, and the main South Pacific Fleet base of the United States Navy in the South Pacific moved to Nouméa in 1942–1943. The fleet that turned back the Japanese navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 was based at Nouméa. American troops stationed on New Caledonia numbered as many as 50,000, the equivalent of the contemporary population.
In 1946, New Caledonia became an overseas territory. By 1953, French citizenship had been granted to all New Caledonians, regardless of ethnicity.
The European and Polynesian populations gradually increased in the years leading to the nickel boom of 1969–1972, and the indigenous Kanak Melanesians became a minority, though they were still the largest ethnic group.
Between 1976 and 1988, conflicts between French government actions and the Kanak independence movement saw periods of serious violence and disorder. In 1983, a statute of "enlarged autonomy" for the territory proposed a five-year transition period and a referendum in 1989. In March 1984, the Kanak resistance, Front Indépendantiste, seized farms and the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) formed a provisional government. In January 1985, the French Socialist government offered sovereignty to the Kanaks and legal protection for European settlers. The plan faltered as violence escalated. The government declared a state of emergency; however, regional elections went ahead, and the FLNKS won control of three out of four provinces. The centre-right government elected in France in March 1986 began eroding the arrangements established under the Socialists, redistributing lands mostly without consideration of native land claims, resulting in over two-thirds going to Europeans and less than a third to the Kanaks. By the end of 1987, roadblocks, gun battles and the destruction of property culminated in the Ouvéa cave hostage taking, a dramatic hostage crisis on the eve of the presidential elections in France. Pro-independence militants on Ouvéa killed four gendarmes and took 27 hostage. The military response resulted in nineteen Kanak deaths and another three deaths in custody.
The Matignon Agreements, signed on 26 June 1988, ensured a decade of stability. The Nouméa Accord signed 5 May 1998, set the groundwork for a 20-year transition that gradually transfers competences to the local government.
Following the timeline set by the Nouméa Accord that stated a vote must take place by the end of 2018, the groundwork was laid for a referendum on full independence from France at a meeting chaired by the French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe on 2 November 2017, to be held by November 2018. Voter list eligibility had been a subject of a long dispute, but the details have since been resolved. On 20 March 2018, the government announced a referendum that was held on 4 November 2018, with independence being rejected.
New Caledonia is a territory "sui generis" to which France has gradually transferred certain powers. As such its citizens have French nationality and vote for the president of France. They have the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament. It is governed by a 54-member Territorial Congress, a legislative body composed of members of three provincial assemblies. The French State is represented in the territory by a High Commissioner. At a national level, New Caledonia is represented in the French Parliament by two deputies and two senators. At the 2012 French presidential election, the voter turnout in New Caledonia was 61.19%.
For 25 years, the party system in New Caledonia was dominated by the anti-independence The Rally–UMP. This dominance ended with the emergence of a new party, Avenir Ensemble, also opposed to independence, but considered more open to dialogue with the Kanak movement, which is part of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, a coalition of several pro-independence groups.
Kanak society has several layers of customary authority, from the 4,000–5,000 family-based clans to the eight customary areas ("aires coutumières") that make up the territory. Clans are led by clan chiefs and constitute 341 tribes, each headed by a tribal chief. The tribes are further grouped into 57 customary chiefdoms ("chefferies"), each headed by a head chief, and forming the administrative subdivisions of the customary areas.
The Customary Senate is the assembly of the various traditional councils of the Kanaks, and has jurisdiction over the law proposals concerning the Kanak identity. The Customary Senate is composed of 16 members appointed by each traditional council, with two representatives per each customary area. In its advisory role, the Customary Senate must be consulted on law proposals "concerning the Kanak identity" as defined in the Nouméa Accord. It also has a deliberative role on law proposals that would affect identity, the civil customary statute, and the land system. A new president is appointed each year in August or September, and the presidency rotates between the eight customary areas.
Kanak people have recourse to customary authorities regarding civil matters such as marriage, adoption, inheritance, and some land issues. The French administration typically respects decisions made in the customary system. However, their jurisdiction is sharply limited in penal matters, as some matters relating to the customary justice system, including the use of corporal punishment, are seen as clashing with the human rights obligations of France.
The Armed Forces of New Caledonia (, or FANC) include about 2,000 soldiers, mainly deployed in Koumac, Nandaï, Tontouta, Plum, and Nouméa. The land forces consist of a regiment of the Troupes de marine, the Régiment d'infanterie de marine du Pacifique. The naval forces include two P400-class patrol vessels, a BATRAL, and a patrol boat of the Maritime Gendarmerie. The air force is made up of three Casa transport aircraft, four Puma helicopters and a Fennec helicopter, based in Tontouta. In addition, 760 gendarmes are deployed on the archipelago.
New Caledonia has been a member of the Pacific Community since 1983 with Nouméa the home of the organization's regional headquarters. Since 1986, the United Nations Committee on Decolonization has included New Caledonia on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. An independence referendum was held the following year, but independence was rejected by a large majority.
Under the Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998 following a period of secessionist unrest in the 1980s and approved in a referendum, New Caledonia held a second referendum on independence on 4 November 2018, where 56.9% of voters chose to remain with France. On 4 October 2020, there will be another independence referendum. The referendum was rescheduled from 6 September 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The official name of the territory, "Nouvelle-Calédonie", could be changed in the near future due to the accord, which states that "a name, a flag, an anthem, a motto, and the design of banknotes will have to be sought by all parties together, to express the Kanak identity and the future shared by all parties." To date, however, there has been no consensus on a new name for the territory, although "Kanak Republic" is popular among 40% of the population. New Caledonia has increasingly adopted its own symbols, choosing an anthem, a motto, and a new design for its banknotes. In July 2010, New Caledonia adopted the Kanak flag, alongside the existing French tricolor, as dual official flags of the territory. The adoption made New Caledonia one of the few countries or territories in the world with two official national flags. The decision to use two flags has been a constant battleground between the two sides and led the coalition government to collapse in February 2011.
The institutional organization is the result of the organic law and ordinary law passed by the Parliament on 16 February 1999.
The archipelago is divided into three provinces:
New Caledonia is further divided into 33 municipalities: One commune, Poya, is divided between two provinces. The northern half of Poya, with the main settlement and most of the population, is part of the North Province, while the southern half of the commune, with only 210 inhabitants in 2019, is part of the South Province. The communes, with 2019 populations in brackets, and administrative centres, are as follows:
Note: * provincial capital.
New Caledonia is part of Zealandia, a fragment of the ancient Gondwana super-continent. It is speculated that New Caledonia separated from Australia roughly 66 million years ago, subsequently drifting in a north-easterly direction, reaching its present position about 50 million years ago.
The mainland is divided in length by a central mountain range whose highest peaks are Mont Panié () in the north and Mont Humboldt () in the southeast. The east coast is covered by a lush vegetation. The west coast, with its large savannahs and plains suitable for farming, is a drier area. Many ore-rich massifs are found along this coast.
The Diahot River is the longest river of New Caledonia, flowing for some . It has a catchment area of and opens north-westward into the Baie d'Harcourt, flowing towards the northern point of the island along the western escarpment of the Mount Panié. Most of the island is covered by wet evergreen forests, while savannahs dominate the lower elevations. The New Caledonian lagoon, with a total area of is one of the largest lagoons in the world. It is surrounded by the New Caledonia Barrier Reef.
The climate is tropical, with a hot and humid season from November to March with temperatures between 27 °C and 30 °C, and a cooler, dry season from June to August with temperatures between 20 °C and 23 °C, linked by two short interstices. The tropical climate is strongly moderated by the oceanic influence and the trade winds that attenuate humidity, which can be close to 80%. The average annual temperature is 23 °C, with historical extremes of 2.3 °C and 39.1 °C.
The rainfall records show that precipitation differs greatly within the island. The of rainfall recorded in Galarino are three times the average of the west coast. There are also dry periods, because of the effects of El Niño. Between December and April, tropical depressions and cyclones can cause winds to exceed a speed of , with gusts of and very abundant rainfall. The last cyclone affecting New Caledonia was Cyclone Cook, in January 2017.
New Caledonia has many unique taxa, especially birds and plants. It has the richest diversity in the world per square kilometre. In its botany not only species but entire genera, families, and even orders are unique to the island, and survive nowhere else. The biodiversity is caused by Grande Terre's central mountain range, which has created a variety of niches, landforms and micro-climates where endemic species thrive.
Bruno Van Peteghem was in 2001 awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his efforts on behalf of the Caledonian ecological protection movement in the face of "serious challenges" from Jacques Lafleur's RPCR party. Progress has been made in a few areas in addressing the protection of New Caledonia's ecological diversity from fire, industrial and residential development, unrestricted agricultural activity and mining (such as the judicial revocation of INCO's mining license in June 2006 owing to claimed abuses).
New Caledonia's fauna and flora derive from ancestral species isolated in the region when it broke away from Gondwana many tens of millions of years ago. Not only endemic species have evolved here, but entire genera, families, and even orders are unique to the islands.
More tropical gymnosperm species are endemic to New Caledonia than to any similar region on Earth. Of the 44 indigenous species of gymnosperms, 43 are endemic, including the only known parasitic gymnosperm ("Parasitaxus usta"). Also, of the 35 known species of "Araucaria", 13 are endemic to New Caledonia. New Caledonia also has the world's most divergent lineage of flowering plant, "Amborella trichopoda", which is at, or near, the base of the clade of all flowering plants.
The world's largest extant species of fern, "Cyathea intermedia", also is endemic to New Caledonia. It is very common on acid ground, and grows about one metre per year on the east coast, usually on fallow ground or in forest clearings. There also are other species of "Cyathea", notably "Cyathea novae-caledoniae".
New Caledonia also is one of five regions on the planet where species of southern beeches ("Nothofagus") are indigenous; five species are known to occur here.
New Caledonia has its own version of maquis ("maquis minier") occurring on metalliferous soils, mostly in the south. The soils of ultramafic rocks (mining terrains) have been a refuge for many native flora species which are adapted to the toxic mineral content of the soils, to which most foreign species of plants are poorly suited, which has therefore prevented invasion into the habitat or displacement of indigenous plants.
New Caledonia is home to the New Caledonian crow, a bird noted for its tool-making abilities, which rival those of primates. These crows are renowned for their extraordinary intelligence and ability to fashion tools to solve problems, and make the most complex tools of any animal yet studied apart from humans.
The endemic kagu, agile and able to run quickly, is a flightless bird, but it is able to use its wings to climb branches or glide. It is the surviving member of monotypic family Rhynochetidae, order Gruiformes.
There are 11 endemic fish species and 14 endemic species of decapod crustaceans in the rivers and lakes of New Caledonia. Some, such as "Neogalaxias", exist only in small areas. The nautilus—considered a living fossil and related to the ammonites, which became extinct at the end of the Mesozoic era—occurs in Pacific waters around New Caledonia. There is a large diversity of marine fish in the surrounding waters, which are within the extents of the Coral Sea.
Several species of New Caledonia are remarkable for their size: "Ducula goliath" is the largest extant species of pigeon; "Rhacodactylus leachianus", the largest gecko in the world; "Phoboscincus bocourti", a large skink thought to be extinct until rediscovered in 2003.
Much of New Caledonia's fauna present before human settlement is now extinct including "Sylviornis" a bird over a metre tall not closely related to any living species, and "Meiolania" a giant horned turtle that diverged from living turtles during the Jurassic period.
At the last census in 2019, New Caledonia had a population of 271,407. Of these, 18,353 live in the Loyalty Islands Province, 49,912 in the North Province, and 203,142 in the South Province. Population growth has slowed down recently with a yearly increase of 0.2% between 2014 and 2019.
Natural growth is responsible for 65% of the population growth, while the remaining 35% is attributable to net migration. The population growth is strong in South Province (2.3% per year between 1989 and 2014), moderate in North Province (1.5%), but almost stable in the Loyalty Islands, which are slowly gaining inhabitants (0.1%).
Over 40% of the population is under 20, although the ratio of older people on the total population is increasing. Two residents of New Caledonia out of three live in Greater Nouméa. Three out of four were born in New Caledonia. The total fertility rate went from 3.2 children per woman in 2004 to 2.3 in 2014.
At the 2014 census, 39.1% of the population reported belonging to the Kanak community (down from 40.3% at the 2009 census), 27.2% to the European (Caldoche and Zoreille) community (down from 29.2% at the 2009 census), and 8.7% declared their community as "Caledonian" and other (up from 6.0% at the 2009 census). Most of the people who self-identified as "Caledonian" are thought to be ethnically European.
The other self-reported communities were Wallisians and Futunians (8.2% of the total population, down from 8.7% at the 2009 census), Indonesians (3.4% of the total population, up from 1.6% at the 2009 census), Tahitians (2.1% of the total population, up from 2.0% at the 2009 census), Ni-Vanuatu (1.0%, up from 0.9% at the 2009 census), Vietnamese (0.9%, down from 1.0% at the 2009 census), and other Asians (primarily ethnic Chinese; 0.4% of the total population, down from 0.8% at the 2009 census).
Finally 8.6% of the population reported belonging to multiple communities (mixed race) (up from 8.3% at the 2009 census), and 2.5% refused to report any community (up from 1.2% at the 2009 census). The question on community belonging, which had been left out of the 2004 census, was reintroduced in 2009 under a new formulation, different from the 1996 census, allowing multiple choices (mixed race) and the possibility to clarify the choice "other".
The Kanak people, part of the Melanesian group, are indigenous to New Caledonia. Their social organization is traditionally based on clans, which identify as either "land" or "sea" clans, depending on their original location and the occupation of their ancestors. According to the 2014 census, the Kanak constitute 94% of the population in the Loyalty Islands Province, 70% in the North Province and 26% in the South Province. The Kanak tend to be of lower socio-economic status than the Europeans and other settlers.
Europeans first settled in New Caledonia when France established a penal colony on the archipelago. Once the prisoners had completed their sentences, they were given land to settle. According to the 2014 census, of the 73,199 Europeans in New Caledonia 30,484 were native-born, 36,975 were born in Metropolitan France, 488 were born in French Polynesia, 86 were born in Wallis and Futuna, and 5,166 were born abroad. The Europeans are divided into several groups: the Caldoches are usually defined as those born in New Caledonia who have ancestral ties that span back to the early French settlers. They often settled in the rural areas of the western coast of Grande Terre, where many continue to run large cattle properties.
Distinct from the Caldoches are those who were born in New Caledonia from families that had settled more recently, and are called simply Caledonians. The Metropolitan French-born migrants who come to New Caledonia are called "Métros" or "Zoreilles", indicating their origins in metropolitan France. There is also a community of about 2,000 pieds noirs, descended from European settlers in France's former North African colonies; some of them are prominent in anti-independence politics, including Pierre Maresca, a leader of the RPCR.
A 2015 documentary by Al Jazeera English asserted that up to 10% of New Caledonia's population is descended from around 2,000 Arab-Berber people deported from French Algeria in the late 19th century to prisons on the island in reprisal for the Mokrani Revolt in 1871. After serving their sentences, they were released and given land to own and cultivate as part of colonisation efforts on the island. As the overwhelming majority of the Algerians imprisoned on New Caledonia were men, the community was continued through intermarriage with women of other ethnic groups, mainly French women from nearby women's prisons. Despite facing both assimilation into the Euro-French population and discrimination for their ethnic background, descendants of the deportees have succeeded in preserving a common identity as Algerians, including maintaining certain cultural practices (such as Arabic names) and in some cases Islamic religion. Some travel to Algeria as a rite of passage, though obtaining Algerian citizenship is often a difficult process. The largest population of Algerian-Caledonians lives in the commune of Bourail (particularly in the district, where there is an Islamic cultural centre and ), with smaller communities in Nouméa, Conné, Blambut, and Surianté.
The French language began to spread with the establishment of French settlements, and French is now spoken even in the most secluded villages. The level of fluency, however, varies significantly across the population as a whole, primarily due to the absence of universal access to public education before 1953, but also due to immigration and ethnic diversity. At the 2009 census, 97.3% of people aged 15 or older reported that they could speak, read and write French, whereas only 1.1% reported that they had no knowledge of French. Other significant language communities among immigrant populations are those of Wallisian and Javanese language speakers.
The 28 Kanak languages spoken in New Caledonia are part of the Oceanic group of the Austronesian family. Kanak languages are taught from kindergarten (four languages are taught up to the bachelor's degree) and an academy is responsible for their promotion. The three most widely spoken indigenous languages are Drehu (spoken in Lifou), Nengone (spoken on Maré) and Paicî (northern part of Grande Terre). Others include Iaai (spoken on Ouvéa). At the 2009 census, 35.8% of people aged 15 or older reported that they could speak (but not necessarily read or write) one of the indigenous Melanesian languages, whereas 58.7% reported that they had no knowledge of any of them.
The predominant religion is Christianity; half of the population is Roman Catholic, including most of the Europeans, Uveans, and Vietnamese and half of the Melanesian and Polynesian minorities. Roman Catholicism was introduced by French colonists. The island also has numerous Protestant churches, of which the Free Evangelical Church and the Evangelical Church in New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands have the largest number of adherents; their memberships are almost entirely Melanesian. Protestantism gained ground in the late 20th century and continues to expand. There are also numerous other Christian groups and more than 6,000 Muslims. See Islam in New Caledonia and Bahá'í Faith in New Caledonia. Nouméa is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nouméa
Education in New Caledonia is based on the French curriculum and delivered by both French teachers and French–trained teachers. Under the terms of the 1998 Nouméa Accord, primary education is the responsibility of the three provinces. As of 2010, secondary education was in the process of being transferred to the provinces. The majority of schools are located in Nouméa but some are found in the islands and the north of New Caledonia. When students reach high school age, most are sent to Nouméa to continue their secondary education. Education is compulsory from the age of six years.
New Caledonia's main tertiary education institution is the University of New Caledonia ("Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie"), which was founded in 1993 and comes under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It is based in Nouméa and offers a range of vocational, Bachelor, MA, and PhD programmes and courses. The University of New Caledonia consists of three academic departments, one institute of technology, one PhD school, and one teacher's college. As of 2013, the University has approximately 3,000 students, 107 academics, and 95 administrative and library staff. Many New Caledonian students also pursue scholarships to study in metropolitan France. As part of the Nouméa Accord process, a "Cadre Avenir" provides scholarships for Kanak professionals to study in France.
New Caledonia has one of the largest economies in the South Pacific, with a GDP of US$9.89 billion in 2011. The nominal GDP per capita was US$38,921 (at market exchange rates) in 2011. It is higher than New Zealand's, though there is significant inequality in income distribution, and long-standing structural imbalances between the economically dominant South Province and the less developed North Province and Loyalty Islands. The currency in use in New Caledonia is the CFP franc, as of May 2020, pegged to the euro at a rate of 119.3 CFP to 1.00 euros. It is issued by the Institut d’Émission d'Outre-Mer.
Real GDP grew by 3.8% in 2010 and 3.2% in 2011, boosted by rising worldwide nickel prices and an increase in domestic demand due to rising employment, as well as strong business investments. In 2011, exports of goods and services from New Caledonia amounted to 2.11 billion US dollars, 75.6% of which were mineral products and alloys (mainly nickel ore and ferronickel). Imports of goods and services amounted to 5.22 billion US dollars. 22.1% of the imports of goods came from Metropolitan France and its overseas departments, 16.1% from other countries in the European Union, 14.6% from Singapore (essentially fuel), 9.6% from Australia, 4.5% from the United States, 4.2% from New Zealand, 2.0% from Japan, and 27.0% from other countries. The trade deficit in goods and services stood at 3.11 billion US dollars in 2011.
Financial support from France is substantial, representing more than 15% of the GDP, and contributes to the health of the economy. Tourism is underdeveloped, with 100,000 visitors a year, compared to 400,000 in the Cook Islands and 200,000 in Vanuatu. Much of the land is unsuitable for agriculture, and food accounts for about 20% of imports. According to FAOSTAT, New Caledonia is one of world's largest producers of: yams (33rd); taro (44th); plantains (50th); coconuts (52nd). The exclusive economic zone of New Caledonia covers . The construction sector accounts for roughly 12% of GDP, employing 9.9% of the salaried population in 2010. Manufacturing is largely confined to small-scale activities such as the transformation of foodstuffs, textiles and plastics.
New Caledonian soils contain about 25% of the world's nickel resources. The late-2000s recession has gravely affected the nickel industry, as the sector faced a significant drop in nickel prices (−31.0% year-on-year in 2009) for the second consecutive year. The fall in prices has led a number of producers to reduce or stop altogether their activity, resulting in a reduction of the global supply of nickel by 6% compared to 2008.
This context, combined with bad weather, has forced the operators in the sector to revise downwards their production target. Thus, the activity of mineral extraction has declined by 8% in volume year on year. The share of the nickel sector as a percentage of GDP fell from 8% in 2008 to 5% in 2009. A trend reversal and a recovery in demand have been recorded early in the second half of 2009, allowing a 2.0% increase in the local metal production.
Historically, nickel was transported by wire ropeway to ships waiting offshore.
Wood carving, especially of the houp ("Montrouziera cauliflora"), is a contemporary reflection of the beliefs of the traditional tribal society, and includes totems, masks, chambranles, or flèche faîtière, a kind of arrow that adorns the roofs of Kanak houses. Basketry is a craft widely practiced by tribal women, creating objects of daily use.
The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano and opened in 1998, is the icon of the Kanak culture.
The Kaneka is a form of local music, inspired by reggae and originating in the 1980s.
The Mwâ Ka is a 12m totem pole commemorating the French annexation of New Caledonia, and was inaugurated in 2005.
"Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes" is the only daily newspaper in the archipelago. A monthly publication, "Le Chien bleu", parodies the news from New Caledonia.
There are five radio stations: the public service broadcaster RFO radio Nouvelle-Calédonie, Océane FM (the collectivity's newest station), the youth-oriented station NRJ, Radio Djiido (established by Jean-Marie Tjibaou), and Radio Rythmes Bleus. The last two stations are primarily targeted to the various Kanak groups who are indigenous to New Caledonia ("Djiido" is a term from the Fwâi language, spoken in Hienghène in the North Province, denoting a metal spike used to secure straw thatching to the roof of a traditional Kanak house).
As for television, the public service broadcaster France Télévision operates a local channel, Réseau Outre-Mer 1re, along with France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5, France Ô, France 24 and Arte. Canal Plus Calédonie carries 17 digital channels in French, including Canal+ and TF1. Analogue television broadcasts ended in September 2011, completing the digital television transition in New Caledonia. Bids for two new local television stations, NCTV and NC9, were considered by the French broadcasting authorities. NCTV was launched in December 2013.
The media are considered to be able to operate freely, but Reporters Without Borders raised concerns in 2006 about "threats and intimidation" of RFO staff by members of a pro-independence group.
The largest sporting event to be held in New Caledonia is a round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC).
The New Caledonia football team began playing in 1950, and was admitted into FIFA, the international association of football leagues, in 2004. Prior to joining FIFA, New Caledonia held observer status with the Oceania Football Confederation, and became an official member of the OFC with its FIFA membership. They have won the South Pacific Games five times, most recently in 2007, and have placed third on two occasions in the OFC Nations Cup. Christian Karembeu is a prominent New Caledonian former footballer. The under-17 team qualified for the FIFA under 17 World Cup in 2017.
Horse racing is also very popular in New Caledonia, as are women's cricket matches.
The rugby league team participated in the Pacific Cup in 2004.
New Caledonia also has a national synchronised swimming team, which tours abroad.
The "Tour Cycliste de Nouvelle-Calédonie" is a multi-day cycling stage race that is held usually in October. The race is organised by the Comite Cycliste New Caledonia. The race attracts riders from Australia, New Zealand, France, Réunion, Europe and Tahiti. Australian Brendan Washington has finished last three times in the race between 2005–2009, and is known in New Caledonia as "The Lanterne Rouge".
The New Caledonia Handball team won the Oceania Handball Nations Cup in 2008 held in Wellington, New Zealand. They beat Australia in the final.
The Internationaux de Nouvelle-Calédonie is a tennis tournament that is held in the first week of January. Since 2004, the tournament is part of the ATP Challenger Tour, and players usually compete as a preparation for the Australian Open. the first Grand Slam of the year.
Due to low levels of domestic horticulture, fresh tropical fruits feature less highly in New Caledonian cuisine than in other Pacific nations, instead relying on rice, fish and root vegetables such as taro. One way this is frequently prepared is in a buried-oven-style feast, known as "Bougna". Wrapped in banana leaves, the fish, taro, banana and other seafood are buried with hot rocks to cook, then dug up and eaten.
La Tontouta International Airport is northwest of Nouméa, and connects New Caledonia with the airports of Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Osaka, Papeete, Fiji, Wallis, Port Vila, Seoul, and St. Denis. Most internal air services are operated by the International carrier Aircalin. Cruise ships dock at the Gare Maritime in Nouméa. The passenger-and-cargo boat "Havannah" sails to Port Vila, Malicolo and Santo in Vanuatu once a month.
New Caledonia's road network consists of: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21342 |
Geography of New Caledonia
The geography of New Caledonia ("Nouvelle-Calédonie"), an overseas collectivity of France located in the subregion of Melanesia, makes the continental island group unique in the southwest Pacific. Among other things, the island chain has played a role in preserving unique biological lineages from the Mesozoic. It served as a waystation in the expansion of the predecessors of the Polynesians, the Lapita culture. Under the Free French it was a vital naval base for Allied Forces during the War in the Pacific.
The archipelago is located east of Australia, north of New Zealand, south of the Equator, and just west of Fiji and Vanuatu. New Caledonia comprises a main island, Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands. Approximately half the size of Taiwan, the group has a land area of . The islands have a coastline of . New Caledonia claims an exclusive fishing zone to a distance of and a territorial sea of from shore.
New Caledonia is one of the northernmost parts of an almost entirely (93%) submerged continent called Zealandia which rifted away from Antarctica between 130 and 85 million years ago (mya), and from Australia 85–60 mya. (Most of the elongated triangular continental mass of Zealandia is a subsurface plateau. New Zealand is a mountainous above-water promontory in its center, and New Caledonia is a promontory ridge on the continent's northern edge.) New Caledonia itself drifted away from Australia 66 mya, and subsequently drifted in a north-easterly direction, reaching its present position about 50 mya. Given its long stability and isolation, New Caledonia serves as a unique island refugium—a sort of biological 'ark'—hosting a unique ecosystem and preserving Gondwanan plant and animal lineages no longer found elsewhere.
New Caledonia is made up of a main island, the Grande Terre, and several smaller islands, the Belep archipelago to the north of the Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands to the east of the Grande Terre, the (Isle of Pines) to the south of the Grande Terre, the Chesterfield Islands and Bellona Reefs further to the west. Each of these four island groups has a different geological origin:
The Grande Terre is by far the largest of the islands, and the only mountainous island. It has an area of , and is elongated northwest–southeast, in length and wide. A mountain range runs the length of the island, with five peaks over . The highest point is Mont Panié at elevation. The total area of New Caledonia is , of those being land.
A territorial dispute exists with regard to the uninhabited Matthew and Hunter Islands, which are claimed by both France (as part of New Caledonia) and Vanuatu.
The New Caledonian archipelago is a microcontinental island chain which originated as a fragment of Zealandia, a nearly submerged continent or microcontinent which was part of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana during the time of the dinosaurs. The Grande Terre group of New Caledonia, with Mont Panié at as its highest point, is the most elevated part of the Norfolk Ridge, a long and mostly underwater arm of the continent. While they were still one landmass, Zealandia and Australia combined broke away from Antarctica between 85 and 130 million years ago. Australia and Zealandia split apart 60–85 million years ago. Although biologists consider it contrary to the evidence of surviving Gondwanan lineages, geologists consider the logical possibility that Zealandia may have been completely submerged about 23 million years ago. While a continent like Australia consists of a large body of land surrounded by a fringe of continental shelf, Zealandia consists almost entirely of continental shelf, with the vast majority, some 93%, submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean. This viewpoint is not universal. Bernard Pelletier argues that Grande Terre was completely submerged for millions of years, and hence the origin of the flora may not be local in nature, but due to long distance-dispersal.
Zealandia is in area, larger than Greenland or India, and almost half the size of Australia. It is unusually slender, stretching from New Caledonia in the north to beyond New Zealand's subantarctic islands in the south (from latitude 19° south to 56° south, analogous to ranging from Haiti to Hudson Bay or from Sudan to Sweden in the Northern Hemisphere). New Zealand is the greatest part of Zealandia above sea level, followed by New Caledonia.
Given its continental origin as a fragment of Zealandia, unlike many of the islands of the Pacific such as the Hawaiian chain, New Caledonia is not of geographically recent volcanic provenance. Its separation from Australia at the end of the Cretaceous (65 mya) and from New Zealand in the mid-Miocene has led to a long period of evolution in near complete isolation. New Caledonia’s natural heritage significantly comprises species whose ancestors were ancient and primitive flora and fauna present on New Caledonia when it broke away from Gondwana millions of years ago, not only species but entire genera and even families are unique to the island, and survive nowhere else.
Since the age of the dinosaurs, as the island moved north due to the effects of continental drift, some geologists assert that it may have been fully submerged at various intervals. Botanists, however, argue that there must have been some areas that remained above sea level, serving as refugia for the descendants of the original flora that inhabited the island when it broke away from Gondwana. The isolation of New Caledonia was not absolute, however. New species came to New Caledonia while species of Gondwanan origin were able to penetrate further eastward into the Pacific Island region.
The climate of New Caledonia is tropical, modified by southeasterly trade winds. It is hot and humid. Natural hazards are posed in New Caledonia by cyclones, which occur most frequently between November and March. While rainfall in the neighboring Vanuatu islands averages two meters annually, from the north of New Caledonia to the south the rain decreases to a little over . The mean annual temperature drops over the same interval from , and seasonality becomes more pronounced. The capital, Nouméa, located on a peninsula on the southwestern coast of the island normally has a dry season which increases in intensity from August until mid-December, ending suddenly with the coming of rain in January. The northeastern coast of the island receives the most rain, with having been recorded near sea level in Pouébo.
The terrain of Grande Terre consists of coastal plains, with mountains in the interior. The lowest point is the Pacific Ocean, with an elevation of 0 m, and the highest is Mont Panie, with an elevation of .
The Diahot River is the longest river of New Caledonia, flowing for some 60 miles (100 kilometres). It has a catchment area of 620 square kilometres and opens north-westward into the Baie d'Harcourt, flowing towards the northern point of the island along the western escarpment of the Mount Panie.
In 1993, 12% of New Caledonian land was used for permanent pasture, with 39% occupied by forests and woodland. In 1991, of the land was irrigated. A current environmental issue is erosion caused by mining exploitation and forest fires.
Given its geographical isolation since the end of the Cretaceous, New Caledonia is a refugium, in effect a biological "Noah's Ark", an island home to both unique living plants and animals and also to its own special fossil endowment. Birds such as the crested and almost flightless kagu (French, "cagou") "Rhynochetos jubatus", whose closest relative may be the distantly related sunbittern of South America, and plants such as "Amborella trichopoda", the only known member of the most basal living branch of flowering plants, make this island a treasure trove and a critical concern for biologists and conservationists. The island was home to horned fossil turtles ("Meiolania mackayi") and terrestrial fossil crocodiles ("Mekosuchus inexpectatus") which became extinct shortly after human arrival. There are no native amphibians, with geckos holding many of their niches. The crested gecko ("Correlophus ciliatus"), thought to have gone extinct, was rediscovered in 1994. At 14 inches, Leach's giant gecko ("Rhacodactylus leachianus"), the world's largest and a predator of smaller lizards is another native. The only native mammals are four species of bat including the endemic New Caledonia flying fox.
New Caledonia is home to 13 of the 19 extant species of evergreens in the genus "Araucaria". The island has been called "a kind of 'Jurassic Park'" because of the archaic characteristics of its highly endemic vegetation. In addition to the basal angiosperm plant genus "Amborella", for example, the island is home to more gymnosperm species than any other tropic landmass, with 43 of its 44 conifer species being unique to the island, which is also home to the world's only known parasitic gymnosperm, the rootless conifer "Parasitaxus usta".
Given their prehistoric appearance, the dry forests of western New Caledonia were chosen as the location for filming the first episode of the BBC miniseries Walking with Dinosaurs, which was set in the Arizona of the late Triassic.
After a formation discovered in Oman in the 1970s, New Caledonia has the planet's largest known outcrop of ultrabasic rock, derived not from the crust, but from an upthrust fold of the more deeply underlying mantle of the earth. These mineral-rich rocks are a source of nickel, chromium, iron, cobalt, manganese, silver, gold, lead and copper. The toxicity of the mineral-rich soil has helped preserve the endemic vegetation, which has long been adapted to it, from competition from would-be colonizers which find it unsuitable.
Anthropologically, New Caledonia is considered the southernmost archipelago of Melanesia, grouping it with the more close-by islands to its north, rather than its geologically associated neighbour, New Zealand, to the south. The New Caledonian languages, whose speakers are called Kanaks, and the dialects of the Loyalty Islands find their closest relatives in the languages of Vanuatu to the east. Together, these comprise the Southern Oceanic language family, a member of the Oceanic language branch of the Austronesian language family. The Fijian languages, the Maori language of New Zealand, and other Polynesian languages such as Tahitian, Samoan and Hawaiian are cousins of the New Caledonian languages within the Oceanic language family.
Linguistic analysis using the comparative method provides a detailed family tree of the Austronesian languages to which the native languages of New Caledonia belong. The Lapita culture, hypothesized to have spoken proto-Oceanic, and defined by its typical style of pottery, originated to the northwest in the Bismarck Archipelago around 1500 BC. The earliest known human settlement of New Caledonia, dated to 1240 ±220 BC at the Tiwi rockshelter, is attributed to the Lapitans, who then moved on to Fiji by approximately 900 BC, whence the Polynesian expansion would begin.
Western colonization of the area began in the 18th century. The British explorer James Cook sighted Grande Terre in 1774 and named it New Caledonia, Caledonia being Latin for Scotland. In 1853, under Napoleon III, the area was made a French colony. The French brought colonial subjects such as Arabs from the Maghreb to settle in the territory. Given its strategic location and that it was unoccupied by Japanese troops it played a vital role under the Free French Forces as an Allied Forces naval base during the Second World War.
Today, while French is the official language, 28 indigenous tongues are still spoken. At the 2004 census, 97.0% reported they could speak French, whereas only 0.97% reported that they had no knowledge of French. In the same census, 37.1% reported that they could speak (but not necessarily read or write) one of the 28 indigenous Austronesian languages.
At the 1996 census, the indigenous Melanesian Kanak community represented 44.6% of the whole population. They are no longer a majority, their proportion of the population having declined due to immigration and other factors. The rest of the population is made up of ethnic groups that arrived in New Caledonia in the last 150 years: Europeans (34.5%) (predominantly French, with German, British and Italian minorities), Polynesians (Wallisians, Tahitians) (11.8%), Indonesians (2.6%), Vietnamese (1.4%), Ni-Vanuatu (1.2%), and various other groups (3.9%), Tamils, other South Asians, Berbers, Japanese, Chinese, Fijians, Arabs, West Indian (mostly from other French territories) and a small number of ethnic Africans.
"Other microcontinental islands:" | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21344 |
Demographics of New Caledonia
This article is about the demographic features of the population of New Caledonia, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Ethnic Melanesians known as Kanak constituted 39% of the population in 2014, followed by Europeans with 27%. The Europeans are the largest ethnic group in the province Sud (South), while Kanak are the majority in the two other provinces. There is also a large minority from other Polynesian islands, mainly from Wallis and Futana (8%), but also from Tahiti (2%) and Vanuatu (1%). The remainder of the population (23%) is mainly from Asian countries.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21345 |
Politics of New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a French sui generis collectivity with a system of government based on parliamentarism and representative democracy. The President of the Government is the head of government, and there is a multi-party system, with Executive power being exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Congress of New Caledonia. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Article 77 of the Constitution of France and the Organic Law 99-209 confers a unique status on New Caledonia between that of an independent country and a regular "collectivité d'outre-mer" or overseas "collectivité" of France. A territorial congress and government have been established, and the 1998 Nouméa Accord organized a devolution of powers. Key areas such as taxation, labor law, health and hygiene and foreign trade are already in the hands of the Congress. Further powers will supposedly be given to the Congress in the near future.
Under article 4 of the Organic Law 99-209 a New Caledonian "citizenship" has also been introduced: only New Caledonian "citizens" (defined by article 188) have the right to vote in the local elections. This measure has been criticized, because it creates a second-class status for French citizens living in New Caledonia who do not possess New Caledonian "citizenship" (because they settled in the territory recently). New Caledonia is also allowed to engage in international cooperation with independent countries of the Pacific Ocean. Finally, the territorial Congress is allowed to pass statutes that are contrary to French law in a certain number of areas.
On the other hand, New Caledonia remains an integral part of the French Republic. Inhabitants of New Caledonia are French citizens and carry French passports. They take part in the legislative and presidential French elections. New Caledonia sends to the French National Assembly and two senators to the French Senate. The representative of the French central state in New Caledonia is the High Commissioner of the Republic ("Haut-Commissaire de la République", locally known as ""haussaire""), who is the head of civil services, and who sits in the government of the territory.
The Nouméa Accord stipulates that the Congress will have the right to call for a referendum on independence after 2014, at a time of its choosing. Following the timeline set by the Nouméa Accord, the groundwork was laid for a Referendum on full independence from France at a meeting chaired by the French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe on 2 November 2017, with the referendum to be held by November 2018. Voter list eligibility had been a subject of a long dispute, but the details have were resolved at this meeting. In the 2018 referendum, voters narrowly chose to remain a part of France.
The current president of the government elected by the Congress is Thierry Santa, from the loyalist (i.e. anti-independence) The Rally political party.
The high commissioner is appointed by the French president on the advice of the French Ministry of Interior. The president of the government is elected by the members of the Territorial Congress.
The Congress ("Congrès") has 54 members, being the members of the three regional councils, all elected for a five-year term by proportional representation. Furthermore, there is a 16-member Kanak Customary Senate (two members from each of the eight customary aires).
Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; County Courts; Joint Commerce Tribunal Court; Children's Court
New Caledonia is divided into three provinces: "Province des Îles", "Province Nord", and "Province Sud" - which are further subdivided into 33 communes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21346 |
Telecommunications in New Caledonia
Country calling code: 687
Telephones - main lines in use:
53,300 (2004) (up from 44,000 in 1995)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
116,400 (2004) (up from 825 in 1995)
Telephone system:
"domestic:"
NA
"international:"
satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 1, FM 5, Digital Radio Oceane, shortwave 0 (2009)
Radios:
107,000 (1997)
Television broadcast stations:
6 (plus 25 low-power repeaters) (1997)
Televisions:
52,000 (1997)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
1 (1999)
Country code (Top level domain): NC | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21348 |
Geography of New Zealand
New Zealand ("") is an island country located in the south-western Pacific Ocean, near the centre of the water hemisphere. It consists of a large number of islands, estimated around 600, mainly remnants of a larger land mass now beneath the sea. The two main islands by size are the North Island (or "Te Ika-a-Māui") and the South Island (or "Te Waipounamu"), separated by the Cook Strait. The third-largest is Stewart Island (or "Rakiura"), located off the tip of the South Island across Foveaux Strait. Other islands are significantly smaller in area. The three largest islands stretch across latitudes 34° to 47° south. New Zealand is the sixth-largest island country in the world, with a land size of .
New Zealand's terrain ranges from the fiord-like sounds of the southwest to the sandy beaches of the far north. The South Island is dominated by the Southern Alps while a volcanic plateau covers much of the central North Island. Temperatures rarely fall below 0 °C or rise above 30 °C and conditions vary from wet and cold on the South Island's west coast to dry and continental a short distance away across the mountains and near subtropical in the northern reaches of the North Island.
About two-thirds of the land is economically useful, the remainder being mountainous. The vast majority of New Zealand's population lives on the North and South Islands. The largest urban area is Auckland, in the north of the North Island.
The country is situated about south-east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, its closest neighbours to the north being New Caledonia, Tonga and Fiji. It is the southernmost nation in Oceania. The relative proximity of New Zealand north of Antarctica has made the South Island a gateway for scientific expeditions to the continent.
New Zealand is located in the South Pacific Ocean at , near the centre of the water hemisphere. It is a long and narrow country, extending along its north-north-east axis with a maximum width of . The land size of makes it the sixth-largest island country. New Zealand consists of a large number of islands, estimated around 600. The islands give it of coastline and extensive marine resources. New Zealand claims the 9th largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering , more than 15 times its land area.
The South Island is the largest land mass of New Zealand, and is the 12th-largest island in the world. The island is divided along its length by the Southern Alps. The east side of the island has the Canterbury Plains while the West Coast is famous for its rough coastlines, high rainfall, very high proportion of native bush, and glaciers.
The North Island is the second-largest island, and the 14th-largest in the world. It is separated from the South Island by the Cook Strait, with the shortest distance being . The North Island is less mountainous than the South Island, although a series of narrow mountain ranges form a roughly north-east belt that rises up to . Much of the surviving forest is located in this belt, and in other mountain areas and rolling hills. The North Island has many isolated volcanic peaks.
Besides the North and South Islands, the five largest inhabited islands are Stewart Island ( due south of the South Island), Chatham Island (some east of the South Island), Great Barrier Island (in the Hauraki Gulf), D'Urville Island (in the Marlborough Sounds) and Waiheke Island (about from central Auckland).
The phrase "From Cape Reinga to The Bluff" is frequently used within New Zealand to refer to the extent of the whole country. Cape Reinga is northwesternmost tip of the Aupouri Peninsula, at the northern end of the North Island. Bluff is Invercargill's port, located near the southern tip of the South Island, below the 46th parallel south. However, the extreme points of New Zealand are actually located in several outlying islands.
The points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location in New Zealand are as follows:
New Zealand is largely antipodal to the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. The northern half of the South Island corresponds to Galicia and northern Portugal. Most of the North Island corresponds to central and southern Spain, from Valladolid (opposite the southern point of the North Island, Cape Palliser), through Madrid and Toledo to Cordoba (directly antipodal to Hamilton), Lorca (opposite East Cape), Málaga (Cape Colville), and Gibraltar. Parts of the Northland Peninsula oppose Morocco, with Whangarei nearly coincident with Tangiers. The antipodes of the Chatham Islands lie in France, just north of the city of Montpellier. The Antipodes Islands were named for their supposed antipodal position to Britain; although they are the closest land to the true antipodes of Britain, their location 49°41′S 178°48′E is directly antipodal to a point a few kilometres to the east of Cherbourg on the north coast of France.
In Europe the term "Antipodes" is often used to refer to New Zealand and Australia (and sometimes other South Pacific areas), and "Antipodeans" to their inhabitants.
New Zealand is part of Zealandia, a microcontinent nearly half the size of Australia that gradually submerged after breaking away from the Gondwanan supercontinent. Zealandia extends a significant distance east into the Pacific Ocean and south towards Antarctica. It also extends towards Australia in the north-west. This submerged continent is dotted with topographic highs that sometimes form islands. Some of these, such as the main islands (North and South), Stewart Island, New Caledonia, and the Chatham Islands, are settled. Other smaller islands are eco-sanctuaries with carefully controlled access.
The New Zealand land mass has been uplifted due to transpressional tectonics between the Indo-Australian Plate and Pacific plates (these two plates are grinding together with one riding up and over the other). This is the cause of New Zealand's numerous earthquakes and volcanoes.
To the east of the North Island the Pacific Plate is forced under the Indo-Australian Plate. The North Island of New Zealand has widespread back-arc volcanism as a result of this subduction. There are many large volcanoes with relatively frequent eruptions. There are also several very large calderas, with the most obvious forming Lake Taupo. Taupo has a history of incredibly powerful eruptions, with the Oruanui eruption 26,500 years ago ejecting of material and causing the downward collapse of several hundred square kilometres to form the lake. The last eruption occurred and ejected at least 100 cubic kilometres of material, and has been correlated with red skies seen at the time in Rome and China. The associated geothermal energy from this volcanic area is used in numerous hydrothermal power plants. Some volcanic places are also famous tourist destinations, such as the Rotorua geysers.
The subduction direction is reversed through the South Island, with the Indo-Australian Plate forced under the Pacific Plate. The transition between these two different styles of continental collision occurs through the top of the South Island. This area has significant uplift and many active faults; large earthquakes are frequent occurrences here. The most powerful in recent history, the M8.3 Wairarapa earthquake, occurred in 1855. This earthquake generated more than of vertical uplift in places, and caused a localised tsunami. Fortunately casualties were low due to the sparse settlement of the region. In 2013, the area was rattled by the M6.5 Seddon earthquake, but this caused little damage and no injuries. New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, is situated in the centre of this region.
The subduction of the Indo-Australian Plate drives rapid uplift in the centre of the South Island (approx. per year). This uplift forms the Southern Alps. These roughly divide the island, with a narrow wet strip to the west and wide and dry plains to the east. The resulting orographic rainfall enables the hydroelectric generation of most of the country's electricity. A significant amount of the movement between the two plates is accommodated by lateral sliding of the Indo-Australian Plate north relative to the Pacific Plate. The plate boundary forms the nearly long Alpine Fault. This fault has an estimated rupture reoccurrence interval of ~330 years, and last ruptured in 1717 along of its length. It passes directly under many settlements on the West Coast of the South Island and shaking from a rupture would likely affect many cities and towns throughout the country.
The rapid uplift and high erosion rates within the Southern Alps combine to expose high grade greenschist to amphibolite facies rocks, including the gemstone pounamu (jade). Geologists visiting the West Coast can easily access high-grade metamorphic rocks and mylonites associated with the Alpine Fault, and in certain places can stand astride the fault trace of an active plate boundary.
To the south of New Zealand the Indo-Australian Plate is subducting under the Pacific Plate, and this is beginning to result in back-arc volcanism. The youngest (geologically speaking) volcanism in the South Island occurred in this region, forming the Solander Islands (<2 million years old). This region is dominated by the rugged and relatively untouched Fiordland, an area of flooded glacially carved valleys with little human settlement.
The South Island is much more mountainous than the North, but shows fewer manifestations of recent volcanic activity. There are 18 peaks of more than in the Southern Alps, which stretch for down the South Island. The closest mountains surpassing it in elevation are found not in Australia, but in New Guinea and Antarctica. As well as the towering peaks, the Southern Alps include huge glaciers such as Franz Josef and Fox. The country's highest mountain is Aoraki / Mount Cook; its height since 2014 is listed as (down from before December 1991, due to a rockslide and subsequent erosion). The second highest peak is Mount Tasman, with a height of .
The North Island Volcanic Plateau covers much of central North Island with volcanoes, lava plateaus, and crater lakes. The three highest volcanoes are Mount Ruapehu (), Mount Taranaki () and Mount Ngauruhoe (). Ruapehu's major eruptions have historically been about 50 years apart, in 1895, 1945 and 1995–1996. The 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera, located near Rotorua, was New Zealand's largest and deadliest eruption in the last 200 years, killing over 100 people. Another long chain of mountains runs through the North Island, from Wellington to East Cape. The ranges include Tararua and Kaimanawa.
The lower mountain slopes are covered in native forest. Above this are shrubs, and then tussock grasses. Alpine tundra consists of cushion plants and herbfields; many of these plants have white and yellow flowers.
New Zealand's cave systems have three main origins, the chemical weathering of limestone by water (karst), lava caves and erosion by waves (sea caves). Therefore, the distribution of limestone, marble (metamorphosed limestone) and volcanoes defines the location of caves in inland New Zealand. The main regions of karst topography are the Waitomo District and Takaka Hill in the Tasman district. Other notable locations are on the West Coast (Punakaiki), the Hawkes Bay and Fiordland.
Lava caves (lava tubes) usually form in pāhoehoe lava flows, which are less viscus and typical formed from basalt. When an eruption occurs the outer layer of the lava flow hardens, while the interior remain liquid. The liquid lava flows out as it is insulated by the hardened crust above. These caves are found where there are relatively recent basaltic volcanoes in New Zealand, such as the Auckland Volcanic Field particularly on Rangitoto, Mount Eden and Matukutururu.
The distribution of sea caves is more sporadic, with their location and orientation being controlled by weakness in the underlying rock. As cave systems take many thousands of years to develop they can now be isolated from the water that formed them, whether through change in sea level or groundwater flow. If as a cave grows it breaks through to the surface somewhere else it becomes a natural arch, like those near Karamea (Oparara Arches).
The proportion of New Zealand's area (excluding estuaries) covered by rivers, lakes and ponds, based on figures from the New Zealand Land Cover Database, is (357526 + 81936) / (26821559 – 92499–26033 – 19216) = 1.6%. If estuarine open water, mangroves, and herbaceous saline vegetation are included, the figure is 2.2%.
The mountainous areas of the North Island are cut by many rivers, many of which are swift and unnavigable. The east of the South Island is marked by wide, braided rivers such as the Wairau, Waimakariri and Rangitātā; formed from glaciers, they fan out into many strands on gravel plains. The Waikato, flowing through the North Island, is the New Zealand's longest river, with a length of . New Zealand's rivers feature hundreds of waterfalls; the most visited set of waterfalls are the Huka Falls that drain Lake Taupo.
Lake Taupo, located near the centre of the North Island, is the largest lake by surface area in the country. It lies in a caldera created by the Oruanui eruption, the largest eruption in the world in the past 70,000 years. There are 3,820 lakes with a surface area larger than one hectare. Many lakes have been used as reservoirs for hydroelectric projects.
The main geographic factors that influence New Zealand's climate are the temperate latitude, with prevailing westerly winds; the oceanic environment; and the mountains, especially the Southern Alps. The climate is mostly temperate with mean temperatures ranging from in the South Island to in the North Island. January and February are the warmest months, July the coldest. New Zealand does not have a large temperature range, apart from central Otago, but the weather can change rapidly and unexpectedly. Near subtropical conditions are experienced in Northland.
Most settled, lowland areas of the country have between 600 and 1,600 mm of rainfall, with the most rain along the west coast of the South Island and the least on the east coast of the South Island and interior basins, predominantly on the Canterbury Plains and the Central Otago Basin (about ). Christchurch is the driest city, receiving about of rain PA, while Hamilton is the wettest, receiving more than twice that amount at PA, followed closely by Auckland. The wettest area by far is the rugged Fiordland region, in the south-west of the South Island, which has between of rain PA, with up to 15,000 mm in isolated valleys, amongst the highest recorded rainfalls in the world.
The UV index can be very high and extreme in the hottest times of the year in the north of the North Island. This is partly due to the country's relatively little air pollution compared to many other countries and the high sunshine hours.
New Zealand has very high sunshine hours with most areas receiving over 2000 hours per year. The sunniest areas are Nelson/Marlborough and the Bay of Plenty with 2,400 hours per year.
The table below lists climate normals for the warmest and coldest months in New Zealand's six largest cities. North Island cities are generally warmest in February. South Island cities are warmest in January.
New Zealand has no land borders. However, the Ross Dependency, its claim in Antarctica, nominally borders the Australian Antarctic Territory to the west and unclaimed territory to the east. Most other countries do not recognise territorial claims in Antarctica.
New Zealand proper is subdivided into sixteen regions: seven in the South Island and nine in the North. They have a geographical link with regional boundaries being based largely on drainage basins. Among the regions, eleven are administered by regional authorities (top tier of local government), while five are unitary authorities that combine the functions of regional authorities and those of territorial authorities (second tier). Regional authorities are primarily responsible for environmental resource management, land management, regional transport, and biosecurity and pest management. Territorial authorities administer local roading and reserves, waste management, building consents, the land use and subdivision aspects of resource management, and other local matters.
The Chatham Islands is not a region, although its council operates as a region under the Resource Management Act. There are a number of outlying islands that are not included within regional boundaries. The Kermadecs and the Subantarctic Islands are inhabited only by a small number of Department of Conservation staff.
The South Island contains a little under one-quarter of the population. Over three-quarters of New Zealand's population live in the North Island, with one-third of the total population living in the Auckland Region. Auckland is also the fastest growing region, accounting for 46 percent of New Zealand's total population growth. The majority of the indigenous Māori people live in the North Island (87 percent), although a little under a quarter (24 percent) live in Auckland. New Zealand is a predominantly urban country, with percent of the population living in an urban area. About percent of the population live in the 20 main urban areas (population of 30,000 or more) and percent live in the four largest cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and Hamilton. New Zealand's population density of around 18 inhabitants per square kilometre is among the lowest in the world.
New Zealand's peoples have been defined by their immigrant origin, the ongoing process of adaptation to a new land, being changed and changing those who came before. This process has led to a distinct distribution of culture across New Zealand. Here language and religion are used as markers for the far richer concept of culture. These metrics unfortunately exclude the political rural-urban divide and also the full effects of the Christchurch earthquakes on New Zealand's cultural distribution.
New Zealand's most widely spoken language is English (89.8 percent), however, language, dialect and accent varies spatially both within and between ethnic groups. The Māori language (3.5 percent) is spoken more commonly in areas with large Māori populations (Gisborne, Bay of Plenty and Northland). There are many sub dialects of Māori, the most pronounced division being between the northern and southern tribes. While migration (typically from north to south) was constant throughout the 16–18th centuries, the south maintained a distinct culture largely due to lack of cultivation possible at that latitude. English is spoken with regional accents relating to the origin of immigrants; for example Scottish and English 19th century immigration in Southland and Canterbury respectively. This has also occurred with more recent immigration, with a wide variety of accents being common in larger cities where immigrant groups have preferentially settled. These immigrant groups change location with time and accents fade over generations.
A wide variety of other languages make up the remaining approximately 6 percent of New Zealanders—with Samoan, Hindi, French and various Chinese dialects being the most common. These minority foreign languages are concentrated in the main cities, particularly Auckland where recent immigration groups have settled.
A relatively small proportion of New Zealand's land is arable (1.76 percent), and permanent crops cover 0.27 percent of the land. of the land is irrigated. As the world's largest exporter of sheep, New Zealand's agricultural industry focuses primarily on pastoral farming, particularly dairy and beef, as well as lambs. Dairy, specifically, is their top export. In addition to pastoral farming, fisherman harvest mussels, oysters and salmon, and horticulture farmers grow kiwifruit, as well as peaches, nectarines, etc. New Zealand's distance from world markets and spatial variation in rainfall, elevation and soil quality have defined the geography of its agriculture industry.
As of 2007, almost 55 percent of New Zealand's total land area was being used for farming, which is standard compared to most developed countries. Three-fourths of it was pastoral land using for raising sheep, beef, deer, etc. The amount of farmland has decreased since 2002.
New Zealand's isolated location has simultaneously lead to fewer pests and an agriculture industry with a greater susceptibility to introduced diseases and pests. A major concern for New Zealand farmers is the rapidly growing wild rabbit population. Wild rabbits have been an agricultural since their introduction to the country in the 1930s. They cause significant damage to farm lands: eating the grass, crops, and causing soil degradation. Many farmers are worried about their livelihoods and the effects that the rabbits will have on food supply and trade, as their numbers are quickly growing out of control. An illegal rabbit-killing virus called the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) was released in 1997 by a group of vigilante farmers, and was very effective initially. After twenty years, however, the rabbits became immune to it. A new strain of the virus was released in March 2018, a Korean form of the strain called the K5 virus, or RHDV1-K5. This virus was introduced with the goal of exterminating 40 percent of the rabbit population. The new virus works much faster than the last one, expected to kill rabbits within two to four days of exposure. The virus has become a subject of debate among animal rights activists, due to the inhumane manner in which it kills the rabbits. However, farmers unanimously seem to be very grateful for the release of the virus.
Almost half of New Zealand's climate change emissions are generated by greenhouse gases, mainly methane and nitrous oxide, which come from farming and agriculture. Organisms that grow inside of grazing animals' stomachs turn New Zealand's grass into methane. The increase of carbon dioxide in the air helps the plants to grow faster, but the long-term effects of climate change threaten farmers with the likelihood of more frequent and severe floods and droughts. Growers of kiwifruit, a major export in the horticulture industry of New Zealand, have experienced difficulties as a result of climate change. In the 2010s, warm winters did not provide the adequate cool temperatures needed for the flowering of kiwifruit, and this resulted in a reduction of the yield sizes. Droughts have also decreased apple production by causing sunburns and a lack of water available for irrigation. In contrast, the dairy industry has not been affected, and has actually adjusted well to the effects of climate change.
Flooding is the most regular natural hazard. New Zealand is swept by weather systems that bring heavy rain; settlements are usually close to hill-country areas which experience much higher rainfall than the lowlands due to the orographic effect. Mountain streams which feed the major rivers rise rapidly and frequently break their banks covering farms with water and silt. Close monitoring, weather forecasting, stopbanks, dams, and reafforestation programmes in hill country have ameliorated the worst effects.
New Zealand experiences around 14,000 earthquakes a year, some in excess of magnitude 7 (M7). Since the 2010, several large (M7, M6.3, M6.4, M6.2) and shallow (all <7 km) earthquakes have occurred immediately beneath Christchurch. These have resulted in 185 deaths, widespread destruction of buildings and significant liquefaction. These earthquakes are releasing distributed stress in the Pacific plate from the ongoing collision with the Indo-Australian plate to the west and north of the city. Volcanic activity is most common on the central North Island Volcanic Plateau. Tsunamis affecting New Zealand are associated with the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Droughts are not regular and occur mainly in Otago and the Canterbury Plains and less frequently over much of the North Island between January and April. Forest fires were rare in New Zealand before the arrival of humans. Fire bans exist in some areas in summer.
New Zealand's geographic isolation for 80 million years and island biogeography has influenced evolution of the country's species of animals, fungi and plants. Physical isolation has not caused biological isolation, and this has resulted in a dynamic evolutionary ecology with examples of very distinctive plants and animals as well as populations of widespread species. Evergreens such as the giant kauri and southern beech dominate the forests. It also has a diverse range of birds, several of which are flightless such as the kiwi (a national icon), the kakapo, the takahē and the weka, and several species of penguins. Around 30 bird species are currently listed as endangered or critically endangered. Conservationists recognised that threatened bird populations could be saved on offshore islands, where, once predators were exterminated, bird life flourished again.
Many bird species, including the giant moa, became extinct after the arrival of Polynesians, who brought dogs and rats, and Europeans, who introduced additional dog and rat species, as well as cats, pigs, ferrets, and weasels. Native flora and fauna continue to be hard-hit by invasive species. New Zealand conservationists have pioneered several methods to help threatened wildlife recover, including island sanctuaries, pest control, wildlife translocation, fostering, and ecological restoration of islands and other selected areas.
Massive deforestation occurred after humans arrived, with around half the forest cover lost to fire after Polynesian settlement. Much of the remaining forest fell after European settlement, being logged or cleared to make room for pastoral farming, leaving forest occupying only 23 percent of the land.
Pollution, particularly water pollution, is one of New Zealand's most significant environmental issues. Fresh water quality is under pressure from agriculture, hydropower, urban development, pest invasions and climate change, although much of the country's household and industrial waste is now increasingly filtered and sometimes recycled.
Some areas of land, the sea, rivers or lakes are protected by law, so their special plants, animals, landforms and other features are safe from harm. New Zealand has three World Heritage Sites, 13 national parks, 34 marine reserves, and thousands of scenic, historic, recreation and other reserves. The Department of Conservation is responsible for managing 8.5 million hectares of public land (approximately 30 percent of New Zealand's total land area).
New Zealand is party to several multilateral environmental agreements. The major agreements are listed below.
New Zealand's varied landscape has appeared in television shows, such as "". An increasing number of feature films have also been filmed there, including the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
New Zealand is often mistakenly omitted from world maps due to the country's geographic isolation and its positioning on the extreme bottom-right in many map projections. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21353 |
Demographics of New Zealand
The demographics of New Zealand encompass the gender, ethnic, religious, geographic, and economic backgrounds of the million people living in New Zealand. New Zealanders, informally known as "Kiwis", predominantly live in urban areas on the North Island. The five largest cities are Auckland (with one-third of the country's population), Christchurch (in the South Island, the largest island of the New Zealand archipelago), Wellington, Hamilton and Tauranga. Few New Zealanders live on New Zealand's smaller islands. Waiheke Island (near Auckland) is easily the most populated smaller island with residents, while Great Barrier Island, the Chatham and Pitt Islands and Stewart Island each have populations below 1,000. New Zealand is part of a realm and most people born in the realm's external territories of Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, the Cook Islands and Niue are entitled to New Zealand passports. In 2006, more people who identified themselves with these islands lived in New Zealand than on the Islands themselves.
The majority of New Zealand's population is of European descent (70 percent), with the indigenous Māori being the largest minority (16.5 percent), followed by Asians (15.3 percent), and non-Māori Pacific Islanders (9.0 percent). This is reflected in immigration, with most new migrants coming from Britain and Ireland, although the numbers from Asia are increasing. The largest Māori tribe ("iwi") is Ngāpuhi with 125,601 people or 18.8 percent of the Māori population. Auckland is the most ethnically diverse region in New Zealand with 43.0 percent identifying as Europeans, 28.5 percent as Asian, 11 percent as Māori, 15.5 percent as Pacific Islanders, and 2 percent as Middle Eastern, Latin American or African (MELAA). The ethnicity of the population aged under 18 years is considerably more diverse than the population aged 65 years or older. Recent increases in interracial marriages have resulted in more people identifying with more than one ethnic group.
English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language are the official languages, with English predominant. New Zealand English is mostly non-rhotic and sounds similar to Australian English, with a common exception being the centralisation of the short i. The Māori language has undergone a process of revitalisation and is spoken by 4 percent of the population. New Zealand has an adult literacy rate of 99 percent and over half of the population aged 15–29 hold a tertiary qualification. In the adult population 14.2 percent have a bachelor's degree or higher, 30.4 percent have some form of secondary qualification as their highest qualification and 22.4 percent have no formal qualification. As of the 2018 census, 37% percent of the population identify as Christians, with Hinduism and Buddhism being the largest minority religions. New Zealand has no state religion and almost half of the population (48.5 percent) is irreligious.
Farming is a major occupation in New Zealand, although more people are employed as sales assistants. Most New Zealanders earn wage or salary income, with a median personal income in 2013 of NZ$28,500.
While the demonym for a New Zealand citizen is New Zealander, the informal "Kiwi" is commonly used both internationally and by locals. The name derives from the kiwi, a native flightless bird, which is the national symbol of New Zealand. The Māori loanword "Pākehā" usually refers to New Zealanders of European descent, although some reject this appellation, and some Māori use it to refer to all non-Polynesian New Zealanders. Most people born in New Zealand or one of the realm's external territories (Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, the Cook Islands and Niue) before 2006 are New Zealand citizens. Further conditions apply for those born from 2006 onwards.
In , New Zealand has an estimated population of ,
up from the 4,027,947 recorded in the 2006 census. According to Statistics New Zealand estimates, population is increasing at a rate of 1.4–2.0% per year and is projected to rise to 5.01–5.51 million in 2025.
The median child birthing age was 30 and the total fertility rate is 2.1 births per woman in 2010. In Māori populations the median age is 26 and fertility rate 2.8. In 2010 the age-standardised mortality rate was 3.8 deaths per 1000 (down from 4.8 in 2000) and the infant mortality rate for the total population was 5.1 deaths per 1000 live births. The life expectancy of a New Zealand child born in 2014-16 was 83.4 years for females, and 79.9 years for males, which is among the highest in the world. Life expectancy at birth is forecast to increase from 80 years to 85 years in 2050 and infant mortality is expected to decline. In 2050 the median age is forecast to rise from 36 years to 43 years and the percentage of people 60 years of age and older rising from 18 percent to 29 percent. (The number of people aged 65 and over increased by 22 percent between the 2006 and 2013 censuses.) During early migration in 1858, New Zealand had 131 males for every 100 females, but following changes in migration patterns and the modern longevity advantage of women, females came to outnumber males in 1971. As of 2012 there are 0.99 males per female, with males dominating under 15 years and females dominating in the 65 years and older range.
The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.
The following figures show the total fertility rates since the first years of British colonisation.
New Zealand has a growing population, as measured:
New Zealand's population density is relatively low, at The vast majority of the population live on the main North and South Islands, with New Zealand's major inhabited smaller islands being Waiheke Island (), the Chatham and Pitt Islands (), and Stewart Island (381). Over three-quarters of the population live in the North Island ( percent), with one-third of the total population living in the Auckland Region. This region is also the fastest growing, accounting for 46 percent of New Zealand's total population growth. Most Māori live in the North Island (86.0 percent), although less than a quarter (23.8 percent) live in Auckland. New Zealand is a predominantly urban country, with percent of the population living in an urban area. About percent of the population live in the 20 main urban areas (population of 30,000 or more) and percent live in the four largest cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and Hamilton.
Approximately 14 percent of the population live in four different categories of rural areas as defined by Statistics New Zealand. About 18 percent of the rural population live in areas that have a high urban influence (roughly 12.9 people per square kilometre), many working in the main urban area. Rural areas with moderate urban influence and a population density of about 6.5 people per square kilometre account for 26 percent of the rural population. Areas with low urban influence where the majority of the residents work in the rural area house approximately 42 percent of the rural population. Remote rural areas with a density of less than 1 person per square kilometre account for about 14 percent of the rural population.
Before local government reforms in the late 1980s, a borough council with more than 20,000 people could be proclaimed a city. The boundaries of councils tended to follow the edge of the built-up area, so there was little difference between the urban area and the local government area. In 1989, all councils were consolidated into regional councils (top tier) and territorial authorities (second tier) which cover a much wider area and population than the old city councils. Today a territorial authority must have a predominantly urban population of at least 50,000 before it can be officially recognised as a city. The 20 largest urban areas are listed below:
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review.
Demographic statistics according to the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
East Polynesians were the first people to reach New Zealand about 1280, followed by the early European explorers, notably James Cook in 1769 who explored New Zealand three times and mapped the coastline. Following the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 when the country became a British colony, immigrants were predominantly from Britain, Ireland and Australia. Due to restrictive policies, limitations were placed on non-European immigrants. During the gold rush period (1858–1880s) large number of young men came from California and Victoria to New Zealand goldfields. Apart from British, there were Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, Italians and many Chinese. The Chinese were sent special invitations by the Otago Chamber of Commerce in 1866. By 1873 they made up 40 percent of the diggers in Otago and 25 percent of the diggers in Westland. From 1900 there was also significant Dutch, Dalmatian, and Italian immigration together with indirect European immigration through Australia, North America, South America and South Africa. Following the Great Depression policies were relaxed and migrant diversity increased. In 2008–09, a target of 45,000 migrants was set by the New Zealand Immigration Service (plus a 5,000 tolerance).
Just over 25 percent of New Zealand's population at the 2013 census was born overseas, up from 23 percent in 2006 and 20 percent in 2001. Over half (51.6 percent) of New Zealand's overseas-born population lives in the Auckland Region, including 72 percent of the country's Pacific Island-born population, 64 percent of its Asian-born population, and 56 percent of its Middle Eastern and African- born population. In the late 2000s, Asia overtook the British Isles as the largest source of overseas migrants; today around 32 percent of overseas-born New Zealand residents were born in Asia (mainly China, India, the Philippines and South Korea) compared to 26 percent born in the UK and Ireland. The number of fee-paying international students increased sharply in the late 1990s, with more than 20,000 studying in public tertiary institutions in 2002.
To be eligible for entry under the skilled migrant plan applicants are assessed by an approved doctor for good health, provide a police certificate to prove good character and speak sufficient English. Migrants working in some occupations (mainly health) must be registered with the appropriate profession body before they can work within that area. Skilled migrants are assessed by Immigration New Zealand and applicants that they believe will contribute are issued with a residential visa, while those with potential are issued with a work to resident visa. Under the work to residency process applicants are given a temporary work permit for two years and are then eligible to apply for residency. Applicants with a job offer from an accredited New Zealand employer, cultural or sporting talent, looking for work where there has been a long-term skill shortage or to establish a business can apply for work to residency.
While most New Zealanders live in New Zealand, there is also a significant diaspora abroad, estimated as of 2001 at over 460,000 or 14 percent of the international total of New Zealand-born. Of these, 360,000, over three-quarters of the New Zealand-born population residing outside of New Zealand, live in Australia. Other communities of New Zealanders abroad are concentrated in other English-speaking countries, specifically the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, with smaller numbers located elsewhere. Nearly one quarter of New Zealand's highly skilled workers live overseas, mostly in Australia and Britain, more than any other developed nation. However many educated professionals from Europe and lesser developed countries have recently migrated to New Zealand. A common pathway for New Zealanders to move to the UK is through a job offer via the Tier 2 (General) visa, which grants a 3-year initial stay in the country and can later be extended with three more years. After 5 years the person can apply for permanent residency. Another popular option is the UK Working Holiday visa, also known as "Youth Mobility Scheme" (YMS), which grants New Zealanders 2-year rights to live and work in the UK.
New Zealand is a multiethnic society, and home to people of many different national origins. Originally composed solely of the Māori who arrived in the thirteenth century, the ethnic makeup of the population later became dominated by New Zealanders of European descent. In the nineteenth century, European settlers brought diseases for which the Māori had no immunity. By the 1890s, the Māori population was approximately 40 percent of its size pre-contact. The Māori population increased during the twentieth century, though it remains a minority.
At the latest census in 2018, 70.2 percent identified as European, 16.5 percent as Māori, 15.1 percent as Asian, 8.1 percent as Pacific peoples, and 1.2 percent as Middle-Eastern, Latin American, and African (MELAA). Most New Zealanders are of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry, with smaller percentages of other European ancestries, such as Dutch, Dalmatian, French, German and Scandinavian. Auckland was the most diverse region with 43.0 percent identifying as European, 28.5 percent as Asian, 11 percent as Māori, 15.5 percent as Pacific Islanders and 1% as NZ MELAA.
All major ethnic groups except European increased when compared with the 2013 census, in which 74 percent identified as European, 14.6 percent as Māori, 11.8 percent as Asian, and 7.4 percent of Pacific Islander origin. The European grouping significantly decreased from 80.0 percent of the population in 2001 to 70.2 percent in 2013, and a likely cause of this is due to heightened immigration from Asia.
As recorded in the 2013 census, the largest Māori "iwi" is Ngāpuhi with 125,601 people (or 18.8 percent of people of Māori descent). Since 2006, the number of people of Māori descent stating Ngāpuhi as their iwi increased by 3,390 people (2.8 percent). The second-largest was Ngāti Porou, with 71,049 people (down 1.2 percent from 2006). Ngāi Tahu was the largest in the South Island and the third-largest overall, with a count of 54,819 people (an increase of 11.4 percent from 2006). A total of 110,928 people (or 18.5 percent) of Māori descent did not know their iwi (an increase of 8.4 percent compared with 2006). A group of Māori migrated to "Rēkohu", now known as the Chatham Islands, where they developed their distinct Moriori culture. The Moriori population was decimated, first, by disease brought by European sealers and whalers and, second, by Taranaki Māori, with only 101 surviving in 1862 and the last known full-blooded Moriori dying in 1933. The number of people identifying as having Moriori descents increased from 105 in 1991 to 945 in 2006, but decreased to 738 in 2013.
Recent increases in interracial marriages has resulted in the New Zealand population of Māori, Asian and Pacific Islander descent growing at a higher rate than those of European descent. In 2013, 11.2 percent of people identified with more than one ethnic group, compared with 10.4 percent in 2006. The ethnic diversity of New Zealand is projected to increase. Europeans (including "New Zealanders") will remain the largest group, although it is predicted to fall to 70 percent in 2026. Due to the 2018 census having the percentage of the European population at 70.2%, it's likely that prediction will change. The Asian, Pacific and Māori groups are the fastest growing and will increase to 3.4 percent, 10 percent and 16 percent, respectively. In 2013, the ethnicity of the population aged under 18 years was 71 percent European, 25 percent Māori, 13 percent Pacific, 12 percent Asian, and 1 percent MELAA. The population aged 65 years or older consisted of 87.8 percent European, 5.6 percent Māori, 4.7 percent Asian and 2.4 percent Pacific.
The maps below (taken from 2013 census data) show the percentages of people in each census area unit identifying themselves as European, Māori, Asian, or Pacific Islander (as defined by Statistics New Zealand). As people could identify themselves with multiple groups, percentages are not cumulative.
English has long been entrenched as a "de facto" national language due to its widespread use. In the 2018 census, 95.4 percent of respondents spoke English, down from 96.1 percent in 2013. The New Zealand English dialect is mostly non-rhotic with an exception being the Southern Burr found principally in Southland and parts of Otago. It is similar to Australian English and many speakers from the Northern Hemisphere are unable to tell the accents apart. In New Zealand English the short i (as in kit) has become centralised, leading to the phrase "fish and chips" sounding like "fush and chups" to the Australian ear. The words "rarely" and "really", "reel" and "real", "doll" and "dole", "pull" and "pool", "witch" and "which", and "full" and "fill" can sometimes be pronounced as homophones. Some New Zealanders pronounce the past participles "grown", "thrown" and "mown" using two syllables, whereas "groan", "throne" and "moan" are pronounced as one syllable. New Zealanders often reply to a question or emphasise a point by adding a rising intonation at the end of the sentence.
Initially, the Māori language ("te reo Māori") was permitted in native schools to facilitate English instruction, but as time went on official attitudes hardened against any use of the language. Māori were discouraged from speaking their own language in schools and work places and it existed as a community language only in a few remote areas. The language underwent a revival beginning in the 1970s, and now more people speak Māori. The future of the language was the subject of a claim before the Waitangi Tribunal in 1985. As a result, Māori was declared an official language in 1987. In the 2013 census, 21.3 percent of Māori people—and 3.7 percent of all respondents, including some non-Māori people—reported conversational fluency in the language. There are now Māori language immersion schools and two Māori Television channels, the only nationwide television channels to have the majority of their prime-time content delivered in Māori. Many places have officially been given dual Māori and English names in recent years.
In the 2018 census, 22,987 people reported the ability to use New Zealand Sign Language. It was declared one of New Zealand's official languages in 2006.
Samoan is the most widely spoken non-official language (2.2 percent), followed by "Northern Chinese" (including Mandarin; 2.0 percent), Hindi (1.5 percent) and French (1.2 percent). A considerable proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are multilingual.
Education follows the three-tier model, which includes primary schools, followed by secondary schools (high schools) and tertiary education at universities or polytechnics. The Programme for International Student Assessment ranked New Zealand's education as the seventh highest in 2009. The Education Index, published with the UN's 2014 Human Development Index and based on data from 2013, listed New Zealand at 0.917, ranked second after Australia.
Primary and secondary schooling is compulsory for children aged 6 to 16 with most children starting at 5. Early leaving exemptions may be granted to 15-year-old students that have been experiencing some ongoing difficulties at school or are unlikely to benefit from continued attendance. Parents and caregivers can home school their children if they obtain approval from the Ministry of Education and prove that their child will be taught "as regularly and as well as in a registered school". There are 13 school years and attending state (public) schools is nominally free from a person's fifth birthday until the end of the calendar year following their 19th birthday.
The academic year in New Zealand varies between institutions, but generally runs from late January until mid-December for primary and secondary schools and polytechnics, and from late February until mid-November for universities. New Zealand has an adult literacy rate of 99 percent, and over half of the population aged 15 to 29 hold a tertiary qualification. In the adult population 14.2 percent have a bachelor's degree or higher, 30.4 percent have some form of secondary qualification as their highest qualification and 22.4 percent have no formal qualification.
New Zealand does not have a state religion, but the principal religion is Christianity. As recorded in the 2018 census, about 38 percent of the population identified themselves as Christians, although regular church attendance is estimated at 15 percent. Another 48.5 percent indicated that they had no religion (up from 41.9 percent in 2013 and 34.7 percent in 2006) and around 7.5 percent affiliated with other religions.
The indigenous religion of the Māori population was animistic, but with the arrival of missionaries from the early nineteenth century most of the Māori population converted to Christianity. In the 2013 census, 2,595 Māori still identify themselves as adhering to traditional Māori beliefs. The largest Christian denominations are Anglicanism (6.7 percent of the population), Roman Catholicism (6.3 percent), Presbyterianism (4.7 percent). There are also significant numbers of Christians who identify themselves with Methodist, Pentecostal, Baptist and Latter-day Saint churches, and the New Zealand-based Rātana church has adherents among Māori. Immigration and associated demographic change in recent decades has contributed to the growth of minority religions, especially Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.
New Zealand's early economy was based on sealing, whaling, flax, gold, kauri gum, and native timber. During the 1880s agricultural products became the highest export earner and farming was a major occupation within New Zealand. Farming is still a major employer, with 75 000 people indicating farming as their occupation during the 2006 census, although dairy farming has recently taken over from sheep as the largest sector. The largest occupation recorded during the census was sales assistant with 93,840 people. Most people are on wages or salaries (59.9 percent), with the other sources of income being interest and investments (24.1 percent) and self-employment (16.6 percent).
In 1982 New Zealand had the lowest per-capita income of all the developed nations surveyed by the World Bank. In 2010 the estimated gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita was roughly US$28,250, between the thirty-first and fifty-first highest for all countries. The median personal income in 2006 was $24,400. This was up from $15,600 in 1996, with the largest increases in the $50,000 to $70,000 bracket. The median income for men was $31,500, $12,400 more than women. (see Gender pay gap in New Zealand) The highest median personal income were for people identifying with the European or "other" ethnic group, while the lowest was from the Asian ethnic group. The median income for people identifying as Māori was $20,900. In 2013, the median personal income had risen slightly to $28,500.
Unemployment peaked above 10 percent in 1991 and 1992, before falling to a record low of 3.7 percent in 2007 (ranking third from twenty-seven comparable OECD nations). Unemployment rose back to 7 percent in late 2009. In the June 2017 quarter, unemployment had fallen to 4.8 percent. This is the lowest unemployment rate since December 2008, after the start of the global financial crisis, when it was 4.4 percent. Most New Zealanders do some form of voluntary work, more women volunteer (92 percent) than males (86 percent). Home ownership has declined since 1991, from 73.8 percent to 66.9 percent in 2006. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21354 |
Politics of New Zealand
The politics of New Zealand function within a framework of a unitary parliamentary representative democracy. The structure of government is based on the Westminster system, and the legal system is modelled on the common law of England. New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy in which a hereditary monarch—since 6 February 1952, Queen Elizabeth II—is the sovereign and head of state.
The New Zealand Parliament holds legislative power and consists of the Queen and the House of Representatives. The Queen is represented by the Governor-General of New Zealand when not present in the country herself. Members of Parliament (MPs) are elected to the House of Representatives usually every three years. The country has a multi-party system, though the dominant political parties in New Zealand have historically been the Labour Party and the National Party (or its predecessors). Minority governments are common and typically dependent on confidence and supply agreements with other parties.
Executive power in New Zealand is based on the principle that "The Queen reigns, but the government rules". Although an integral part of the process of government, the Queen and her governor-general remain politically neutral and are not involved in the everyday aspects of governing. Ministers are selected from among the democratically elected members of the House of Representatives. Most ministers are members of the Cabinet, which is the main decision-making body of the New Zealand Government. The prime minister is the most senior minister, chair of the Cabinet, and thus head of government. Other ministers are appointed by the governor-general upon the advice of the prime minister, and are all accountable to Parliament.
The Economist Intelligence Unit rated New Zealand as a "full democracy" in 2016. The country ranks highly for government transparency, and has the lowest perceived level of corruption in the world.
New Zealand is a unitary parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy. It has no formal codified constitution; the constitutional framework consists of a mixture of various documents (including certain Acts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand Parliaments), the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and constitutional conventions. The Constitution Act in 1852 established the system of government and these were later consolidated in 1986. Constitutional rights are protected under common law and are strengthened by the Bill of Rights Act 1990 and Human Rights Act 1993, although these are not entrenched and can be overturned by Parliament with a simple majority. The Constitution Act 1986 describes the three branches of government in New Zealand: the executive (the Sovereign and the Executive Council), the legislature (Parliament) and the judiciary (Courts).
Parliament is responsible for passing laws, adopting the state's budgets, and exercising control of the executive government. It currently has a single chamber, the House of Representatives. Before 1951 there was a second chamber, the Legislative Council. The House of Representatives meets in Parliament House, Wellington.
Laws are first proposed to the House of Representatives as bills. They have to go through a process of approval by the House and governor-general before becoming Acts of Parliament (i.e. statutory law).
The lawmakers are known as members of Parliament, or MPs. Parliament is elected for a maximum term of three years, although an election may be called earlier in exceptional circumstances. Suffrage is nearly universal for permanent residents eighteen years of age and older, women having gained the vote in . As in many other parliamentary systems of government, the executive (called "the Government") is drawn from and is answerable to Parliament—for example, a successful motion of no confidence will force a government either to resign or to seek a parliamentary dissolution and an early general election.
Almost all parliamentary elections between and were held under the first past the post (FPP) electoral system. Under FPP the candidate in a given electorate (district) that received the most votes was elected to the House of Representatives. The only deviation from the FPP system during this time occurred in the when a second ballot system was tried. The elections since 1935 have been dominated by two political parties, National and Labour.
Criticism of the FPP system began in the 1950s and intensified after Labour lost elections in and despite having more overall votes than National. An indicative (non-binding) referendum to change the voting system was held in 1992, which led to a binding referendum during the . As a result, New Zealand has used the mixed-member proportional (MMP) system since 1996. Under MMP, each member of Parliament is either directly-elected by voters in a single-member district via FPP or appointed from his or her party's list. Parliament currently has 120 seats, though some past elections have resulted in overhang. By rarely producing an absolute majority for one party, MMP ensures that parties need to come to an agreement with other parties to pass laws.
Seven electorates are reserved for MPs elected on a separate Māori roll. However, Māori may choose to vote in and to run for the non-reserved electorates and for the party list (since 1996), and as a result many have now entered Parliament outside of the reserved seats.
The first political party in New Zealand was founded in 1891, and its main rival was founded in 1909—New Zealand had a "de facto" two-party system from that point until the adoption of MMP in 1996. Since then New Zealand has been a multi-party system, with at least five parties elected in every election since. No party has been able to govern without support from other groups since 1996, making coalition government standard.
Historically the two largest, and oldest, parties are the New Zealand Labour Party (centre-left, formed in 1916) and the New Zealand National Party (centre-right, formed in 1936). Other parties represented in Parliament are ACT New Zealand (right-wing, free-market), the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand (left-wing, environmentalist), and New Zealand First (populist).
Parties must register with the Electoral Commission in order to contest the party vote in an election.
Queen Elizabeth II is New Zealand's sovereign and head of state. The New Zealand monarchy has been distinct from the British monarchy since the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947, and all Elizabeth II's official business in New Zealand is conducted in the name of the "Queen of New Zealand". The Queen's role is largely ceremonial, and her residual powers—called the "royal prerogative"—are mostly exercised through the government of the day. These include the power to enact legislation, to sign treaties and to declare war.
Since the Queen is not usually resident in New Zealand, the functions of the monarchy are conducted by her representative, the governor-general. , the Governor-General is Dame Patsy Reddy. A governor-general formally has the power to appoint and dismiss ministers and to dissolve Parliament; and the power to reject or sign bills into law by Royal Assent after passage by the House of Representatives. He or she chairs the Executive Council, which is a formal committee consisting of all ministers, who advise the governor-general on the exercising of the prerogative powers. Members of the Executive Council are required to be members of Parliament (MPs), and most are also in the Cabinet.
Cabinet is the most senior policy-making body and is led by the prime minister, who is also, by convention, the parliamentary leader of the largest governing party. The prime minister, being the "de facto" leader of New Zealand, exercises executive functions that are formally vested in the monarch (by way of the prerogative powers). Ministers within Cabinet make major decisions collectively, and are therefore collectively responsible for the consequences of these decisions.
Following a general election, a government is formed by the party or coalition that can command the confidence (support) of a majority of MPs in the House of Representatives. The most recent general election, held in September 2017, saw Labour finish in second place but able to govern through a coalition with New Zealand First, and a confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party. The Sixth Labour Government, led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, was sworn in by the Governor-General on 26 October 2017.
, the National Party has formed the Official Opposition to the Labour-led government. The leader of the Opposition heads a Shadow Cabinet, which scrutinises the actions of the Cabinet led by the prime minister. The Opposition within Parliament helps to hold the Government to account.
The New Zealand judiciary has four basic levels of courts:
The Supreme Court was established in 2004, under the Supreme Court Act 2003, and replaced the Privy Council in London as New Zealand's court of last resort. The High Court deals with serious criminal offences and civil matters, and hears appeals from subordinate courts. The Court of Appeal hears appeals from the High Court on points of law.
The chief justice, the head of the judiciary, presides over the Supreme Court, and is appointed by the governor-general on the advice of the prime minister. the incumbent Chief Justice is Dame Helen Winkelmann. All other superior court judges are appointed on the advice of the chief justice, the attorney-general, and the solicitor-general. Judges and judicial officers are appointed non-politically and under strict rules regarding tenure to help maintain judicial independence from the executive government. Judges are appointed according to their qualifications, personal qualities, and relevant experience. A judge may not be removed from office except by the attorney-general upon an address of the House of Representatives for proved misbehaviour.
New Zealand law has three principal sources: English common law, certain statutes of the United Kingdom Parliament enacted before 1947 (notably the Bill of Rights 1689), and statutes of the New Zealand Parliament. In interpreting common law, the courts have endeavoured to preserve uniformity with common law as interpreted in the United Kingdom and related jurisdictions.
New Zealand is a unitary state rather than a federation—local government has only the powers conferred upon it by the national Parliament. These powers have traditionally been distinctly fewer than in some other countries; for example, police and education are run by central government. Local government is established by statute, with the first Municipal Corporations Act having been passed by the Legislative Council in 1842. Local governance is currently defined by the Local Government Act 2002.
Local elections are held every three years to elect regional, city and district councillors (including mayors); community board members; and district health board members.
New Zealand maintains a network of 29 embassies and 99 consulates abroad and holds relations with about 150 countries. New Zealand is involved in the Pacific Islands Forum, the Pacific Community, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the East Asia Summit, and the ASEAN Regional Forum. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and a founding member of the United Nations (UN). New Zealand is party to a number of free-trade agreements, most prominently Closer Economic Relations with Australia and the New Zealand–China Free Trade Agreement.
Historically New Zealand aligned itself strongly with the United Kingdom and had few bilateral relations with other countries. In the later 20th century, relationships in the Asia-Pacific region became more important. New Zealand has also traditionally worked closely with Australia, whose foreign policy followed a similar historical trend. In turn, many Pacific Islands (such as Samoa) have looked to New Zealand's lead. A large proportion of New Zealand's foreign aid goes to these countries and many Pacific people migrate to New Zealand for employment. Despite the 1986 rupture in the ANZUS military alliance (as a result of New Zealand's nuclear-free policy), New Zealand has maintained good working relations with the United States and Australia on a broad array of international issues.
Political change in New Zealand has been very gradual and pragmatic, rather than revolutionary. The nation's approach to governance has emphasised social welfare, and multiculturalism, which is based on immigration, social integration, and suppression of far-right politics, that has wide public and political support. New Zealand is regarded as one of the most honest countries in the world, and it was ranked first in the world in 2017 for lowest perceived level of corruption by the organisation Transparency International. Democracy and rule of law are founding political principles in New Zealand. Early Pākehā settlers believed that traditional British legal principles (including individual title to land) would be upheld in New Zealand. The nation's history, such as the legacy of the British colonial rule evidenced in the Westminster system, continues to have an impact on political culture. , New Zealand is identified as a "full democracy" in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index. The country rates highly for civic participation in the political process, with 80% voter turnout during recent elections, compared with the average of 68%.
Since the 1970s New Zealand has shown a more socially liberal outlook. Beginning with the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1986, sucessive governments have progressively increased the protection of LGBT rights, culminating in the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2013. In 2020, an Abortion Legislation Act, that further decriminalised abortion, was supported by members from all parties in Parliament.
The idea of serving as a moral example to the world has been an important element of New Zealand national identity. The anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s and 1980s, protests against French nuclear testing at Moruroa atoll in the 1970s, and popular support for New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy in the 1980s (see § Modern political history) are manifestations of this. From the 1990s New Zealand's anti-nuclear position has become a key element of government policy (irrespective of party) and of the country's "distinctive political identity".
Prior to New Zealand becoming a British colony in 1840, politics in New Zealand was dominated by Māori chiefs as leaders of "hapu" and "iwi", utilising Māori customs as a political system.
After the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, a colonial Governor and his small staff acted on behalf of the British government based on the British political system. Whereas Māori systems had dominated prior to 1840 governors attempting to introduce British systems met with mixed success in Māori communities. More isolated Māori were little influenced by the Government. Most influences were felt in and around Russell, the first capital, and Auckland, the second capital.
The first voting rights in New Zealand were legislated in 1852 as the New Zealand Constitution Act for the 1853 elections and reflected British practice. Initially only property owners could vote, but by the late 1850s 75% of British males over 21 were eligible to vote compared to 20% in England and 12% in Scotland. Around 100 Māori chiefs voted in the 1853 election.
During the 1850s provincial-based government was the norm. It was abolished in 1876. Politics was initially dominated by conservative and wealthy "wool lords" who owned multiple sheep farms, mainly in Canterbury. During the gold rush era starting 1858 suffrage was extended to all British gold miners who owned a 1-pound mining license. The conservatives had been influenced by the militant action of gold miners in Victoria at Eureka. Many gold miners had moved to the New Zealand fields bringing their radical ideas. The extended franchise was modelled on the Victorian system. In 1863 the mining franchise was extended to goldfield business owners. By 1873 of the 41,500 registered voters 47% were gold field miners or owners.
After the brief Land War period ending in 1864, Parliament moved to extend the franchise to more Māori. Donald McLean introduced a bill for four temporary Māori electorates and extended the franchise to all Māori men over 21 in 1867. As such, Māori were universally franchised 12 years prior to European men.
In 1879 an economic depression hit, resulting in poverty and many people, especially miners, returning to Australia. Between 1879 and 1881 Government was concerned at the activities of Māori activists based on confiscated land at Parihaka. Activists destroyed settlers' farm fences and ploughed up roads and land which incensed local farmers. Arrests followed but the activities persisted. Fears grew among settlers that the resistance campaign was a prelude to armed conflict. The government itself was puzzled as to why the land had been confiscated and offered a huge 25,000 acre reserve to the activists, provided they stopped the destruction. Commissioners set up to investigate the issue said that the activities "could fairly be called hostile". A power struggle ensued resulting in the arrest of all the prominent leaders by a large government force in 1881. Historian Hazel Riseborough describes the event as a conflict over who had authority or mana—the Government or the Parihaka protestors.
In 1882 the export of meat in the first refrigerated ship started a period of sustained economic export led growth. This period is notable for the influence of new social ideas and movements such as the Fabians and the creation in 1890 of the first political party, the Liberals. Their leader, former gold miner Richard Seddon from Lancashire, was Premier from 1893 to 1906. The Liberals introduced new taxes to break the influence of the wealthy conservative sheep farm owners. They also purchased more land from Māori. In 1896 Māori made up 2.9% of the population but owned 15% of the land. Far more small farms and a new land owning class were created during this period.
Māori political affairs have been developing through legislation such as the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 and many more. Since colonisation in the 1800s, Māori have had their customary laws oppressed, with the imposition of a Westminster democracy and political style. As reparations from the colonial war and general discrepancies during colonisation, the New Zealand Government has formally apologised to those "iwi" affected, through settlements and legislation. In the 1960s Māori Politics Relations began to exhibit more positivity. The legislature enacted a law to help Māori retrieve back their land, not hinder them, through the Māori Affairs Amendment Act 1967. Since then, this progressive change in attitude has materialised as legislation to protect the natural environment or Taonga, and the courts by establishing treaty principles that always have to be considered when deciding laws in the courts. Moreover, the Māori Lands Act 2016 was printed both in te reo Māori and English—the act itself affirms the equal legal status of te reo Māori.
Women's suffrage was granted after about two decades of campaigning by women such as Kate Sheppard and Mary Ann Müller and organisations such as the New Zealand branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. On 19 September 1893 the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law. As a result, New Zealand became the first self-governing nation in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Women first voted in the 1893 election, with a high 85% turnout (compared to 70% of men).
Women were not eligible to be elected to the House of Representatives until 1919 though, when three women, including Ellen Melville stood. The first woman to win an election (to the seat held by her late husband) was Elizabeth McCombs in 1933. Mabel Howard became the first female cabinet minister in 1947, being appointed to the First Labour Government.
New Zealand was the first country in the world in which all the highest offices were occupied by women, between March 2005 and August 2006: the Sovereign Queen Elizabeth II, Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright, Prime Minister Helen Clark, Speaker of the House Margaret Wilson, and Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias.
The right-leaning National Party and the left-leaning Labour Party have dominated New Zealand political life since a Labour government came to power in 1935. During fourteen years in office (1935–1949), the Labour Party implemented a broad array of social and economic legislation, including comprehensive social security, a large scale public works programme, a forty-hour working week, and compulsory unionism. The National Party won control of the government in 1949, accepting most of Labour's welfare measures. Except for two brief periods of Labour governments in 1957–1960 and 1972–1975, National held power until 1984.
The greatest challenge to the first and later Labour governments' policies on the welfare state and a regulated economy that combined state and private enterprise came from the Labour Party itself. After regaining control in 1984, the fourth Labour government instituted a series of radical market-oriented reforms. It privatised state assets and reduced the role of the state in the economy. It also instituted a number of other more left-wing reforms, such as allowing the Waitangi Tribunal to hear claims of breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi to be made back to 1840. In 1987, the government introduced the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act, banning visits by nuclear powered ships; the implementation of a nuclear-free zone brought about New Zealand's suspension from the ANZUS security alliance with the United States and Australia.
In October 1990, the National Party again formed a government, for the first of three three-year terms. The new National government largely advanced the free-market reforms of the preceding government. In 1996, New Zealand inaugurated the new electoral system (MMP) to elect its Parliament. The system was expected (among numerous other goals) to increase representation of smaller parties in Parliament and appears to have done so in the MMP elections to date. Since 1996, neither National nor Labour has had an absolute majority in Parliament, and for all but two of those years a minority government has ruled (however, every government has been led by one or other of the two main parties).
MMP parliaments have been markedly more diverse, with greater representation of women, ethnic minorities and other minority groups. In 1996, Tim Barnett was the first of several New Zealand MPs to be elected as an openly gay person. In 1999, Georgina Beyer became the world's first openly transgender MP.
After nine years in office, the National Party lost the November 1999 election. Labour under Helen Clark out-polled National, and formed a coalition government with the left-wing Alliance. The coalition partners pioneered "agree to disagree" procedures to manage policy differences. The minority government often relied on support from the Green Party to pass legislation. Labour retained power in the 27 July 2002 election, forming a coalition with Jim Anderton's new party, the Progressive Party, and reaching an agreement for support with the United Future party. Helen Clark remained Prime Minister. In early 2004, Labour came under attack for its policies on the ownership of the foreshore and seabed, eventually culminating in the establishment of a new break-away party, the Māori Party. Following the 2005 general election on 17 September 2005, negotiations between parties culminated in Helen Clark announcing a third consecutive term of Labour-led government. The Labour Party again formed a coalition with Jim Anderton's Progressive Party, with confidence and supply from Winston Peters' New Zealand First and Peter Dunne's United Future.
After the general election in November 2008, the National Party moved quickly to form a minority government with ACT, the Māori Party and United Future. This arrangement allowed National to decrease its reliance on the right-leaning ACT party, whose policies are sometimes controversial with the greater New Zealand public. In 2008, John Key became Prime Minister, with Bill English his deputy. This arrangement conformed to a tradition of having a north-south split in the major parties' leadership, as Key's residence is in Auckland and English's electorate is in the South Island. On 12 December 2016, English was elected as leader, and thus Prime Minister, by the National Party caucus after Key's unexpected resignation a week earlier. Paula Bennett (member for Upper Harbour) was elected Deputy Prime Minister, thus continuing the tradition. However this north–south arrangement ceased with the next government.
Following the 2017 general election National retained its plurality in the House of Representatives, while Labour greatly increased its proportion of the vote and number of seats. In a first under the MMP system, Labour formed a minority government after securing a coalition arrangement with New Zealand First. Jacinda Ardern, Labour leader, became Prime Minister, with Winston Peters becoming Deputy Prime Minister. The Labour government also has a confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21355 |
Economy of New Zealand
The economy of New Zealand is a highly developed free-market economy. It is the 51st-largest national economy in the world when measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and the 67th-largest in the world when measured by purchasing power parity (PPP). New Zealand has a large GDP for its size and population. The country has one of the most globalised economies and depends greatly on international trade – mainly with Australia, the European Union, the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Canada. New Zealand's 1983 Closer Economic Relations agreement with Australia means that the economy aligns closely with that of Australia.
New Zealand's diverse economy has a sizable service sector, accounting for 63% of all GDP activity . Large-scale manufacturing industries include aluminium production, food processing, metal fabrication, wood and paper products. Mining, manufacturing, electricity, gas, water, and waste services accounted for 16.5% of GDP . The primary sector continues to dominate New Zealand's exports, despite accounting for only 6.5% of GDP . The information technology sector is growing rapidly.
The major capital market is the New Zealand Exchange (NZX). , NZX had a total of 258 listed securities with a combined market capitalisation of NZD $94.1 billion.
New Zealand's currency, the New Zealand dollar (informally known as the "Kiwi dollar") also circulates in four Pacific Island territories. The New Zealand dollar is the 10th-most traded currency in the world.
The New Zealand economy has been ranked first in the Social Progress Index, which covers such areas as basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and the level of opportunity available to its citizens. However, the outlook includes some challenges. New Zealand income levels, which used to be above those of many other countries in Western Europe prior to the crisis of the 1970s, have dropped in relative terms and never recovered. As a result, the number of New Zealanders living in poverty has grown and income inequality has increased dramatically.
New Zealand has also had persistent current account deficits since the early 1970s, peaking at −7.8% of GDP in 2006 but falling to −2.6% of GDP in FY 2014. The CIA World Fact Book notes that 2017 public debt (that owed by the Government) was 31.7% of GDP. Between 1984 and 2006, net external foreign debt increased 11-fold, to NZ$182 billion. As of June 2018 gross core crown debt was NZ$84,524 million or 29.5% of GDP and net core crown debt was NZ$62,114 million or 21.7% of GDP.
Despite New Zealand's persistent current account deficits, the balance on external goods and services has generally been positive. In FY 2014, export receipts exceeded imports by NZ$3.9 billion. There has been an investment income imbalance or net outflow for debt-servicing of external loans. In FY 2014, New Zealand's investment income from the rest of the world was NZ$7 billion, versus outgoings of NZ$16.3 billion, a deficit of NZ$9.3 billion. The proportion of the current account deficit that is attributable to the investment income imbalance (a net outflow to the Australian-owned banking sector) grew from one third in 1997 to roughly 70% in 2008.
Taxation in New Zealand is collected at a national level by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) on behalf of the Government of New Zealand. National taxes are levied on personal and business income, and on the supply of goods and services (GST). There is no capital gains tax although certain "gains" such as profits on the sale of patent rights are deemed to be income, income tax does apply to property transactions in certain circumstances, particularly speculation. Local property taxes (rates) are managed and collected by local authorities. Some goods and services carry a specific tax, referred to as an excise or a duty such as alcohol excise or gaming duty. These are collected by a range of government agencies such as the New Zealand Customs Service. There is no social security (payroll) tax or land tax in New Zealand.
In the 2010 New Zealand budget, personal tax rates were cut with the top personal tax rate reduced from 38% to 33% The cuts gave New Zealand the second-lowest personal tax burden in the OECD. Only Mexico's citizens had a higher percentage-wise "take home" proportion of their salaries.
The cuts in income tax were estimated to have reduced revenue by $2.46 billion. To compensate, GST was raised from 12.5% to 15%. Treasury figures show that top income earners in New Zealand pay between 6% and 8% of their income on GST. Those at the bottom end, earning less than $356 a week, spend between 11% and 14% on GST. Based on these figures, the New Zealand Herald predicted that putting GST up to 15% would increase living costs for the poor more than twice as much as for the rich.
New Zealand was ranked 1st on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of 2017 with a score of 89 out of 100. In 2018, New Zealand was ranked 2nd on the Corruption Perceptions Index with a score of 87 out of 100. In 2019, New Zealand was ranked 1st on the Corruption Perceptions Index with a score of 87 out of 100.
Although New Zealand is one of the least corrupt countries in the world, corruption exists in New Zealand.
In 2015 Statistics New Zealand published details of the break-down of Gross Domestic Product in the Regions of New Zealand for the year ended March 2015:
Prior to the economic shock created by Britain's decision to join the EEC in 1973, removing it as New Zealand's primary market for exports, unemployment in New Zealand was very low. The official number of people unemployed in 1959 was only 21. A year later it was 22. A recession and collapse in wool prices in 1966 led to unemployment rising by 131%, but was still only a 0.7% increase in unemployment.
After 1973, unemployment became a persistent economic and social issue in New Zealand. Recessions from 1976 to 1978 and 1982 to 1983 greatly increased unemployment again. Between 1985 and 2012, the unemployment rate averaged 6.29%. After the stock market crash of 1987, unemployment rose 170% reaching an all-time high of 11.20% in September 1991. The Asian financial crisis of 1997 set unemployment upwards again, by 28%. By 2007, it had dropped again and the rate stood at 3.5% (December 2007), its lowest level since the current method of surveying began in 1986. This gave the country the 5th-best ranking in the OECD (with an OECD average at the time of 5.5%). The low numbers correlated with a robust economy and a large backlog of job positions at all levels. Unemployment numbers are not always directly comparable between OECD nations, as they do not all keep labour market statistics in the same way.
The percentage of the population employed also increased in recent years, to 68.8% of all inhabitants, with full-time jobs increasing slightly, and part-time occupations decreasing in turn. The increase in the working population percentage is attributed to increasing wages and higher costs of living moving more people into employment. The low unemployment also had some disadvantages, with many companies unable to fill jobs.
From December 2007, mainly as a result of the global financial crisis, unemployment numbers began to rise. This trend continued until September 2012, reaching a high of 6.7%. It began to recover after that point sitting at 3.9% as of June 2019.
Shamubeel Eaqub, formerly a principal economist at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER), said that thirty years ago, an average house in New Zealand cost two or three times the average household income. House prices rose dramatically in the first years of the 21st century and by 2007, an average house cost more than six times household income. International surveys in 2013 showed that housing was unaffordable in all eight of New Zealand's major markets – unaffordable being defined by house prices which are more than three times the median regional income.
Demand for property has been strongest in Auckland pushing up prices in the city by 52% in the last five years. In 2014 the average sales price there went from $619,136 to $696,047, a rise of 12% in that 12-month period alone. In 2015, prices rose another 14%. This makes Auckland New Zealand's least affordable market and one of the most expensive cities in the world with houses costing 8 times the average income. Between 2012 and April 2016, the average Auckland home increased in price by just over two-thirds reaching $931,000 – higher than the cost of an average home in Sydney.
As a result, more and more people are being pushed out of the property market. Those on low incomes are hardest hit, affecting many Maori and Pacific Islanders. New Zealand's relatively high mortgage rates are exacerbating the problem even making it difficult for young people with steady jobs to buy their first home. According to a submission made to the Housing Affordability Inquiry, escalating house prices are also impacting on many middle income groups, especially those with large families. Mortgage adviser Bruce Patten said the trend was 'disturbing' and added to the gap between the 'haves and have-nots'.
Property analysis company CoreLogic says 45% of house purchases in New Zealand are now made by investors who already own a home, while another 28% are made by people moving from one property to another. Approximately 8% are being made by overseas cash buyers primarily Australians, Chinese, and British – although most economists believe foreign investment is currently too small to have a significant effect on property prices.
Whether purchases are made by New Zealanders or foreigners, it is generally those who are already well off that are buying the bulk of properties on the market. This has had a dramatic effect on home ownership rates by Kiwis, now at its lowest level since 1951. Even as recently as 1991, 76% of New Zealand homes were occupied by their owners. By 2013, this was down to 63%, indicating that more and more people are having to rent. Raewyn Cox, chief executive of the Federation of Family Budgeting, says: "High prices and high interest rates (have) sentenced a rising number of New Zealanders to be lifetime tenants" where they are "stuck in expensive rental situations, heading towards retirement."
Between 1982 and 2011, New Zealand's gross domestic product grew by 35%. Almost half of that increase went to a small group who were already the richest in the country. During this period, the average income of the top 10% of earners in New Zealand (those earning more than $72,000) almost doubled going from $56,300 to $100,200. The average income of the poorest tenth increased by 13% from $9700 to $11,000.
Growing inequality is confirmed by Statistics New Zealand which keeps track of income disparity using the P80/20 ratio. This ratio shows the difference between high household incomes (those in the 80th percentile) and low household incomes (those in the 20th percentile). The inequality ratio increased between 1988 and 2004, and decreased until the onset of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, increasing again to 2011 and then declining again from then. By 2013, the disposable income of high-income households was more than two-and-a-half times larger than that of low-income households. Highlighting the disparity, the top 1% of the population now owns 16% of the country's wealth – the richest 5% owns 38% – while half the population, including beneficiaries and pensioners, earn less than $24,000.
New Zealand has a universal superannuation scheme. Everyone aged 65 years old or over, who is a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident and normally lives in New Zealand at the time they apply is eligible. They must also have lived in New Zealand for at least 10 years since they turned 20 with five of those years being since they turned 50. Time spent overseas in certain countries and for certain reasons may be counted for New Zealand Superannuation. New Zealand Superannuation is taxed, the rate of which depends on their other income. The amount of Superannuation paid depends on the person's household situation. For a married couple the net tax amount is set by legislation to be no less than 66% of net average wage.
Because of the growing number of elderly becoming eligible, superannuation costs rose from $7.3 billion a year in 2008 to $10.2 billion in 2014. In 2011 there were twice as many children in New Zealand as elderly (65 and over); by 2051 there are projected to be 60% more elderly than children. In the ten years from 2014, the number of New Zealanders over the age of 65 is projected to grow by about 200,000.
This poses a significant problem for superannuation. The age of eligibility was gradually increased from 61 to 65 between 1993 and 2001. In that year the Labour Government of Helen Clark introduced the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (known as the "Cullen Fund" after Minister of Finance Michael Cullen) to part-fund the superannuation scheme into the future. As at October 2014, the fund managed NZ$27.11 billion, 15.9% of which was invested in New Zealand.
In 2007 a new individual saving scheme was introduced by the same Government, known as KiwiSaver. The main purpose of KiwiSaver is for retirement savings, but younger participants can also use it to save a deposit for their first home. The scheme is voluntary, work-based and managed by private sector companies called KiwiSaver providers. As at 30 June 2014, KiwiSaver had 2.3 million active members or 60.9% of New Zealand's population under 65. NZ$4 billion was contributed annually, and a total of NZ$19.1 billion has been contributed since 2007.
According to the National Infrastructure Unit of the Treasury, New Zealand "...continues to face challenges to its infrastructure; all forms of infrastructure are long-term investments, and change does not come about easily or quickly."
New Zealand's transport infrastructure is "generally well developed."
The New Zealand state highway network consists of 11,000 km of road, with 5981.3 km in the North Island and 4924.4 km in the South Island, built and maintained by the NZ Transport Agency, and paid for from general taxation and fuel excise duty. Heavy road users must pay Road User Charges as well, there is limited use of tolling on state highways. There is also 83,000 km of local roads built and maintained by local authorities.
The railway network is owned by state-owned enterprise KiwiRail and consists of 3,898 km of railway line, built to the narrow gauge of . Of this, 506 km is electrified.
There are seven international airports and twenty-eight domestic airports. Air New Zealand, 52% government-owned, is the national carrier and a state owned enterprise. Airways New Zealand, another state owned enterprise, provides air traffic control and communications.
New Zealand has 14 international seaports.
Present-day telecommunications in New Zealand include telephony, radio, television, and internet usage. A competitive telecommunications market has seen mobile prices drop to some of the lowest in the OECD. The copper wire and fibre cable networks are mostly owned by Chorus Limited, a publicly listed company. Chorus wholesales services to retail providers (such as Spark). In the mobile sector, there are three operators: Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees.
New Zealand has a high rate of internet use. , there are 1,916,000 broadband connections and 65,000 dial-up connections in New Zealand, of which 1,595,000 are residential and 386,000 are business or government. The majority of connections are digital subscriber line over phone lines.
The Government has two plans to bring Ultra-Fast Broadband to 97.8% of the population by 2019, and is spending NZ$1.35 billion on public-private partnerships to roll out fibre-to-the-home connection in all main towns and cities with population over 10,000. The program aims to deliver ultra-fast broadband capable of at least 100 Mbit/s download and 50Mbit/s upload to 75% of New Zealanders by 2019. In total, 1,340,000 households in 26 towns and cities will be connected.
Gigabit internet (1000Mbit/s download speeds) was made available to the entire Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) footprint on 1 October 2016, in an announcement from Chorus.
A$300 million Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) has also been introduced by the Government, with the aim to bring broadband of at least 5Mbit/s to 86% of rural customers by 2016.
From 1995 to 2013, the energy intensity of the economy per unit of GDP declined by 25 percent. A contributing factor is the growth of relatively less energy-intensive service industries. New Zealand will be potentially among the main winners after the global transition to renewable energy is completed; the country is placed very high – no. 5 among 156 countries – in the index of geopolitical gains and losses after energy transition (GeGaLo Index).
The electricity market is regulated by the Electricity Industry Participation Code administered by the Electricity Authority (EA). The electricity sector uses mainly renewable energy sources such as hydropower, geothermal power and increasingly wind energy.
The 83% share of renewable energy sources makes New Zealand one of the most sustainable economies in terms of energy generation. New Zealand suffers from a geographical imbalance between electricity production and consumption. The most substantial electricity generation (both existing and as remaining potential) is located on the South Island and to a lesser degree in the central North Island, while the main demand (which is continuing to grow) is in the northern North Island, particularly the Auckland Region. This requires electricity to be transmitted north through a power grid which is reaching its capacity more often.
For many years New Zealand's economy was built on a narrow range of agricultural products, such as wool, meat and dairy. These products became New Zealand's staple and most valuable exports, underpinning the success of the economy, from the 1850s until the 1970s. For example, from 1920 to the late 1930s, the dairy export quota was usually around 35% of New Zealand's total exports, and in some years made up almost 45%. Due to the high demand for these primary products, manifested by the New Zealand wool boom of 1951, New Zealand had one of the highest standards of living in the world for 70 years.
In the 1960s, prices for these traditional exports declined, and in 1973 New Zealand lost its preferential trading position with the United Kingdom when the latter joined the European Economic Community. Partly as a result, from 1970 to 1990, the relative New Zealand GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power declined from about 115% of the OECD average to 80%.
Between 1984 and 1993, New Zealand changed from a somewhat closed and centrally controlled economy to one of the most open economies in the OECD. In a process often referred to in New Zealand as Rogernomics, successive governments introduced policies which dramatically liberalised the economy.
In 2005 the World Bank praised New Zealand as the most business-friendly country in the world. The economy diversified and by 2008, tourism had become the single biggest generator of foreign exchange.
Prior to European settlement and colonisation of New Zealand, Māori had a subsistence economy, the basic economic unit of which was the sub-tribe or hapū. From the 1790s, the waters around New Zealand were visited by British, French and American whaling, sealing and trading ships. Their crews traded European goods, including guns and metal tools, for Māori food, water, wood, flax and sex. Their increasing lawlessness and plans for formal settlement by the New Zealand Company were two of the drivers behind the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, which established New Zealand as a colony. Settlers continued to be dependent on Māori for food until the 1860s. From then immigrants became self-sufficient in farming, and started quarrying a variety of minerals including gold, which was discovered at Gabriel's Gully in Central Otago, leading to the Otago Gold Rush in 1861. Settlements flourished in areas where these quarries were established. In the 1880s, Dunedin became the richest city in the country largely on the back of investments from the gold rush.
Sheep farming began in the Wairarapa but soon spread up and down the east coast from Southland to the East Cape once rudimentary roads and transport became available. Much of the land used for farming was taken or leased from Māori. Sheep numbers grew quickly and by the mid-1850s, there were already a million sheep in New Zealand; by the early 1870s, there were 10 million. Wool became the first staple export, initially exported from the Wellington settlement in the late 1850s, although unrefrigerated meat and dairy products were exported as far as Australia.
In the 1870s, Julius Vogel was periodically both colonial treasurer and premier. He viewed New Zealand as a "Britain of the South Seas" and began the development of infrastructure in New Zealand investing heavily in roads, railways, telegraphs and bridges funded by public borrowing. Progress slowed after the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878 which led to a contraction in credit from London, the centre of the world's financial system at the time. Economic activity was depressed for some years afterwards, until refrigeration was introduced in 1882. This enabled New Zealand to start exporting meat and other frozen products to the United Kingdom. Refrigeration transformed and shaped the development of the economy but, in the process, established New Zealand's economic dependence on Britain.
The success of refrigeration was directly related to the growth and development of farming in the country. In the 19th century, the bulk of economic activity was in the South Island of New Zealand. From around 1900, dairy farming became increasingly viable in areas which were less suitable for sheep, particularly in Northland, the Waikato and Taranaki. As dairying developed, the North Island slowly became more important to the economy. As more land was cultivated and farmed, Britain became the sole market for New Zealand meat and animal products. The dairy farming can therefore be seen as a response to the powerful market demands in Europe, transforming not only New Zealand's countryside, economy and production techniques, but also causing migration in order to create the needed supply of dairy farming.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand was established as New Zealand's central bank on 1 August 1934. Up until that time New Zealand's monetary policy had been set in the United Kingdom, and the New Zealand Pound was issued by private banks. A separate central bank gave New Zealand's government control of monetary policy for the first time, although New Zealand remained part of the sterling area by pegging its pound to the British pound sterling until the introduction of the New Zealand dollar in 1967, after which the dollar was instead pegged to the United States dollar.
By the mid-20th century, pastoral-farming products made up more than 90% of New Zealand's exports, 65% of which was going to Britain in the 1950s. Having a secure market with guaranteed prices also enabled New Zealand to impose high tariffs on imported goods from other countries. Tough import controls gave local manufacturers the ability to produce similar products locally, broaden the base of jobs available in New Zealand and still compete against higher priced imports.
This prosperity continued up to 1955 at which point Britain stopped giving New Zealand guaranteed prices for its exports. From then on, what New Zealand received was dictated by the free market. As a result, during the 1950s and 1960s the country's standard of living began to slip as the export sector was no longer able to pay for the level of imported goods required to meet the country's growing consumerism.
Britain applied to join the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1961, but was vetoed by the French. The government of Keith Holyoake reacted by attempting to diversify New Zealand's export markets, signing the first free trade agreement (Australia New Zealand Free Trade Agreement) in 1965, and opening new diplomatic posts in Hong Kong, Jakarta, Saigon, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Britain applied again to join the EEC in 1967, and entered into negotiations for membership in 1970. Holyoake's deputy and successor, Jack Marshall, (briefly Prime Minister in 1972) negotiated continued access for New Zealand exports to the United Kingdom under the so-called "Luxembourg Agreement".
Britain gained full membership of the EEC on 1 January 1973, and all trade agreements with New Zealand came to an end, except the Luxembourg Agreement. By the end of that year, only 26.8% of New Zealand's exports were to Britain. This had a significant effect on the standard of living. In 1953, New Zealand had the third highest standard in the world. By 1978, it had dropped to 22nd place.
Having lost unrestricted access to its traditional market, New Zealand continued to search for alternative export markets and diversify its economy. The Government of Norman Kirk, who succeeded Marshall, put greater emphasis on expanding New Zealand's trade, especially with South East Asia. Following the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, an oil embargo was put in place by the Middle Eastern oil exporters, leading to the 1973 oil crisis. This compounded New Zealand's dire economic situation further. Inflation greatly increased as the cost of transport and imported goods soared, causing standards of living to decline.
Following the 1979 energy crisis resulting from the Iranian Revolution of that year, Robert Muldoon, the prime minister between 1975 and 1984, instituted an economic strategy known as Think Big. Large scale industrial plants were established based on New Zealand's abundant natural gas. A new range of products for export such as ammonia, urea fertilizer, methanol and petrol were produced and with greater use of electricity (with the electrification of the North Island Main Trunk railway) with the goal that this would reduce New Zealand's dependence on oil imports.
Other projects included the Clyde Dam on the Clutha River, which was built to meet a growing demand for electricity, and the expansion of the New Zealand Steel plant at Glenbrook.
The Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter, which opened in 1971, was also upgraded as part of the Think Big strategy and now brings in approximately NZ$1 billion in exports every year.
Unfortunately for New Zealand, most of these projects only came on line at the same time as oil prices dropped during the 1980s oil glut. The price of crude went from more than US$90 a barrel in 1980, to about US$30 a few years later. Because these Think Big projects required massive borrowing to get started, public debt soared from $4.2 billion in 1975 when Muldoon became prime minister to $21.9 billion when he left office nine years later. Inflation remained rampant, averaging 11% in the 1980s. Once Labour came to power in 1984, many of these projects were sold to private industry as part of a wider sale of state-assets.
The Muldoon Government did make some moves towards deregulation however. For example, in 1982 it removed the transport licensing restrictions on road carriers carting goods more than 150 km, and turned the Railways Department into a statutory corporation.
The Fourth Labour government, elected in July 1984, moved away from government intervention in the economy and allowed free market mechanisms to dominate. These reforms became known as "Rogernomics", named after minister of finance from 1984 to 1988, Roger Douglas. The changes included making the Reserve Bank independent of political decisions; performance contracts for senior civil servants; public sector finance reform based on accrual accounting; tax neutrality; subsidy-free agriculture; and industry-neutral competition regulation. Government subsidies including agricultural subsidies were eliminated; import regulations were loosened up; the exchange rate was floated; and controls on interest rates, wages, and prices were removed; and personal rates of taxation were reduced. Tight monetary policy and major efforts to reduce the government budget deficit brought the inflation rate down from an annual rate of more than 18% in 1987. The deregulation of government-owned enterprises in the 1980s and 1990s reduced government's role in the economy and permitted the retirement of some public debt.
The new Government was faced with an exchange rate crisis the day after it was elected. Speculators expected the change of government to result in a 20% devaluation of the New Zealand dollar, which led to the 1984 New Zealand constitutional crisis due to Muldoon's refusal to devalue, worsening the currency crisis further. As a result, the dollar was floated on 4 March 1985, allowing for the value of the dollar to change with the market. Prior to the dollar being floated, the dollar was pegged against a basket of currencies.
Financial markets were deregulated and tariffs on imported goods lowered and phased out. At the same time subsidies to many industries, notably agriculture, were removed or significantly reduced. Income and company taxes were reduced and the top marginal tax rate was reduced from 66% to 33%. These were replaced by a comprehensive tax on goods and services (GST) initially set at 10%, then increased to 12.5% and recently increased to 15% in 2011. A surtax on universal superannuation was also introduced. Many government departments were corporatised, and from 1 April 1987 became State owned enterprises, required to make a profit. The new corporations shed thousands of jobs adding to unemployment; Electricity Corporation 3,000; Coal Corporation 4,000; Forestry Corporation 5,000; New Zealand Post 8,000.
The wage and price freeze of the early eighties coupled with the removal of financial restrictions and a lack of investment opportunities, led to a speculative bubble on New Zealand's sharemarket, sharemarket crash of 1987, in which New Zealand's sharemarket shed 60% from its 1987 peak, and taking several years to recover.
Inflation continued to be a major problem afflicting the New Zealand economy. Between 1985 and 1992, inflation averaged 9% per year and the economy was in recession. The unemployment rate rose from 3.6% to 11%, New Zealand's credit rating dropped twice, and foreign debt quadrupled. In 1989 the Reserve Bank Act 1989 was passed, creating strict monetary policy under the sole control of the Reserve Bank Governor. From then on the Reserve Bank focused on keeping inflation low and stable, using the Official Cash Rate (OCR) – the price of borrowing money in New Zealand – as its primary means to do so. As a result, inflation rates fell to an average of 2.5% in the 1990s, compared to 12% in the 1970s. However, the tightening of monetary policy contributed to rising unemployment in the early 1990s.
The Labour Party was greatly divided over Rogernomics, especially following the 1987 sharemarket crash and its effect on the economy, which slumped along with the rest of the world into recession in the early 1990s. The National Party was returned to power at the 1990 general election and Ruth Richardson became minister of finance under Prime Minister Jim Bolger. The new Government was again thrown a major economic challenge, with the then state-owned Bank of New Zealand needing a bail-out to stay operational.
Richardson's first budget in 1991, nicknamed the 'Mother of all Budgets', attempted to address constant fiscal deficits and borrowing by cutting state spending. Unemployment and social welfare benefits were cut and 'market rents' were introduced for state houses – in some cases tripling the rents of low-income people. Richardson also introduced user-pays requirements in hospitals and schools. These reforms became known derisively as Ruthanasia.
By this time, New Zealand's economy faced serious social problems; the number of New Zealanders estimated to be living in poverty grew by at least 35% between 1989 and 1992; many of the promised economic benefits of the experiment never materialised. Gross domestic product per capita stagnated between 1986–87 and 1993–94, and by March 1992 unemployment rose to 11.1% Between 1985 and 1992, New Zealand's economy grew by 4.7% during the same period in which the average OECD nation grew by 28.2%. From 1984 to 1993 inflation averaged 9% per year, New Zealand's credit rating dropped twice, and foreign debt quadrupled. Between 1986 and 1993, the unemployment rate rose from 3.6% to 11%.
Deregulation also created a business-friendly regulatory framework which has benefited those able to take advantage of it. A 2008 survey in The Heritage Foundation and "Wall Street Journal" ranked New Zealand 99.9% in "Business freedom", and 80% overall in "Economic freedom", noting that it takes, on average, only 12 days to establish a business in New Zealand, compared with a worldwide average of 43 days.
Deregulation has also been blamed for other significant negative effects. One of these was the leaky homes crisis, whereby the loosening up of building standards (in the expectation that market forces would assure quality) led to many thousands of severely deficient buildings, mostly residential homes and apartments, being constructed over a period of a decade. The costs of fixing the damage has been estimated at over NZ$11 billion ().
Unemployment continued to fall from 1993 to 1994 fiscal year, until the onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis again pushed the rate higher. By 2016 the unemployment rate decreased to 5.3 percent, the lowest level in 7 years.
Between 2000 and 2007, the New Zealand economy expanded by an average of 3.5% a year driven primarily by private consumption and the buoyant housing market. During this period, inflation averaged only 2.6% a year, within the Reserve Bank's target range of 1% to 3%. However, in early 2008 the economy entered recession, before the effects of the global financial crisis (GFC) set in later that year. A drought over the 2007/08 summer led to lower production of dairy products in the first half of 2008. Domestic activity slowed sharply over 2008 as high fuel and food prices dampened domestic consumption, while high interest rates and falling house prices drove a rapid decline in residential investment.
Around the world instability was developing in the finance sector. This reached a peak in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers, a major American bank, collapsed propelling the world into the global financial crisis.
Uncertainty began to dominate the global financial and economic environment. Business and consumer confidence in New Zealand plummeted as dozens of finance companies collapsed. To try and stop a flight of funds from New Zealand institutions to those in Australia, the Government established the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme to cover depositors funds in the event that a bank or finance company went broke. This protected some investors but nevertheless, at least 67 finance companies collapsed within a short period of time. The largest of these was South Canterbury Finance which cost taxpayers NZ$1.58 billion when the company collapsed in August 2010. The directors of many of these finance companies were subsequently investigated for fraud and some high-profile directors went to prison.
In an attempt to stimulate the economy, the Reserve Bank lowered the Official Cash Rate (OCR) from a high of 8.25% (July 2008) to an all-time low of 2.5% at the end of April 2009.
Fortunately for New Zealand, the recession was relatively shallow compared to many other nations in the OECD, it was sixth least affected out of the 34 member
nations with negative real GDP growth totaling 3.5%. In 2009 the economy picked up, led by strong demand from major trading partners Australia and China, and historically high prices for New Zealand's dairy and log exports. In 2010 the GDP grew by a modest 1.6%, but over the next couple of years economic activity continued to improve, driven by the rebuild in Canterbury after the Christchurch earthquakes and recovery in domestic demand. Through 2011, global conditions deteriorated and the terms of trade eased off their 2011 peak, continuing to moderate until September 2012. Since then, commodity prices have rebounded strongly, with strong demand from China and the international situation improving. Commodity prices have been at record highs in recent quarters and remain elevated. High commodity prices are expected to provide a considerable boost to nominal GDP growth in the near term.
In 2013 the economy grew 3.3%. HSBC chief economist for Australia and New Zealand, Paul Bloxham, was so impressed that he predicted New Zealand's growth would outpace most of its peers, and he described New Zealand as the "rock star economy of 2014". Another financial commentator said the New Zealand dollar was the "hottest" currency of 2014. Only three months later, the New Zealand Productivity Commission expressed concern about low living standards and problems affecting the long-term drivers of growth. Paul Conway, Director of Economics and Research at the Productivity Commission, wrote: "New Zealand's broad policy settings should generate GDP per capita 20 per cent above the OECD average, but the actual result is more than 20 per cent below average. We may be punching above our weight, but that’s only because we are in the wrong weight division!" In August, Bloxham admitted that "the sharp decline in dairy prices over the last six months has clouded the outlook somewhat". In December however Bloxham stated that he thought the New Zealand economy would continue to grow strongly.
In 2014 increased attention was paid to the growing gap between rich and poor. In "The Guardian", Max Rashbrook said policies implemented by both Labour and National governments have increased inequality. He claims that for twenty years outrage "has been muted", but "Alarm bells are finally beginning to sound. Recent polling shows three-quarters of New Zealanders think theirs is no longer an egalitarian country".
New Zealand's small size and long distances from major world markets creates significant challenges in its ability to compete in global markets. Australia, New Zealand's closest neighbour, is New Zealand's biggest trading partner. In 2018, New Zealand's main trading partners were China, Australia, the European Union, the United States and Japan. Together, these five partners account for 66% of New Zealand's two-way trade. In March 2014, the total value of goods exported from New Zealand topped $50 billion for the first time, up from $30 billion in 2001. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) offers strategic advice and support to New Zealand businesses wanting to export goods and services to other countries.
Since 1960s New Zealand has pursued free trade agreements with many countries to diversify its export markets and increase the competitiveness of New Zealand's exports to the world. As well as reducing barriers to trade, Trade Agreements New Zealand has entered into are designed to ensure existing access is maintained. Trade agreements establish rules by which trade can take place and ensure regulators and officials in countries New Zealand is trading with work closely together.
Australia is New Zealand's largest bilateral trading partner. In 2013, trade between New Zealand and Australia was worth NZ$25.6 billion. Economic and trading links between Australia and New Zealand are underpinned by the "Closer Economic Relations" (CER) agreement, which allows for free trade in goods and most services. Since 1990, CER has created a single market of more than 25 million people. Australia is now the destination of 19% of New Zealand's exports, including light crude oil, gold, wine, cheese and timber, as well as a wide range of manufactured items.
The CER also creates a free labour market which allows New Zealand and Australian citizens to live and work freely in each other's country together with mutual recognition of professional qualifications. This means individuals who are registered to practise an occupation in one country can register to practise an equivalent occupation in the other country. Banking regulation and supervision are co-ordinated through the Trans-Tasman Council on Banking Supervision and there are also ongoing discussions about co-ordinating Australian and New Zealand business law.
China is New Zealand's largest trading partner buying primarily meat, dairy products and pine logs. In 2013, trade between New Zealand and China was worth NZ$16.8 billion. This has occurred primarily because of soaring demand for imported dairy products, following the Chinese milk scandal in 2008. Since then demand for milk products has been so strong that in the 12 months to March 2014, there was a 51% increase in total exports to China. The increase was facilitated by the New Zealand–China Free Trade Agreement which came into force on 1 October 2008. Since that year exports to China have more than tripled.
The United States is New Zealand's third largest trading partner. In 2013, bilateral trade between the two countries was valued at NZ$11.8 billion. New Zealand's main exports to the United States are beef, dairy products and lamb. Imports from the US include specialised machinery, pharmaceutical products, oil and fuel. In addition to trade, there is a high level of corporate and individual investment between the two countries and the US is a major source of tourists coming to New Zealand. In March 2012, the United States had a total of $44 billion invested in New Zealand. A number of US companies have subsidiary branches in New Zealand. Many operate through local agents, with some joint venture associations. The United States Chamber of Commerce is active in New Zealand, with a main office in Auckland and a branch committee in Wellington.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New Zealand and the United States "share a deep and longstanding friendship based on a common heritage, shared values and interests, and a commitment to promoting a free, democratic, secure and prosperous world". This common background has not translated into a free trade agreement between the two countries.
Japan is New Zealand's fourth largest trading partner. In the 21st century, Asian economies have been developing rapidly providing significant demand for New Zealand's exports. New Zealand also trades with Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, India and the Philippines and this now accounts for around 16% of total exports. New Zealand initiated a free trade agreement with Singapore in September 2000 which was extended in 2005 to include Chile and Brunei and is now known as the P4 agreement.
A growing number of New Zealand companies use the United Kingdom as a base to supply their products to the European market. However trade with the European Union is declining as demand from Asia continues to grow. The EU currently takes only 8% of New Zealand exports but provides around 12% of imports.
In July 2014, negotiations on the Partnership Agreement on Relations and Cooperation (PARC) between New Zealand and the European Union were concluded. The agreement covers the trade and economic relationship between the EU and New Zealand with a view to further liberalisation of trade and investment and acknowledges the intention of the European Union to upgrade its diplomatic presence in New Zealand with a resident ambassador.
The Pacific region with numerous islands is New Zealand's sixth largest trading market and is growing every year. In 2011 exports to Pacific Islands were worth over $1.5 billion up 12% on the previous year. Fiji is the biggest individual market followed very closely by Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia and New Caledonia. Goods exported to the islands include refined oil, construction materials, medicines, sheep meat, milk, butter, fruit and vegetables. New Zealand also assists Pacific Islands with defence and regional security, and with management of the environment and fisheries.
Because of their small size, the Pacific Islands are some of the most vulnerable environments in the world and are on the receiving end of numerous cyclones every year. When disasters occur, they often have severe social and economic effects which last for years. Since 1992, New Zealand has co-operated with Australia and France to respond to disasters in the Pacific. New Zealand provides emergency supplies and transport, funding for roading and housing and the deployment of specialists to affected areas.
Through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand also provides international aid and development funding to help stimulate sustainable economic development in underdeveloped economies. The New Zealand Aid Programme, allocated about $550m a year, is focused primarily on promoting development in the Pacific. The allocation of $550 million represents about 0.26% of New Zealand's gross national income (GNI).
New Zealand welcomes and encourages foreign investment, which is overseen by the Overseas Investment Office. In 2014 foreign direct investment totaled NZ$107.69 billion. From 1989 foreign investment increased from $9.7 billion to $101.4 billion in 2013 – an increase of over 1,000%. Between 1989 and 2007, foreign ownership of the New Zealand sharemarket went from 19% to 41% but has since dropped back to 33%.
In 2007, around 7% of all New Zealand agriculturally productive land was foreign-owned. In 2011, economist Bill Rosenberg said that the figure is closer to 9% if foreign ownership of forestry is included. In March 2013 the financial sector, which includes the four big Australian owned banks, was worth $39.3 billion accounting for the largest portion of the $101.4 billion foreign ownership of New Zealand companies.
Between 1997 and 2007, foreign investors made $50.3 billion profit, 68% of which went overseas. The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) says this has a negative impact on the economy arguing that when foreign investors buy up New Zealand companies, they tend to cut staff and push down wages. Foreign ownership has also done nothing to improve New Zealand's foreign debt. In 1984, private and public foreign debt was $16 billion ($50 billion in March 2013 dollars) which was less than half New Zealand's Gross Domestic Product at the time. By March 2013, total foreign debt stood at $251 billion, well over 100% of New Zealand's Gross Domestic Product.
Industrial production growth rate: 5.9% (2004) / 1.5% (2007)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
Agriculture – products: wheat, barley, potatoes, pulses, fruits, vegetables; wool, beef, dairy products; fish
Exports – commodities: dairy products, meat, wood and wood products, fish, machinery
Imports – commodities: machinery and equipment, vehicles and aircraft, petroleum, electronics, textiles, plastics
Electricity:
Electricity – production by source:
Oil:
Exchange rates:
"New Zealand dollars (NZ$) per US$1" – 1.4771 (2016), 1.2652 (2012), 1.3869 (2005), 1.5248 (2004), 1.9071 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001), 2.2012 (2000), 1.8886 (1999), 1.8632 (1998), 1.5083 (1997), 1.4543 (1996), 1.5235 (1995) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21356 |
Telecommunications in New Zealand
Telecommunications in New Zealand are fairly typical for an industrialised country.
Fixed-line broadband and telephone services are largely provided through copper-based networks, although fibre-based services are increasingly common. Spark New Zealand, Vodafone New Zealand, 2degrees provide most services.
Mobile telephone services are provided by Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees, although a number of smaller mobile virtual network operators also exist.
The first telegraph opened in New Zealand between the port of Lyttelton and Christchurch on 16 June 1862. The line was constructed along the Lyttelton - Christchurch railway line. The Vogel Era from 1870 saw a major expansion of the telegraph network, including an inter-island cable. Telegraph lines increased from in 1866 to in 1876. The first overseas telegraph cable between Australia and New Zealand began operation on 21 February 1876.
The Electric Telegraph Department formed to manage the growing telegraph network was merged with Post Office Department to form the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department in 1881.
Following early experiments with telephones on telegraph lines, the colonial government established a state monopoly in telephony with the Electric Telegraph Act 1875. By 1900 there were 7,150 subscribers to telephone services. Telephony subscriptions grew greatly over the next century, it was estimated by 1965 that 35% of New Zealanders had a telephone.
By the 1980s there was major telephony traffic congestion on the New Zealand Post Office network. In Auckland, the central exchange was overloaded and "verging on collapse" elsewhere in New Zealand users often experienced network overloading and crashes. The New Zealand Post Office was highly inefficient, being hamstrung as a government department and required to apply to the Treasury for capital investment. As the Post Office was a monopoly, it had no incentive to improve customer service.
The monopoly over telecommunications came to an end in 1987 when Telecom New Zealand was formed, initially as a state-owned enterprise and then privatised in 1990. Competition began in the early 1990s, greatly reducing prices. The first competitor to market was Clear Communications, a consortium of North American and New Zealand businesses. Chorus, which was split from Telecom (now Spark) in 2011, still owns the majority of the telecommunications infrastructure, but competition from other providers has increased. A large-scale rollout of gigabit-capable fibre to the premises, branded as Ultra-Fast Broadband, began in 2009 with a target of being available to 87% of the population by 2022. , the United Nations International Telecommunication Union ranks New Zealand 13th in the development of information and communications infrastructure.
The government charges a $50 million Telecommunications Development Levy annually to fund improvements to communications infrastructure such as the Rural Broadband Initiative. It is payable by telecommunications firms with an operating revenue of over $10 million, in proportion to their qualified revenue. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21357 |
Transport in New Zealand
Transport in New Zealand, with its mountainous topography and a relatively small population mostly located near its long coastline, has always faced many challenges. Before Europeans arrived, Māori either walked or used watercraft on rivers or along the coasts. Later on, European shipping and railways revolutionised the way of transporting goods and people, before being themselves overtaken by road and air, which are nowadays the dominant forms of transport. However, bulk freight still continues to be transported by coastal shipping and by rail transport, and there are attempts to (re)introduce public transport as a major transport mode in the larger population centres.
Historically very car-dependent, transport funding in New Zealand is still heavily dominated by money for road projects–in 2010 the government proposed to spend $21 billion on roading infrastructure after 2012, yet only $0.7 billion on other transport projects (public transport, walking and cycling). This was criticised by opponents as irresponsible, in light of increasing fuel prices and congestion. Public transport is primarily a local government responsibility whereas state highways are the responsibility of central government.
The state highway network is the principal road infrastructure connecting New Zealand urban centres. It is administered by the NZ Transport Agency. The majority of smaller or urban roads are managed by city or district councils, although some fall under the control of other authorities, such as the New Zealand Department of Conservation or port and airport authorities.
New Zealand has left-hand traffic on its roads.
Before Europeans arrived, Māori either walked or used watercraft on rivers or along the coasts. The road network of New Zealand has its origins in these tracks and paths used by Māori and later by Europeans in their early travels through New Zealand. Several major Māori tracks were known, such as the western coastal track was used along the whole length of the North Island, and the track on the East Coast, which left the coast near Castlepoint and rejoined it near Napier. In the South Island, another major track existed down the east coast with tributary tracks following streams up to the mountain passes to the West Coast. Mountains, swamp, and dense bush made inland routes tricky to traverse, and early settlers also made use of beaches as roads, for walking, riding horses, and herding sheep. Many farms had access via beaches only, and beaches were used as runways for planes. Some beaches are still used by planes, for example at Okarito and on the west coast of Stewart Island.
Initial roads, such as the Great South Road southwards from Auckland, were often built by the British Army to move troops, and were constructed to a comparatively high standard. Early sheep farming required few high-standard roads, but the strong increase in dairy farming in the late 19th century created a strong demand for better links on which the more perishable goods could be transported to market or towards ports for export. In many cases, later roads for motor vehicles follow paths used by bullock carts which followed tracks made for humans. These in turn in some cases became highways – with attendant problems all over New Zealand (but especially in the more mountainous regions), as the geography and contours of a slow-speed road laid out in the first half of the 20th century usually do not conform to safety and comfort criteria of modern motor vehicles.
Early road construction was both hindered and helped by rail transport during the first half century of European settlement. Authorities were reluctant to expend large amounts of capital on more difficult sections of a route where there was a hope that a railway might instead be built. However, where railways were constructed, roads often either preceded them for construction or quickly followed it when the newly accessible land started to be settled more closely.
The New Zealand highway system was extended massively after World War II. The first motorway was built in the environs of Wellington and opened in 1950, between Takapu Road and Johnsonville. Following heavy investment in road construction from the 1950s onwards, public transport patronage fell nationwide. This has been described, in Auckland's case, as "one of the most spectacular declines in public transport patronage of any developed city in the world".
New Zealand has a state highway network of ( in the North Island and in the South Island, as of August 2006) of which are motorways. These link to of local authority roads, both paved and unpaved. The state highways carry 50% of all New Zealand road traffic, with the motorways alone carrying 9% of all traffic (even though they represent only 3% of the whole state highway network, and even less of the whole road network).
The default maximum speed limit on the open road is for cars and motorcycles, with the default limit in urban areas. Around of motorway and expressway in Waikato and the Bay of Plenty have a higher posted speed limit of . Speed limits of are also used in increments of , and the posted speed limit may be more than the allowed speed limit for a particular vehicle type. Speeds are often reduced to beside roadworks.
Private landowners may set their own speed limits, for example , although these are not enforced by police of road authorities.
The Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits (2017) allows road controlling authorities to set enforceable speed limits, including permanent speed limits, of less than 50 km/h on roads within their jurisdiction.
Total road deaths in New Zealand are high by developed country standards. 2010 figures from the International Transport Forum placed New Zealand 25th out of 33 surveyed countries in terms of road deaths per capita, a rank that has changed little in 30 years. The fatality rate per capita is twice the level of Germany's, or that of the United Kingdom, Sweden or the Netherlands (2010 comparison). This is variously blamed on aggressive driving, insufficient driver training, old and unsafe cars, inferior road design and construction, and a lack of appreciation of the skill and responsibility required to safely operate a motor vehicle.
In 2010, 375 'road users' were killed in New Zealand, while 14,031 were injured, with 15- to 24-year-olds the group at highest risk. The three most common vehicle movements resulting in death or injury were "head-on collisions (while not overtaking)", "loss of control (on straight)" and "loss of control (while cornering)". In terms of deaths per 10,000 population, the most dangerous areas were the Waitomo District (121 deaths) and the Mackenzie District (110). Larger cities were comparatively safe, with Auckland City (28), Wellington (22) and Christchurch (28), while Dunedin had a higher rate of 43.
New Zealand has a large number of overseas drivers (tourists, business, students and new immigrants), as well as renting campervans/motorhomes/RV's during the New Zealand summer. Overseas licensed drivers are significantly more likely to be found at fault in a collision in which they are involved (66.9%), compared to fully licensed New Zealand drivers (51.9%), and only slightly less likely to be found at fault than restricted (novice) New Zealand drivers (68.9%).
Drunk driving is a major issue in New Zealand, especially among young drivers. New Zealand has relatively low penalties for drunk driving. In the late 2000s, reports indicated that the rate of drunk driving by under 20s in Auckland had risen 77% in three years, with similar increases in the rest of the country. Many drunk drivers already had convictions for previous drunk driving.
The road toll has decreased over the 5 years from 421 in 2007 to 284 in 2011
In the 'Safer Journeys' Strategy, intended to guide road safety developments between 2010 and 2020, the Ministry of Transport aims for a 'safe systems' approach, prioritised four areas, being "Increasing the safety of young drivers", "Reducing alcohol/drug impaired driving", "Safe roads and roadsides" and "Increasing the safety of motorcycling".
Historically, most roads in New Zealand were funded by local road authorities (often road boards) who derived their income from local rates. As the need for new roads was often most urgent in those parts of the country where little rate income could yet be collected, the funding was at least partly dependent on national-level subsidies, for which much lobbying was undertaken. Many acts and ordinances were passed in the first decades of the colony, but lack of funds and parochialism (the desire to spend locally raised money locally, rather than use it to link different provinces) hindered the growth of the road network. This lack of larger-scale planning eventually led to increased public works powers given to the Central Government.
Today, all funding for state highways and around 50% of funding for local roads comes directly from road users through the National Land Transport Fund. Road user revenue directed to the fund includes all fuel excise duty on LPG and CNG, around 55% of revenue from fuel excise duty on petrol, all revenue from road user charges (a prepaid distance/weight licence that all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, and all non-petrol/LPG/CNG vehicles are liable to pay) and most non-ACC revenue from motor vehicle registration and licensing fees. In addition, in the last three years the government has increasingly allocated additional funds to land transport, to the extent that today the total expenditure by the NZ Transport Agency on land transport projects exceeds road tax revenue collected. The remainder of funding for local city and district roads primarily comes from local authority property rates.
As of 2010, transport funding in New Zealand is still heavily biased towards road projects – the National government proposes to spend $21 billion on roading infrastructure after 2012, yet only $0.7 billion on other transport projects (public transport, walking and cycling). This has been criticised by opponents of the current government strategy as irresponsible, in light of increasing fuel prices and congestion. Government has claimed that their priority on roads is in line with New Zealanders' favoured travel modes, and as being the most promising in terms of economic benefits.
One of the earliest counts/estimates of motor vehicles in New Zealand had them at 82,000 in 1925. This soon increased to 170,000 on the eve of World War II in 1939, continuing to 425,000 in 1953 and increasing to 1,000,000 in 1971. In the first national vehicle registration of 1925, 99,233 plates were issued. In 1931 156,180 motor-vehicles were registered and those licensed were 298,586 in 1939 and 380,503 in 1950.
Just over half of the light passenger vehicles first registered in New Zealand are used imports. In 2013 new car registrations were up 7% on 2012 to 82,235 sold, with used vehicle sales up to 98,971.
At the 2013 New Zealand census, 92.1 percent of households reported owning at least one car; 37.6 percent reported owning one car, 38.4 percent reported as owning two cars, and 16.1 percent reported owing three or more cars. Car ownership was highest in the Tasman Region (95.9 percent) and lowest in the Wellington Region (88.3 percent).
In 2015, 3.018 million were light passenger vehicles, 507,000 were light commercial vehicles, 137,000 were heavy trucks, 10,000 were buses and 160,000 were motorcycles and mopeds. The mean age of a New Zealand car (as of end of 2015) was 14.2 years, with trucks at 17.6 years. 38% of light vehicles in 2017 were 15 years +, 171,000 being deregistered, but 334,000 added.
By 2017 there were 792 light vehicles per 1,000 people, one of the highest vehicle ownerships in the world and they covered 9,265 km/capita.
Average engine capacity of light vehicles grew to 2010 and was about 2,290cc in 2017, with average CO2 emissions about 180 g/km.
Freight tonne-km in 2017, were up 7.3% to 25.3 billion tkm from 23.6 billion tkm in 2016.
The modal share of freight operations in 2017/18 was -
Transport by bus services form the main component of public transport services in New Zealand cities, and the country also has a network of long-distance bus or coach services, augmented by door-to-door inter-city "shuttle vans", a type of shared taxi.
The first widespread motor vehicle services were shared taxi services termed "service cars"; a significant early provider was Aard, operating elongated Hudson Super Sixes. By 1920 AARD covered most of the North Island and even provided transport for the Prince of Wales. By 1924 the services covered even more areas. Aard was taken over by New Zealand Railways Road Services in 1928. The road fleet of New Zealand Railways Corporation was privatised in 1991 with the long-distance business still existing as InterCity, having more recently incorporated "Newmans Coachlines". Another former extensive coach business was Mount Cook Landlines, which closed in the 1990s. Internet-based nakedbus.com is building another nationwide network, partly as a reseller of several smaller bus operators' capacity.
Intercity and Tourism Holdings Ltd are significant sightseeing / tourism coach operators.
While relatively popular for sport and recreation, bicycle use is a very marginal commuting mode, with the percentage share hovering around 1% in many major cities, and around 2% nationwide (2000s figures). This is primarily due to safety fears. For instance Auckland Regional Transport Authority reports that "over half of Aucklanders believe it is usually unsafe, or always unsafe, to cycle".
The high risk to bicycle users is due to a number of factors. Motorists tend to exhibit hostile attitudes towards bicycle riders. Bicycles are classed as 'vehicles', a transport class legally obliged to use the road, forcing bicycle users to mingle with heavy and fast-moving motor vehicles; only postal workers are legally permitted to ride on footpaths. Bicycle infrastructure and the standards underpinning bicycle infrastructure planning are poor and bicycles receive relatively very low levels of funding by both central and local government. It has also been argued that the introduction of New Zealand's compulsory bicycle helmet law contributed to the decline in the popularity of cycling.
There is a total of 3,898 km of railway line in New Zealand, built to the narrow gauge of . Of this, 506 km is electrified. The national network's land is owned by New Zealand Railways Corporation, and the network owner and major rail transport operator is the state-owned enterprise KiwiRail. The national network consists of three main trunk lines, seven secondary main lines and during its peak in the 1950s, around ninety branch lines. The majority of the latter are now closed. Most lines were constructed by government but a few were of private origin, later nationalised. In 1931, the Transport Licensing Act was passed, protecting the railways from competition for fifty years. The Railways Corporation was created in 1983 from the New Zealand Railways Department, and the land transport industry became fully deregulated in 1983.
Between 1982 and 1993 the rail industry underwent a major overhaul involving corporatisation, restructuring, downsizing, line and station closures and privatisation. In 1991 the Railways Corporation was split up, with New Zealand Rail Limited established to operate the rail and inter-island ferry services and own the rail network, with the parcels and bus services sold to private investors. The Railways Corporation continued to own the land underneath the rail network, as well as significant property holdings that were disposed of. In 1993 New Zealand Rail was itself privatised and was listed by its new owners in 1995, and renamed Tranz Rail. The Government agreed to take over control of the national rail network back when Toll Holdings purchased Tranz Rail in 2003, under the auspices of ONTRACK, a division of the Railways Corporation. In May 2008 the Government agreed to buy Toll NZ's rail and ferry operations for $665 million, and renamed the operating company KiwiRail.
Bulk freights dominate services, particularly coal, logs and wood products, milk and milk products, fertiliser, containers, steel and cars. Long distance passenger services are limited to three routes – the TranzAlpine (Christchurch – Greymouth), the TranzCoastal (Christchurch – Picton) and the Northern Explorer (Wellington – Auckland). Urban rail services operate in Wellington and Auckland, and interurban services run between Palmerston North and Wellington (the Capital Connection) and Masterton and Wellington (the Wairarapa Connection).
For most of its history, New Zealand's rail services were operated by the Railways Department. In 1982, the Department was corporatised as the New Zealand Railways Corporation. The Corporation was split in 1990 between a limited liability operating company, New Zealand Rail Limited, and the Corporation which retained a number of assets to be disposed. New Zealand Rail was privatised in 1993, and renamed Tranz Rail in 1995. In 2001, Tranz Rail's long-distance passenger operations, under the guise of Tranz Scenic, became a separate company; Tranz Rail chose not to bid for the contract to run Auckland's rail services, and the contract was won by Connex (now Transdev Auckland). Proposals to sell Tranz Rail's Wellington passenger rail services, Tranz Metro, did not come to fruition, although the division became a separate company in July 2003. In 2003 Tranz Rail was purchased by Australian freight firm Toll Holdings, which renamed the company Toll NZ.
The only other significant non-heritage operator is the tourist oriented Dunedin Railways in Otago, which runs regular passenger trains on part of the former Otago Central Railway and some on the Main South Line.
The Federation of Rail Organisations of New Zealand coordinates the work of approximately sixty heritage railways and rail museums. Most of these are operated by groups of volunteers and have a historical or tourist focus.
New Zealand has a long history of international and coastal shipping. Both Maori and the New Zealand European settlers arrived from overseas, and during the early European settler years, coastal shipping was one of the main methods of transportation, while it was hard to move goods to or from the hinterlands, thus limiting the locations of early settlement.
The two main islands are separated by Cook Strait, 24 km wide at its narrowest point, but requiring a 70-km ferry trip to cross. This is the only large-scale long-distance car / passenger shipping service left, with all others restricted to short ferry routes to islands like Stewart Island/Rakiura or Great Barrier Island.
New Zealand has 1,609 km of navigable inland waterways; however these are no longer significant transport routes.
Historically, international shipping to and from New Zealand started out with the first explorer-traders, with New Zealand waters soon becoming a favourite goal for whalers as well as merchants trading with the Maori and beginning European colonies.
In the 19th century, one of the most important changes for New Zealand shipping – and for New Zealand itself – came with the introduction of refrigerated ships, which allowed New Zealand to export meat to overseas, primarily to the United Kingdom. This led to a booming agricultural industry which was suddenly offered a way to ship their goods to markets around the world.
Larger, deeper-draught ships from the middle of the 19th century made dredges a common sight in shipping channels around New Zealand, and tugboats were also often bought to assist them to the quays, where electric or hydraulic cranes were increasingly used for on- and off-loading. However, manpower was still needed in large amounts, and waterfronts were the hotbeds of the industrial actions of the early 20th century.
In the 1970s, containerisation revolutionised shipping, eventually coming to New Zealand as well. The local harbour boards wrought massive changes on those ports selected (after much political wrangling) to handle the new giant vessels, such as Lyttelton and Auckland Port. Gantry cranes, straddle carriers and powerful tugboats were built or purchased, and shipping channels dredged deeper, while large areas of land were reclaimed to enable the new container terminals. The changes have been described as having been more radical than the changeover from sail to steam a century before.
However, containerisation made many of the smaller ports suffer, this being only later recovered somewhat with newer, smaller multi-purpose ships that could travel to smaller ports, and the loosening of the trade links with the United Kingdom, which diversified the trade routes. The time for river ports had gone however, and most of them disappeared, facing particular pressure from the new rail ferries, In the 1980s, deregulation also involved and heavily changed the port industry, with harbour boards abolished, and replaced by more commercially focused companies. Many port jobs were lost, though shipping costs fell.
As noted above, coastal shipping has long played a significant role in New Zealand. It was very efficient for moving large amounts of goods, and relatively quick. In 1910, it was noted in a discussion with the Minister of Railways that a fruit grower at Port Albert (near Wellsford, less than 150 km from Auckland) had found it cheaper to ship his canned fruit to Lyttleton in the South Island by boat, and thence back to Auckland again, rather than pay rail freight rates from nearby Wellsford to Auckland.
The industry however also faced a number of troubled times as well, such as during World War II when ship requisitioning caused shortages in the transport operation. While many ports reopened after the war, they (and coastal shipping in general) faced huge pressure from rail (presumably now offering improved freight rates compared to the 1910 era).
After cabotage was abolished in 1994, international shipping lines became able to undertake coastal shipping as opportune to them on their international routes to New Zealand. While reducing the cargo reshipment rates for New Zealand industry, this is seen by some as a heavy blow for local competitors, who, specialised in coastal shipping only, are less able to achieve the costs savings of large lines – these can generally operate profitably even without cargo on New Zealand-internal legs of their routes, and are thus able to underbid others. The law change has been accused of having turned the New Zealand business into a 'sunset industry' which will eventually die out.
In the financial year 2003 / 2004 coastal cargo in New Zealand totalled around 8.6 million tonnes, of which 85% was still carried by local, and 15% by overseas shipping.
In 2009, the National Party announced that funding for coastal shipping and supporting infrastructure, part of the "Sea Change" plan of the previous Labour government, would be cut to a substantial degree. The move was heavily criticised, amongst others, by the Green Party, and the Maritime Union of New Zealand.
Regular roll-on/roll-off ferry services have crossed Cook Strait, linking the North and South Islands between Wellington and Picton, since 1962. Services are provided five ferries operated by two companies: Interislander (a division of KiwiRail), and Bluebridge (Strait Shipping). One ferry used by the Interislander, , is a rail ferry capable of transporting both road and rail on separate decks. The four remaining ferries carry passengers and road vehicles only: Interislander's and , and Bluebridge's and .
Depending on the vessel, usual transit time between the North and South Islands is 3 to 3.5 hours. Faster catamaran ferries were used by Tranz Rail and its competitors between 1994 and 2004. To reduce voyage times, Tranz Rail proposed to relocate the South Island terminal of its services to Clifford Bay in Marlborough, which would also avoid a steep section of railway. This proposal has been shelved since the takeover by Toll Holdings in 2003.
Smaller ferries operate in the Bay of Islands, Rawene (Northland), Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, the Marlborough Sounds and Lyttelton (Christchurch), and between Bluff and Halfmoon Bay (Stewart Island).
A passenger ferry service also operated for many years between Wellington and Lyttelton (the port closest to Christchurch). This service was operated by the Union Steam Ship Company, and the passenger ferries typically operated an overnight service, although in later years the last of these vessels, the "Rangatira", operated alternate nights in each direction plus a daylight sailing from Lyttelton to Wellington on Saturdays (so as to get a balance of four sailings in each direction, each week). One of these passenger ferries, the "Wahine", was lost in a storm as it entered Wellington Harbour on 10 April 1968, with the loss of 51 passengers and crew. The final sailing of the Rangatira, which was custom built and entered service in 1972, was on 15 September 1976, after two money-losing years (subsidised by the government).
New Zealand's air travel sector is served by 15 airlines. The largest airline is Air New Zealand, a state-owned flag carrier.
There are 123 airports (and aerodromes) in New Zealand. Six airports provide international air services (besides domestic services); Auckland and Christchurch (the largest airports in the North and South Islands, respectively) providing long-haul and short-haul international air services; and Wellington, Dunedin and Queenstown providing short-haul international air services to Australia and Fiji. There were around 30 other airports provide scheduled domestic air services. The busiest airport is Auckland, which handled 16,487,648 (9,005,612 international and 7,482,036 domestic) passengers in the year ended December 2015.
"total:" 39 ()
over : 2
to : 1
to : 12
to : 23
under : 1
"total:" 84 ()
to : 3
to : 33
under : 48
New Zealand has 55 functioning heliports (and helipads), including 36 hospital heliports. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21358 |
New Zealand Defence Force
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF; , "Line of Defence of New Zealand") consists of three services: the Royal New Zealand Navy, the New Zealand Army and the Royal New Zealand Air Force; and is commanded and headed by the chief of Defence Force (CDF).
New Zealand's armed forces have three defence-policy objectives:
New Zealand regards its own national defence needs as modest, due to its geographical isolation and friendly relationships with neighbours. the NZDF had 302 personnel deployed overseas on operations and on UN missions in the South Pacific, Asia, Africa, Antarctica and the Middle East areas.
, the governor-general and commander-in-chief, Dame Patsy Reddy, exercises power on the advice of the minister of defence, Ron Mark, under the Defence Act 1990. Mark was appointed minister of defence as a member of the Labour–NZ First government following the .
Air Marshal Kevin Short was appointed chief of Defence Force on 1 July 2018. The NZDF has announced that Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies will serve as the next vice chief of Defence Force.
After the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, New Zealand's security was dependent on British Imperial troops deployed from Australia and other parts of the empire. By 1841 the settlers, particularly those in the New Zealand Company settlement of Wellington, were calling for local militia to be formed. In 1843 a local militia had been formed in Wellington without official sanction. This prompted the Chief Police Magistrate Major Matthew Richmond to order its immediate disbandment. Richmond also dispatched 53 soldiers from the 96th Regiment from Auckland to Wellington.
These calls for a militia continued to grow with the Wairau Affray, the start of the New Zealand Wars. The calls eventually lead to a bill being introduced to the Legislative Council in 1844. Those present noted their disapproval of the bill, unanimously deferring it for six months. On 22 March 1845 the Flagstaff War broke out, which proved to be the catalyst for passing the Bill.
In 1844 a Select Committee of the House of Commons had recommended that a militia, composed of both settlers and native Maori, and a permanent native force be set up.
On 25 March 1845, the Militia Ordinance was passed into law. Twenty-six officers were appointed in Auckland, thereby forming the start of New Zealand's own defence force. Major Richmond was appointed the commander of the Wellington Battalion of the militia. The newspaper article of the time notes that Wellington had a mounted Volunteer Corp. The Nelson Battalion of Militia was formed 12 August 1845.
In June 1845, 75 members of the Auckland Militia under Lieutenant Figg became the first unit to support British Imperial troops in the Flagstaff War, serving as pioneers. Seven militia were wounded in action between 30 June and 1 July 1845. One, a man named Rily, later died of his wounds. The Auckland Militia was disbanded in August or early September 1845 because of budgetary constraints. Disbandment of the Nelson and Wellington Militias followed much to the dismay of their supporters. Those at Nelson under Captain Greenwood decided, regardless of pay or not, to continue training.
Trouble in the Hutt Valley, near Wellington, in early March 1846 prompted the new Governor George Grey to proclaim martial law and call out the Hutt Militia, in what became known as the Hutt Valley Campaign. Following on from this the local paper noted that the No 1 Company of the Wellington Militia had been called out, while the troops stationed in the town had been in the Hutt. The paper further noted that Grey intended to maintain two companies of Militia in Wellington. As problems continued in the area at least 160 Militia remained. These were supplemented by volunteers and Māori warriors from the Te Aro pah.
On 28 October 1846, with the passing of the Armed Constabulary Ordinance in 1846, a fresh call was made by Mr Donnelly of the Legislature to do away with the Militia because of its expense. However the cost to Britain of maintaining a military force in New Zealand was considerable, prompting a dispatch on 24 November 1846 from The Right Hon Earl Grey to advise Lieutenant Governor George Grey that ... the formation of a well-organised Militia and of a force of Natives in the service of Her Majesty, would appear to be the measures most likely to be successfully adopted. Further pressure in the early 1850s from Britain for removing their forces prompted pleas for them to remain as the Militia were deemed insufficient for the purpose.
1854 brought a new threat to the attention of the colony because up to that time the military focus had been upon internal conflicts between settlers and the Māori. War had broken out between Russia and Turkey. This war began to involve the major European powers and exposed New Zealand and Australia to a possible external threat from the Imperial Russian Navy. Parliament discussed providing guns at ports around the country for use in the event of a war with a foreign power.
By 1858 attention had swung back to local issues with a land dispute in New Plymouth prompting Governor Thomas Gore Browne to call out its militia under Captain Charles Brown. A prelude to what was to become the First Taranaki War and a period of conflict in the North Island until 1872.
The newly-formed New Zealand Parliament revised and expanded the Militia Ordinance, replacing it with the Militia Act 1858. Some of the main changes were clauses enabling volunteers to be included under such terms and conditions as the Governor may specify. The act also outlined the purposes under which Militia could be called upon, including invasion. Debates in Parliament had included expressions of concern about Russian naval expansion in the northern Pacific, pointed out that the sole naval defence consisted of one 24-gun frigate, and the time it would take for Britain to come to the colony's aid.
British Imperial troops remained in New Zealand until February 1870, during the later stage of the New Zealand Wars, by which time settler units had replaced them.
The Defence Act 1886 reclassified the militia as volunteers. These were the forerunners of the Territorials.
Although there were informal volunteer units as early as 1845, the appropriate approval and regulation of the units did not occur until the Militia Act 1858. Those who signed up for these units were exempt from militia duty, but had to be prepared to serve anywhere in New Zealand. One of the earliest gazetted units (13 January 1859) was the Taranaki Volunteer Rifle Company.
To the Volunteer Rifle Corps were added Volunteer Artillery Corps in mid-1859. The first of these Volunteer Artillery Corps were based in Auckland.
By late 1859 the number of volunteer units was so great that Captain H C Balneavis was appointed Deputy Adjunct-General, based at Auckland.
In 1863 the government passed the Colonial Defence Force Act 1862 creating the first Regular Force. This was to be a mounted body of not more than 500 troops, with both Maori and settlers, and costing no more than 30,000 pounds per annum. All were volunteers and expected to serve for three years.
Formation of the first unit did not begin until early April 1863, with 100 men being sought at New Plymouth under Captain Atkinson. Hawke's Bay was to have the next unit. By late April, papers were reporting few had enlisted in New Plymouth.
Formation of an Auckland unit under Colonel Nixon commenced in July and by the 14th had 30 men.
Commander: Major-General Galloway
By October 1863 there was no Wairarapa-based defence force, and 50 were based in Wanganui. The Otago force had earlier been moved to Wellington, with further Otago volunteers heading for the Auckland and Hawke's Bay Units. The total Defence Force numbered 375 by 3 November 1863.
In October 1864 the Government decided to reduce the numbers in the Colonial Defence Force to 75 with three units of 25 members each in Wellington, Hawkes Bay and Taranaki. By this time there were about 10,000 British Imperial troops in New Zealand, supplemented by about as many New Zealand volunteer and militia forces. There were calls, particularly from South Island papers, for the British Imperial troops to be replaced by local forces. Parliamentary debates in late 1864 also supported this view, especially as the cost of maintaining the Imperial troops was becoming a greater financial burden on the colony.
At the request of the governor in January 1865 a formal statement on the defence of the colony was presented on 20 March 1865. This proposed an armed constabulary force supported by friendly natives, volunteer units, and militia as the case may require be established to take the place of the Imperial troops. The proposed force was to consist of 1,350 Europeans and 150 Maori – 1,500 in total. They were to be divided into 30 companies of 50 men each based as follows:
The total Defence budget, which included purchasing a steamer for use on the Waikato, Patea, and Wanganui rivers, was 187,000 pounds per annum. The budget's focus was solely on internal conflict. The issue of external conflict did not begin to resurface until the following year, with thought being given again to coastal defences.
The Colonial Defence Force was disbanded in October 1867 by the Armed Constabulary Act 1867. Its members transferred to the Armed Constabulary.
From 1863 to 1867 Forest Ranger volunteer units were formed, tasked with searching out Maori war parties, acting as scouts, and protecting lines of communication. They arose out of the need to prevent ambushes and random attacks on civilians near forest areas. The Rangers were well armed and more highly paid. These units used guerrilla style tactics, moving through areas under cover of darkness and ambushing war parties. The Forest Rangers were disbanded on 1 October 1867.
Alongside the militia and the British Imperial forces were the Armed Constabulary. The Armed Constabulary were formed in 1846 with the passage of the Armed Constabulary Ordinance. The Constabulary's role was both regular law enforcement and during the New Zealand Wars militia support. From 1867 to 1886 the Armed Constabulary were the only permanent force in New Zealand. In 1886 the militia functions of the Armed Constabulary were transferred to the New Zealand Permanent Militia by the Defence Act 1886. Lieutenant Colonel John Roberts was the Permanent Militia's first commander from January 1887 to his retirement in 1888.
The Defence Act 1909 replaced the Volunteer forces with a Territorial force and compulsory military training, a regime that remained until the late 1960s, with breaks from 1918 to 1921, 1930 to 194?, and 194? to 1948.
Independent New Zealand armed forces developed in the early twentieth century; the Royal New Zealand Navy was the last to emerge as an independent service in 1941. Prior to that time it had been the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. New Zealand forces served alongside the British and other Empire and Commonwealth nations in World War I and World War II.
The fall of Singapore in 1942 showed that Britain could no longer protect its far-flung Dominions. Closer military ties were therefore necessary for New Zealand's defence. With United States entering the war, they were an obvious choice. Links with Australia had also been developed earlier; both nations sent troops to the Anglo-Boer War and New Zealand officer candidates had trained at Australia's Royal Military College, Duntroon since 1911, a practice that continues to this day. A combined Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was formed for the Gallipoli Campaign during World War I, and its exploits are key events in the military history of both countries.
The NZDF came into existence under the Defence Act 1990. Under previous legislation, the three services were part of the Ministry of Defence. Post-1990, the Ministry of Defence is a separate, policy-making body under a Secretary of Defence, equal in status to the Chief of Defence Force.
For the first time, two of the Deputy Chiefs of service, Navy and Air Force, one-star Commodores and Air Commodores, are women. Captain Melissa Ross was promoted to Commodore and appointed as Deputy Chief of Navy in December 2019, while in August 2019 Group Captain Carol Abraham was promoted to Air Commodore and appointed as Deputy Chief of Air Force. Another female officer, Colonel Helen Cooper, had previously held the post of Deputy Chief of Army though in an acting capacity without being promoted to the customary rank of Brigadier. In an unusual move, as of February 2020, the Deputy Chief of Army, Evan Williams, holds not just the customary rank of Brigadier but that of Major General, usually only held by the Chief of Army.
A new HQNZDF facility was opened by Prime Minister Helen Clark in March 2007. The new facility on Aitken St in the Wellington CBD replaced the premises on Stout St that had been the headquarters of NZDF for nearly 75 years. The Aitken St facility initially was home to around 900 employees of the NZDF, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and the New Zealand Ministry of Defence; the NZSIS moved across to Pipitea House in early 2013, and the NZDF were forced to vacate the Aitken St building after the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, which seriously damaged the building. As of October 2017 it is undergoing demolition, with this scheduled to be completed in early 2018; HQNZDF functions having been moved into other buildings and facilities across the region. HQNZDF operates as the administrative and support headquarters for the New Zealand Defence Force, with operational forces under the separate administrative command and control of HQJFNZ.
The operational forces of the three services are directed from Headquarters Joint Forces New Zealand opposite Trentham Military Camp in Upper Hutt. HQ JFNZ was established at Trentham on 1 July 2001. From this building, a former NZ government computer centre that used to house the Army's Land Command, the Air Component Commander, Maritime Component Commander, and Land Component Commander exercise command over their forces. Commander Joint Forces New Zealand (COMJFNZ), controls all overseas operational deployments and most overseas exercises.
The Defence Force created a joint-service corporate services organisation known as the Joint Logistics and Support Organisation (JLSO) in the 2000s, which later became Defence Shared Services.
Following the establishment of Special Operations Command on 1 July 2015, the new position of Special Operations Component Commander was created. This officer reports to the Commander Joint Forces New Zealand, and is of equivalent status to the Maritime, Land and Air Component Commanders.
In recent years, the New Zealand Defence Force has implemented a policy of honoring veterans, and increased its support to still servicemen and women in a number of ways. This includes starting the Defence Force KiwiSaver Scheme, and appointing financial advisers to support the welfare of members.
The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) has 2,132 full-time and 435 part-time sailors. The RNZN possess two "Anzac" class frigates, developed in conjunction with Australia, based on the German MEKO 200 design. Nine other vessels are in use, consisting of patrol vessels and logistics vessels. In 2010, the RNZN completed the acquisition of seven new vessels: one large Multi-Role Vessel named HMNZS Canterbury, two Offshore Patrol Vessels, and two Inshore Patrol Vessels. All of these vessels were acquired under Project Protector, and were built to commercial, not naval, standards.
New Zealand's Army has 4,584 full-time and 1,671 part-time troops. They are organised as light infantry and motorised infantry equipped with 102 Canadian-manufactured LAV III Light Armoured Vehicles (NZLAV). There are also armoured reconnaissance, artillery, logistic, communications, medical and intelligence elements. The New Zealand Special Air Service is the NZDF's special forces capability, which operates in both conventional warfare and counter-terrorist roles. The Corps and Regiments of the New Zealand Army include:
The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) has 2,403 full-time and 212 part-time airmen and airwomen. The RNZAF consists of 51 aircraft, consisting of P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and Lockheed C-130 Hercules and other transport aircraft. The NHIndustries NH90 operates in a medium-utility role, and the AgustaWestland A109 operates the light utility helicopter role, in addition to the main training platform. RNZAF primary flight training occurs in Beechcraft T-6 Texan IIs, before moving onto the Beechcraft King Air.
The RNZAF does not have air combat capabilities following the retirement without replacement of its Air Combat Force of A-4 Skyhawks in December 2001.
New Zealand states it maintains a "credible minimum force", although critics (including the New Zealand National Party while in opposition) maintain that the country's defence forces have fallen below this standard. With a claimed area of direct strategic concern that extends from Australia to Southeast Asia to the South Pacific, and with defence expenditures that total around 1% of GDP, New Zealand necessarily places substantial reliance on co-operating with other countries, particularly Australia.
Acknowledging the need to improve its defence capabilities, the government in 2005 announced the Defence Sustainability Initiative allocating an additional NZ$4.6 billion over 10 years to modernise the country's defence equipment and infrastructure and increase its military personnel. The funding represented a 51% increase in defence spending since the Labour government took office in 1999.
New Zealand is an active participant in multilateral peacekeeping. It has taken a leading role in peace-keeping in the Solomon Islands and the neighbouring island of Bougainville. New Zealand has contributed to United Nations and other peacekeeping operations in Angola, Cambodia, Somalia, Lebanon and the former Yugoslavia. It also participated in the Multilateral Interception Force in the Persian Gulf. New Zealand has an ongoing peacekeeping commitment to East Timor, where it participated in the INTERFET, UNTAET and UMAMET missions from 1999–2002. At one point over 1,000 NZDF personnel were in East Timor. The deployment included the vessels HMNZS Canturbury, Te Kaha and Endeavour, six Iroquois helicopters, two C-130 Hercules and an infantry battalion. In response to renewed conflict in 2006 more troops were deployed as part of an international force. New Zealand has participated in 2 NATO-led coalitions; SFOR in the Former Yugoslavia (until December 2004) and an ongoing one in Afghanistan (which took over from a US-led coalition in 2006). New Zealand also participated in the European Union EUFOR operation in the former Yugoslavia from December 2004 until New Zealand ended its 15-year continuous contribution there on 30 June 2007.
As of December 2015, New Zealand has 167 personnel deployed across the globe. These deployments are to Afghanistan(8), Antarctica(8), South Korea(5), Iraq(106), Middle East(8), Sinai(26), South Sudan(3) and the United Arab Emirates(11). 209 NZDF personnel are on other deployments and exercises.
New Zealand shares training facilities, personnel exchanges, and joint exercises with the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Brunei, Tonga, and South Pacific states. It exercises with its Five Power Defence Arrangements partners, Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and Singapore. New Zealand military personnel participate in training exercises, conferences and visits as part of military diplomacy.
New Zealand is a signatory of the ANZUS treaty, a defence pact between New Zealand, Australia and the United States dating from 1951. After the 1986 anti-nuclear legislation that refused access of nuclear-powered or armed vessels to ports, the USA withdrew its obligations to New Zealand under ANZUS, and ANZUS exercises are now bilateral between Australia and the United States. Under anti-nuclear legislation, any ship must declare whether it is nuclear-propelled or carrying nuclear weapons before entering New Zealand waters. Due to the US policy at that time of "neither confirm nor deny", ship visits ceased although NZ and the USA remained "good friends". Despite the Presidential Directive of 27 September 1991 that removed tactical nuclear weapons from U.S. surface ships, attack submarines, and naval aircraft, ship visits have not resumed. Despite signs of rapprochement in recent years, military relationships with the US remain limited.
The NZDF served alongside NATO-led forces in Afghanistan in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and in 2004 the NZSAS was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation by US President George W Bush for "extraordinary heroism" in action. In 2008 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a visit to New Zealand said "New Zealand is now a friend and an ally".
New Zealand is a member of the ABCA Armies standardisation programme, the naval AUSCANNZUKUS forum, the Air and Space Interoperability Council (ASIC, the former ASCC, which, among other tasks, allocates NATO reporting names) and other Western 'Five Eyes' fora for sharing signals intelligence information and achieving interoperability with like-minded armed forces, such as The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21359 |
Foreign relations of New Zealand
The foreign relations of New Zealand are oriented chiefly toward developed democratic nations and emerging Pacific Island economies. Until the late 20th century, New Zealand aligned itself strongly with the United Kingdom (as a former British colony) and had few bilateral relationships with other countries. Today, the country participates in several multilateral political organisations, including Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community, the Pacific Islands Forum. New Zealand has been described as an emerging power. The country's major political parties have generally agreed on the broad outlines of foreign policy, and the government has been active in promoting free trade, nuclear disarmament, and arms control.
In summer 2013, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully reported that:
New Zealand was first settled by Polynesians at some point between 800 and 1300 AD. From the 1760s New Zealand was visited by various European explorers and traders, and later missionaries and settlers. An informal system of trade was established, especially in Northland, and some iwi (tribes) became wealthy and powerful. As Māori was a tribal-level society of many shifting chiefdoms, relationships with Europeans were ad hoc and informal. In 1835 a group of Northland chiefs, under the guidance of British resident James Busby, signed a declaration of independence, which was recognised by Britain.
Many Māori were still worried that a European power might invade and dispossess them, and some iwi were having difficulties controlling the large numbers of Europeans who visited and settled in their areas. English missionaries were also concerned about the levels of lawlessness, which were undermining their efforts to convert Māori to Christianity. The British Colonial Office, influenced by the missionaries and by reports that the independent New Zealand Company was planning to privately colonise the islands, sent naval captain William Hobson to negotiate a treaty. The subsequent Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840, made New Zealand part of the British Empire, established a Governor of New Zealand, and gave Māori the rights of British subjects.
The annexation of New Zealand by Britain meant that Britain now controlled New Zealand's foreign policy. Subsidised large-scale immigration from Britain and Ireland began, and miners came for the gold rush around 1850-60. In the 1860s, the British sent 16,000 soldiers to contain the New Zealand wars in the North Island. The colony shipped gold and, especially, wool to Britain. From the 1880s the development of refrigerated shipping allowed the establishment of an export economy based on the mass export of frozen meat and dairy products to Britain. In 1899-1902 New Zealand made its first contribution to an external war, sending troops to fight on the British side in the Second Boer War. The country changed its status from colony to dominion with internal self governance in 1907.
New Zealand eagerly sent a large fraction of its young men to fight on Britain's side in the First World War. Their heroism in the failed Gallipoli campaign made their sacrifices iconic in New Zealand memory, and secured the psychological independence of the nation.
After the war New Zealand signed the Treaty of Versailles (1919) joined the League of Nations and pursued an independent foreign policy, while its defense was still controlled by Britain. Wellington trusted Conservative Party governments in London, but not Labour. When the British Labour Party took power in 1924 and 1929, the New Zealand government felt threatened by Labour's foreign policy because of its reliance upon the League of Nations. The League was distrusted and Wellington did not expect to see the coming of a peaceful world order under League auspices. What had been the Empire's most loyal Dominion became a dissenter as it opposed efforts the first and second British Labour governments to trust the League's framework of arbitration and collective security agreements.
The governments of the Reform and United Parties between 1912 and 1935 followed a "realistic" foreign policy. They made national security a high priority, were skeptical of international institutions such as the League, and showed no interest on the questions of self-determination, democracy, and human rights. However the opposition Labour Party was more idealistic and proposed a liberal internationalist outlook on international affairs. From 1935 the First Labour Government showed a limited degree of idealism in foreign policy, for example opposing the appeasement of Germany and Japan.
When World War II broke out in 1939, New Zealand whole-heartedly joined in the defence of Britain, with Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage declaring that "where Britain goes, we go; where Britain stands, we stand". New Zealand soldiers served in North Africa, Italy and the Pacific, and airmen in England and the Pacific, throughout the war, even when New Zealand had concerns about invasion by the Japanese. In 1947 New Zealand ratified the 1931 Statute of Westminster, which made certain former colonies completely self-governing.
The Fall of Singapore during World War II made New Zealand realise that she could no longer rely on Britain to defend the British Empire. New Zealand troops supported the British in the successful battle against Communist insurrection in Malaysia and maintained an air-force fighter squadron in Singapore, and later on Cyprus, again supporting British forces. New Zealand diplomats sought an alliance with the United States of America, and in 1951 adhered to the ANZUS Treaty between New Zealand, Australia and the US. In return for America's guarantee of protection, New Zealand felt obliged to support America in its wars, and New Zealand committed forces to the Korean War (1950-1953) under United nation auspices and to the Vietnam War. By the 1970s, many New Zealanders began to feel uncomfortable with their country's support for the US, particularly in Vietnam and regarding the visits of nuclear-powered and armed American warships. The Third Labour government (1972–1975) pulled New Zealand troops out of the Vietnam War and protested against French nuclear testing in the Pacific, at one stage sending a warship to act as disapproving witness to the tests.
Britain's entry into the European Economic Community in 1973 forced New Zealand into a more independent role. The British move restricted New Zealand's trade access to its biggest market, and it sought new trading partners in Asia, America and the Middle East. Australia and New Zealand signed the free-trade Closer Economic Relations agreement in 1983. The election of the Fourth Labour Government in 1984 marked a new period of independent foreign policy. Nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed ships were banned from New Zealand waters, effectively removing New Zealand from the ANZUS pact. Immigration laws were liberalised, leading to a massive increase in immigration from Asia. The Fourth National Government (1990–1999) liberalised trade by removing most tariffs and import restrictions.
In 2008, Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters announced what he called "a seismic change for New Zealand’s foreign service", designed to remedy the country's "struggling to maintain an adequate presence on the international stage". Peters said that the Ministry would receive additional funding and increase the number of New Zealand diplomats serving abroad by 50%. However this policy was reversed following the 2008 General Election which brought the John Key-led Fifth National Government of New Zealand to power.
New Zealand is a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations - as one of the original members, as the Dominion of New Zealand was declared on 26 September 1907.
The reigning monarch and head of state, currently Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand is viceregally represented by the Governor-General of New Zealand.
New Zealand has strong relations with most other Commonwealth countries and has High Commissioners and High Commissions in most of them.
New Zealand was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945. New Zealand Prime Minister Peter Fraser felt that in order for New Zealand to be secure in the South Pacific, it need to align itself with major world powers like the United States through some kind of organisation that could guarantee small powers a say in world affairs. Since the defeat of the Royal Navy during World War II it became clear that Britain was no longer able to protect New Zealand so the government decided that a policy of independent relations with a group of strong powers was the best way to defend New Zealand.
New Zealand participates in the United Nations (UN); the World Trade Organization (WTO); World Bank; the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the International Energy Agency; the Asian Development Bank; the Pacific Islands Forum; the Secretariat of the Pacific Community; the Colombo Plan; Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC); and the International Whaling Commission. New Zealand also actively participates as a member of the Commonwealth. Despite the 1985 rupture in the ANZUS military alliance, New Zealand has maintained good working relations with the United States and Australia on a broad array of international issues.
In the past, New Zealand's geographic isolation and its agricultural economy's general prosperity minimised public interest in international affairs. However, growing global trade and other international economic events have made New Zealanders increasingly aware of their country’s dependence on unstable overseas markets. New Zealand governments strongly advocate free trade, especially in agricultural products, and the country belongs to the Cairns group of nations in the WTO.
New Zealand's economic involvement with Asia has become increasingly important. New Zealand is a "dialogue partner" with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a member of the East Asia Summit and an active participant in APEC.
As a charter member of the Colombo Plan, New Zealand has provided Asian countries with technical assistance and capital. It also contributes through the Asian Development Bank and through UN programs and is a member of the UN Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific.
ABEDA, ANZUS (U.S. suspended security obligations to NZ on 11 August 1986), APEC, ARF (dialogue partner), AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia Group, Commonwealth, CP, EBRD, ESCAP, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NAM (guest), NSG, OECD, OPCW, PCA, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNAMSIL, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIK, UNMISET, UNMOP, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
New Zealand administers Tokelau (formerly known as the Tokelau Islands) as a non-self-governing colonial territory. In February 2006 a UN-sponsored referendum was held in Tokelau on whether to become a self-governing state, but this failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required to pass.
Samoa was a New Zealand protectorate from 1918 to full independence in 1962. However New Zealand retains some responsibilities for former colonies Niue and the Cook Islands which are in free association with New Zealand. Citizens of all three countries hold New Zealand citizenship and the associated rights to healthcare and education in New Zealand.
New Zealand has also claimed part of Antarctica known as the Ross Dependency since 1923.
McGraw argues that, "Probably the greatest foreign policy achievement of [Helen] Clark's [1999–2008] term was the conclusion of a free trade agreement with China." Clark's government also set up a free-trade deal with Australia and the ten nations of ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations).
New Zealand has existing free trade agreements with Australia, Brunei, Chile, the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand; new free trade agreements are under negotiation with ASEAN, and Malaysia. New Zealand is involved in the WTO's Doha Development Agenda and was disappointed by the failure of the most recent talks in July 2006.
New Zealand is a signatory of the Trans Pacific Partnership. Its Labour-NZ First coalition government has committed to initiate a Closer Commonwealth Economic Relations (CCER) agreement with the UK, Australia, Canada and other countries and to work towards a Free Trade Agreement with the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union.
New Zealand's main export is food, primarily dairy products, meat, fruit and fish; about 95% of the country's agricultural produce is exported. Other major exports are wood, and mechanical and electrical equipment. About 46% of exports are non-agricultural, but the largest industry is still the food industry. Tourism is also an extremely important component of international trade: transport and travel form around 20% of the country's export trade. New Zealand does not have large quantities of mineral resources, though it does produce some coal, oil, Aluminium and natural gas.
New Zealand's largest source of imports is China, followed by (in order) Australia, the United States, Japan, and Singapore. The largest destinations for exports are, in order, Australia, China, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea. Trade figures for 2011 with New Zealand's biggest trade partners are as follows:
The New Zealand Defence Force is small compared to many other countries although it is generally regarded as very professional. Its overseas duties consist mostly of peacekeeping, especially in the Pacific. In the 21st century, peacekeeping detachments have been deployed to East Timor, the Solomon Islands, and Tonga. Engineering and support forces have also been involved in the Iraq War, although New Zealand is not a member of the 'coalition of the willing'. New Zealand's heaviest military involvement in recent decades has been in Afghanistan following the United States-led invasion of that country after the 9/11 attacks. The deployment has included SAS troops.
New Zealand's official aid programme is managed by the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID), a semi-autonomous body within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2007, New Zealand was the sixth lowest foreign aid donor in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), based on proportion of gross national income (GNI) spent on overseas development assistance. New Zealand's contribution was 0.27% of GNI. Much this went to the Pacific region. However, the country is occasionally more generous in responding to major crises, for example donating around $100 million to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami relief efforts, the committed $1 million to the 2010 Haiti earthquake relief efforts, and later the government donated $2 million to the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. Following the April and May 2015 Nepal earthquake, the New Zealand government sent an initial $1 million in humanitarian aid, and has mobilized 45 urban search and rescue technicians. New Zealand troops and aircraft are also often sent to disaster areas in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the 1970s and 1980s, anti-nuclear sentiment increased across New Zealand fuelling concerns about French nuclear testing in the Pacific at Moruroa atoll. The third Labour Government under Norman Kirk, co-sponsored by Australia, took France before the International Court of Justice in 1972, requesting that the French cease atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean. In 1972, as an act of defiance and protest the Kirk government sent two of its navy frigates, and into the Moruroa test zone area. Peace yachts attempting to disrupt the French tests had been sailing in coordinated protests into the Mururoa exclusion zones between 1972–1991. Concerns about Nuclear proliferation and the presence of nuclear warheads or reactors on United States Navy ships visiting New Zealand ports continued to escalate. After it was elected in 1984, the Labour Party government of David Lange indicated its opposition to visits by such ships. In February 1985, New Zealand turned away the and in response the United States announced that it was suspending its treaty obligations to New Zealand unless port access was restored. In 1987 the Labour government strengthened its stance by declaring New Zealand a nuclear-free zone (New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987), effectively legally removing New Zealand from the nuclear deterrent scenario and banning the entry of nuclear powered warships into its ports. Warships that did not fall into this category were not blocked, but the US took the view that any subsequent visit by a warship to New Zealand could not be carried out without violating the US' security policy of "neither confirming nor denying" nuclear capability of its ships.
In 1987, New Zealand passed legislation making the country a nuclear free zone, namely the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act; in the same year the US retaliated with the Broomfield Act, designating New Zealand as a "friend" rather than an "ally". Relations between New Zealand and the US have had several ups and downs since then.
In recent years, some voices have suggested removing the anti-nuclear legislation, especially the ACT New Zealand political party; and up until February 2006 the National Party was in favour of holding a referendum on the issue. However, public opinion remains strongly in favour of the country's status as a nuclear free zone. In May 2006, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Christopher Hill, described the disagreement between the US and New Zealand as "a relic" but also signalled that the US wanted a closer defence relationship with New Zealand and praised New Zealand’s involvement in Afghanistan and reconstruction in Iraq. "Rather than trying to change each other's minds on the nuclear issue, which is a bit of a relic, I think we should focus on things we can make work," he told the "Australian Financial Review". Pressure from the United States on New Zealand's foreign policy increased in 2006, with U.S. trade officials linking the repeal of the ban of American nuclear ships from New Zealand's ports to a potential free trade agreement between the two countries.
Relations between France and New Zealand were strained for two short periods in the 1980s and 1990s over the French nuclear tests at Moruroa and the bombing of the "Rainbow Warrior" in Auckland harbour. The latter was widely regarded as an act of state terrorism against New Zealand's sovereignty and was ordered by then French President François Mitterrand, although he denied any involvement at the time. These events worked to strengthen New Zealand's resolve to retain its anti-nuclear policy. Relations between the two countries are now cordial, with strong trade and many new bilateral links.
In 2017, New Zealand signed the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Foreign Affairs Minister Gerry Brownlee said the treaty is "consistent with New Zealand's long-standing commitment to international nuclear disarmament efforts".
New Zealand has well-established links to a number of Latin American countries, particularly in the economic sphere. New Zealand has Embassies in Mexico City, Santiago, Brasília and Buenos Aires – the first of which (Santiago) opened in 1972. The New Zealand Government's Latin America Strategy, published in May 2010, estimates New Zealand's annual exports to the region at NZ$1 billion, and New Zealand investments in the region (in areas such as agri-technology, energy, fisheries, and specialised manufacturing) at around NZ$1.3 billion. The Strategy argues that there is considerable scope to expand New Zealand's investment and services trade in the region. Focusing on six countries (Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru), the Strategy posits that New Zealand should be seeking to: promote a better understanding of the region among New Zealand businesses to help identify prospects for increased investment, trade and joint ventures; lower barriers to business between New Zealand and Latin America; promote New Zealand tourism in the region; improve airlinks between New Zealand and the region; deepen education and research and science links. There are significant flows of tourists and students from Latin America to New Zealand. For example, in the year to June 2010, around 30,000 Latin Americans visited New Zealand. In addition, New Zealand has popular Working Holiday Schemes with Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Uruguay.
Much of New Zealand's foreign policy is focused on the Pacific region, particularly Polynesia and Melanesia. Bilateral economic assistance resources have been focused on projects in the South Pacific island states, especially on Bougainville. The country’s long association with Samoa (formerly known as Western Samoa), reflected in a treaty of friendship signed in 1962, and its close association with Tonga have resulted in a flow of immigrants and visitors under work permit schemes from both countries. Recently New Zealand forces participated in peacekeeping efforts in the Pacific region in East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Tonga, see Military history of New Zealand.
In 1947, New Zealand joined Australia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States to form the South Pacific Commission, a regional body to promote the welfare of the Pacific region. New Zealand has been a leader in the organisation. In 1971, New Zealand joined the other independent and self-governing states of the South Pacific to establish the South Pacific Forum (now known as the Pacific Islands Forum), which meets annually at the "heads of government" level.
On 26 May, New Zealand deployed forty-two troops, with a second contingent of 120 troops leaving Christchurch on 27 May, en route to Townsville, Queensland before being sent to East Timor. Clark said that the forces would be deployed where needed by the Australian command. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21360 |
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in the Central American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the northwest, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Managua is the country's capital and largest city and is also the third-largest city in Central America, behind Tegucigalpa and Guatemala City. The multi-ethnic population of six million includes people of indigenous, European, African, and Asian heritage. The main language is Spanish. Indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English.
Originally inhabited by various indigenous cultures since ancient times, the region was conquered by the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. Nicaragua gained independence from Spain in 1821. The Mosquito Coast followed a different historical path, being colonized by the English in the 17th century and later coming under British rule. It became an autonomous territory of Nicaragua in 1860 and its northernmost part was transferred to Honduras in 1960. Since its independence, Nicaragua has undergone periods of political unrest, dictatorship, occupation and fiscal crisis, including the Nicaraguan Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and the Contra War of the 1980s.
The mixture of cultural traditions has generated substantial diversity in folklore, cuisine, music, and literature, particularly the latter, given the literary contributions of Nicaraguan poets and writers such as Rubén Darío. Known as the "land of lakes and volcanoes", Nicaragua is also home to the second-largest rainforest of the Americas. The biological diversity, warm tropical climate and active volcanoes make Nicaragua an increasingly popular tourist destination.
There are two prevailing theories on how the name "Nicaragua" came to be. The first is that the name was coined by Spanish colonists based on the name Nicarao, who was the chieftain or cacique of a powerful indigenous tribe encountered by the Spanish conquistador Gil González Dávila during his entry into southwestern Nicaragua in 1522. This theory holds that the name Nicaragua was formed from Nicarao and "agua" (Spanish for "water"), to reference the fact that there are two large lakes and several other bodies of water within the country. However, as of 2002, it was determined that the cacique's real name was Macuilmiquiztli, which meant "Five Deaths" in the Nahuatl language, rather than Nicarao.
The second theory is that the country's name comes from any of the following Nahuatl words: "nic-anahuac", which meant "Anahuac reached this far", or "the Nahuas came this far", or "those who come from Anahuac came this far"; "nican-nahua", which meant "here are the Nahuas"; or "nic-atl-nahuac", which meant "here by the water" or "surrounded by water".
Paleo-Americans first inhabited what is now known as Nicaragua as far back as 12,000 BCE. In later pre-Columbian times, Nicaragua's indigenous people were part of the Intermediate Area, between the Mesoamerican and Andean cultural regions, and within the influence of the Isthmo-Colombian area. Nicaragua's central region and its Caribbean coast were inhabited by Macro-Chibchan language ethnic groups. They had coalesced in Central America and migrated also to present-day northern Colombia and nearby areas. They lived a life based primarily on hunting and gathering, as well as fishing, and performing slash-and-burn agriculture.
At the end of the 15th century, western Nicaragua was inhabited by several different indigenous peoples related by culture to the Mesoamerican civilizations of the Aztec and Maya, and by language to the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. The Chorotegas were Mangue language ethnic groups who had arrived in Nicaragua from what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas sometime around 800 CE. The Pipil-Nicarao people were a branch of Nahuas who spoke the Nahuat dialect, and like the Chorotegas, they too had come from Chiapas to Nicaragua in approximately 1200 CE. Prior to that, the Pipil-Nicaraos had been associated with the Toltec civilization. Both the Chorotegas and the Pipil-Nicaraos were originally from Mexico's Cholula valley, and had gradually migrated southward. Additionally, there were trade-related colonies in Nicaragua that had been set up by the Aztecs starting in the 14th century.
In 1502, on his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus became the first European known to have reached what is now Nicaragua as he sailed southeast toward the Isthmus of Panama. Columbus explored the Mosquito Coast on the Atlantic side of Nicaragua but did not encounter any indigenous people. 20 years later, the Spaniards returned to Nicaragua, this time to its southwestern part. The first attempt to conquer Nicaragua was by the conquistador Gil González Dávila, who had arrived in Panama in January 1520. In 1522, González Dávila ventured into the area that later became known as the Rivas Department of Nicaragua. It was there that he encountered an indigenous Nahua tribe led by a chieftain named Macuilmiquiztli, whose name has sometimes been erroneously referred to as "Nicarao" or "Nicaragua". At the time, the tribe's capital city was called Quauhcapolca. González Dávila had brought along two indigenous interpreters who had been taught the Spanish language, and thus he was able to have a discourse with Macuilmiquiztli. After exploring and gathering gold in the fertile western valleys, González Dávila and his men were attacked and driven off by the Chorotega, led by the chieftain Diriangén. The Spanish attempted to convert the tribes to Christianity; the people in Macuilmiquiztli's tribe were baptized, but Diriangén, however, was openly hostile to the Spaniards.
The first Spanish permanent settlements were founded in 1524. That year, the conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded two of Nicaragua's principal cities: Granada on Lake Nicaragua was the first settlement, followed by León at a location west of Lake Managua. Córdoba soon built defenses for the cities and fought against incursions by other conquistadors. Córdoba was later publicly beheaded as a consequence for having defied the authority of his superior, Pedro Arias Dávila. Córdoba's tomb and remains were discovered in 2000 in the ruins of León Viejo.
The clashes among Spanish forces did not impede their destruction of the indigenous people and their culture. The series of battles came to be known as the "War of the Captains". Pedro Arias Dávila was a winner; although he had lost control of Panama, he moved to Nicaragua and successfully established his base in León. In 1527, León became the capital of the colony. Through adroit diplomatic machinations, Arias Dávila became the colony's first governor.
Without women in their parties, the Spanish conquerors took Nahua and Chorotega wives and partners, beginning the multiethnic mix of indigenous and European stock now known as ""mestizo"", which constitutes the great majority of the population in western Nicaragua. Many indigenous people died as a result of new infectious diseases, compounded by neglect by the Spaniards, who controlled their subsistence. Furthermore, a large number of other indigenous peoples were captured and transported to Panama and Peru between 1526 and 1540, where they were forced to perform slave labor.
In 1610, the Momotombo volcano erupted, destroying the city of León. The city was rebuilt northwest of the original, which is now known as the ruins of León Viejo. During the American Revolutionary War, Central America was subject to conflict between Britain and Spain. British navy admiral Horatio Nelson led expeditions in the Battle of San Fernando de Omoa in 1779 and on the San Juan River in 1780, the latter of which had temporary success before being abandoned due to disease.
The Captaincy General of Guatemala was dissolved in September 1821 with the Act of Independence of Central America, and Nicaragua soon became part of the First Mexican Empire. After the monarchy of the First Mexican Empire was overthrown in 1823, Nicaragua joined the newly formed United Provinces of Central America, which was later renamed as the Federal Republic of Central America. Nicaragua finally became an independent republic in 1838.
Rivalry between the Liberal elite of León and the Conservative elite of Granada characterized the early years of independence and often degenerated into civil war, particularly during the 1840s and 1850s. Managua was chosen as the nation's capital in 1852 to allay the rivalry between the two feuding cities. During the days of the California Gold Rush, Nicaragua provided a route for travelers from the eastern United States to journey to California by sea, via the use of the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua. Invited by the Liberals in 1855 to join their struggle against the Conservatives, a United States adventurer and filibuster named William Walker set himself up as President of Nicaragua, after conducting a farcical election in 1856. Costa Rica, Honduras, and other Central American countries united to drive Walker out of Nicaragua in 1857, after which a period of three decades of Conservative rule ensued.
Great Britain, which had claimed the Mosquito Coast as a protectorate since 1655, delegated the area to Honduras in 1859 before transferring it to Nicaragua in 1860. The Mosquito Coast remained an autonomous area until 1894. José Santos Zelaya, President of Nicaragua from 1893 to 1909, negotiated the annexation of the Mosquito Coast to the rest of Nicaragua. In his honor, the region was named "Zelaya Department".
Throughout the late 19th century, the United States and several European powers considered a scheme to build a canal across Nicaragua, linking the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.
In 1909, the United States supported the conservative-led forces rebelling against President Zelaya. U.S. motives included differences over the proposed Nicaragua Canal, Nicaragua's potential as a destabilizing influence in the region, and Zelaya's attempts to regulate foreign access to Nicaraguan natural resources. On November 18, 1909, U.S. warships were sent to the area after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) were executed by order of Zelaya. The U.S. justified the intervention by claiming to protect U.S. lives and property. Zelaya resigned later that year.
In August 1912, the President of Nicaragua, Adolfo Díaz, requested the secretary of war, General Luis Mena, to resign for fear he was leading an insurrection. Mena fled Managua with his brother, the chief of police of Managua, to start an insurrection. When the U.S. delegation asked President Díaz to ensure the safety of American citizens and property during the insurrection, he replied he could not, and asked the United States to intervene in the conflict.
United States Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933, except for a nine-month period beginning in 1925. In 1914, the Bryan–Chamorro Treaty was signed, giving the U.S. control over a proposed canal through Nicaragua, as well as leases for potential canal defenses. Following the evacuation of U.S. Marines, another violent conflict between Liberals and Conservatives took place in 1926, which resulted in the return of U.S. Marines.
From 1927 until 1933, rebel general Augusto César Sandino led a sustained guerrilla war first against the Conservative regime and subsequently against the U.S. Marines, whom he fought for over five years. When the Americans left in 1933, they set up the "Guardia Nacional" (national guard), a combined military and police force trained and equipped by the Americans and designed to be loyal to U.S. interests.
After the U.S. Marines withdrew from Nicaragua in January 1933, Sandino and the newly elected administration of President Juan Bautista Sacasa reached an agreement by which Sandino would cease his guerrilla activities in return for amnesty, a grant of land for an agricultural colony, and retention of an armed band of 100 men for a year. However, due to a growing hostility between Sandino and National Guard director Anastasio Somoza García and a fear of armed opposition from Sandino, Somoza García decided to order his assassination. Sandino was invited by Sacasa to have dinner and sign a peace treaty at the Presidential House in Managua on the night of February 21, 1934. After leaving the Presidential House, Sandino's car was stopped by soldiers of the National Guard and they kidnapped him. Later that night, Sandino was assassinated by soldiers of the National Guard. Hundreds of men, women, and children from Sandino's agricultural colony were executed later.
Nicaragua has experienced several military dictatorships, the longest being the hereditary dictatorship of the Somoza family, who ruled for 43 nonconsecutive years during the 20th century. The Somoza family came to power as part of a U.S.-engineered pact in 1927 that stipulated the formation of the "Guardia Nacional" to replace the marines who had long reigned in the country. Somoza García slowly eliminated officers in the national guard who might have stood in his way, and then deposed Sacasa and became president on January 1, 1937, in a rigged election.
In 1941, during the Second World War, Nicaragua declared war on Japan (8 December), Germany (11 December), Italy (11 December), Bulgaria (19 December), Hungary (19 December) and Romania (19 December). Out of these six Axis countries, only Romania reciprocated, declaring war on Nicaragua on the same day (19 December 1941). No soldiers were sent to the war, but Somoza García did seize the occasion to confiscate properties held by German Nicaraguan residents. In 1945, Nicaragua was among the first countries to ratify the United Nations Charter.
On September 21, 1956, Somoza García was shot to death by Rigoberto López Pérez, a 27-year-old Liberal Nicaraguan poet. Luis Somoza Debayle, the eldest son of the late president, was appointed president by the congress and officially took charge of the country. He is remembered by some for being moderate, but was in power only for a few years and then died of a heart attack. His successor as president was René Schick Gutiérrez, whom most Nicaraguans viewed "as nothing more than a puppet of the Somozas". Somoza García's youngest son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, often referred to simply as "Somoza", became president in 1967.
An earthquake in 1972 destroyed nearly 90% of Managua, resulting in massive destruction to the city's infrastructure. Instead of helping to rebuild Managua, Somoza siphoned off relief money. The mishandling of relief money also prompted Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente to personally fly to Managua on December 31, 1972, but he died "en route" in an airplane accident. Even the economic elite were reluctant to support Somoza, as he had acquired monopolies in industries that were key to rebuilding the nation.
The Somoza family was among a few families or groups of influential firms which reaped most of the benefits of the country's growth from the 1950s to the 1970s. When Somoza was deposed by the Sandinistas in 1979, the family's worth was estimated to be between $500 million and $1.5 billion.
In 1961, Carlos Fonseca looked back to the historical figure of Sandino, and along with two other people (one of whom was believed to be Casimiro Sotelo, who was later assassinated), founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). After the 1972 earthquake and Somoza's apparent corruption, the ranks of the Sandinistas were flooded with young disaffected Nicaraguans who no longer had anything to lose.
In December 1974, a group of the FSLN, in an attempt to kidnap U.S. ambassador Turner Shelton, held some Managuan partygoers hostage (after killing the host, former agriculture minister, Jose Maria Castillo), until the Somozan government met their demands for a large ransom and free transport to Cuba. Somoza granted this, then subsequently sent his national guard out into the countryside to look for the perpetrators of the kidnapping, described by opponents of the kidnapping as "terrorists".
On January 10, 1978, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, the editor of the national newspaper "La Prensa" and ardent opponent of Somoza, was assassinated. It is alleged that the planners and perpetrators of the murder were at the highest echelons of the Somoza regime.
The Sandinistas forcefully took power in July 1979, ousting Somoza, and prompting the exodus of the majority of Nicaragua's middle class, wealthy landowners, and professionals, many of whom settled in the United States. The Carter administration decided to work with the new government, while attaching a provision for aid forfeiture if it was found to be assisting insurgencies in neighboring countries. Somoza fled the country and eventually ended up in Paraguay, where he was assassinated in September 1980, allegedly by members of the Argentinian Revolutionary Workers' Party.
In 1980, the Carter administration provided $60 million in aid to Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, but the aid was suspended when the administration obtained evidence of Nicaraguan shipment of arms to El Salvadoran rebels. In response to the coming to power of the Sandinistas, various rebel groups collectively known as the "contras" were formed to oppose the new government. The Reagan administration authorized the CIA to help the contra rebels with funding, armaments, and training. The contras operated out of camps in the neighboring countries of Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south.
They engaged in a systematic campaign of terror among the rural Nicaraguan population to disrupt the social reform projects of the Sandinistas. Several historians have criticized the contra campaign and the Reagan administration's support for it, citing the brutality and numerous human rights violations of the contras. LaRamee and Polakoff, for example, describe the destruction of health centers, schools, and cooperatives at the hands of the rebels, and others have contended that murder, rape, and torture occurred on a large scale in contra-dominated areas. The United States also carried out a campaign of economic sabotage, and disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua's port of Corinto, an action condemned by the International Court of Justice as illegal. The U.S. also sought to place economic pressure on the Sandinistas, and the Reagan administration imposed a full trade embargo. The Sandinistas were also accused of human rights abuses.
In the Nicaraguan general elections of 1984, which were judged to have been free and fair, the Sandinistas won the parliamentary election and their leader Daniel Ortega won the presidential election. The Reagan administration criticized the elections as a "sham" based on the charge that Arturo Cruz, the candidate nominated by the Coordinadora Democrática Nicaragüense, comprising three right wing political parties, did not participate in the elections. However, the administration privately argued against Cruz's participation for fear his involvement would legitimize the elections, and thus weaken the case for American aid to the contras. According to Martin Kriele, the results of the election were rigged.
After the U.S. Congress prohibited federal funding of the contras in 1983, the Reagan administration nonetheless illegally continued to back them by covertly selling arms to Iran and channeling the proceeds to the contras (the Iran–Contra affair), for which several members of the Reagan administration were convicted of felonies. The International Court of Justice, in regard to the case of Nicaragua v. United States in 1984, found, "the United States of America was under an obligation to make reparation to the Republic of Nicaragua for all injury caused to Nicaragua by certain breaches of obligations under customary international law and treaty-law committed by the United States of America". During the war between the contras and the Sandinistas, 30,000 people were killed.
In the Nicaraguan general election, 1990, a coalition of anti-Sandinista parties (from the left and right of the political spectrum) led by Violeta Chamorro, the widow of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, defeated the Sandinistas. The defeat shocked the Sandinistas, who had expected to win.
Exit polls of Nicaraguans reported Chamorro's victory over Ortega was achieved with a 55% majority. Chamorro was the first woman president of Nicaragua. Ortega vowed he would govern "desde abajo" (from below). Chamorro came to office with an economy in ruins, primarily because of the financial and social costs of the contra war with the Sandinista-led government. In the next election, the Nicaraguan general election, 1996, Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas of the FSLN were defeated again, this time by Arnoldo Alemán of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC).
In the 2001 elections, the PLC again defeated the FSLN, with Alemán's Vice President Enrique Bolaños succeeding him as President. Subsequently, however, Alemán was convicted and sentenced in 2003 to 20 years in prison for embezzlement, money laundering, and corruption; liberal and Sandinista parliament members subsequently combined to strip the presidential powers of President Bolaños and his ministers, calling for his resignation and threatening impeachment. The Sandinistas said they no longer supported Bolaños after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told Bolaños to keep his distance from the FSLN. This "slow motion "coup d'état"" was averted partially by pressure from the Central American presidents, who vowed not to recognize any movement that removed Bolaños; the U.S., the OAS, and the European Union also opposed the action.
Before the general elections on November 5, 2006, the National Assembly passed a bill further restricting abortion in Nicaragua. As a result, Nicaragua is one of five countries in the world where abortion is illegal with no exceptions. Legislative and presidential elections took place on November 5, 2006. Ortega returned to the presidency with 37.99% of the vote. This percentage was enough to win the presidency outright, because of a change in electoral law which lowered the percentage requiring a runoff election from 45% to 35% (with a 5% margin of victory). Nicaragua's 2011 general election resulted in re-election of Ortega, with a landslide victory and 62.46% of the vote. In 2014 the National Assembly approved changes to the constitution allowing Ortega to run for a third successive term.
In November 2016, Ortega was elected for his third consecutive term (his fourth overall). International monitoring of the elections was initially prohibited, and as a result the validity of the elections has been disputed, but observation by the OAS was announced in October. Ortega was reported by Nicaraguan election officials as having received 72% of the vote. However the Broad Front for Democracy (FAD), having promoted boycotts of the elections, claimed that 70% of voters had abstained (while election officials claimed 65.8% participation).
In April 2018, demonstrations opposed a decree increasing taxes and reducing benefits in the country's pension system. Local independent press organizations had documented at least 19 dead and over 100 missing in the ensuing conflict. A reporter from NPR spoke to protestors who explained that while the initial issue was about the pension reform, the uprisings that spread across the country reflected many grievances about the government's time in office, and that the fight is for President Ortega and his Vice President wife to step down. April 24, 2018 marked the day of the greatest march in opposition of the Sandinista party. On May 2, 2018, university-student leaders publicly announced that they give the government seven days to set a date and time for a dialogue that was promised to the people due to the recent events of repression. The students also scheduled another march on that same day for a peaceful protest. As of May 2018, estimates of the death toll were as high as 63, many of them student protesters, and the wounded totalled more than 400. Following a working visit from May 17 to 21, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights adopted precautionary measures aimed at protecting members of the student movement and their families after testimonies indicated the majority of them had suffered acts of violence and death threats for their participation. In the last week of May, thousands who accuse Mr. Ortega and his wife of acting like dictators joined in resuming anti-government rallies after attempted peace talks have remained unresolved.
Nicaragua occupies a landmass of , which makes it slightly larger than England. Nicaragua has three distinct geographical regions: the Pacific lowlands – fertile valleys which the Spanish colonists settled, the Amerrisque Mountains (North-central highlands), and the Mosquito Coast (Atlantic lowlands/Caribbean lowlands).
The low plains of the Atlantic Coast are wide in areas. They have long been exploited for their natural resources.
On the Pacific side of Nicaragua are the two largest fresh water lakes in Central America—Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Surrounding these lakes and extending to their northwest along the rift valley of the Gulf of Fonseca are fertile lowland plains, with soil highly enriched by ash from nearby volcanoes of the central highlands. Nicaragua's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contribute to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot. Nicaragua has made efforts to become less dependent on fossil fuels, and it expects to acquire 90% of its energy from renewable resources by the year 2020.
Nearly one fifth of Nicaragua is designated as protected areas like national parks, nature reserves, and biological reserves. Geophysically, Nicaragua is surrounded by the Caribbean Plate, an oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Cocos Plate. Since Central America is a major subduction zone, Nicaragua hosts most of the Central American Volcanic Arc.
In the west of the country, these lowlands consist of a broad, hot, fertile plain. Punctuating this plain are several large volcanoes of the Cordillera Los Maribios mountain range, including Mombacho just outside Granada, and Momotombo near León. The lowland area runs from the Gulf of Fonseca to Nicaragua's Pacific border with Costa Rica south of Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is the largest freshwater lake in Central America (20th largest in the world), and is home to some of the world's rare freshwater sharks (Nicaraguan shark). The Pacific lowlands region is the most populous, with over half of the nation's population.
The eruptions of western Nicaragua's 40 volcanoes, many of which are still active, have sometimes devastated settlements but also have enriched the land with layers of fertile ash. The geologic activity that produces vulcanism also breeds powerful earthquakes. Tremors occur regularly throughout the Pacific zone, and earthquakes have nearly destroyed the capital city, Managua, more than once.
Most of the Pacific zone is "tierra caliente", the "hot land" of tropical Spanish America at elevations under . Temperatures remain virtually constant throughout the year, with highs ranging between . After a dry season lasting from November to April, rains begin in May and continue to October, giving the Pacific lowlands of precipitation. Good soils and a favourable climate combine to make western Nicaragua the country's economic and demographic centre. The southwestern shore of Lake Nicaragua lies within of the Pacific Ocean. Thus the lake and the San Juan River were often proposed in the 19th century as the longest part of a canal route across the Central American isthmus. Canal proposals were periodically revived in the 20th and 21st centuries. Roughly a century after the opening of the Panama Canal, the prospect of a Nicaraguan ecocanal remains a topic of interest.
In addition to its beach and resort communities, the Pacific lowlands contains most of Nicaragua's Spanish colonial architecture and artifacts. Cities such as León and Granada abound in colonial architecture; founded in 1524, Granada is the oldest colonial city in the Americas.
Northern Nicaragua is the most diversified region producing coffee, cattle, milk products, vegetables, wood, gold, and flowers. Its extensive forests, rivers and geography are suited for ecotourism.
The central highlands are a significantly less populated and economically developed area in the north, between Lake Nicaragua and the Caribbean. Forming the country's tierra templada, or "temperate land", at elevations between , the highlands enjoy mild temperatures with daily highs of . This region has a longer, wetter rainy season than the Pacific lowlands, making erosion a problem on its steep slopes. Rugged terrain, poor soils, and low population density characterize the area as a whole, but the northwestern valleys are fertile and well settled.
The area has a cooler climate than the Pacific lowlands. About a quarter of the country's agriculture takes place in this region, with coffee grown on the higher slopes. Oaks, pines, moss, ferns and orchids are abundant in the cloud forests of the region.
Bird life in the forests of the central region includes resplendent quetzals, goldfinches, hummingbirds, jays and toucanets.
This large rainforest region is irrigated by several large rivers and is sparsely populated. The area has 57% of the territory of the nation and most of its mineral resources. It has been heavily exploited, but much natural diversity remains. The Rio Coco is the largest river in Central America; it forms the border with Honduras. The Caribbean coastline is much more sinuous than its generally straight Pacific counterpart; lagoons and deltas make it very irregular.
Nicaragua's Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is in the Atlantic lowlands, part of which is located in the municipality of Siuna; it protects of La Mosquitia forest – almost 7% of the country's area – making it the largest rainforest north of the Amazon in Brazil.
The municipalities of Siuna, Rosita, and Bonanza, known as the "Mining Triangle", are located in the region known as the RAAN, in the Caribbean lowlands. Bonanza still contains an active gold mine owned by HEMCO. Siuna and Rosita do not have active mines but panning for gold is still very common in the region.
Nicaragua's tropical east coast is very different from the rest of the country. The climate is predominantly tropical, with high temperature and high humidity. Around the area's principal city of Bluefields, English is widely spoken along with the official Spanish. The population more closely resembles that found in many typical Caribbean ports than the rest of Nicaragua.
A great variety of birds can be observed including eagles, toucans, parakeets and macaws. Other animal life in the area includes different species of monkeys, anteaters, white-tailed deer and tapirs.
Nicaragua is home to a rich variety of plants and animals. Nicaragua is located in the middle of the Americas and this privileged location has enabled the country to serve as host to a great biodiversity. This factor, along with the weather and light altitudinal variations, allows the country to harbor 248 species of amphibians and reptiles, 183 species of mammals, 705 bird species, 640 fish species, and about 5,796 species of plants.
The region of great forests is located on the eastern side of the country. Rainforests are found in the Río San Juan Department and in the autonomous regions of RAAN and RAAS. This biome groups together the greatest biodiversity in the country and is largely protected by the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve in the south and the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve in the north. The Nicaraguan jungles, which represent about , are considered the lungs of Central America and comprise the second largest-sized rainforest of the Americas.
There are currently 78 protected areas in Nicaragua, covering more than , or about 17% of its landmass. These include wildlife refuges and nature reserves that shelter a wide range of ecosystems. There are more than 1,400 animal species classified thus far in Nicaragua. Some 12,000 species of plants have been classified thus far in Nicaragua, with an estimated 5,000 species not yet classified.
The bull shark is a species of shark that can survive for an extended period of time in fresh water. It can be found in Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River, where it is often referred to as the "Nicaragua shark". Nicaragua has recently banned freshwater fishing of the Nicaragua shark and the sawfish in response to the declining populations of these animals.
Nicaragua was one of the few countries that did not enter an INDC at COP21. Nicaragua initially chose not to join the Paris Climate Accord because it felt that "much more action is required" by individual countries on restricting global temperature rise. However, in October 2017, Nicaragua made the decision to join the agreement. It ratified this agreement on November 22, 2017.
Politics of Nicaragua takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Nicaragua is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the national assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Between 2007 and 2009, Nicaragua's major political parties discussed the possibility of going from a presidential system to a parliamentary system. Their reason: there would be a clear differentiation between the head of government (prime minister) and the head of state (president). Nevertheless, it was later argued that the true reason behind this proposal was to find a legal way for President Ortega to stay in power after January 2012, when his second and last government period was expected to end. Ortega was reelected to a third term in November 2016.
Nicaragua pursues an independent foreign policy. Nicaragua is in territorial disputes with Colombia over the Archipelago de San Andrés y Providencia and Quita Sueño Bank and with Costa Rica over a boundary dispute involving the San Juan River.
The International Court of Justice, in regard to the case of Nicaragua v. United States in 1984, found that the United States was "in breach of its obligations under customary international law not to use force against another State", "not to intervene in its affairs", "not to violate its sovereignty", "not to interrupt peaceful maritime commerce".
The armed forces of Nicaragua consists of various military contingents. Nicaragua has an army, navy and an air force. There are roughly 14,000 active duty personnel, which is much less compared to the numbers seen during the Nicaraguan Revolution. Although the army has had a rough military history, a portion of its forces, which were known as the national guard, became integrated with what is now the National Police of Nicaragua. In essence, the police became a "gendarmerie". The National Police of Nicaragua are rarely, if ever, labeled as a "gendarmerie". The other elements and manpower that were not devoted to the national police were sent over to cultivate the new Army of Nicaragua.
The age to serve in the armed forces is 17 and conscription is not imminent. , the military budget was roughly 0.7% of Nicaragua's expenditures.
In 2017, Nicaragua signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The National Police of Nicaragua Force (in Spanish: La Policía Nacional Nicaragüense) is the national police of Nicaragua. The force is in charge of regular police functions and, at times, works in conjunction with the Nicaraguan military, making it an indirect and rather subtle version of a gendarmerie. However, the Nicaraguan National Police work separately and have a different established set of norms than the nation's military. According to a recent US Department of State report, corruption is endemic, especially within law enforcement and the judiciary, and arbitrary arrests, torture, and harsh prison conditions are the norm.
Nicaragua is the safest country in Central America and one of the safest in Latin America, according to the United Nations Development Program, with a homicide rate of 8.7 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Nicaragua is a unitary republic. For administrative purposes it is divided into 15 departments ("departamentos") and two self-governing regions (autonomous communities) based on the Spanish model. The departments are then subdivided into 153 municipios (municipalities). The two autonomous regions are the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region
and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, often referred to as RACCN and RACCS, respectively.
Nicaragua is among the poorest countries in the Americas. Its gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2008 was estimated at US$17.37 billion. Agriculture represents 15.5% of GDP, the highest percentage in Central America. Remittances account for over 15% of the Nicaraguan GDP. Close to one billion dollars are sent to the country by Nicaraguans living abroad. The economy grew at a rate of about 4% in 2011. By 2019, given restrictive taxes and a civil conflict, it recorded a negative growth of - 3.9%; the International Monetary Fund forecast for 2020 is a further decline of 6% due to COVID-19.
In 2019, Nicaragua had The restrictive tax measures put in place in 2019 and a political crisis over social security negatively affected the country's weak public spending and investor confidence in sovereign debt. According to the update IMF forecasts from 14th April 2020, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, GDP growth is expected to fall to -6% in 2020.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, 48% of the population of Nicaragua live below the poverty line, 79.9% of the population live with less than $2 per day, According to UN figures, 80% of the indigenous people (who make up 5% of the population) live on less than $1 per day.
According to the World Bank, Nicaragua ranked as the 123rd out of 190 best economy for starting a business. In 2007, Nicaragua's economy was labelled "62.7% free" by the Heritage Foundation, with high levels of fiscal, government, labor, investment, financial, and trade freedom. It ranked as the 61st freest economy, and 14th (of 29) in the Americas.
In March 2007, Poland and Nicaragua signed an agreement to write off 30.6 million dollars which was borrowed by the Nicaraguan government in the 1980s. Inflation reduced from 33,500% in 1988 to 9.45% in 2006, and the foreign debt was cut in half.
Nicaragua is primarily an agricultural country; agriculture constitutes 60% of its total exports which annually yield approximately US$300 million. Nearly two-thirds of the coffee crop comes from the northern part of the central highlands, in the area north and east of the town of Estelí. Tobacco, grown in the same northern highlands region as coffee, has become an increasingly important cash crop since the 1990s, with annual exports of leaf and cigars in the neighborhood of $200 million per year. Soil erosion and pollution from the heavy use of pesticides have become serious concerns in the cotton district. Yields and exports have both been declining since 1985. Today most of Nicaragua's bananas are grown in the northwestern part of the country near the port of Corinto; sugarcane is also grown in the same district. Cassava, a root crop somewhat similar to the potato, is an important food in tropical regions. Cassava is also the main ingredient in tapioca pudding. Nicaragua's agricultural sector has benefited because of the country's strong ties to Venezuela. It is estimated that Venezuela will import approximately $200 million in agricultural goods. In the 1990s, the government initiated efforts to diversify agriculture. Some of the new export-oriented crops were peanuts, sesame, melons, and onions.
Fishing boats on the Caribbean side bring shrimp as well as lobsters into processing plants at Puerto Cabezas, Bluefields, and Laguna de Perlas. A turtle fishery thrived on the Caribbean coast before it collapsed from overexploitation.
Mining is becoming a major industry in Nicaragua, contributing less than 1% of gross domestic product (GDP). Restrictions are being placed on lumbering due to increased environmental concerns about destruction of the rain forests. But lumbering continues despite these obstacles; indeed, a single hardwood tree may be worth thousands of dollars.
During the war between the US-backed Contras and the government of the Sandinistas in the 1980s, much of the country's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed. Transportation throughout the nation is often inadequate. For example, it was until recently impossible to travel all the way by highway from Managua to the Caribbean coast. A new road between Nueva Guinea and Bluefields is almost complete (February 2019), and already allows a regular bus service to the capital. The Centroamérica power plant on the Tuma River in the Central highlands has been expanded, and other hydroelectric projects have been undertaken to help provide electricity to the nation's newer industries. Nicaragua has long been considered as a possible site for a new sea-level canal that could supplement the Panama Canal.
Nicaragua's minimum wage is among the lowest in the Americas and in the world. Remittances are equivalent to roughly 15% of the country's gross domestic product. Growth in the "maquila" sector slowed in the first decade of the 21st century with rising competition from Asian markets, particularly China. Land is the traditional basis of wealth in Nicaragua, with great fortunes coming from the export of staples such as coffee, cotton, beef, and sugar. Almost all of the upper class and nearly a quarter of the middle class are substantial landowners.
A 1985 government study classified 69.4 percent of the population as poor on the basis that they were unable to satisfy one or more of their basic needs in housing, sanitary services (water, sewage, and garbage collection), education, and employment. The defining standards for this study were very low; housing was considered substandard if it was constructed of discarded materials with dirt floors or if it was occupied by more than four persons per room.
Rural workers are dependent on agricultural wage labor, especially in coffee and cotton. Only a small fraction hold permanent jobs. Most are migrants who follow crops during the harvest period and find other work during the off-season. The "lower" peasants are typically smallholders without sufficient land to sustain a family; they also join the harvest labor force. The "upper" peasants have sufficient resources to be economically independent. They produce enough surplus, beyond their personal needs, to allow them to participate in the national and world markets.
The urban lower class is characterized by the informal sector of the economy. The informal sector consists of small-scale enterprises that utilize traditional technologies and operate outside the legal regime of labor protections and taxation. Workers in the informal sector are self-employed, unsalaried family workers or employees of small-enterprises, and they are generally poor.
Nicaragua's informal sector workers include tinsmiths, mattress makers, seamstresses, bakers, shoemakers, and carpenters; people who take in laundry and ironing or prepare food for sale in the streets; and thousands of peddlers, owners of small businesses (often operating out of their own homes), and market stall operators. Some work alone, but others labor in the small talleres (workshops/factories) that are responsible for a large share of the country's industrial production. Because informal sector earnings are generally very low, few families can subsist on one income. Like most Latin American nations Nicaragua is also characterized by a very small upper-class, roughly 2% of the population, that is very wealthy and wields the political and economic power in the country that is not in the hands of foreign corporations and private industries. These families are oligarchical in nature and have ruled Nicaragua for generations and their wealth is politically and economically horizontally and vertically integrated.
Nicaragua is currently a member of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, which is also known as ALBA. ALBA has proposed creating a new currency, the Sucre, for use among its members. In essence, this means that the Nicaraguan córdoba will be replaced with the Sucre. Other nations that will follow a similar pattern include: Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Cuba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda.
Nicaragua is considering construction of a canal linking the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, which President Daniel Ortega has said will give Nicaragua its "economic independence." Scientists have raised concerns about environmental impacts, but the government has maintained that the canal will benefit the country by creating new jobs and potentially increasing its annual growth to an average of 8% per year. The project was scheduled to begin construction in December 2014, however the Nicaragua Canal has yet to be started.
By 2006, tourism had become the second largest industry in Nicaragua. Previously, tourism had grown about 70% nationwide during a period of 7 years, with rates of 10%–16% annually. The increase and growth led to the income from tourism to rise more than 300% over a period of 10 years. The growth in tourism has also positively affected the agricultural, commercial, and finance industries, as well as the construction industry. President Daniel Ortega has stated his intention to use tourism to combat poverty throughout the country. The results for Nicaragua's tourism-driven economy have been significant, with the nation welcoming one million tourists in a calendar year for the first time in its history in 2010.
Every year about 60,000 U.S. citizens visit Nicaragua, primarily business people, tourists, and those visiting relatives. Some 5,300 people from the U.S. reside in Nicaragua. The majority of tourists who visit Nicaragua are from the U.S., Central or South America, and Europe. According to the Ministry of Tourism of Nicaragua (INTUR), the colonial cities of León and Granada are the preferred spots for tourists. Also, the cities of Masaya, Rivas and the likes of San Juan del Sur, El Ostional, the Fortress of the Immaculate Conception, Ometepe Island, the Mombacho volcano, and the Corn Islands among other locations are the main tourist attractions. In addition, ecotourism, sport fishing and surfing attract many tourists to Nicaragua.
According to the "TV Noticias" news program, the main attractions in Nicaragua for tourists are the beaches, the scenic routes, the architecture of cities such as León and Granada, ecotourism, and agritourism particularly in northern Nicaragua. As a result of increased tourism, Nicaragua has seen its foreign direct investment increase by 79.1% from 2007 to 2009.
Nicaragua is referred to as ""the land of lakes and volcanoes"" due to the number of lagoons and lakes, and the chain of volcanoes that runs from the north to the south along the country's Pacific side. Today, only 7 of the 50 volcanoes in Nicaragua are considered active. Many of these volcanoes offer some great possibilities for tourists with activities such as hiking, climbing, camping, and swimming in crater lakes.
The Apoyo Lagoon Natural Reserve was created by the eruption of the Apoyo Volcano about 23,000 years ago, which left a huge 7 km-wide crater that gradually filled with water. It is surrounded by the old crater wall. The rim of the lagoon is lined with restaurants, many of which have kayaks available. Besides exploring the forest around it, many water sports are practiced in the lagoon, most notably kayaking.
Sand skiing has become a popular attraction at the Cerro Negro volcano in León. Both dormant and active volcanoes can be climbed. Some of the most visited volcanoes include the Masaya Volcano, Momotombo, Mombacho, Cosigüina and Ometepe's Maderas and Concepción.
Ecotourism aims to be ecologically and socially conscious; it focuses on local culture, wilderness, and adventure. Nicaragua's ecotourism is growing with every passing year. It boasts a number of ecotourist tours and perfect places for adventurers. Nicaragua has three eco-regions (the Pacific, Central, and Atlantic) which contain volcanoes, tropical rainforests, and agricultural land. The majority of the eco-lodges and other environmentally-focused touristic destinations are found on Ometepe Island, located in the middle of Lake Nicaragua just an hour's boat ride from Granada. While some are foreign-owned, others are owned by local families.
According to a 2014 research published in the journal "Genetics and Molecular Biology", European ancestry predominates in 69% of Nicaraguans, followed by African ancestry in 20%, and lastly indigenous ancestry in 11%. A Japanese research of "Genomic Components in America's demography" demonstrated that, on average, the ancestry of Nicaraguans is 58–62% European, 28% Native American, and 14% African, with a very small Near Eastern contribution. Non-genetic data from the "CIA World Factbook" establish that from Nicaragua's 2016 population of 5,966,798, around 69% are mestizo, 17% white, 5% Native American, and 9% black and other races. This fluctuates with changes in migration patterns. The population is 58% urban .
The capital Managua is the biggest city, with an estimated population of 1,042,641 in 2016. In 2005, over 5 million people lived in the Pacific, Central and North regions, and 700,000 in the Caribbean region.
There is a growing expatriate community, the majority of whom move for business, investment or retirement from across the world, such as from the US, Canada, Taiwan, and European countries; the majority have settled in Managua, Granada and San Juan del Sur.
Many Nicaraguans live abroad, particularly in Costa Rica, the United States, Spain, Canada, and other Central American countries.
Nicaragua has a population growth rate of 1.5% . This is the result of one of the highest birth rates in the Western Hemisphere: 17.7 per 1,000 as of 2017. The death rate was 4.7 per 1,000 during the same period according to the United Nations.
The majority of the Nicaraguan population is composed of mestizos, roughly 69%. 17% of Nicaragua's population is of unmixed European stock, with the majority of them being of Spanish descent, while others are of German, Italian, English, Turkish, Danish or French ancestry.
About 9% of Nicaragua's population is black and mainly resides on the country's Caribbean (or Atlantic) coast. The black population is mostly composed of black English-speaking Creoles who are the descendants of escaped or shipwrecked slaves; many carry the name of Scottish settlers who brought slaves with them, such as Campbell, Gordon, Downs, and Hodgeson. Although many Creoles supported Somoza because of his close association with the US, they rallied to the Sandinista cause in July 1979 only to reject the revolution soon afterwards in response to a new phase of 'westernization' and imposition of central rule from Managua. There is a smaller number of Garifuna, a people of mixed West African, Carib and Arawak descent. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the Zelaya Department – consisting of the eastern half of the country – into two autonomous regions and granted the black and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the republic.
The remaining 5% of Nicaraguans are indigenous, the descendants of the country's original inhabitants. Nicaragua's pre-Columbian population consisted of many indigenous groups. In the western region, the Nahua (Pipil-Nicarao) people were present along with other groups such as the Chorotega people and the Subtiabas (also known as Maribios or Hokan Xiu). The central region and the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua were inhabited by indigenous peoples who were Macro-Chibchan language groups that had migrated to and from South America in ancient times, primarily what is now Colombia and Venezuela. These groups include the present-day Matagalpas, Miskitos, Ramas, as well as Mayangnas and Ulwas who are also known as Sumos. In the 19th century, there was a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was largely assimilated culturally into the mestizo majority.
Nicaraguan Spanish has many indigenous influences and several distinguishing characteristics. For example, some Nicaraguans have a tendency to replace /s/ with /h/ when speaking. Although Spanish is spoken throughout, the country has great variety: vocabulary, accents and colloquial language can vary between towns and departments.
On the Caribbean coast, indigenous languages, English-based creoles, and Spanish are spoken. The Miskito language, spoken by the Miskito people as a first language and some other indigenous and Afro-descendants people as a second, third, or fourth language, is the most commonly spoken indigenous language. The indigenous Misumalpan languages of Mayangna and Ulwa are spoken by the respective peoples of the same names. Many Miskito, Mayangna, and Ulwa people also speak Miskito Coast Creole, and a large majority also speak Spanish. Fewer than three dozen of nearly 2,000 Rama people speak their Chibchan language fluently, with nearly all Ramas speaking Rama Cay Creole and the vast majority speaking Spanish. Linguists have attempted to document and revitalize the language over the past three decades.
The Garifuna people, descendants of indigenous and Afro-descendant people who came to Nicaragua from Honduras in the early twentieth century, have recently attempted to revitalize their Arawakan language. The majority speak Miskito Coast Creole as their first language and Spanish as their second. The Creole or Kriol people, descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the Mosquito Coast during the British colonial period and European, Chinese, Arab, and British West Indian immigrants, also speak Miskito Coast Creole as their first language and Spanish as their second.
Religion plays a significant part of the culture of Nicaragua and is afforded special protections in the constitution. Religious freedom, which has been guaranteed since 1939, and religious tolerance are promoted by the government and the constitution.
Nicaragua has no official religion. Catholic bishops are expected to lend their authority to important state occasions, and their pronouncements on national issues are closely followed. They can be called upon to mediate between contending parties at moments of political crisis. In 1979, Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, a priest who had embraced Liberation Theology, served in the government as foreign minister when the Sandinistas came to power. The largest denomination, and traditionally the religion of the majority, is the Roman Catholic Church. It came to Nicaragua in the 16th century with the Spanish conquest and remained, until 1939, the established faith.
The number of practicing Roman Catholics has been declining, while membership of evangelical Protestant groups and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has been growing rapidly since the 1990s. There is a significant LDS missionary effort in Nicaragua. There are two missions and 95,768 members of the LDS Church (1.54% of the population). There are also strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast in what once constituted the sparsely populated Mosquito Coast colony. It was under British influence for nearly three centuries. Protestantism was brought to the Mosquito Coast mainly by British and German colonists in forms of Anglicanism and the Moravian Church. Other kinds of Protestant and other Christian denominations were introduced to the rest of Nicaragua during the 19th century.
Popular religion revolves around the saints, who are perceived as intercessors between human beings and God. Most localities, from the capital of Managua to small rural communities, honour patron saints, selected from the Roman Catholic calendar, with annual "fiestas". In many communities, a rich lore has grown up around the celebrations of patron saints, such as Managua's Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo), honoured in August with two colourful, often riotous, day-long processions through the city. The high point of Nicaragua's religious calendar for the masses is neither Christmas nor Easter, but La Purísima, a week of festivities in early December dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, during which elaborate altars to the Virgin Mary are constructed in homes and workplaces.
The country's close political ties have encouraged religious ties. Buddhism has increased with a steady influx of immigration.
Relative to its population, Nicaragua has not experienced large waves of immigration. The number of immigrants in Nicaragua, from other Latin American countries or other countries, never surpassed 1% of its total population before 1995. The 2005 census showed the foreign-born population at 1.2%, having risen a mere .06% in 10 years.
In the 19th century, Nicaragua experienced modest waves of immigration from Europe. In particular, families from Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium immigrated to Nicaragua, particularly the departments in the Central and Pacific region.
Also present is a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrians, Armenians, Jewish Nicaraguans, and Lebanese people in Nicaragua. This community numbers about 30,000. There is an East Asian community mostly consisting of Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese. The Chinese Nicaraguan population is estimated at around 12,000. The Chinese arrived in the late 19th century but were unsubstantiated until the 1920s.
The Civil War forced many Nicaraguans to start lives outside of their country. Many people emigrated during the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century due to the lack of employment opportunities and poverty. The majority of the Nicaraguan Diaspora migrated to the United States and Costa Rica. Today one in six Nicaraguans live in these two countries.
The diaspora has seen Nicaraguans settling around in smaller communities in other parts of the world, particularly Western Europe. Small communities of Nicaraguans are found in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Communities also exist in Australia and New Zealand. Canada, Brazil and Argentina host small groups of these communities. In Asia, Japan hosts a small Nicaraguan community.
Due to extreme poverty at home, many Nicaraguans are now living and working in neighboring El Salvador, a country that has the US dollar as currency.
Although Nicaragua's health outcomes have improved over the past few decades with the efficient utilization of resources relative to other Central American nations, healthcare in Nicaragua still confronts challenges responding to its populations' diverse healthcare needs.
The Nicaraguan government guarantees universal free health care for its citizens. However, limitations of current delivery models and unequal distribution of resources and medical personnel contribute to the persistent lack of quality care in more remote areas of Nicaragua, especially among rural communities in the Central and Atlantic region. To respond to the dynamic needs of localities, the government has adopted a decentralized model that emphasizes community-based preventive and primary medical care.
The adult literacy rate in 2005 was 78.0%.
Primary education is free in Nicaragua. A system of private schools exists, many of which are religiously affiliated and often have more robust English programs. As of 1979, the educational system was one of the poorest in Latin America. One of the first acts of the newly elected Sandinista government in 1980 was an extensive and successful literacy campaign, using secondary school students, university students and teachers as volunteer teachers: it reduced the overall illiteracy rate from 50.3% to 12.9% within only five months. This was one of a number of large-scale programs which received international recognition for their gains in literacy, health care, education, childcare, unions, and land reform. The Sandinistas also added a leftist ideological content to the curriculum, which was removed after 1990. In September 1980, UNESCO awarded Nicaragua the Soviet Union sponsored Nadezhda Krupskaya award for the literacy campaign.
When it comes to gender equality in Latin America, Nicaragua ranks high among the other countries in the region. When it came to global rankings regarding gender equality, the World Economic Forum ranked Nicaragua at number twelve in 2015, and in its 2020 report Nicaragua ranked number five, behind only northern European countries.
Nicaragua was among the many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which aimed to promote women's rights.
In 2009, a Special Ombudsman for Sexual Diversity position was created within its Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman. And, in 2014, the Health Ministry in 2014 banned discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Nevertheless, discrimination against LGBTQ individuals is common, particularly in housing, education, and the workplace.
The Human Development Report ranked Nicaragua 106 out of 160 countries in the Gender Inequality Index (GII) in 2017. It reflects gender-based inequalities in three dimensions - reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity.
Nicaraguan culture has strong folklore, music and religious traditions, deeply influenced by European culture but also including Native American sounds and flavors. Nicaraguan culture can further be defined in several distinct strands. The Pacific coast has strong folklore, music and religious traditions, deeply influenced by Europeans. It was colonized by Spain and has a similar culture to other Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. The indigenous groups that historically inhabited the Pacific coast have largely been assimilated into the mestizo culture.
The Caribbean coast of Nicaragua was once a British protectorate. English is still predominant in this region and spoken domestically along with Spanish and indigenous languages. Its culture is similar to that of Caribbean nations that were or are British possessions, such as Jamaica, Belize, the Cayman Islands, etc. Unlike on the west coast, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean coast have maintained distinct identities, and some still speak their native languages as first languages.
Nicaraguan music is a mixture of indigenous and Spanish influences. Musical instruments include the marimba and others common across Central America. The marimba of Nicaragua is played by a sitting performer holding the instrument on his knees. He is usually accompanied by a bass fiddle, guitar and guitarrilla (a small guitar like a mandolin). This music is played at social functions as a sort of background music.
The marimba is made with hardwood plates placed over bamboo or metal tubes of varying lengths. It is played with two or four hammers. The Caribbean coast of Nicaragua is known for a lively, sensual form of dance music called "Palo de Mayo" which is popular throughout the country. It is especially loud and celebrated during the Palo de Mayo festival in May. The Garifuna community (Afro-Native American) is known for its popular music called "Punta".
Nicaragua enjoys a variety of international influence in the music arena. Bachata, Merengue, Salsa and Cumbia have gained prominence in cultural centres such as Managua, Leon and Granada. Cumbia dancing has grown popular with the introduction of Nicaraguan artists, including Gustavo Leyton, on Ometepe Island and in Managua. Salsa dancing has become extremely popular in Managua's nightclubs. With various influences, the form of salsa dancing varies in Nicaragua. New York style and Cuban Salsa (Salsa Casino) elements have gained popularity across the country.
Dance in Nicaragua varies depending upon the region. Rural areas tend to have a stronger focus on movement of the hips and turns. The dance style in cities focuses primarily on more sophisticated footwork in addition to movement and turns. Combinations of styles from the Dominican Republic and the United States can be found throughout Nicaragua. Bachata dancing is popular in Nicaragua. A considerable amount of Bachata dancing influence comes from Nicaraguans living abroad, in cities that include Miami, Los Angeles and, to a much lesser extent, New York City. Tango has also surfaced recently in cultural cities and ballroom dance occasions.
The origin of Nicaraguan literature can arguably be traced to pre-Columbian times. The myths and oral literature formed the cosmogenic view of the world of the indigenous people. Some of these stories are still known in Nicaragua. Like many Latin American countries, the Spanish conquerors have had the most effect on both the culture and the literature. Nicaraguan literature has historically been an important source of poetry in the Spanish-speaking world, with internationally renowned contributors such as Rubén Darío who is regarded as the most important literary figure in Nicaragua. He is called the "Father of Modernism" for leading the "modernismo" literary movement at the end of the 19th century. Other literary figures include Carlos Martinez Rivas, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, Alberto Cuadra Mejia, Manolo Cuadra, Pablo Alberto Cuadra Arguello, Orlando Cuadra Downing, Alfredo Alegría Rosales, Sergio Ramirez Mercado, Ernesto Cardenal, Gioconda Belli, Claribel Alegría and José Coronel Urtecho, among others.
The satirical drama "El Güegüense" was the first literary work of post-Columbian Nicaragua. Written in both Aztec Nahuatl and Spanish it is regarded as one of Latin America's most distinctive colonial-era expressions and as Nicaragua's signature folkloric masterpiece, a work of resistance to Spanish colonialism that combined music, dance and theatre. The theatrical play was written by an anonymous author in the 16th century, making it one of the oldest indigenous theatrical/dance works of the Western Hemisphere. In 2005 it was recognized by UNESCO as "a patrimony of humanity". After centuries of popular performance, the play was first published in a book in 1942.
Nicaraguan cuisine is a mixture of Spanish food and dishes of a pre-Columbian origin. Traditional cuisine changes from the Pacific to the Caribbean coast. The Pacific coast's main staple revolves around local fruits and corn, the Caribbean coast cuisine makes use of seafood and the coconut.
As in many other Latin American countries, maize is a staple food and is used in many of the widely consumed dishes, such as the nacatamal, and "indio viejo". Maize is also an ingredient for drinks such as pinolillo and chicha as well as sweets and desserts. In addition to corn, rice and beans are eaten very often.
Gallo pinto, Nicaragua's national dish, is made with white rice and red beans that are cooked individually and then fried together. The dish has several variations including the addition of coconut milk and/or grated coconut on the Caribbean coast. Most Nicaraguans begin their day with gallo pinto. Gallo pinto is most usually served with "carne asada", a salad, fried cheese, plantains or maduros.
Many of Nicaragua's dishes include indigenous fruits and vegetables such as jocote, mango, papaya, tamarindo, pipian, banana, avocado, yuca, and herbs such as cilantro, oregano and achiote.
Traditional street food snacks found in Nicaragua include "quesillo", a thick tortilla with soft cheese and cream, "tajadas", deep-fried plantain chips, "maduros", sautéed ripe plantain, and "fresco", fresh juices such as hibiscus and tamarind commonly served in a plastic bag with a straw.
Nicaraguans have been known to eat guinea pigs, known as "cuy". Tapirs, iguanas, turtle eggs, armadillos and boas are also sometimes eaten, but because of extinction threats to these wild creatures, there are efforts to curb this custom.
For most Nicaraguans radio and TV are the main sources of news. There are more than 100 radio stations and several TV networks. Cable TV is available in most urban areas.
The Nicaraguan print media are varied and partisan, representing pro and anti-government positions. Publications include La Prensa, El Nuevo Diario, Confidencial, Hoy, and Mercurio. Online news publications include Confidencial and The Nicaragua Dispatch.
Baseball is the most popular sport in Nicaragua. Although some professional Nicaraguan baseball teams have recently folded, the country still enjoys a strong tradition of American-style baseball.
Baseball was introduced to Nicaragua during the 19th century. In the Caribbean coast, locals from Bluefields were taught how to play baseball in 1888 by Albert Addlesberg, a retailer from the United States. Baseball did not catch on in the Pacific coast until 1891 when a group of mostly college students from the United States formed "La Sociedad de Recreo" (Society of Recreation) where they played various sports, baseball being the most popular.
Nicaragua has had its share of MLB players, including shortstop Everth Cabrera and pitcher Vicente Padilla, but the most notable is Dennis Martínez, who was the first baseball player from Nicaragua to play in Major League Baseball. He became the first Latin-born pitcher to throw a perfect game, and the 13th in the major league history, when he played with the Montreal Expos against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in 1991.
Boxing is the second most popular sport in Nicaragua. The country has had world champions such as Alexis Argüello and Ricardo Mayorga as well as Román González. Recently, football has gained popularity. The Dennis Martínez National Stadium has served as a venue for both baseball and football. The first ever national football-only stadium in Managua, the Nicaragua National Football Stadium, was completed in 2011. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21362 |
History of Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the third least densely populated nation in Central America, with a demographic similar in size to its smaller neighbors. It is located about midway between Mexico and Colombia, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. Nicaragua ranges from the Caribbean Sea on the nation's east coast, and the Pacific Ocean bordering the west. Nicaragua also possesses a series of islands and cays located in the Caribbean Sea.
Nicaragua's name is derived from Nicarao, the name of the Nahuatl-speaking tribe which inhabited the shores of Lake Nicaragua before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and the Spanish word 'Agua', meaning water, due to the presence of the large Lake Cocibolca (or Lake Nicaragua) and Lake Managua (or Lake Xolotlán), as well as lagoons and rivers in the region.
The people migrated from Central Mexico after 500 CE.
Most of Nicaragua's Caribbean lowlands area was inhabited by tribes that migrated north from what is now Colombia. The various dialects and languages in this area are related to Chibcha, spoken by groups in northern Colombia. Eastern Nicaragua's population consisted of extended families or tribes. Food was obtained by hunting, fishing, and slash-and-burn agriculture. Crops like cassava and pineapples were the staple foods. The people of eastern Nicaragua appear to have traded with and been influenced by the native peoples of the Caribbean, as round thatched huts and canoes, both typical of the Caribbean, were common in eastern Nicaragua.
When the Spanish arrived in western Nicaragua in the early 16th century, they found three principal tribes, each with a different culture and language: the Niquirano, the Chorotegano, and the Chontal. Each one of these diverse groups occupied much of Nicaragua territory, with independent chieftains who ruled according to each group's laws and customs. Their weapons consisted of swords, lances, and arrows made out of wood. Monarchy was the form of government of most tribes; the supreme ruler was the chief, or cacique, who, surrounded by his princes, formed the nobility. Laws and regulations were disseminated by royal messengers who visited each township and assembled the inhabitants to give their chief's orders.
Occupying the territory between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Coast, the Niquirano were governed by chief Nicarao, or Nicaragua, a rich ruler who lived in Nicaraocali, now the city of Rivas. The Chorotegano lived in the central region. These two groups had intimate contact with the Spanish conquerors, paving the way for the racial mix of native and European stock now known as mestizos. The Chontal (which means foreigner in Nahua) occupied the central mountain region. This group was smaller than the other two, and it is not known when they first settled in Nicaragua.
In the west and highland areas where the Spanish settled, the indigenous population was almost completely wiped out by the rapid spread of new diseases brought by the Spaniards, for which the native population had no immunity, and the virtual enslavement of the remainder of the indigenous people. In the east, where the Europeans did not settle, most indigenous groups survived. The English introduced guns and ammunition to one of the local peoples, the Bawihka, who lived in northeast Nicaragua. The Bawihka later intermarried with runaway slaves from Britain's Caribbean possessions, and the resulting population, with its access to superior weapons, began to expand its territory and push other indigenous groups into the interior. This Afro-indigenous group became known to the Europeans as Miskito, and the displaced survivors of their expansionist activities were called the Sumu.
Nicaragua was first discovered by Europeans when Christopher Columbus invaded from Honduras and explored the eastern coast on his fourth voyage in 1502.
In 1522, the first Spaniards entered the region of what would become known as Nicaragua. Gil González Dávila with a small force reached its western portion after a trek through Costa Rica. He proceeded to explore the fertile western valleys and was impressed with the Indian civilization he found there. He and his small army gathered gold and baptized Indians along the way. Eventually, they became so imposed upon the Indians that they were attacked and nearly annihilated. González Dávila returned to his expedition's starting point in Panama and reported on his find, naming the area "Nicaragua". However, governor Pedrarias Dávila attempted to arrest him and confiscate his treasure. He was forced to flee to Santo Domingo to outfit another expedition.
Within a few months, Nicaragua was invaded by several Spanish forces, each led by a conquistador. González Dávila was authorized by royal decree and came in from the Caribbean coast of Honduras. Francisco Hernández de Córdoba at the command of the governor of Panama approached from Costa Rica. Pedro de Alvarado and Cristóbal de Olid at the command of Hernán Cortés, came from Guatemala through San Salvador and Honduras.
Córdoba apparently came with the intention of colonization. In 1524, he established permanent settlements in the region, including two of Nicaragua's principal towns: Granada on Lake Nicaragua and León west of Lake Managua. But he soon found it necessary to prepare defenses for the cities and go on the offensive against incursions by the other conquistadores.
The inevitable clash between the Spanish forces devastated the indigenous population. The Indian civilization was destroyed. The series of battles came to be known as "The War of the Captains". By 1529, the conquest of Nicaragua was complete. Several conquistadores came out winners, and some were executed or murdered. Pedrarias Dávila was one such winner. Although he lost control of Panama, he moved to Nicaragua and established his base in León.
The land was parceled out to the conquistadores. The area of most interest was the western portion. It included a wide, fertile valley with huge, freshwater lakes, a series of volcanoes, and volcanic lagoons. Many Indians were soon enslaved to develop and maintain "estates" there. Others were put to work in mines in northern Nicaragua, but the great majority were sent as slaves to Panama and Peru, for significant profit to the new landed aristocracy. Many Indians died through disease and neglect by the Spaniards, who controlled everything necessary for their subsistence.
In 1538, the Viceroyalty of New Spain was established, encompassing all of Mexico and Central America, except Panama. By 1570, the southern part of New Spain was designated the Captaincy General of Guatemala. The area of Nicaragua was divided into administrative "parties" with León as the capital. In 1610, the volcano known as Momotombo erupted, destroying the capital. It was rebuilt northwest of its original site.
The history of Nicaragua remained relatively static for three hundred years following the conquest. There were minor civil wars and rebellions, but they were quickly suppressed. The region was subject to frequent raids by Dutch, French and British pirates, with the city of Granada being invaded twice, in 1658 and 1660.
Nicaraguans were divided over Spanish monarchy and independence.In 1811,Nicolás García Jerez,a priest decided to make concession with pro-independence figures.He proposed holding elections for each barrios, in order to form a government junta. However, he soon declared himself as governor and threatened to punish rebellions by death.
Nicaraguans were divided over monarchy and independence. This division made Nicaragua the most active civil battleground in Latin America. The citizens of Leon were the first to act against the Spanish monarchy.They overthrew the local intendente Jose Salvador on December 13,1811.Granada followed leon's move with a vote of confidence, and demanded retirement of Spanish officials. The Spanish constitution of 1812 granted more independence to local administrations, and Garcia Perez was appointed as the intendente of Nicaragua.
Nicaragua became a part of the First Mexican Empire in 1821, was a part of the United Provinces of Central America in 1823, and then became an independent republic in its own right in 1838. The Mosquito Coast based on Bluefields on the Atlantic was claimed by the United Kingdom as a protectorate from 1655 to 1850. This area was designated to Honduras in 1859 and transferred to Nicaragua in 1860, though it remained autonomous until 1894.
Much of Nicaragua's politics since independence has been characterized by the rivalry between the liberal elite of León and the conservative elite of Granada. The rivalry often degenerated into civil war, particularly during the 1840s and 1850s. Initially invited by the Liberals in 1855 to join their struggle against the Conservatives, a United States adventurer named William Walker declared himself President in 1856 and made English the official language. (See Walker affair.) Honduras and other Central American countries united to drive him out of Nicaragua in 1857, after which a period of three decades of Conservative rule ensued. They were supported by the United States industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had originally sponsored Walker in Nicaragua. Walker was executed in neighboring Honduras on September 12, 1860. Three decades of Conservative rule followed.
Taking advantage of divisions within the conservative ranks, José Santos Zelaya led a liberal revolt that brought him to power in 1893. Zelaya ended the longstanding dispute with the United Kingdom over the Atlantic coast in 1894, and "reincorporated" the Mosquito Coast into Nicaragua.
Because of the strategic importance of Nicaragua in the hemisphere, the United States (US) made numerous military interventions to protect what it believed were its interests in the region:
In 1909, the United States provided political support to conservative-led forces rebelling against President Zelaya. U.S. motives included differences over the proposed Nicaragua Canal, Nicaragua's potential as a destabilizing influence in the region, and Zelaya's attempts to regulate foreign access to Nicaraguan natural resources. On November 17, 1909, two Americans were executed by order of Zelaya after the two men confessed to having laid a mine in the San Juan River with the intention of blowing up the "Diamante". The U.S. justified the intervention by claiming to protect U.S. lives and property. Zelaya resigned later that year.
In August 1912, the President of Nicaragua, Adolfo Díaz, requested the resignation of the Secretary of War, General Luis Mena. Concerned that Díaz was leading an insurrection, Mena fled Managua with his brother, the Chief of Police of Managua, and the insurrection escalated. When the U.S. Legation asked President Adolfo Díaz to ensure the safety of American citizens and property during the insurrection, Díaz replied that he could not and that... In consequence my Government desires that the Government of the United States guarantee with its forces security for the property of American Citizens in Nicaragua and that it extend its protection to all the inhabitants of the Republic.United States Marines were stationed in Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933, except for a nine-month period beginning in 1925. From 1910 to 1926, the conservative party ruled Nicaragua. The Chamorro family, which had long dominated the party, effectively controlled the government during that period. In 1914, the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was signed, giving the U.S. control over the proposed canal, as well as leases for potential canal defenses.
Following the evacuation of U.S. Immigrants in 1925, another violent conflict between liberals and conservatives known as the Constitutionalist War took place in 1926, when Liberal soldiers in the Caribbean port of Puerto Cabezas revolted against Conservative President Adolfo Díaz, recently installed as a result of United States pressure following a coup. The leader of this revolt, Gen. José María Moncada, declared that he supported the claim of exiled Liberal vice-president Juan Bautista Sacasa, who arrived in Puerto Cabezas in December, declaring himself president of a "constitutional" government. The U.S., using the threat of military intervention, forced the Liberal generals to agree to a cease-fire.
On May 4, 1927, representatives from the two warring factions signed the Pact of Espino Negro, negotiated by Henry Stimson, appointed by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge as a special envoy to Nicaragua. Under the terms of the accord, both sides agreed to disarm, Díaz would be allowed to finish his term and a new national army would be established, the Guardia Nacional (National Guard), with U.S. soldiers remaining in the country to supervise the upcoming November presidential election. Later, a battalion of the U.S army under the command of Gen. Logan Feland arrived to enforce the agreement.
The only Nicaraguan general to refuse to sign this pact ("el tratado del Espino Negro") was Augusto César Sandino. He took refuge in the northern mountains of Las Segovias. He led a sustained guerrilla war, first against the Conservative regime and subsequently against the U.S. Marines, who withdrew upon the establishment of a new Liberal government. When the Americans left in 1933 as a result of Sandino's guerrilla war and the Great Depression, they set up the Guardia Nacional (National Guard), a combined military and police force trained and equipped by the Americans, designed to be loyal to U.S. interests. Anastasio Somoza García, a close friend of the American government, was put in charge. He was one of the three rulers of the country, the others being Sandino and the mostly figurehead President Juan Bautista Sacasa.
Sandino and the newly elected Sacasa government reached an agreement by which he would cease his guerrilla activities in return for amnesty, a grant of land for an agricultural colony, and retention of an armed band of 100 men for a year.
The Nicaraguan Campaign Medal, a decoration of the United States Navy, was later issued for those American service members who had performed military duty in Nicaragua during the early years of the 20th century.
There followed a growing hostility between Sandino and Anastasio Somoza Garcia, chief of the national guard, which prompted Somoza to order the assassination of Sandino. Fearing future armed opposition from Sandino, Somoza invited him to a meeting in Managua, where Sandino was assassinated on February 21 of 1934 by the National Guard. Following the death of Sandino was the execution of hundreds of men, women, and children.
With Sandino's death and using his troops, the National Guard, to force Sacasa to resign, Somoza had taken control of the country in 1937 and destroyed any potential armed resistance. The Somoza family would rule until 1979.
The earliest opposition to Somoza came from the educated middle class and the normally conservative wealthy, such as Pedro Joaquín Chamorro. On September 21, 1956, a Nicaraguan poet, Rigoberto López Pérez, snuck into a party attended by the President and shot him in the chest. In his memoirs "Nicaragua Betrayed", Anastasio Debayle (Somoza's son) claims that Chamorro had knowledge of the assassination plot. While the assassin quickly died in a hail of gunfire, Somoza himself died a few days later, in an American hospital in the Panama Canal Zone.
Divisions within the Conservative Party in the 1932 elections paved the way for the Liberal Juan Bautista Sacasa to assume power. This initiated an inherently weak presidency—hardly a formidable obstacle to Somoza as he set about building his personal influence over Congress and the ruling Liberal Party. President Sacasa's popularity decreased as a result of his poor leadership and accusations of fraud in the 1934 congressional elections. Somoza García benefited from Sacasa's diminishing power, and at the same time brought together the National Guard and the Liberal Party (Partido Liberal – PL) in order to win the presidential elections in 1936. Somoza Garcia also cultivated support from former presidents Moncada and Chamorro while consolidating control within the Liberal Party.
Early in 1936, Somoza openly confronted President Sacasa by using military force to displace local government officials loyal to the president and replacing them with close associates. Somoza García's increasing military confrontation led to Sacasa's resignation on June 6, 1936. The Congress appointed Carlos Brenes Jarquín, a Somoza García associate, as interim president and postponed presidential elections until December. In November, Somoza resigned as chief director of the National Guard, thus complying with constitutional requirements for eligibility to run for the presidency. The Liberal Nationalist Party (Partido Liberal Nacionalista – PLN) was established with support from a faction of the Conservative Party to support Somoza Garcia's candidacy. Somoza was elected president in the December election by the remarkable margin of 107,201 votes to 108. On January 1, 1937, he resumed control of the National Guard, combining the roles of president and chief director of the military.
After Somoza's win in the December 1936 presidential elections, he proceeded to consolidate his power within the National Guard, while at the same time dividing his political opponents. Family members and close associates were given key positions within the government and the military. The Somoza family also controlled the PLN, which in turn controlled the legislature and judicial system, thus giving Somoza absolute power over every sphere of Nicaraguan politics. Nominal political opposition was allowed as long as it did not threaten the ruling elite. Somoza Garcia's National Guard repressed serious political opposition and antigovernment demonstrations. The institutional power of the National Guard grew in most government owned enterprises, until eventually it controlled the national radio and telegraph networks, the postal and immigration services, health services, the internal revenue service, and the national railroads.
In less than two years after his election, Somoza Garcia, defying the Conservative Party, declared his intention to stay in power beyond his presidential term. Thus, in 1938, Somoza Garcia named a Constituent Assembly that gave the president extensive power and elected him for another eight-year term. A Constituent Assembly, extension of the presidential term from four years to six years, and clauses empowering the president to decree laws relating to the National Guard without consulting Congress, ensured Somoza's absolute control over the state and military. Control over electoral and legislative machinery provided the basis for a permanent dictatorship.
Nicaragua declared war on Germany during World War II. No troops were sent to the war but Somoza used the crisis to seize attractive properties held by German-Nicaraguans, the best known of which was the Montelimar estate. Today it is operated as a privately owned luxury resort and casino. Nicaragua was the first country to ratify the UN Charter.
Somoza García was succeeded by his two sons. Luis Somoza Debayle became President (29 September 1956 to 1 May 1963), and was effectively dictator of the country until his death, but his brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle held great power as head of the National Guard. A graduate of West Point, Anastasio was even closer to the Americans than his father and was said to speak better English than Spanish. Luis Somoza, remembered by some for being moderate, was in power for only a few years before dying of a heart attack.
The revolutionaries opposing the Somozas were greatly strengthened by the Cuban Revolution. The revolution provided both hope and inspiration to the insurgents, as well as weapons and funding. Operating from Costa Rica they formed the "Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional" (FSLN) and came to be known as Sandinistas. They took their name from the still legendary Augusto César Sandino. With aid from the United States, the Somoza brothers succeeded in defeating the guerrillas.
Then came president, Rene Schick, whom most Nicaraguans viewed "as nothing more than a puppet of the Somozas". President Luis Somoza Debayle, under pressure from the rebels, announced that national elections would be held in February 1963. Election reforms had been made that established secret ballots and a supervising electoral commission, although the Conservative Party never elected any members of the commission. Somoza had also introduced a constitutional amendment that would prevent family members from succeeding him. The opposition was extremely skeptical of Somoza's promises, and ultimately control of the country passed to Anastasio Somoza Debayle.
In 1961, a young student, Carlos Fonseca, turned back to the historical figure of Sandino, and founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). The FSLN was a tiny party throughout most of the 1960s, but Somoza's hatred of it, and his repressive treatment of anyone suspected as a Sandinista sympathizer, gave many ordinary Nicaraguans the idea that the Sandinistas were much stronger than was the case.
Somoza acquired monopolies in industries that were key to rebuilding the nation, not allowing other members of the upper class to share the profits that would result from the reborn economic activity. This ultimately weakened Somoza since even the economic elite were reluctant to support him. In the 1950s a synthetic brand of cotton, one of Nicaragua's economic pillars of the epoch, was developed. This caused the price of cotton to decrease, placing the economy in great trouble.
Landless peasants worked on large plantations during short harvest seasons and received wages as low as US$1 per day. In desperation, many of these poor laborers migrated east, seeking their own land near the rain forest. In 1968, the World Health Organization found that polluted water led to 17% of all Nicaraguan deaths.
From 1945 to 1960, the U.S.-owned Nicaraguan Long Leaf Pine Company (NIPCO) directly paid the Somoza family millions of dollars in exchange for favorable benefits to the company, such as not having to re-forest clear cut areas. By 1961, NIPCO had cut all of the commercially viable coastal pines in northeast Nicaragua. Expansion of cotton plantations in the 1950s and cattle ranches in the 1960s forced peasant families from the areas they had farmed for decades. Some were forced by the National Guard to relocate into colonization projects in the rainforest.
Some moved eastward into the hills, where they cleared forests in order to plant crops. Soil erosion forced them, however, to abandon their land and move deeper into the rainforest. Cattle ranchers then claimed the abandoned land. Peasants and ranchers continued this movement deep into the rain forest. By the early 1970s, Nicaragua had become the United States' top beef supplier. The beef supported fast-food chains and pet food production. President Anastasio Somoza Debayle owned the largest slaughterhouse in Nicaragua, as well as six meat-packing plants in Miami, Florida.
Also in the 1950s and 1960s, 40% of all U.S. pesticide exports went to Central America. Nicaragua and its neighbors widely used compounds banned in the U.S., such as DDT, endrin, dieldrin and lindane. In 1977 a study revealed that mothers living in León had 45 times more DDT in their breast milk than the World Health Organization safe level.
A major turning point was the December 1972 Managua earthquake that killed over 10,000 people and left 500,000 homeless. A great deal of international relief was sent to the nation. Some Nicaraguan historians point to the earthquake that devastated Managua as the final 'nail in the coffin' for Somoza; some 90% of the city was destroyed. Somoza's brazen corruption, mishandling of relief (which prompted Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente to fly to Managua on December 31, 1972, to try to help - a flight that ended in his death) and refusal to rebuild Managua, flooded the ranks of the Sandinistas with young disaffected Nicaraguans who no longer had anything to lose. The Sandinistas received some support from Cuba and the Soviet Union.
On 27 December 1974, a group of nine FSLN guerrillas invaded a party at the home of a former Minister of Agriculture, killing him and three guards in the process of taking several leading government officials and prominent businessmen hostage. In return for the hostages they succeeded in getting the government to pay US$2 million ransom, broadcast an FSLN declaration on the radio and in the opposition newspaper "La Prensa", release fourteen FSLN members from jail, and fly the raiders and the released FSLN members to Cuba. Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo acted as an intermediary during the negotiations.
The incident humiliated the government and greatly enhanced the prestige of the FSLN. Somoza, in his memoirs, refers to this action as the beginning of a sharp escalation in terms of Sandinista attacks and government reprisals. Martial law was declared in 1975, and the National Guard began to raze villages in the jungle suspected of supporting the rebels. Human rights groups condemned the actions, but U.S. President Gerald Ford refused to break the U.S. alliance with Somoza.
The country tipped into full-scale civil war with the 1978 murder of Pedro Chamorro, who had opposed violence against the regime. 50,000 turned out for his funeral. It was assumed by many that Somoza had ordered his assassination; suspected plotters included the dictator's son, “El Chiguin”, Somoza's President of Housing, Cornelio Hueck, Somoza's Attorney General, and Pedro Ramos, a close Cuban ally who commercialized in illegal blood plasma. A nationwide strike, including labour and private businesses, commenced in protest, demanding an end to the dictatorship. At the same time, the Sandinistas stepped up their rate of guerrilla activity.
Several towns, assisted by Sandinista guerrillas, expelled their National Guard units. Somoza responded with increasing violence and repression. When León became the first city in Nicaragua to fall to the Sandinistas, he responded with aerial bombardment, famously ordering the air force to "bomb everything that moves until it stops moving."
The U.S. media grew increasingly unfavorable in its reporting on the situation in Nicaragua. Realizing that the Somoza dictatorship was unsustainable, the Carter administration attempted to force him to leave Nicaragua. Somoza refused and sought to maintain his power through the National Guard. At that point, the U.S. ambassador sent a cable to the White House saying it would be "ill-advised" to call off the bombing, because such an action would help the Sandinistas gain power. When ABC reporter Bill Stewart was executed by the National Guard, and graphic film of the killing was broadcast on American TV, the American public became more hostile to Somoza. In the end, President Carter refused Somoza further U.S. military aid, believing that the repressive nature of the government had led to popular support for the Sandinista uprising.
In May 1979, another general strike was called, and the FSLN launched a major push to take control of the country. By mid July they had Somoza and the National Guard isolated in Managua.
As Nicaragua's government collapsed and the National Guard commanders escaped with Somoza, the U.S. first promised and then denied them exile in Miami. The rebels advanced on the capital victoriously. On July 19, 1979, a new government was proclaimed under a provisional junta headed by 33-year-old Daniel Ortega and including Violeta Chamorro, Pedro's widow. Somoza abandoned the country and eventually ended up in Paraguay, where he was assassinated in September 1980, allegedly by members of the 'Argentinian Revolutionary Workers' Party.
The United Nations estimated material damage from the revolutionary war to be US$480 million. The FSLN took over a nation plagued by malnutrition, disease, and pesticide contaminations. Lake Managua was considered dead because of decades of pesticide runoff, toxic chemical pollution from lakeside factories, and untreated sewage. Soil erosion and dust storms were also a problem in Nicaragua at the time due to deforestation. To tackle these crises, the FSLN created the Nicaraguan Institute of Natural Resources and the Environment. It was created 10 years after the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 in the United States.
United States President Jimmy Carter, who had cut off aid to Somoza's Nicaragua the previous year, initially chose to give aid to the new government, but the amount of aid lessened towards the end of his presidency and was completely cut off by President Reagan due to evidence of Sandinista support to FMLN rebels in El Salvador. Prior to U.S. aid withdrawal, Bayardo Arce, an FSLN politician, had stated that "Nicaragua is the only country building its socialism with the dollars of imperialism." The Reagan administration responded by imposing economic sanctions and a trade embargo against Nicaragua (a tactic frequently employed by the U.S., in countries such as Iraq, Iran, Libya and Venezuela, amongst others).
The Sandinistas were victorious in the national election of November 4, 1984, gathering 67% of the vote. The election was certified as "free and fair" by the majority of international observers. The Nicaraguan political opposition and the Reagan administration claimed political restrictions were placed on the opposition by the government. The primary opposition candidate was the U.S.-backed Arturo Cruz, who succumbed to pressure from the United States government not to take part in the 1984 elections; later US officials were quoted as saying, "the (Reagan) Administration never contemplated letting Cruz stay in the race, because then the Sandinistas could justifiably claim that the elections were legitimate." Other opposition parties such as the Conservative Democratic Party and the Independent Liberal party, were both free to denounce the Sandinista government and participate in the elections. Ortega was overwhelmingly elected President in 1984, but the long years of war had decimated Nicaragua's economy.
American support for the long rule of the Somoza family had soured relations, and the FSLN government was committed to a Marxist ideology, with many of the leading Sandinista continuing long-standing relationships with the Soviet Union and Cuba. U.S. President Carter initially hoped that continued American aid to the new government would keep the Sandinistas from forming a doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist government aligned with the Soviet bloc, but the Carter administration allotted the Sandinistas minimal funding to start them off, and the Sandinistas resolutely turned away from the U.S., investing Cuban and East European assistance into a new army of 75,000. The buildup included T-55 heavy tanks, heavy artillery and HIND attack helicopters, an unprecedented military buildup that made the Sandinista Army more powerful than all of its neighbors combined. The Soviets also pledged to provide MiG 21 fighters, but, to the annoyance of the Sandinistas, the aircraft were never delivered.
Managua became the second capital in the hemisphere after Cuba to host an embassy from North Korea. Ironically, in light of the tensions between their Soviet sponsors and China, the Sandinistas allowed Taiwan to retain its mission and refused to allow a Chinese mission to enter the country.
After a brief period of sanctions, Nicaragua was faced with a collapsing economy (see: Economy of Nicaragua). The U.S. trained and illegally financed the Contras, which were a counter-revolutionary group, in neighboring Honduras to impose an American-friendly government and militarily oppose the current government and the Nicaraguan army. The Contras, groups of Somoza's National Guard who had fled to Honduras, were organized, trained and funded by CIA elements involved in cocaine trafficking in Central America. The Contra chain of command included some ex-National Guardsmen, including Contra founder and commander Enrique Bermúdez and others. One prominent Contra commander, however, was ex-Sandinista hero Edén Pastora, aka "Commadante Zero," who rejected the Leninist orientation of his fellow comandantes. The Contras operated out of camps in the neighboring countries of Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. They engaged in a systematic campaign of terror amongst the rural Nicaraguan population in order to disrupt the social reform projects of the Sandinistas. Several Historians have criticized the contra campaign and the Reagan Administration's support for it, citing the brutality and numerous human rights violations of the Contras. LaRamee and Polakoff, for example, describe the destruction of health centers, schools and cooperatives at the hands of the rebels. Others have contended that large scale murder, rape and torture also occurred in Contra dominated areas. The US also sought to place economic pressure on the Sandinistas, and the Reagan administration imposed a full trade embargo.
On June 27, 1986, the International Court of Justice in the “Case Concerning the Military and Paramilitary Activities In and Against Nicaragua (NICARAGUA v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)” acknowledged the nature of the conflict in Nicaragua as one of aggression directed by a foreign power against Nicaragua. In a twelve to three vote, the Court's summary judgment against the United States stated that by:
...training, arming, equipping, financing and supplying the contra forces or otherwise encouraging, supporting and aiding military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua, the United States has acted, against the Republic of Nicaragua, in breach of its obligation under customary international law not to intervene in the affairs of another State.
The US support for the Contras sparked widespread criticism from many quarters around the globe including within Nicaragua and the U.S., Democrats in Congress included. When Congress moved to cut off aid to the Contras, Reagan aide Col. Oliver North concocted a clandestine and ingenious plan to continue funding the Contras terrorists see: Iran-Contra Affair.
The key large-scale programs of the Sandinistas included a massive National Literacy Crusade (March–August 1980), which received international recognition for their gains in literacy, health care, education, childcare, unions, and land reform.
With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, relations between the United States and the Sandinista regime became an active front in the Cold War. The Reagan administration insisted on the "Communist threat" posed by the Sandinistas—reacting particularly to the support provided to the Sandinistas by Cuban president Fidel Castro, by the Sandinistas' close military relations with the Soviets and Cubans, but also furthering the Reagan administration's desire to protect U.S. interests in the region, which were threatened by the policies of the Sandinista government. The United States quickly suspended aid to Nicaragua and expanded the supply of arms and training to the Contra in neighbouring Honduras, as well as allied groups based to the south in Costa Rica. President Reagan called the Contras "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers."
American pressure against the government escalated throughout 1983 and 1984; the Contras began a campaign of economic sabotage and disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua's Port of Corinto, an action condemned by the International Court of Justice as illegal. The U.S. refused to pay restitution and claimed that the ICJ was not competent to judge the case. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in order to pressure the U.S. to pay the fine. Although only Israel and El Salvador, which was receiving massive amounts of military aid to fight its own guerrilla insurgency, voted with the U.S., the money still has not been paid. Jeane Kirkpatrick, the American ambassador to the UN under Reagan, criticized the Court as a "semi-judicial" body. despite the fact that the U.S. was legally bound by the court's decision, had signed the relevant treaty, and had made use of the court in other cases. On May 1, 1985, Reagan issued an executive order that imposed a full economic embargo on Nicaragua, which remained in force until March 1990.
Daniel Ortega was overwhelmingly elected President in 1984. The November 1984 elections were certified "fair" by some Western NGOs allowed into Nicaragua. Three right-wing opposition parties (Coordinadora Democrática Nicaragüense) boycotted the election, claiming that the Sandinistas were manipulating the media and that the elections might not be fair. The years of war and Nicaragua's economic situation had taken an unparalleled toll on Nicaragua. The US Government offered a political amnesty program that gave visas to any Nicaraguan without question. Nicaraguans (particularly those who could afford passage or had familial connections within the US) left the country in droves. This was the largest emigration ever seen in the history of Nicaragua.
"In 1984, controversy over U.S. assistance to the opponents of the Nicaraguan government (the anti-Sandinista guerrillas known as the “contras”) led to a prohibition on such assistance in a continuing appropriations bill." [Congressional Research Service, Congressional Use of Funding Cutoffs Since 1970 Involving U.S. Military Forces and Overseas Deployments, January 10, 2001, pg. 6.]
Nicaragua won a historic case against the U.S. at the International Court of Justice in 1986 (see "Nicaragua v. United States"), and the U.S. was ordered to pay Nicaragua some $12 billion in reparations for violating Nicaraguan sovereignty by engaging in attacks against it. The United States withdrew its acceptance of the Court and argued it had no authority in matters of sovereign state relations. In addition, the U.S. noted that Cuba and the Soviet Union also unfairly committed exactly the same alleged violation against Nicaraguan sovereignty by providing training and ammunition to Sandinistas while Somoza was in power. The U.S. government, standing on this arbitrary principle, refused to pay restitutions, even when a United Nations General Assembly resolution on the matter had been passed.
In 1982, legislation had been enacted by US Congress to prohibit further direct aid to the Contras. Reagan's officials attempted to illegally supply them out of the proceeds of arms sales to Iran and third party donations, triggering the Iran-Contra Affair of 1986–87. Mutual exhaustion, Sandinista fears of Contra unity and military success, and mediation by other regional governments led to the Sapoa ceasefire between the Sandinistas and the Contras on March 23, 1988. Subsequent agreements were designed to reintegrate the Contras and their supporters into Nicaraguan society in preparation for general elections.
The FSLN lost to the National Opposition Union by 14 points in elections on February 25, 1990. ABC news had been predicting a 16-point Sandinista victory. At the beginning of Violeta Chamorro's nearly 7 years in office the Sandinistas still largely controlled the army, labor unions, and courts. Her government made moves towards consolidating democratic institutions, advancing national reconciliation, stabilizing the economy, privatizing state-owned enterprises.
In February 1995, Sandinista Popular Army Cmdr. Gen. Humberto Ortega was replaced, in accordance with a new military code enacted in 1994 by Gen. Joaquín Cuadra, who espoused a policy of greater professionalism in the renamed Army of Nicaragua. A new police organization law, passed by the National Assembly and signed into law in August 1996, further codified both civilian control of the police and the professionalization of that law enforcement agency.
The October 20, 1996 presidential, legislative, and mayoral elections also were judged free and fair by international observers and by the groundbreaking national electoral observer group Ética y Transparencia (Ethics and Transparency) despite a number of irregularities, due largely to logistical difficulties and a baroquely complicated electoral law. This time Nicaraguans elected former-Managua Mayor Arnoldo Alemán, leader of the center-right Liberal Alliance, which later consolidated into the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). Alemán continued to privatize the economy and promote infrastructure projects such as highways, bridges, and wells, assisted in large part by foreign assistance received after Hurricane Mitch hit Nicaragua in October 1998. His administration was besieged by charges of corruption, resulting in the resignation of several key officials in mid-2000. Alemán himself was subsequently convicted of official corruption and sentenced to twenty years in jail.
In November 2000, Nicaragua held municipal elections. Alemán's PLC won a majority of the overall mayoral races. The FSLN fared considerably better in larger urban areas, winning a significant number of departmental capitals including Managua.
Presidential and legislative elections were held on November 4, 2001, the country's fourth free and fair election since 1990. Enrique Bolaños of the PLC was elected to the Nicaraguan presidency, defeating the FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega, by 14 percentage points. The elections were characterized by international observers as free, fair and peaceful. Bolaños was inaugurated on January 10, 2002.
In November 2006 the presidential election was won by Daniel Ortega, returned to power after 16 years in opposition. International observers, including the Carter Center, judged the election to be free and fair.
The country partly rebuilt its economy during the 1990s, but was hit hard by Hurricane Mitch at the end of October 1998, almost exactly a decade after the similarly destructive Hurricane Joan and again in 2007 it was hit by Hurricane Felix, a category 5 hurricane. Ten years later, Hurricane Nate also hit Nicaragua and destroyed much of the infrastructure in the countryside, such as communication masts.
In the Nicaraguan general election, 2006 Daniel Ortega gained some 38% of the vote in the single round, thus returning to power for his second term overall. The constitution at the time included a ban on immediate reelection of an incumbent president and on any one individual serving more than two terms as president. That notwithstanding, Ortega ran again and won the Nicaraguan general election, 2011 amid accusations of fraud by losing candidate Fabio Gadea Mantilla. Economic growth during most of those two terms was strong and Tourism in Nicaragua grew especially strongly, in part thanks to the perception of Nicaragua as a safe country to visit. The Nicaraguan general election, 2016 saw a partial electoral boycott by the opposition and again accusations of electoral fraud as well, as accusations that the abstention rate was higher than the one officially published by the government. The Nicaraguan Canal was an issue of public debate and some controversy. Starting 19 April 2018, criticism of the Ortega government over the canal, forest fires in the Indio Maíz nature reserve, and a planned reform of the social security system led to the 2018–2020 Nicaraguan protests to which the government responded with violence and harsh repression.
General: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21363 |
Geography of Nicaragua
Nicaragua (officially the Republic of Nicaragua ) is a country in Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras. Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America in square kilometers.
Nicaragua covers a total area of 130,370 square kilometers (119,990 square kilometers of which is land area) and contains a variety of climates and terrains. The country's physical geography divides it into three major zones: the Pacific lowlands, the wetter, cooler central highlands, and the Caribbean lowlands.
The natural regions are the following:
The Pacific lowlands extend about 75 kilometers inland from the Pacific coast. Most of the area is flat, except for a line of young volcanoes, many of which are still active, running between the Golfo de Fonseca and Lago de Nicaragua. These peaks lie just west of a large crustal fracture or structural rift that forms a long, narrow depression passing southeast across the isthmus from the Golfo de Fonseca to the Río San Juan.
The rift is occupied in part by the largest freshwater lakes in Central America: Lago de Managua (56 kilometers long and 24 kilometers wide) and Lago de Nicaragua (about 160 kilometers long and 75 kilometers wide). These two lakes are joined by the Río Tipitapa, which flows south into Lago de Nicaragua. Lago de Nicaragua in turn drains into the Río San Juan (the boundary between Nicaragua and Costa Rica), which flows through the southern part of the rift lowlands to the Caribbean Sea.
The valley of the Río San Juan forms a natural passageway close to sea level across the Nicaraguan isthmus from the Caribbean Sea to Lago de Nicaragua and the rift. From the southwest edge of Lago de Nicaragua, it is only nineteen kilometers to the Pacific Ocean. This route was considered as a possible alternative to the Panama Canal at various times in the past.
Surrounding the lakes and extending northwest of them along the rift valley to the Golfo de Fonseca are fertile lowland plains highly enriched with volcanic ash from nearby volcanoes. These lowlands are densely populated and well cultivated. More directly west of the lake region is a narrow line of ash-covered hills and volcanoes that separate the lakes from the Pacific Ocean. This line is highest in the central portion near the cities of León and Managua.
Because Western Nicaragua is located where two major tectonic plates collide, it is subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Although periodic volcanic eruptions have caused agricultural damage from fumes and ash, earthquakes have been by far more destructive to life and property. Hundreds of shocks occur each year, some of which cause severe damage. The capital city of Managua was virtually destroyed in 1931 and again in 1972.
The triangular area known as the central highlands lies northeast and east of the Pacific lowlands. These rugged mountains are composed of ridges 900 to 1,809 meters high and a mixed forest of oak and pine alternating with deep valleys that drain primarily toward the Caribbean. Very few significant streams flow west to the Pacific Ocean. Those that do are steep, short, and flow intermittently.
The relatively dry western slopes of the central highlands, protected by the ridges of the highlands from the moist winds of the Caribbean, have drawn farmers from the Pacific region since colonial times. The eastern slopes are among the wettest places in the world, being too wet for agriculture, and have an economy dominated by timber extraction.
The eastern Caribbean lowlands of Nicaragua form the extensive and exaggerated (occupying more than 50 percent of national territory) and still sparsely settled lowland area known as the Costa de Mosquitos (Miskito Coast). The Caribbean lowlands are sometimes considered synonymous with the former department of Zelaya, which is now divided into the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (Región Autónoma de la Costa Caribe Norte, RACCN) and the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (Región Autónoma de la Costa Caribe Sur, RACCS) and constitutes about 45 percent of Nicaragua's territory.
These lowlands are a hot, humid area that includes coastal plains, the eastern spurs of the central highlands, and the lower portion of the Río San Juan basin. The soil is generally leached and infertile. Pine and palm savannas predominate as far south as the Laguna de Perlas. Tropical rain forests are characteristic from the Laguna de Perlas to the Río San Juan, in the interior west of the savannas, and along rivers through the savannas.
Fertile soils are found only along the natural levees and narrow floodplains of the numerous rivers, including the Escondido, the Río Grande de Matagalpa, the Prinzapolka, and the Coco, and along the many lesser streams that rise in the central highlands and cross the region en route to the complex of shallow bays, lagoons, and salt marshes of the Caribbean coast.
Temperature varies little with the seasons in Nicaragua and is largely a function of elevation. The "hot land" is characteristic of the foothills and lowlands from sea level to about of elevation. At night temperatures drop to most of the year.
The tierra templada, or the "temperate land," is characteristic of most of the central highlands, where elevations range between .The "cold land" at elevations above , is found only on and near the highest peaks of the central highlands. Daytime averages in this region are , with nighttime lows below .
Rainfall varies greatly in Nicaragua. The Caribbean lowlands are the wettest section of Central America, receiving between of rain annually. The western slopes of the central highlands and the Pacific lowlands receive considerably less annual rainfall, being protected from moisture-laden Caribbean trade winds by the peaks of the central highlands.
Mean annual precipitation for the rift valley and western slopes of the highlands ranges from . Rainfall is seasonal—May through October is the rainy season, and December through April is the driest period.
During the rainy season, Eastern Nicaragua is subject to heavy flooding along the upper and middle reaches of all major rivers. Near the coast, where river courses widen and river banks and natural levees are low, floodwaters spill over onto the floodplains until large sections of the lowlands become continuous sheets of water. River bank agricultural plots are often heavily damaged, and considerable numbers of savanna animals die during these floods.
The coast is also subject to destructive tropical storms and hurricanes, particularly from July through October. The high winds and floods, accompanying these storms often cause considerable destruction of property. In addition, heavy rains (called papagayo storms) accompanying the passage of a cold front or a low-pressure area may sweep from the north through both eastern and western Nicaragua (particularly the rift valley) from November through March.
Hurricanes or heavy rains in the central highlands where agriculture has destroyed much of the natural vegetation also cause considerable crop damage and soil erosion. In 1988 Hurricane Joan forced hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans to flee their homes and caused more than US$1 billion in damage, most of it along the Caribbean coast.
Area:
"total:"
130,370 km2
"land:"
119,254 km2
"water:"
10,380 km2
Extreme points
Northernmost point: North of Liwa Sirpe
Southernmost point: Trinidad, Río San Juan
Westernmost point: Pacific coast at Gulf of Fonseca, Chinandega Department
Easternmost point: Miskito Cays archipelago, North Caribbean Coast Autonomous RegionLowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 mHighest point: Mogotón 2,438 m
Land use:
"arable land:"
14.57%
"permanent crops:"
1.76%
"other:"
83.66% (2011.)
Irrigated land:
942.4 km2 (2011)
"Total renewable water resources:"'
196.6 km3 (2011)
Maritime claims
"Contiguous zone":
"Territorial sea":
"Exclusive economic zone":
Nicaragua is subject to destructive earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and occasionally severe hurricanes. It currently faces deforestation, soil erosion, and water pollution. It is a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, the Nuclear Test Ban, and the Ozone Layer Protection, and has signed but not ratified the Law of the Sea. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21364 |
Demographics of Nicaragua
According to , Nicaragua has a population of . Whites and Mestizos/Castizos (a mix of 69% European ancestry, 20% Native American ancestry and 11% Northwest African ancestry) combined make up about 86% of the population. The remainder of the Nicaraguan population is 9% Afro-Latino, and 5% Native American.
Prior to the Sandinista revolution of 1979 since most of the migration during the years that followed were primarily of upper or middle-class Nicaraguans, a group primarily made up of whites. A growing number of these expats have returned, while many continue to live abroad.
The 42.5% of the population live below to the poverty line, The general poverty rate is estimated of 47.3%, although much of the population lives in the lower middle class because of low salaries and a minimal amount of PIB (US$1000–3000).
The most populous city in the country is the capital city, Managua, with a population of 1.2 million (2005). As of 2005, over 4.4 million inhabitants live in the Pacific, Central and North regions. 2.7 million inhabitants reside in the Pacific region alone, while inhabitants in the Caribbean region only reach an estimated 700,000.
The Census Bureau in Nicaragua is the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC). The institution is in charge of completing censuses and surveys. INEC ran its first census in 1906, the last census was taken in 2005, it was the eighth to date.
According to the total population was in , compared to only 1,295,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 34.5%, 60.9% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 4.6% was 65 years or older
.
Structure of the population (01.07.2009) (estimates):
Ninety percent of Nicaraguans live in the Pacific lowlands and the adjacent interior highlands. The population is 54% urban. The most populous city in Nicaragua is the capital city, Managua, with a population of 1.2 million (2005). As of 2005, over 4.4 million inhabitants live in the Pacific, Central and North regions of the country. There are 2.7 million residents in the Pacific region. The Caribbean region has an estimated 700,000 residents. In addition, many Nicaraguans live abroad.
Registration of vital events is in Nicaragua not complete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
Births and deaths
In the 19th century, there had been a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was also largely assimilated culturally into the mestizo majority. Primarily in the 19th century, Nicaragua saw several waves of immigration from other European nations. In particular the northern cities of Estelí, Jinotega and Matagalpa have significant fourth generation Germans. Most of Nicaragua's population lives in the western region of the country in the departments of Managua, Granada and Léon.
According to the 2005 census 443,847 (8.6%) residents consider themselves to belong to an indigenous people or to an ethnic community. The remaining majority of the Nicaraguan population (91.6%) are deemed mestizo and white, with the majority of these being of Spanish, with some German, Italian, Portuguese and French ancestry. Mestizos and whites mainly reside in the western region of the country.
Possibly also a part of the black or Afro-Nicaraguan population, which mainly resides on the country's sparsely populated Caribbean (or Atlantic) coast, is included in the majority population which does not consider itself to belong to an ethnic community. In the 2005 census, there were only 19,890 Creoles (0.4% of the total population). The Creole population is mostly of West Indian (Antillean) origin, the descendants of indentured laborers brought mostly from Jamaica when the region was a British protectorate.
The Garifuna, a people of mixed Carib, Angolan, Congolese and Arawak descent, numbered 3,271 in 2005 (0.1%). 112,253 people considered themselves "Mestizo de la Costa Caribe" (mestizo of the Caribbean coast). In addition to the inhabitants who declared themselves Indigenous or Ethnic community, 13,740 answered "Other". Another 47,473 responded "Not Sure" and an additional 19,460 responded "Ignore".
The Native American population, the unmixed descendants of the country's indigenous inhabitants, numbered 227,760 (4.4% of the total population) in 2005. Nicaragua's pre-Columbian consisted of many indigenous groups. In the western region, the Nahua people (also known as the Pipil-Nicaraos) were present along with other groups such as the Chorotega people.
The central region and the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua were inhabited by indigenous peoples who were mostly Chibcha-related groups that had migrated from South America, primarily present day Colombia and Venezuela. These groups include the Miskitos (120,817 people), Matagalpa (15,240 people), Ramas (4,185 people), Sumos (9,756 people) and Ulwa (698 people). Other indigenous peoples include the Subtiaba (19,949 people) and modern-day Chorotegas who are also known as the Mangue (46,002 people).
In the 19th century, there was still a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was largely assimilated culturally into the mestizo majority. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the department of Zelaya – consisting of the eastern half of the country — into two autonomous regions and granted the black and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the Republic.
Relative to its overall population, Nicaragua has never experienced any large scale wave of immigrants. The total number of immigrants to Nicaragua, both originating from other Latin American countries and all other countries, never surpassed 1% of its total population prior to 1995. The 2005 census showed the foreign-born population at 1.2%, having risen 0.06% in 10 years. However, in the 19th century, Nicaragua received immigrants from Europe, who established many agricultural businesses such as coffee and sugar cane plantations, and also newspapers, hotels and banks.
During the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Civil War, thousands of Nicaraguans left the country. After the 1990 Nicaraguan Elections some people returned, but many more emigrated during the rest of the decade. In 1998, the Hurricane Mitch killed almost 4,000 people in the country and destroyed much of the Nicaraguan economy, as a result thousands of Nicaraguans received the TPS for emigrate to the United States as "refugees". In recent years, many Nicaraguans had left the country to escape poverty and unemployment.
Nicaraguan emigration is a recent process. During the 1990–2004 period, more than 800,000 Nicaraguans left the country, compared to 100,000 during the 1970–1989 period. According to the World Bank, in 2005 there were 683,520 Nicaraguans living outside Nicaragua legally. If those who are undocumented are counted, some sources estimate as many as 1,500,000 Nicaraguans living abroad by the end of 2005. Nicaraguans are the third largest community of Central Americans living abroad, after Guatemalans and Salvadorans. Nicaragua is also the second country in Central America by percentage of population living abroad.
Remittances to Nicaragua represent about 15% of the country's GDP. In 2008 Nicaragua received close to one billion dollars in remittances; an increase from the $750,000,000 received in 2007, according to the World Bank
The official language of Nicaragua is Spanish, or Nicañol as Nicaraguan Spanish is sometimes referred to, and is spoken by the country's population. In Nicaragua the Voseo form is common, just as in other countries in Central and South America like Honduras, Argentina, and Uruguay. Spanish has many different dialects spoken throughout Latin America, Central American Spanish is the dialect spoken in Nicaragua.
Some other characteristics of Nicaraguan phonology include:
Nicaraguans on the Caribbean coast speak their indigenous languages and also English. The indigenous peoples of the east who use their original language tend to also speak Spanish and/or English, the main languages being Miskito language, Sumo language, and Rama language. Creole languages are also present in the Caribbean coast, Nicaragua Creole English has 30,000 speakers.
Nicaragua has many minority groups. Many ethnic groups in Nicaragua, such as the Chinese Nicaraguans and Palestinian Nicaraguans, have maintained their ancestral languages while also speaking Spanish and/or English. Minority languages include Chinese, Arabic, German, Italian among others. Nicaragua also has a total of 3 extinct languages.
Nicaraguan Sign Language is also of particular interest to linguists.
Religion is a significant part of the culture of Nicaragua and forms part of the constitution. Religious freedom, which has been guaranteed since 1939, and religious tolerance is promoted by both the Nicaraguan government and the constitution. Bishops are expected to lend their authority to important state occasions, and their pronouncements on national issues are closely followed. They can also be called upon to mediate between contending parties at moments of political crisis.
Although Nicaragua has no official religion it is nominally Roman Catholic. Practicing Roman Catholics are no longer the majority and are declining while evangelical Protestant groups and Mormons are growing rapidly have been growing since the 1990s. There are also strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast.
Roman Catholicism came to Nicaragua in the 16th century with the Spanish conquest and remained, until 1939, the established faith. Protestantism and various Christian sects came to Nicaragua during the 19th century, but only during the 20th century have Protestant denominations gained large followings in the Caribbean Coast of the country. Popular religion revolves around the saints, who are perceived as intermediaries between human beings and God.
Most localities, from the capital of Managua to small rural communities, honor patron saints selected from the Roman Catholic calendar with annual "fiestas". In many communities, a rich lore has grown up around the celebrations of patron saints, such as Managua's Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo), honored in August with two colorful, often riotous, day-long processions through the city. The high point of Nicaragua's religious calendar for the masses is neither Christmas nor Easter, but La Purísima, a week of festivities in early December dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, during which elaborate altars to the Virgin Mary are constructed in homes and workplaces.
General: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21365 |
Politics of Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a presidential republic, in which the President of Nicaragua is both head of state and head of government, and there is a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government.
Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
In 1995, the executive and legislative branches negotiated a reform of the 1987 Sandinista constitution which gave extensive new powers and independence to the National Assembly, including permitting the Assembly to override a presidential veto with a simple majority vote and eliminating the president's ability to pocket veto a bill. Members of the unicameral National Assembly are elected to concurrent five-year terms.
In January 2014, the National Assembly approved changes to the constitution, removing presidential term limits. This allowed current President Daniel Ortega to run for a third successive term.
The president and the vice president are elected for a single five-year term. With the reform of the constitution in 2014 the ban on re-election of the president has been removed.
The president appoints the Council of Ministers.
The National Assembly "(Asamblea Nacional)" consists of 90 deputies elected from party lists drawn at the department and national level, plus the outgoing president and the runner-up in the presidential race, for a total of 92. In the 2011 elections, the Sandinista National Liberation Front won 63 seats (securing a majority), the Independent Liberal Party won 27 seats, and the Constitutionalist Liberal Party won 2 seats. This includes seats given to outgoing Vice President Jaime Morales Carazo and presidential runner-up Fabio Gadea Mantilla.
Outgoing Vice President Jaime Morales Carazot's seat would usually be given to the outgoing president. However, Danial Ortega was re-elected after the Constitution was modified to remove term limits.
The Supreme Court of Justice supervises the functioning of the still largely ineffective and overburdened judicial system. As part of the 1995 constitutional reforms, the independence of the Supreme Court was strengthened by increasing the number of magistrates from 9 to 12. In 2000, the number of Supreme Court Justices was increased to 16. Supreme Court justices are nominated by the political parties and elected to 5-year terms by the National Assembly.
Led by a council of seven magistrates, the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) is the co-equal branch of government responsible for organizing and conducting elections, plebiscites, and referendums. The magistrates and their alternates are elected to 5-year terms by the National Assembly. Constitutional changes in 2000 expanded the number of CSE magistrates from five to seven and gave the PLC and the FSLN a freer hand to name party activists to the council, prompting allegations that both parties were politicizing electoral institutions and processes and excluding smaller political parties.
Freedom of speech is a right guaranteed by the Nicaraguan constitution, but media has come under censorship from time to time. Other constitutional freedoms include peaceful assembly and association, freedom of religion, and freedom of movement within the country, as well as foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation. The government also permits domestic and international human rights monitors to operate freely in Nicaragua.
The constitution prohibits discrimination based on birth, nationality, political belief, race, gender, language, religion, opinion, national origin, economic or social condition. Homosexuality has been legal since 2008.
All public and private sector workers, except the military and the police, are entitled to form and join unions of their own choosing, and they exercise this right extensively. Nearly half of Nicaragua's work force, including agricultural workers, is unionized. Workers have the right to strike. Collective bargaining is becoming more common in the private sector.
Nicaragua is divided in 15 departments : Boaco, Carazo, Chinandega, Chontales, Estelí, Granada, Jinotega, León, Madriz, Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, Rivas, Río San Juan, as well as in two autonomous regions: North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region.
Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega said March 6, 2008 that the nation is breaking relations with Colombia "in solidarity with the Ecuadoran people", following the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis. The relations were restored soon after.
Some political pressure groups are: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21366 |
Economy of Nicaragua
The economy of Nicaragua is focused primarily on the agricultural sector. Nicaragua itself is the least developed country in Central America, and the second poorest in the Americas by nominal GDP. In recent years, under the administrations of Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan economy has expanded somewhat, following the global recession of 2009, when the country's economy actually contracted by 1.5%, due to decreased export demand in the US and Central American markets, lower commodity prices for key agricultural exports, and low remittance growth. The economy saw 4.5% growth in 2010 thanks to a recovery in export demand and growth in its tourism industry. Nicaragua's economy continues to post growth, with preliminary indicators showing the Nicaraguan economy growing an additional 5% in 2011. Consumer Price inflation have also curtailed since 2008, when Nicaragua's inflation rate hovered at 19.82%. In 2009 and 2010, the country posted lower inflation rates, 3.68% and 5.45%, respectively.
Remittances are a major source of income, equivalent to 15% of the country's GDP, which originate primarily from Costa Rica, the United States, and European Union member states. Approximately one million Nicaraguans contribute to the remittance sector of the economy.
In early 2004, Nicaragua secured some $4.5 billion in foreign debt reduction under the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative. In April 2006, the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement went into effect, expanding export opportunities for Nicaragua's agricultural and manufactured goods. Textiles and apparel account for nearly 60% of Nicaragua's exports. In October 2007, the IMF approved an additional poverty reduction and growth facility program in support of the government's economic plans. Nicaragua relies on international economic assistance to meet internal- and external-debt financing obligations, although foreign donors curtailed this funding in response to widespread allegations of electoral fraud in Nicaragua's November 2008 elections.
Nicaragua's economy was devastated in the 1980s by the Contra War, which saw the destruction of much of the country's infrastructure. At the same time, the US staged an economic blockade from 1985 onward.
Following the civil war, Nicaragua began free market reforms, privatizing more than 350 state companies and commencing a general trend of economic growth. Inflation has been reduced from 33,603% during the later years of the Sandinista period and 55,000% during the first year of the Chamorro government to more normal levels, averaging an annual rate of 9.5% over the 2000-2010 decade (based on World Bank figures).
Growth was slow (3%) in 2001 due to a combination of factors (a global recession, a series of bank failures, low coffee prices, and a drought), and in 2009 the economy actually contracted 1.5% in reaction to the 2008–2012 global recession). But even with the recessions, growth has averaged 3.4% between 2001 and 2011 (again, based on World Bank figures).
Unemployment is 6.4%. Nicaragua suffers from persistent trade and budget deficits and a high debt-service burden, leaving it highly dependent on foreign assistance—which represented almost 25% of GDP in 2001.
One of the key engines of economic growth has been production for export. Although traditional products such as coffee, meat, and sugar continued to lead the list of Nicaraguan exports, the fastest growth is now in nontraditional exports: textile and apparel; gold; seafood; and new agricultural products such as peanuts, sesame, melons, and onions. In 2007, exports topped $1 billion US dollars for the first time in Nicaraguan history.
Nicaragua is primarily an agricultural country, but construction, mining, fisheries, and general commerce also have been expanding during the last few years. Foreign private capital inflows topped $300 million in 1999 but, due to economic and political uncertainty, fell to less than $100 million in 2001. In the last 12 years, tourism has grown 394%, the rapid growth has led it to become Nicaragua's second largest source of foreign capital. Less than three years ago, the nation's tourism budget was U.S. $400,000; today, it is over $2 million. Nicaragua's economy has also produced a construction boom, the majority of which is in and around Managua.
Nicaragua faces a number of challenges in stimulating rapid economic growth. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) program is currently being followed, with the aim of attracting investment, creating jobs, and reducing poverty by opening the economy to foreign trade. This process was boosted in late 2000 when Nicaragua reached the decision point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative. However, HIPC benefits were delayed because Nicaragua subsequently fell "off track" from its IMF program. The country also has been grappling with a string of bank failures that began in August 2000. Moreover, Nicaragua continues to lose international reserves due to its growing fiscal deficits.
The country is still a recovering economy and it continues to implement further reforms, on which aid from the IMF is conditional. In 2005, finance ministers of the leading eight industrialized nations (G8) agreed to forgive some of Nicaragua's foreign debt, as part of the HIPC program. According to the World Bank Nicaragua's GDP was around $4.9 US billion dollars. Recently, in March 2007, Poland and Nicaragua signed an agreement to write off $30.6 million which was borrowed by the Nicaraguan government in the 1980s.
The U.S. is the country's largest trading partner, providing 25% of Nicaragua's imports and receiving about 60% of its exports. About 25 wholly or partly owned subsidiaries of U.S. companies operate in Nicaragua. The largest of those investments are in the energy, communications, manufacturing, fisheries, and shrimp farming sectors. Good opportunities exist for further investments in those same sectors, as well as in tourism, mining, franchising, and the distribution of imported consumer, manufacturing, and agricultural goods. There also are copper mines in northeastern Nicaragua.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2012 was estimated at US$20.04 billion, and GDP per capita in PPP at US$3,300, making Nicaragua the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 56.7%, followed by the industrial sector at 25.8%(2012). Agriculture represents 17.5% of GDP and it's the largest percentage in a Central American country. Nicaraguan labor force is estimated at 2.961 million of which 28% is occupied in agriculture, 19% in the industry sector and 53% in the service sector (2012).
Coffee became Nicaragua's principal crop in the 1870s, a position it still held in 1992 despite the growing importance of other crops. Cotton gained importance in the late 1940s, and in 1992 was the second biggest export earner. In the early 20th century, Nicaraguan governments were reluctant to give concessions to the large United States banana companies, and bananas never attained the level of prominence in Nicaragua that they reached in Nicaragua's Central American neighbors; bananas were grown in the country, however, and were generally the third largest export earner in the post-World War II period. Beef and animal byproducts, the most important agricultural export for the three centuries before the coffee boom of the late 19th century, were still important commodities in 1992.
From the end of World War II to the early 1960s, the growth and diversification of the agricultural sector drove the nation's economic expansion. From the early 1960s until the increased fighting in 1977 caused by the Sandinista revolution, agriculture remained a robust and significant part of the economy, although its growth slowed somewhat in comparison with the previous postwar decades. Statistics for the next fifteen years, however, show stagnation and then a drop in agricultural production.
The agricultural sector declined precipitously in the 1980s. Until the late 1970s, Nicaragua's agricultural export system generated 40 percent of the country's GDP, 60 percent of national employment, and 80 percent of foreign exchange earnings. Throughout the 1980s, the Contras destroyed or disrupted coffee harvests as well as other key income-generating crops. Private industry stopped investing in agriculture because of uncertain returns. Land was taken out of production of export crops to expand plantings of basic grain. Many coffee plants succumbed to disease.
In 1989, the fifth successive year of decline, farm production declined by roughly 7 percent in comparison with the previous year. Production of basic grains fell as a result of Hurricane Joan in 1988 and a drought in 1989. By 1990 agricultural exports had declined to less than half the level of 1978. The only bright spot was the production of nontraditional export crops such as sesame, tobacco, and African palm oil.
The service sector was estimated to account for 56.8% of the country's GDP, and employs 52% of the active population. This section includes transportation, commerce, warehousing, restaurant and hotels, arts and entertainment, health, education, financial and banking services, telecommunications as well as public administration and defense.
Tourism in Nicaragua is one of the most important industries in the country. It is the second largest source of foreign exchange for the country and is predicted to become the first largest industry in 2007. The growth in tourism has positively affected the agricultural, commercial, finance, and construction industries as well.
Nicaragua has transformed itself into one of the safest and fastest-growing countries in Central America. A stable, multi-party democracy, Nicaragua has ratified Free Trade Agreements with major markets such as the United States, the Dominican Republic (DR-CAFTA), Taiwan and Mexico, among others. As evidence of continuous efforts in improving the business climate, Nicaragua has been ranked favorably in a variety of independent evaluations.
The 2011 Doing Business Report, published by The World Bank Group, a report that benchmarks various indicators of the investment climate in 183 nations, ranked Nicaragua as the top location in Central America in starting a business, investor protection, and closing a business. Additionally, the country improved in the following categories: ease of doing business, registering property, paying taxes, trading across borders and enforcing contracts.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1990–2017.
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
"lowest 10%:" 1.4%; "highest 10%:" 41.8 (2005)
Industrial production growth rate:
2.4% (2005)
Electricity - production:
2.778 billion kWh (2006)
Electricity - production by source:
"fossil fuel:" 53.43%; "hydro:" 35.34%; "nuclear:" 0%; "other:" 11.23% (1998). A large number of wind turbines have been installed along the SW shore of Lake Nicaragua since, and some geothermal plants have been constructed as well.
As of 2013, the breakdown was: "fossil fuel:" 50%; "wind power:" 15%; "geothermal:" 16%, "hydropower:" 12%,
"biomass power:" 7%.
Electricity - consumption:
2.929 billion kWh (2006)
Electricity - exports:
69.34 million kWh (2006)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2006)
Agriculture - products:
coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, rice, corn, tobacco, sesame, soya, beans; beef, veal, pork, poultry, dairy products; shrimp, lobsters
Exports - commodities:
coffee, beef, shrimp and lobster, cotton, tobacco, peanuts, sugar, bananas; gold
Imports - commodities:
consumer goods, machinery and equipment, raw materials, petroleum products
Currency:
1 gold Cordoba (C$) = 100 centavos
Exchange rates:
gold Córdoba (C$) per US$1 – 17.582 (2006), 16.733 (2005), 15.937 (2004), 15.105 (2003), 14.251 (2002)
Price inflation: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21367 |
Telecommunications in Nicaragua
Telecommunications in Nicaragua include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Independent media are active and express a variety of views. The government, however, restricts media freedom through harassment, censorship, arbitrary application of libel laws, and use of national security justifications. Private individuals also harass media for criticizing the government. President Ortega frequently uses a law that allows for government broadcasts of emergency messages to force national networks either to broadcast his speeches or to cease other programming temporarily during those times.
The government continues to close opposition radio stations and cancel opposition television programs, allegedly for political reasons. It also employs vandalism, the seizure of privately owned broadcast equipment, and criminal defamation charges against media outlet owners or program hosts to limit freedom and diversity of the press. Opposition news sources report that generally they were not permitted to enter official government events and are denied interviews by government officials.
In June 2012 the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH) claimed that the Nicaraguan National Police (NNP) forcibly closed Somoto-based Television Channel 13 due to the station's reporting on government corruption. The owner of the station, Juan Carlos Pineda, claimed that NNP officials harassed and threatened him prior to the forced closure. There were no reports of an investigation, and at the end of 2012 the station remained closed.
The Communications Research Centre of Nicaragua (CINCO) reported that control over television media by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and President Ortega strengthened throughout 2012. National television was increasingly either controlled by FSLN supporters or directly owned and administered by President Ortega's family members. Eight of the nine basic channels available were under direct FSLN influence.
In general media outlets owned by the presidential family limited programming to progovernment or FSLN propaganda and campaign advertisements. Press and human rights organizations claimed that the use of state funds for official media placed opposition outlets at an unfair disadvantage.
Some journalists practice self-censorship, fearing economic and physical repercussions for investigative reporting on crime or official corruption.
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or Internet chat rooms; however, several NGOs claim the government monitors their e-mail. Individuals and groups engage in the expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail and social media.
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, but the government used administrative, judicial, and financial means to limit the exercise of these rights. Although the law provides that the right to information cannot be subjected to censorship, it also establishes retroactive liability, including criminal penalties for libel and slander.
During the November 2012 municipal elections, a popular Web site that allowed voters to register complaints or allegations of election fraud was apparently hacked on several occasions and forced to shut for significant portions of the day. Certain NGOs claimed the Web site was tampered with to prevent dissemination of voter complaints. During 2012 there were several reported cases of threats and violence against the press. On December 11, the spokesman of the Supreme Court of Justice publicly accused the online newsweekly Confidential of being financed by narcotics trafficking organizations, an allegation rights groups said was politically motivated. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21368 |
Transport in Nicaragua
Transport in Nicaragua revolves around road, air and water transport modalities.
The road infrastructure is very well spread across the Pacific side, while the Atlantic side has less infrastructure. As of 2009, from a total of 19,137 km 2,033 km are paved and 17,104 km are unpaved.
Public transport in Nicaragua is mostly served by buses on both short and wide range distances. There are five different types, based on the size of the vehicle, target group, frequency of stops and distance.
Urban buses ("Urbanos") can be found in Managua, Estelí, León, Chinandega, Matagalpa and Bluefields. In most cases, passengers have to pay for each ride on a bus, with the need to pay again when switching to another. The costs differ from 2.50 C$ in Managua to 10 C$ in Bluefields.
An urban bus in Nicaragua takes the same road multiple times per day, following a more or less strict schedule. The organization of the buses in different towns differs heavily as every town is organizing it on their own behave. In Estelí every bus driver is assisted by mostly two persons helping them ("Ayudantes"). Bus drivers in Managua have to manage their job on their own.
Another fact that heavily differs are the vehicles used in the different cities. In Managua mostly urban buses sponsored by Russia are used, in Estelí former school buses from the United States, in Bluefields Japanese light commercial vans and in León pickup trucks that got extended with seats and a roof.
The quality of bus stops also heavily differs. In the center of Managua many proper bus stops exist with roofs or at least signs, in other areas there often isn't any indication of a bus stop. Nevertheless, buses serve a network of established stops with common names known by bus assistants. Passengers need to know or ask where and when which bus stops.
To improve the accessibility of public transport, in 2016 the OpenStreetMap group in Nicaragua MapaNica crowdsourced with the help of more than 150 citizens of Managua the first bus transit map in whole Central America. Later in 2018, they made this data machine-accessible, serving it today in different apps on several platforms.
Urban buses in Managua will be use Solaris Trollino 24 that are currently in evaluation process.
Suburban buses ("Suburbanos") connect larger cities with communities in outer areas. They only stop a few times inside the city, later nearly everywhere where passengers request to get off. Like with urban buses, a team serves a route several times per day and the service is organized by the local government. Prices can vary depending on the distance.
Connecting two or more cities, Ruteados (also called "Servicio Ordinario") are the biggest part of bus services in Nicaragua.
Express buses ("Expresos") connect, like Ruteados and share taxis, two or more cities, but with less stops, resulting in a faster travel time.
Share taxis are called "Interlocales" in Nicaragua and also connect two or more cities, like Ruteados and express buses, with the main difference that they depart from the bus station once they are filled either mostly or completely with passengers. Like express buses, they nearly don't stop between start and destination.
Several airports are serving both national and international flights.
As of 2013, 147 airports exist in Nicaragua. Nicaragua's main international airport is Managua International Airport.
In total, there are 12 airports with paved runways with the following lengths:
In total, there are 135 airports with unpaved runways with the following lengths:
Nicaragua offers 2,220 km of water transport roads, including the two large lakes Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua. A Nicaragua Canal was planned but canceled on 21 February 2018.
Since September 2001, all rail transport has been suspended in Nicaragua.
Managua will have metro system that is currently in the feasibility study conducted by Japan International Cooperation Agency. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21369 |
Nicaraguan Armed Forces
The Nicaraguan Armed Forces are the military forces of Nicaragua.
The long years of strife between the peasant and land-owning political factions and the existence of private armies led the United States to sponsor the National Guard as an apolitical institution to assume all military and police functions in Nicaragua. The marines provided the training, but their efforts were complicated by a guerrilla movement led by Augusto César Sandino that continued to resist the marines and the fledgling National Guard from a stronghold in the mountainous areas of northern Nicaragua.
Upon the advent of the United States Good Neighbor Policy in 1933, the marines withdrew. Having reached a strength of about 3,000 by the mid-1930s, the guard was organized into company units, although the Presidential Guard component approached battalion size. Expanded to no more than 9,000 during the civil war of 1978-79, the guard consisted of a reinforced battalion as its primary tactical unit, a Presidential Guard battalion, a mechanized company, an engineer battalion, artillery and antiaircraft batteries, and one security company in each of the country's sixteen departments.
The National Guard's main arms were M1 Garands and Israeli Galils, later augmented by antiaircraft guns and mortars. Nicaragua declared war on the Axis powers in 1941, immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Although Nicaragua was not actively involved in World War II, it qualified for United States Lend-Lease military aid in exchange for U.S. base facilities at Corinto. Additional shipments of small arms and transportation and communication equipment followed, as well as some training and light transport aircraft.
United States military aid to the National Guard continued under the Rio de Janeiro Treaty of Mutual Defense (1947), but stopped in 1976 after relations with the administration of Anastasio Somoza Debayle (1967–72, 1974–79) worsened. Some United States equipment of World War II vintage was also purchased from other countries—Staghound armored cars and M4 Sherman medium tanks from Israel and F-51 Mustang fighter aircraft from Sweden. Except for minor frontier skirmishes with Honduras in 1957 over a border dispute, the National Guard was not involved in any conflict with its neighbors. The guard's domestic power, however, gradually broadened to embrace not only its original internal security and police functions but also control over customs, telecommunications, port facilities, radio broadcasting, the merchant marine, and civil aviation.
To replace the National Guard, the Sandinistas established a new national army, the Sandinista Popular Army "(Ejército Popular Sandinista—EPS)", and a police force, the Sandinista Police "(Policía Sandinista)". These two groups, contrary to the original Puntarenas Pact were controlled by the Sandinistas and trained by personnel from Cuba, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union. Opposition to the overwhelming FSLN influence in the security forces did not surface until 1980.
Meanwhile, the EPS developed, with support from Cuba and the Soviet Union, into the largest and best equipped military force in Central America. Simultaneously, with the introduction of Patriotic Military Service (1983), a conscription system, EPS forces reached approximately 80,000 active-duty members by 1990. Patriotic Military Service required males, ranging in age from seventeen to twenty-six, to serve four years in the military (two years active duty and two years in the reserves). This conscription system did not require women to enlist; however, they could do so voluntarily.
The Patriotic Military Service system was an extremely unpopular initiative taken by the Sandinista government. Draft dodging was rampant as young men fled the country in order to avoid conscription. Additionally, massive demonstrations and antidraft protests plagued the country. In 1990, the Patriotic Military Service system would be abolished after the Sandinista's lost power during the presidential elections.
Under an agreement between President-elect Chamorro of the National Opposition Union (Unión Nacional Oppositora – UNO) and the defeated FSLN party, General Humberto Ortega, former defense minister and commander in chief of the EPS under the Sandinistas, remained at the head of the armed forces. By a law that took effect in April 1990, the EPS became subordinate to President Chamorro as commander in chief. Chamorro also retained the Ministry of Defense portfolio.
Chamorro's authority over the EPS was very limited. There were no Ministry of Defense offices and no vice ministers to shape national defense policies or exercise civilian control over the armed forces. Under the Law of Military Organization of the Sandinista Popular Army enacted just before Chamorro's election victory, Humberto Ortega retained authority over promotions, military construction, and force deployments. He contracted for weapons procurement and drafted the military budget presented to the government. Only an overall budget had to be submitted to the legislature, thus avoiding a line-item review by the National Assembly.
Sandinista officers remained at the head of all general staff directorates and military regions. The chief of the army, Major General Joaquín Cuadra Lacayo, continued in his pre-Chamorro position. Facing domestic pressure to remove Humberto Ortega and the risk of curtailment of United States aid as long as Sandinistas remained in control of the armed forces, Chamorro announced that Ortega would be replaced in 1994. Ortega challenged her authority to relieve him and reiterated his intention to remain at the head of the EPS until the army reform program was completed in 1997.
The army reform measures were launched with deep cuts in personnel strengths, the abolition of conscription, and disbanding of the militia. The size of the army declined from a peak strength of 97,000 troops to an estimated 15,200 in 1993, accomplished by voluntary discharges and forced retirements. Under the Sandinistas, the army general staff embodied numerous branches and directorates artillery, combat readiness, communications, Frontier Guards, military construction, intelligence, counterintelligence, training, operations, organization and mobilization, personnel, and logistics. Most of these bodies appear to have been retained, although they have been trimmed and reorganized. The Nicaraguan Air Force and Navy were also subordinate to the army general staff.
Since 1990 the mission of the EPS has been to ensure the security of the national borders and to deal with internal disturbances. Its primary task has been to prevent disorder and violence wrought by armed bands of former Contra and Sandinista soldiers.
In November and December 1992, the EPS was deployed alongside the National Police to prevent violence during demonstrations by the National Workers' Front for improved pay and benefits. The EPS and the Frontier Guards also assist the police in narcotics control. A small EPS contingent works alongside demobilized Contras in a Special Disarmament Brigade to reduce the arsenal of weapons in civilian hands.
In 1995, the National Army of Nicaragua (Ejército de Nicaragua), having never previously been fully apolitical evolved, through constitutional reforms, into a more traditional Central American military. As ties to the FSLN weakened, military leaders turned over power regularly without “fuss,” refrained from becoming involved in the political realm, and the overall size of the military significantly decreased.
Under President Ortega, multiple changes have occurred strengthening FSLN control over the national military. During 2010, the national assembly “passed changes that allowed [the] politicization of the country’s security forces, while expanding these agencies’ domestic powers.” This change effectively erased the shift towards being an apolitical force from 1995 to 2006. Then in 2014, President Ortega supported a constitutional reform removing the defense and governance ministries “from the security forces’ chain of command, reducing oversight and leaving [President] Ortega in charge of appointing military and police commanders.” This action enhanced President Ortega’s political and personal control over the nation’s security forces and personnel.
President Ortega has also strengthened his ability to control the general population through two different national security initiatives. In 2015, the Sovereign Security Law, “erased barriers between internal and external security, and gave the Ortega government wide discretion to use coercion against any person or entity deemed a threat to the state, society, or economy.” The Sovereign Security Law provided the Ortega administration the right to infringe upon the basic human rights protected in the Nicaraguan constitution, if deemed necessary. Also, CPCs “have been replaced by Family, Community, and Life Cabinets (Gabinetes).” These cabinets are linked to the police and provide the government with a means to keep communities under constant surveillance.
In the contemporary period, multiple changes have taken place in the military regarding purpose and structure. The military currently serves as a force for national defense, public security, civil defense, and national development. In 2014, an expansion of institutional powers granted the military with the opportunity for greater involvement in international security initiatives. The National Army of Nicaragua also has the highest public approval ratings of any Nicaraguan institution.
The Nicaraguan military, Fuerzas Armadas de Nicaragua, exists in a top-down hierarchy and is partitioned into multiple ranks. In order to become a Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel or Colonel, a candidate must attend Staff College (ESEM). Alternatively, one may begin a military career as a Lieutenant, with the opportunity for advancement, by obtaining a bachelor's degree in Military Sciences. Individuals may also attend Officers School, to gain the rank of Major, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, and General Staff or Army General.
The Nicaraguan navy offers training other than that offered through ESEM, a bachelor's degree in Military Sciences, and Officers School. Candidates seeking to advance in the Nicaraguan navy may attend navy-specific training to become Lieutenant Commanders, Commanders, Captains, fleet Admirals, Generals, Major Generals and Generals of the Army.
Despite offering advancement through ESEM training, Officers School, and a bachelor's degree in Military Sciences, most high-ranking officers choose to receive their formal military education from training opportunities in Mexico, Spain, France, China, Russia, and Cuba.
Nicaragua has a small military force with only 9,412 members as of 2010. This number includes 1,500 officers (16%), 302 non-commissioned officers (3%), and 7,610 troops (81%). This relatively small armed force is supported by an extremely small $41 million-dollar defense budget (2010). Such a small military budget has resulted in severe deficiencies in terms of manpower (i.e. cannot supply and employ) and modern weaponry. This budget represents approximately 2.84% of the country's overall expenditures.
The National Police of Nicaragua, established in 1979, was created to maintain domestic tranquility, prevent crime, ensure security for all civilians, prosecute offenders, and enforce any other nationally mandated laws. As a non-political, non-partisan, and non-deliberative organization, the National Police of Nicaragua was a revolutionary agency when created. This body is unaided by the national military, since it exists as a completely separate entity; however, in accordance with Article 92, the President may order the army to intervene on the National Police's behalf. There is also a volunteer police force that aids the National Police force, not just in times of dire need. The National Police Force is organized into several different tiers: the national specialized organizations (i.e. investigation departments), support organizations (i.e. Police Academy), police delegations (i.e. department, municipal), and advisory structures (i.e. National Council). Those wishing to become members of the National Police Force must pass through rigorous hours of training and multiple examinations.
Armed Forces performed very well in terms of human rights under the Sandinista's. Upon visiting Nicaragua, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Americas Watch, and the Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States found “little evidence of the extreme types of human rights violations so common under…US-backed regimes.” These organizations were also unable to find any examples of: state-sponsored death squads, use of physical torture propagated by the state, and very few disappearances/executions. Although, the investigations led by human rights organizations excluded unruly soldiers acting violently on their own accord. In this context, it was discovered that the government's “usual response…was to investigate and discipline those responsible.”
Multiple rocket launchers | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21370 |
Foreign relations of Nicaragua
Nicaragua pursues an independent foreign policy. A participant of the Central American Security Commission (CSC), Nicaragua also has taken a leading role in pressing for regional demilitarization and peaceful settlement of disputes within states in the region.
Nicaragua has submitted three territorial disputes, one with Honduras, another with Colombia, and the third with Costa Rica to the International Court of Justice for resolution.
At the 1994 Summit of the Americas, Nicaragua joined six Central American neighbors in signing the Alliance for Sustainable Development, known as the Conjunta Centroamerica-USA or CONCAUSA, to promote sustainable economic development in the region.
Nicaragua belongs to the United Nations and several specialized and related agencies, including:
Alleged trans-shipment point for cocaine destined for the US and trans-shipment point for arms-for-drugs dealing.
Nicaragua signed a 3-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October 2007. As part of the IMF program, the Government of Nicaragua agreed to implement free market policies linked to targets on fiscal discipline, poverty spending, and energy regulation. The lack of transparency surrounding Venezuelan bilateral assistance, channeled through state-run enterprises rather than the official budget, has become a serious issue for the IMF and international donors. On September 10, 2008, with misgivings about fiscal transparency, the IMF released an additional $30 million to Nicaragua, the second tranche of its $110 million PRGF.
The flawed municipal elections of November 2008 prompted a number of European donors to suspend direct budget support to Nicaragua, a move that created a severe budget shortfall for the government. This shortfall, in turn, caused the Government of Nicaragua to fall out of compliance with its PRGF obligations and led to a suspension of PRGF disbursements. The IMF is currently in negotiations with the Government of Nicaragua to reinstate disbursements.
Under current president Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua has stayed current with the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force for Nicaragua on April 1, 2006. Nicaraguan exports to the United States, which account for 59% of Nicaragua’s total exports, were $1.7 billion in 2008, up 45% from 2005. Textiles and apparel account for 55% of exports to the United States, while automobile wiring harnesses add another 11%.
Other leading export products are coffee, meat, cigars, sugar, ethanol, and fresh fruit and vegetables, all of which have seen remarkable growth since CAFTA-DR went into effect. Leading Nicaraguan exports also demonstrated increased diversity, with 274 new products shipped to the United States in the first year. U.S. exports to Nicaragua, meanwhile, were $1.1 billion in 2008, up 23% from 2005. Other important trading partners for Nicaragua are its Central American neighbors, Mexico, and the European Union. Nicaragua is negotiating a trade agreement with the European Union as part of a Central American bloc.
Despite important protections for investment included in CAFTA-DR, the investment climate has become relatively insecure since Ortega took office. President Ortega's decision to support radical regimes such as Iran and Cuba, his harsh rhetoric against the United States and capitalism, and his use of government institutions to persecute political enemies and their businesses, has had a negative effect on perceptions of country risk, which by some accounts has quadrupled since he assumed office. The government reports foreign investment inflows totaled $506 million in 2008, including $123 million in telecommunications infrastructure and $120 million in energy generation.
There are over 100 companies operating in Nicaragua with some relation to a U.S. company, either as wholly or partly owned subsidiaries, franchisees, or exclusive distributors of U.S. products. The largest are in energy, financial services, textiles/apparel, manufacturing, and fisheries. However, many companies in the textile/apparel sector, including a $100 million U.S.-owned denim mill, have shuttered during the past 12 months due to falling demand for these goods in the United States.
Poor enforcement of property rights deters both foreign and domestic investment, especially in real estate development and tourism. Conflicting claims and weak enforcement of property rights has invited property disputes and litigation. Establishing verifiable title history is often entangled in legalities relating to the expropriation of 28,000 properties by the revolutionary government that Ortega led in the 1980s. The situation is not helped by a court system that is widely believed to be corrupt and subject to political influence.
Illegal property seizures by private parties, occasionally in collaboration with corrupt municipal officials, often go unchallenged by the authorities, especially in the Atlantic regions and interior regions of the north, where property rights are poorly defined and rule of law is weak. Foreign investor interest along the Pacific Coast has motivated some unscrupulous people to challenge ownership rights in the Departments of Rivas and Chinandega, with the hope of achieving some sort of cash settlement.
The following table includes Republic of China, Georgia, and some of the states with limited recognition: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21371 |
Niger
Niger or the Niger ( or ; ), officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa named after the Niger River. Niger is bordered by Libya to the northeast, Chad to the east, Nigeria to the south, Benin to the southwest, Mali to the north-west, Burkina Faso to the south-west, and Algeria to the northwest. Niger covers a land area of almost , making it the largest country in West Africa. Over 80% of its land area lies in the Sahara Desert. The country's predominantly Muslim population of about /1e6 round 0 million live mostly in clusters in the far south and west of the country. The capital and largest city is Niamey, located in Niger's southwest corner.
Niger is a developing country, which consistently ranks near the bottom in the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI); it was ranked 187th of 188 countries for 2015 and 189th out of 189 countries in the 2018 and 2019 reports. Many of the non-desert portions of the country are threatened by periodic drought and desertification. The economy is concentrated around subsistence, with some export agriculture in the more fertile south, and export of raw materials, especially uranium ore. Niger faces serious challenges to development due to its landlocked position, desert terrain, inefficient agriculture, high fertility rates without birth control, and the resulting overpopulation, the poor educational level and poverty of its people, lack of infrastructure, poor healthcare, and environmental degradation.
Nigerien society reflects a diversity drawn from the long independent histories of its several ethnic groups and regions and their relatively short period living in a single state. Historically, what is now Niger has been on the fringes of several large states. Since independence, Nigeriens have lived under five constitutions and three periods of military rule. After the military coup in 2010, Niger became a democratic, multi-party state. A majority of the population lives in rural areas and has little access to advanced education.
The country's name comes from the Niger river which flows through the west of the country; the origin of the river's name is uncertain, though a popular theory is that it comes from the Tuareg "n'eghirren", meaning 'flowing water'. The most common pronunciation is the French one of , though in Anglophone media is also occasionally used.
Humans have inhabited the territory of modern Niger for millennia; stone tools, some dating as far back as 280,000 BC, have been found in Adrar Bous, Bilma and Djado in the northern Agadez Region. Some of these finds have been linked with the Aterian and Mousterian tool cultures of the Middle Paleolithic period, which flourished in northern Africa circa 90,000 BC-20,000 BC. It is thought that these early humans lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. In prehistoric times the climate of the Sahara desert was much wetter and more fertile than it is today, a phenomenon archaeologists refer to as the 'Green Sahara', which provided favourable conditions for hunting and later agriculture and livestock herding.
The Neolithic era began circa 10,000 BC; this period saw a number of important changes, such as the introduction of pottery (as evidenced at Tagalagal, Temet and Tin Ouffadene), the spread of cattle husbandry, and the burying of the dead in stone tumuli. As the climate changed in the period 4000–2800 BC the Sahara gradually began drying out, forcing a change in settlement patterns to the south and east. Agriculture became widespread, notably the planting of millet and sorghum, as well as pottery production. Iron and copper items first appear in this era, with early find including those at Azawagh, Takedda, Marendet and the Termit Massif. The Kiffian (circa 8000–6000 BC) and later Tenerian (circa 5000–2500 BC) cultures, centred on Adrar Bous and Gobero where numerous skeletons have been uncovered, flourished during this period.
Towards the end of this period, up till the first centuries AD, societies continued to grow and become more complex, with regional differentiation in agricultural and funerary practices. A notable culture of this late period is the Bura culture (circa 200–1300 AD), named for the Bura archaeological site. where a burial replete with many iron and ceramic statuettes were discovered. The Neolithic era also saw the flourishing of Saharan rock art, most notably in the Aïr Mountains, Termit Massif, Djado Plateau, Iwelene, Arakao, Tamakon, Tzerzait, Iferouane, Mammanet and Dabous; the art spans the period from 10,000BC to 100AD and depicts a range of subjects, from the varied fauna of the landscape to depictions of spear-carrying figures dubbed 'Libyan warriors'.
Our knowledge of early Nigerien history is limited by the lack of written sources, though it is known that by at least the 5th century BC the territory of modern Niger had become an area of trans-Saharan trade. Led by Tuareg tribes from the north, camels were as a well-adapted means of transportation through what was now an immense desert. This mobility, which would continue in waves for several centuries, was accompanied with further migration to the south and intermixing between sub-Saharan African and North African populations, as well as the gradual spread of Islam. It was also aided by the Arab invasion of North Africa at the end of the 7th century, which resulted in population movements to the south. Several empires and kingdoms flourished in the Sahel during this era. Their history does not fit easily within the modern boundaries of Niger, which were created during the period of European colonialism; the following adopts a roughly chronological account of the main empires.
The Mali Empire was a Mandinka empire founded by Sundiata Keita (r. 1230–1255) in circa 1230 and existed up to 1600. As detailed in the "Epic of Sundiata", Mali emerged as a breakaway region of the Sosso Empire, which itself had split from the earlier Ghana Empire. Thereafter Mali defeated the Sosso at the Battle of Kirina in 1235 and then Ghana in 1240. From its heartland around the modern Guinea-Mali border region, the empire expanded considerably under successive kings and came to dominate the Trans-Saharan trade routes, reaching its greatest extent during the rule of Mansa Musa (r. 1312-1337). At this point parts of what are now Niger's Tillabéri Region fell under Malian rule. A Muslim, Mansa Musa performed the "hajj" in 1324–25 and encouraged the spread of Islam in the empire, though it appears that most ordinary citizens continued to maintain their traditional animist beliefs instead of or alongside the new religion. The empire began declining in the 15th century due to a combination of internecine strife over the royal succession, weak kings, the shift of European trade routes to the coast, and rebellions in the empire's periphery by Mossi, Wolof, Tuareg and Songhai peoples. However a rump Mali kingdom continued to exist until late 1600s.
The Songhai Empire was named for its main ethnic group, the Songhai or Sonrai, and was centred on the bend of the Niger River in modern Mali. Songhai began settling this region from the 7th to 9th centuries; by the early 11th century Gao (capital of the former Kingdom of Gao) had become the empire's capital. From 1000 to 1325, the Songhai Empire prospered and managed to maintain peace with the Mali Empire, its powerful neighbour to the west. In 1325 Songhai was conquered by Mali until regaining its independence in 1375. Under king Sonni Ali (r. 1464–1492) Songhai adopted an expansionist policy which reached its apogee during the reign of Askia Mohammad I (r. 1493–1528); at this point the empire had expanded considerably from its Niger-bend heartland, including to the east where much of modern western Niger fell under its rule, including Agadez, which was conquered in 1496. However the empire was unable to withstand repeated attacks from the Saadi Dynasty of Morocco and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Tondibi in 1591; the empire then collapsed into a number of smaller kingdoms.
In c. 1449 in the north of what is now Niger, the Sultanate of Aïr was founded by Sultan Ilisawan, based in Agadez. Formerly a small trading post inhabited by a mixture of Hausa and Tuaregs, the sultanate grew rich due to its strategic position on the Trans-Saharan trade routes. In 1515 Aïr was conquered by Songhai, remaining a part of that empire until its collapse in 1591. The following centuries present a somewhat confused picture, though it seems that the sultanate entered a decline marked by internecine wars and clan conflicts. When Europeans began exploring the region in the 19th century much of Agadez lay in ruins, and it was taken over, though with difficulty, by the French ("see below").
To the east, the Kanem-Bornu Empire dominated the region around Lake Chad for much of this period. It was founded by the Zaghawa around the 8th century and based in Njimi, north-east of the lake. The kingdom gradually expanded, especially during the rule of the Sayfawa Dynasty which began in c. 1075 under "Mai" (king) Hummay. The kingdom reached its greatest extent in the 1200s, largely thanks to the effort of "Mai" Dunama Dibbalemi (r. 1210–1259), and grew rich from its control of many Trans-Saharan trade routes; much of eastern and south-eastern Niger, notably Bilma and Kaouar, was under Kanem's control in this period. Islam had been introduced to the kingdom by Arab traders from the 11th century, gradually gaining more converts over the following centuries. Attacks by the Bulala people in the late 14th century forced Kanem to shift westwards of Lake Chad, where it became known as the Bornu Empire, ruled from its capital Ngazargamu on the modern Niger-Nigeria border. Bornu prospered during the rule of "Mai" Idris Alooma (r. circa 1575–1610) and re-conquered much of the traditional lands of Kanem, hence the designation 'Kanem-Bornu' for the empire. By the late 17th century and into the 18th the Bornu kingdom had entered a long period of decline, gradually shrinking back to its Lake Chad heartland, though it remained an important player in the region.
Circa 1730–40 a group of Kanuri settlers led by Mallam Yunus left Kanem and founded the Sultanate of Damagaram, centred on the town of Zinder. The sultanate remained nominally subject to the Borno Empire until the reign of Sultan Tanimoune Dan Souleymane in the mid-to-late 19th century, who declared independence and initiated a phase of vigorous expansion. The sultanate managed to resist the advance of the Sokoto Caliphate ("see below"), but was later captured by the French in 1899.
Between the Niger River and Lake Chad lay various Hausa Kingdoms kingdoms, encompassing the cultural-linguistic area known as Hausaland which straddles the modern Niger-Nigeria border. The origins of the Hausa are obscure, though they are thought to be a mixture of autochthonous peoples and migrant peoples from the north and/or east, emerging as a distinct people sometime in the 900s–1400s when the kingdoms were founded. They gradually adopted Islam from the 14th century, though often this existed alongside traditional religions, developing into unique syncretic forms; some Hausa groups, such as the Azna, resisted Islam altogether (the area of Dogondoutchi remains an animist stronghold to this day). The Hausa kingdoms were not a compact entity but several federations of kingdoms more or less independent of one other. Their organisation was hierarchical though also somewhat democratic: the Hausa kings were elected by the notables of the country and could be removed by them. The Hausa Kingdoms began as seven states founded, according to the Bayajidda legend, by the six sons of Bawo. Bawo was the only son of the Hausa queen Daurama and Bayajidda or (Abu Yazid according to certain Nigerien historians) who came from Baghdad. The seven original Hausa states (often referred to as the 'Hausa bakwai') were: Daura (state of queen Daurama), Kano, Rano, Zaria, Gobir, Katsina and Biram. An extension of the legend states that Bawo had a further seven sons with a concubine, who went on to the found the so-called 'Banza ("illegitmate") Bakwai': Zamfara, Kebbi, Nupe, Gwari, Yauri, Ilorin and Kwararafa. A smaller state not fitting into this scheme was Konni, centred on Birni-N'Konni.
The Fulani (also called Peul, Fulbe etc.), a pastoral people found throughout the Sahel, began migrating to Hausaland during the 1200s–1500s. During the later 18th century many Fulani were unhappy with the syncretic form of Islam practised there; exploiting also the populace's disdain with corruption amongst the Hausa elite, the Fulani scholar Usman Dan Fodio (from Gobir) declared a jihad in 1804. After conquering most of Hausaland (though not the Bornu Kingdom, which remained independent) he proclaimed the Sokoto Caliphate in 1809. Some of the Hausa states survived by fleeing south, such as the Katsina who moved to Maradi in the south of modern Niger. Many of these surviving states harassed the Caliphate and a long period of small-scale wars and skirmishes commenced, with some states (such as Katsina and Gobir) maintaining independence, whereas elsewhere new ones were formed (such as the Sultanate of Tessaoua). The Caliphate managed to survive until, fatally weakened by the invasions of Chad-based warlord Rabih az-Zubayr, it finally fell to the British in 1903, with its lands later being partitioned between Britain and France.
Other smaller kingdoms of the period include the Dosso Kingdom, a Zarma polity founded in 1750 which resisted the rule of Hausa and Sokoto states; and the Dendi Kingdom on the Niger river, which had been founded by refugees fleeing the collapse of the Songhai Empire in 1591.
In the 19th century Europeans began to take a greater interest in Africa; several European explorers travelled in the area of modern Niger, such as Mungo Park (in 1805–06), the Oudney-Denham-Clapperton expedition (1822–25), Heinrich Barth (1850–55; with James Richardson and Adolf Overweg), Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs (1865–67), Gustav Nachtigal (1869–74) and Parfait-Louis Monteil (1890–92).
Several European countries already possessed littoral colonies in Africa, and in the latter half of the century they began to turn their eyes towards the interior of the continent. This process, known as the 'Scramble for Africa', culminated in the 1885 Berlin conference in which the colonial powers outlined the division of Africa into spheres of influence. As a result of this, France gained control of the upper valley of the Niger River (roughly equivalent to the areas of modern Mali and Niger). France then set about making a reality of their rule on the ground. In 1897 the French officer Marius Gabriel Cazemajou was sent to Niger; he reached the Sultanate of Damagaram in 1898 and stayed in Zinder at the court of Sultan Amadou Kouran Daga, however he was later killed as Daga feared he would ally with the Chad-based warlord Rabih az-Zubayr. In 1899–1900 France coordinated three expeditions—the Gentil Mission from French Congo, the Foureau-Lamy Mission from Algeria and the Voulet–Chanoine Mission from Timbuktu—with the aim of linking France's African possessions. The three eventually met at Kousséri (in the far north of Cameroon) and defeated Rabih az-Zubayr's forces at the Battle of Kousséri. The Voulet-Chanoine Mission was marred by numerous atrocities, and became notorious for pillaging, looting, raping and killing many local civilians on its passage throughout southern Niger. On 8 May 1899, in retaliation for the resistance of queen Sarraounia, captain Voulet and his men murdered all the inhabitants of the village of Birni-N'Konni in what is regarded as one of the worst massacres in French colonial history. The brutal methods of Voulet and Chanoine caused a scandal and Paris was forced to intervene, however when Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-François Klobb caught up with the mission near Tessaoua to relieve them of command he was killed. Lt. Paul Joalland, Klobb's former officer, and Lt. Octave Meynier eventually took over the mission following a mutiny in which Voulet and Chanoine were killed.
The Military Territory of Niger was subsequently created within the Upper Senegal and Niger colony (modern Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) in December 1904 with its capital at Niamey, then little more than a large village. The border with Britain's colony of Nigeria to the south was finalised in 1910, a rough delimitation having already been agreed by the two powers via several treaties during the period 1898–1906. The capital of the territory was moved to Zinder in 1912 when the Niger Military Territory was split off from Upper Senegal and Niger, before being moved back to Niamey in 1922 when Niger became a fully-fledged colony within French West Africa. The borders of Niger were drawn up in various stages and had been fixed at their current position by the late 1930s. Various territorial adjustments took place in this period: the areas west of the Niger river were only attached to Niger in 1926–27, and during the dissolution of Upper Volta (modern Burkina Faso) in 1932–47 much of the east of that territory was added to Niger; and in the east the Tibesti Mountains were transferred to Chad in 1931.
The French generally adopted a form of indirect rule, allowing existing native structures to continue to exist within the colonial framework of governance providing that they acknowledged French supremacy. The Zarma of the Dosso Kingdom in particular proved amenable to French rule, using them as allies against the encroachments of Hausa and other nearby states; over time the Zarma thus became one of the more educated and westernised groups in Niger. However perceived threats to French rule, such as the Kobkitanda rebellion in Dosso Region (1905–06), led by the blind cleric Alfa Saibou, and the Karma revolt in the Niger valley (December 1905–March 1906) led by Oumarou Karma were suppressed with force, as were the latter Hamallayya and Hauka religious movements. Though largely successful in subduing the sedentary populations of the south, the French faced considerable more difficulty with the Tuareg in the north (centred on the Sultanate of Aïr in Agadez), and France was unable to occupy Agadez until 1906. Tuareg resistance continued however, culminating in the Kaocen revolt of 1916–17, led by Ag Mohammed Wau Teguidda Kaocen, with backing from the Senussi in Fezzan; the revolt was violently suppressed and Kaocen fled to Fezzan (where he was later killed). A puppet-sultan was set-up by the French and the decline and marginalisation of the north of the colony continued, exacerbated by a series of droughts. Though something of a backwater, some limited economic development took place in Niger during the colonial years, such as the introduction of groundnut cultivation. Various measures to improve food security following a series of devastating famines in 1913, 1920 and 1931 were also introduced.
During the Second World War, during which time mainland France was occupied by Nazi Germany, Charles de Gaulle issued the Brazzaville Declaration, declaring that the French colonial empire would be replaced post-war with a less centralised French Union. The French Union, which lasted from 1946–58, conferred a limited form of French citizenship on the inhabitants of the colonies, with some decentralisation of power and limited participation in political life for local advisory assemblies. It was during this period that the Nigerien Progressive Party ("Parti Progressiste Nigérien", or PPN; originally a branch of the African Democratic Rally, or "Rassemblement Démocratique Africain" – RDA) was formed under the leadership of former teacher Hamani Diori, as well as the left-wing Mouvement Socialiste Africain-Sawaba (MSA) led by Djibo Bakary. Following the Overseas Reform Act ("Loi Cadre") of 23 July 1956 and the establishment of the Fifth French Republic on 4 December 1958, Niger became an autonomous state within the French Community. On 18 December 1958, an autonomous Republic of Niger was officially created under the leadership of Hamani Diori. The MSA was banned in 1959 for its perceived excessive anti-French stance. On 11 July 1960, Niger decided to leave the French Community and acquired full independence on 3 August 1960; Diori thus became the first president of the country.
For its first 14 years as an independent state Niger was run by a single-party civilian regime under the presidency of Hamani Diori. The 1960s were largely peaceful, and saw a large expansion of the education system and some limited economic development and industrialisation. Links with France remained deep, with Diori allowing the development of French-led uranium mining in Arlit and supporting France in the Algerian War. Relations with other African states were mostly positive, with the exception of Dahomey (Benin), owing to an ongoing border dispute. Niger remained a one-party state throughout this period, with Diori surviving a planned coup in 1963 and an assassination attempt in 1965; much of this activity was masterminded by Djibo Bakary's MSA-Sawaba group, which had launched an abortive rebellion in 1964. In the early 1970s, a combination of economic difficulties, devastating droughts and accusations of rampant corruption and mismanagement of food supplies resulted in a coup d'état that overthrew the Diori regime.
The coup had been masterminded by Col. Seyni Kountché and a small military group under the name of the "Conseil Militaire Supreme", with Kountché going on to rule the country until his death in 1987. The first action of the military government was to address the food crisis. Whilst political prisoners of the Diori regime were released after the coup and the country was stabilised, political and individual freedoms in general deteriorated during this period. There were several attempted coups (in 1975, 1976 and 1984) which were thwarted, their instigators being severely punished.
Despite the restriction in freedom, the country enjoyed improved economic development as Kountché sought to create a 'development society', funded largely by the uranium mines in Agadez Region. Several parastatal companies were created, major infrastructure (building and new roads, schools, health centres) constructed, and there was minimal corruption in government agencies, which Kountché did not hesitate to punish severely. In the 1980s Kountché began cautiously loosening the grip of the military, with some relaxation of state censorship and attempts made to 'civilianise' the regime. However the economic boom ended following the collapse in uranium prices, and IMF-led austerity and privatisation measures provoked opposition by many Nigerians. In 1985 a small Tuareg revolt in Tchintabaraden was suppressed. Kountché died in November 1987 from a brain tumour, and was succeeded by his Chief of Staff, Col. Ali Saibou, who was confirmed as Chief of the Supreme Military Council four days later.
Saibou significantly curtailed the most repressive aspects of the Kountché era (such as the secret police and media censorship), and set about introducing a process of political reform under the overall direction of a single party (the "Mouvement National pour la Société du Développement", or MNSD). A Second Republic was declared and a new constitution was drawn up, which was adopted following a referendum in 1989. General Saibou became the first president of the Second Republic after winning the presidential election on 10 December 1989.
President Saibou's efforts to control political reforms failed in the face of trade union and student demands to institute a multi-party democratic system. On 9 February 1990, a violently repressed student march in Niamey led to the death of three students, which led to increased national and international pressure for further democratic reform. The Saibou regime acquiesced to these demands by the end of 1990. Meanwhile, trouble re-emerged in Agadez Region when a group of armed Tuaregs attacked the town of Tchintabaraden (generally seen as the start of the first Tuareg Rebellion), prompting a severe military crackdown which led to many deaths (the precise numbers are disputed, with estimates ranging from 70 to up to 1,000).
The National Sovereign Conference of 1991 marked a turning point in the post-independence history of Niger and brought about multi-party democracy. From 29 July to 3 November, a national conference gathered together all elements of society to make recommendations for the future direction of the country. The conference was presided over by Prof. André Salifou and developed a plan for a transitional government; this was then installed in November 1991 to manage the affairs of state until the institutions of the Third Republic were put into place in April 1993. After the National Sovereign Conference, the transitional government drafted a new constitution that eliminated the previous single-party system of the 1989 Constitution and guaranteed more freedoms. The new constitution was adopted by a referendum on 26 December 1992. Following this, presidential elections were held and Mahamane Ousmane became the first president of the Third Republic on 27 March 1993. Ousmane's presidency was characterised by political turbulence, with four government changes and early legislative elections in 1995, as well a severe economic slump which the coalition government proved unable to effectively address.
The violence in Agadez Region continued during this period, prompting the Nigerien government to sign a truce with Tuareg rebels in 1992 which was however ineffective owing to internal dissension within the Tuareg ranks. Another rebellion, led by dissatisfied Toubou peoples claiming that, like the Tuareg, the Nigerien government had neglected their region, broke out in the east of the country. In April 1995 a peace deal with the main Tuareg rebel group was signed, with the government agreeing to absorb some former rebels into the military and, with French assistance, help others return to a productive civilian life.
The governmental paralysis prompted the military to intervene; on 27 January 1996, Col. Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara led a coup that deposed President Ousmane and ended the Third Republic. Maïnassara headed a "Conseil de Salut National" (National Salvation Council) composed of military official which carried out a six-month transition period, during which a new constitution was drafted and adopted on 12 May 1996.
Presidential campaigns were organised in the months that followed. Maïnassara entered the campaign as an independent candidate and won the election on 8 July 1996, however the elections were viewed nationally and internationally as irregular, as the electoral commission was replaced during the campaign. Meanwhile, Maïnassara instigated an IMF and World Bank-approved privatisation programme which enriched many of his supporters but were opposed by the trade unions. Following fraudulent local elections in 1999 the opposition ceased any cooperation with the Maïnassara regime. In unclear circumstance (possibly attempting to flee the country), Maïnassara was assassinated at Niamey Airport on 9 April 1999.
Maj. Daouda Malam Wanké then took over, establishing a transitional National Reconciliation Council to oversee the drafting of a constitution with a French-style semi-presidential system. This was adopted on 9 August 1999 and was followed by presidential and legislative elections in October and November of the same year. The elections were generally found to be free and fair by international observers. Wanké then withdrew from governmental affairs.
After winning the election in November 1999, President Tandja Mamadou was sworn in office on 22 December 1999 as the first president of the Fifth Republic. Mamadou brought about many administrative and economic reforms that had been halted due to the military coups since the Third Republic, as well as helped peacefully resolve a decades-long boundary dispute with Benin. In August 2002, serious unrest within military camps occurred in Niamey, Diffa, and Nguigmi, but the government was able to restore order within several days. On 24 July 2004, the first municipal elections in the history of Niger were held to elect local representatives, previously appointed by the government. These elections were followed by presidential elections, in which Mamadou was re-elected for a second term, thus becoming the first president of the republic to win consecutive elections without being deposed by military coups. The legislative and executive configuration remained quite similar to that of the first term of the President: Hama Amadou was reappointed as Prime Minister and Mahamane Ousmane, the head of the CDS party, was re-elected as the President of the National Assembly (parliament) by his peers.
By 2007, the relationship between President Tandja Mamadou and his prime minister had deteriorated, leading to the replacement of the latter in June 2007 by Seyni Oumarou following a successful vote of no confidence at the Assembly. The political environment worsened in the following year as President Tandja Mamadou sought out to extend his presidency by modifying the constitution which limited presidential terms in Niger. Proponents of the extended presidency, rallied behind the 'Tazartche' (Hausa for 'overstay') movement, were countered by opponents ('anti-Tazartche') composed of opposition party militants and civil society activists.
The situation in the north also deteriorated significantly in this period, resulting in the outbreak of a Second Tuareg Rebellion in 2007 led by the "Mouvement des Nigériens pour la justice" (MNJ). Despite a number of high-profile kidnappings the rebellion had largely fizzled out inconclusively by 2009. However the poor security situation in the region is thought to have allowed elements of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to gain a foothold in the country.
In 2009, President Tandja Mamadou decided to organize a constitutional referendum seeking to extend his presidency, which was opposed by other political parties, as well as being against the decision of the Constitutional Court which had ruled that the referendum would be unconstitutional. Mamadou then modified and adopted a new constitution by referendum, which was declared illegal by the Constitutional Court, prompting Mamadou to dissolve the Court and assume emergency powers. The opposition boycotted the referendum and the new constitution was adopted with 92.5% of voters and a 68% turnout, according to official results. The adoption of the new constitution created a Sixth Republic, with a presidential system, as well as the suspension of the 1999 Constitution and a three-year interim government with Tandja Mamadou as president. The events generated severe political and social unrest throughout the country.
In a coup d'état in February 2010, a military junta led by captain Salou Djibo was established in response to Tandja's attempted extension of his political term by modifying the constitution. The Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, led by General Salou Djibo, carried out a one-year transition plan, drafted a new constitution and held elections in 2011 that were judged internationally as free and fair.
Following the adoption of a new constitution in 2010 and presidential elections a year later, Mahamadou Issoufou was elected as the first president of the Seventh Republic; he was then re-elected in 2016. An attempted coup against him in 2011 was thwarted and its ringleaders arrested. Issoufou's time in office has been marked by numerous threats to the country's security, stemming from the fallout from the Libyan Civil War and Northern Mali conflict, a rise in attacks by AQIM, the use of Niger as a transit country for migrants (often organised by criminal gangs), and the spillover of Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgency into south-eastern Niger. French and American forces are currently assisting Niger in countering these threats.
Niger is a landlocked nation in West Africa located along the border between the Sahara and Sub-Saharan regions. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east.
Niger lies between latitudes 11° and 24°N, and longitudes 0° and 16°E. Niger's area is of which is water. This makes it slightly less than twice the size of France, and the world's twenty-second largest country.
Niger borders seven countries and has a total perimeter of . The longest border is with Nigeria to the south (). This is followed by Chad to the east, at , Algeria to the north-northwest (), and Mali at . Niger also has small borders in its far southwest with Burkina Faso at and Benin at and to the north-northeast Libya at .
The lowest point is the Niger River, with an elevation of . The highest point is Mont Idoukal-n-Taghès in the Aïr Mountains at .
Niger's subtropical climate is mainly very hot and very dry, with much desert area. In the extreme south there is a tropical climate on the edges of the Niger River basin. The terrain is predominantly desert plains and sand dunes, with flat to rolling savanna in the south and hills in the north.
The north of Niger is covered by large deserts and semi deserts. The typical mammal fauna consists of Addax antelopes, Scimitar-horned oryx, gazelles and in mountains Barbary sheep. One of the largest reserves of the world, the Aïr and Ténéré National Nature Reserve, was founded in the northern parts of the Niger to protect these rare species.
The southern parts of Niger are naturally dominated savannahs. The W National Park, situated in the bordering area to Burkina Faso and Benin, belongs to one of the most important areas for wildlife in Western Africa, which is called the WAP (W–Arli–Pendjari) Complex. It has the most important population of the rare West African lion and one of the last populations of the Northwest African cheetah.
Other wildlife includes elephants, buffaloes, roan antelopes, kob antelopes and warthogs. The West African giraffe is currently not found in the W National Park, but further north in Niger, where it has its last relict population.
Environmental issues in Niger include destructive farming practices as a result of population pressure. Illegal hunting, bush fires in some areas and human encroachment upon the flood plains of the Niger River for paddy cultivation are environmental issues. Dams constructed on the Niger River in the neighboring countries of Mali and Guinea and also within Niger itself are also cited as a reason for a reduction of water flow in the Niger River—which has a direct effect upon the environment. A lack of adequate staff to guard wildlife in the parks and reserves is another factor cited for loss of wildlife.
Niger's new constitution was approved on 31 October 2010. It restored the semi-presidential system of government of the 1999 constitution (Fifth Republic) in which the president of the republic, elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term, and a prime minister named by the president share executive power.
As a reflection of Niger's increasing population, the unicameral National Assembly was expanded in 2004 to 113 deputies elected for a five-year term under a majority system of representation. Political parties must attain at least 5 percent of the vote in order to gain a seat in the legislature.
The constitution also provides for the popular election of municipal and local officials, and the first-ever successful municipal elections took place on 24 July 2004. The National Assembly passed in June 2002 a series of decentralization bills. As a first step, administrative powers will be distributed among 265 communes (local councils); in later stages, regions and departments will be established as decentralized entities. A new electoral code was adopted to reflect the decentralization context. The country is currently divided into 8 regions, which are subdivided into 36 districts (departments). The chief administrator (Governor) in each department is appointed by the government and functions primarily as the local agent of the central authorities.
On 26 May 2009, President Tandja dissolved parliament after the country's constitutional court ruled against plans to hold a referendum on whether to allow him a third term in office. According to the constitution, a new parliament was elected within three months. This began a political struggle between Tandja, trying to extend his term-limited authority beyond 2009 through the establishment of a Sixth Republic, and his opponents who demanded that he step down at the end of his second term in December 2009. See 2009 Nigerien constitutional crisis. The military took over the country and President Tandja was put in prison, charged with corruption.
The military kept their promise to return the country to democratic civilian rule. A constitutional referendum and national elections were held. A presidential election was held on 31 January 2011, but as no clear winner emerged, run-off elections were held on 12 March 2011. Mahamadou Issoufou of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism was elected president. A parliamentary election was held at the same time.
Niger pursues a moderate foreign policy and maintains friendly relations with the West and the Islamic world as well as non-aligned countries. It belongs to the UN and its main specialized agencies and in 1980–81 served on the UN Security Council. Niger maintains a special relationship with former colonial power France and has close relations with its West African neighbors.
It is a charter member of the African Union and the West African Monetary Union and also belongs to the Niger Basin Authority and Lake Chad Basin Commission, the Economic Community of West African States, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA). The westernmost regions of Niger are joined with contiguous regions of Mali and Burkina Faso under the Liptako-Gourma Authority.
The border dispute with Benin, inherited from colonial times and concerning inter alia Lété Island in the Niger River, was solved by the International Court of Justice in 2005 to Niger's advantage.
Government finance is derived revenue exports (Mining, oil and agricultural exports) as well as various forms of taxes collected by the government. In the past, foreign aid has contributed to large percentages of the budget. In 2013, Niger's government has adopted a zero-deficit budget of 1.279 trillion CFA francs ($2.53 billion) which is claimed to balance revenues and expenditures by an 11% reduction in the budget from the previous year.
The 2014 budget was 1.867 trillion CFA which is distributed as follows according to: public debt (76,703,692,000 CFA), personnel expenditures (210,979,633,960 CFA), operating expenditures (128,988,777,711 CFA); subsidies and transfers: 308,379,641,366 CFA) and Investment (1,142,513,658,712 CFA).
The importance of external support for Niger's development is demonstrated by the fact that about 45% of the government's FY 2002 budget, including 80% of its capital budget, derives from donor resources. The most important donors in Niger are France, the European Union, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and various United Nations agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, FAO, World Food Program, and United Nations Population Fund).
Other principal donors include the United States, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. While USAID does not have an office in Niger, the United States is a major donor, contributing nearly $10 million each year to Niger's development. The U.S. also is a major partner in policy coordination in such areas as food security and HIV/AIDS.
The current Judiciary of Niger was established with the creation of the Fourth Republic in 1999. The constitution of December 1992 was revised by national referendum on 12 May 1996 and, again, by referendum, revised to the current version on 18 July 1999. It is based on the Code Napoleon ""Inquisitorial system"", established in Niger during French colonial rule and the 1960 Constitution of Niger. The Court of Appeals reviews questions of fact and law, while the Supreme Court reviews application of the law and constitutional questions. The High Court of Justice (HCJ) deals with cases involving senior government officials. The justice system also includes civil criminal courts, customary courts, traditional mediation, and a military court. The military court provides the same rights as civil criminal courts; however, customary courts do not. The military court cannot try civilians.
Law enforcement in Niger is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense through the National Gendarmerie and the Ministry of the Interior through the National Police and the National Guard. The National Police is primarily responsible for law enforcement in urban areas. Outside big cities and in rural areas, this responsibility falls on the National Gendarmerie and the National Guard.
The Niger Armed Forces (Forces armées nigériennes) are the military and paramilitary forces of Niger, under the president as supreme commander. They consist of the Niger Army (Armée de Terre), the Niger Air Force (Armée de l'Air) and the auxiliary paramilitary forces, such as the National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie nationale) and the National Guard (Garde Nationale). Both paramilitary forces are trained in military fashion and have some military responsibilities in wartime. In peace time their duties are mostly policing duties.
The armed forces are composed of approximately 12,900 personnel, including 3,700 gendarmes, 3200 national guards, 300 air force personnel, and 6,000 army personnel. The armed forces of Niger have been involved several military coups over the years with the most recent in 2010. Niger's armed forces have a long history of military cooperation with France and the United States. , Niamey is home to a U.S. drone base.
Niger is divided into 7 Regions and one capital district. These Regions are subdivided into 36 departments. The 36 Departments are currently broken down into Communes of varying types. there were 265 communes, including communes urbaines (Urban Communes: as subdivisions of major cities), communes rurales (Rural Communes), in sparsely populated areas and postes administratifs (Administrative Posts) for largely uninhabited desert areas or military zones.
Rural communes may contain official villages and settlements, while Urban Communes are divided into quarters. Niger subvisions were renamed in 2002, in the implementation of a decentralisation project, first begun in 1998. Previously, Niger was divided into 7 Departments, 36 Arrondissements, and Communes. These subdivisions were administered by officials appointed by the national government. These offices will be replaced in the future by democratically elected councils at each level.
The "pre-2002" departments (renamed as regions) and capital district are:
The economy of Niger centers on subsistence crops, livestock, and some of the world's largest uranium deposits. Drought cycles, desertification, a 2.9% population growth rate, and the drop in world demand for uranium have undercut the economy.
Niger shares a common currency, the CFA franc, and a common central bank, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), with seven other members of the West African Monetary Union. Niger is also a member of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA).
In December 2000, Niger qualified for enhanced debt relief under the International Monetary Fund program for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and concluded an agreement with the Fund for Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). Debt relief provided under the enhanced HIPC initiative significantly reduces Niger's annual debt service obligations, freeing funds for expenditures on basic health care, primary education, HIV/AIDS prevention, rural infrastructure, and other programs geared at poverty reduction.
In December 2005, it was announced that Niger had received 100% multilateral debt relief from the IMF, which translates into the forgiveness of approximately US$86 million in debts to the IMF, excluding the remaining assistance under HIPC. Nearly half of the government's budget is derived from foreign donor resources. Future growth may be sustained by exploitation of oil, gold, coal, and other mineral resources. Uranium prices have recovered somewhat in the last few years. A drought and locust infestation in 2005 led to food shortages for as many as 2.5 million Nigeriens.
, the population of Niger was . Expanding from a population of 3.4 million in 1960, Niger's population has rapidly increased with a current growth rate of 3.3% (7.1 children per mother).
This growth rate is one of the highest in the world and is a source of concern for the government and international agencies. The population is predominantly young, with 49.2% under 15 years old and 2.7% over 65 years, and predominantly rural with only 21% living in urban areas.
A 2005 study stated that over 800,000 people (nearly 8% of the population) in Niger are enslaved.
Niger has a wide variety of ethnic groups as in most West African countries. The ethnic makeup of Niger in 2001 is as follows: Hausa (55.4%), Zarma-Songhai (21%), Tuareg (9.3%), Fula (; ) (8.5%), Kanuri Manga (4.7%), Tubu (0.4%), Arab (0.4%), Gourmantche (0.4%), other (0.1%). The Zarma-Songhai dominate the Dosso, Tillabéri, and Niamey régions, the Hausa dominate the Zinder, Maradi, and Tahoua regions, Kanuri Manga dominate the Diffa region, and Touaregs dominate the Agadez region in Northern Niger.
French, inherited from the colonial period, is the official language. It is spoken mainly as a second language by people who have received a formal western education and serves as the administrative language. Niger has been a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie since 1970.
Niger has ten recognized national languages, namely Arabic, Buduma, Fulfulde, Gourmanchéma, Hausa, Kanuri, Zarma & Songhai, Tamasheq, Tassawaq, Tebu. Each is spoken as a first language primarily by the ethnic group with which it is associated. Hausa and Zarma-Songhai, the two most spoken languages, are widely spoken throughout the country as first or second languages.
Niger is a secular country and separation of state and religion is guaranteed by Articles 3 and 175 of the 2010 Constitution, which dictate that future amendments or revisions may not modify the secular nature of the republic of Niger. Religious freedom is protected by Article 30 of the same constitution. Islam, widespread in the region since the 10th century, has greatly shaped the culture and mores of the people of Niger. Islam is the most dominant religion, practiced by 99.3% of the population according to the 2012 census.
The other two main religions of Niger are Christianity, practiced by 0.3% of the population, and Animism (traditional indigenous religious beliefs), practiced by 0.2% of the population. Christianity was established earlier in the country by missionaries during the French colonial years. Other urban Christian expatriate communities from Europe and West Africa are also presented. Religious persecution is rare in Niger which is ranked last (#50) on the World Watch List for severity of persecution that Christians face for actively pursuing their faith.
The numbers of Animist practitioners are a point of contention. As recently as the late 19th century, much of the south center of the nation was unreached by Islam, and the conversion of some rural areas has been only partial. There are still areas where animist based festivals and traditions (such as the Bori religion) are practiced by syncretic Muslim communities (in some Hausa areas as well as among some Toubou and Wodaabe pastoralists), as opposed to several small communities who maintain their pre-Islamic religion. These include the Hausa-speaking Maouri (or "Azna", the Hausa word for "pagan") community in Dogondoutci in the south-southwest and the Kanuri speaking Manga near Zinder, both of whom practice variations of the pre-Islamic Hausa Maguzawa religion. There are also some tiny Boudouma and Songhay animist communities in the southwest.
The majority of Muslims in Niger are Sunni, 7% are Shi'a, 5% are Ahmadiyya and 20% non-denominational. Islam was spread into what is now Niger beginning in the 15th century, by both the expansion of the Songhai Empire in the west, and the influence of the Trans-Saharan trade traveling from the Maghreb and Egypt. Tuareg expansion from the north, culminating in their seizure of the far eastern oases from the Kanem-Bornu Empire in the 17th centuries, spread distinctively Berber practices.
Both Zarma and Hausa areas were greatly influenced by the 18th- and 19th-century Fula led Sufi brotherhoods, most notably the Sokoto Caliphate (in today's Nigeria). Modern Muslim practice in Niger is often tied to the Tijaniya Sufi brotherhoods, although there are small minority groups tied to Hammallism and Nyassist Sufi orders in the west, and the Sanusiya in the far northeast.
A small center of followers of Salafi movement within Sunni Islam have appeared in the last thirty years, in the capital and in Maradi. These small groups, linked to similar groups in Jos, Nigeria, came to public prominence in the 1990s during a series of religious riots.
Despite this, Niger maintains a tradition as a secular state, protected by law. Interfaith relations are deemed very good, and the forms of Islam traditionally practiced in most of the country are marked by tolerance of other faiths and lack of restrictions on personal freedom. Divorce and polygyny are unremarkable, women are not secluded, and head coverings are not mandatory—they are often a rarity in urban areas. Alcohol, such as the locally produced Bière Niger, is sold openly in most of the country.
The literacy rate of Niger is among the lowest in the world; in 2005 it was estimated to be only 28.7% (42.9% male and 15.1% female). Primary education in Niger is compulsory for six years. The primary school enrollment and attendance rates are low, particularly for girls. In 1997, the gross primary enrollment rate was 29.3 percent, and in 1996, the net primary enrollment rate was 24.5 percent.
About 60 percent of children who finish primary schools are boys, as the majority of girls rarely attend school for more than a few years. Children are often forced to work rather than attend school, particularly during planting or harvest periods. Nomadic children in the north of the country often do not have access to schools.
The child mortality rate in Niger (deaths among children between the ages of 1 and 4) is high (248 per 1,000) due to generally poor health conditions and inadequate nutrition for most of the country's children. According to the organization Save the Children, Niger has the world's highest infant mortality rate.
Niger also has the highest fertility rate in the world (6.49 births per woman according to 2017 estimates); this means that nearly half (49%) of the Nigerien population is under age 15. Niger has the 11th highest maternal mortality rate in the world at 820 deaths/100,000 live births. There were 3 physicians and 22 nurses per 100,000 persons in 2006.
Nigerien culture is marked by variation, evidence of the cultural crossroads which French colonialism formed into a unified state from the beginning of the 20th century. What is now Niger was created from four distinct cultural areas in the pre-colonial era: the Zarma dominated Niger River valley in the southwest; the northern periphery of Hausaland, made mostly of those states which had resisted the Sokoto Caliphate, and ranged along the long southern border with Nigeria; the Lake Chad basin and Kaouar in the far east, populated by Kanuri farmers and Toubou pastoralists who had once been part of the Kanem-Bornu Empire; and the Tuareg nomads of the Aïr Mountains and Saharan desert in the vast north.
Each of these communities, along with smaller ethnic groups like the pastoral Wodaabe Fula, brought their own cultural traditions to the new state of Niger. While successive post-independence governments have tried to forge a shared national culture, this has been slow forming, in part because the major Nigerien communities have their own cultural histories, and in part because Nigerien ethnic groups such as the Hausa, Tuareg and Kanuri are but part of larger ethnic communities which cross borders introduced under colonialism.
Until the 1990s, government and politics was inordinately dominated by Niamey and the Zarma people of the surrounding region. At the same time the plurality of the population, in the Hausa borderlands between Birni-N'Konni and Maine-Soroa, have often looked culturally more to Hausaland in Nigeria than Niamey. Between 1996 and 2003, primary school attendance was around 30%, including 36% of males and only 25% of females. Additional education occurs through madrasas.
The Guérewol festival is a traditional Wodaabe cultural event that takes place in Abalak in Tahoua region or In'Gall in Agadez Region. It is an annual traditional courtship ritual practiced by the Wodaabe (Fula) people of Niger. During this ceremony, young men dressed in elaborate ornamentation and made up in traditional face painting gather in lines to dance and sing, vying for the attention of marriageable young women. The Guérewol festival is an international attraction and was featured in films and magazines as prominent as the National Geographic.
"La Cure salée" (English: Salt Cure) is a yearly festival of Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads in In'Gall in Agadez Region traditionally to celebrate the end of the rainy season. For three days, the festival features a parade of Tuareg camel riders followed with camel and horse races, songs, dances, and storytelling.
Niger began developing diverse media in the late 1990s. Prior to the Third Republic, Nigeriens only had access to tightly controlled state media. Now Niamey contains scores of newspapers and magazines; some, like "Le Sahel", are government operated, while many are critical of the government. Radio is the most important medium, as television sets are beyond the buying power of many of the rural poor, and illiteracy prevents print media from becoming a mass medium.
In addition to the national and regional radio services of the state broadcaster ORTN, there are four privately owned radio networks which total more than 100 stations. Three of them—the Anfani Group, Sarounia and Tenere—are urban-based commercial-format FM networks in the major towns. There is also a network of over 80 community radio stations spread across all seven regions of the country, governed by the Comité de Pilotage de Radios de Proximité (CPRP), a civil society organisation. The independent-sector radio networks are collectively estimated by CPRP officials to cover some 7.6 million people, or about 73% of the population (2005).
Aside from Nigerien radio stations, the BBC's Hausa service is listened to on FM repeaters across wide parts of the country, particularly in the south, close to the border with Nigeria. Radio France Internationale also rebroadcasts in French through some of the commercial stations, via satellite. Tenere FM also runs a national independent television station of the same name.
Despite relative freedom at the national level, Nigerien journalists say they are often pressured by local authorities. The state ORTN network depends financially on the government, partly through a surcharge on electricity bills, and partly through direct subsidy. The sector is governed by the Conseil Supérieur de Communications, established as an independent body in the early 1990s, since 2007 headed by Daouda Diallo. International human rights groups have criticised the government since at least 1996 as using regulation and police to punish criticism of the state.
Trade | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21373 |
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship "Pequod", for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, "Moby-Dick" was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a "Great American Novel" was established only in the 20th century, after the centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world" and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". Its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael", is among world literature's most famous.
Melville began writing "Moby-Dick" in February 1850, and finished 18 months later, a year longer than he had anticipated. Melville drew on his experience as a common sailor from 1841 to 1844, including several years on whalers, and on wide reading in whaling literature. The white whale is modeled on the notoriously hard-to-catch albino whale Mocha Dick, and the book's ending is based on the sinking of the whaleship "Essex" in 1820. His literary influences include Shakespeare and the Bible. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry, and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies, and asides. In August 1850, with the manuscript perhaps half finished, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne and was deeply moved by his "Mosses from an Old Manse", which he compared to Shakespeare in its cosmic ambitions. This encounter may have inspired him to revise and expand "Moby-Dick", which is dedicated to Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius".
The book was first published (in three volumes) as "The Whale" in London in October 1851, and under its definitive title in a single-volume edition in New York in November. The London publisher, Richard Bentley, censored or changed sensitive passages; Melville made revisions as well, including a last-minute change to the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in the text of both editions as "Moby Dick", without the hyphen. Reviewers in Britain were largely favorable, though some objected that the tale seemed to be told by a narrator who perished with the ship, as the British edition lacked the Epilogue recounting Ishmael's survival. American reviewers were more hostile. About 3,200 copies of the book were sold during the author's life.
Ishmael travels in December from Manhattan Island to New Bedford, Massachusetts with plans to sign up for a whaling voyage. The inn where he arrives is overcrowded, so he must share a bed with the tattooed cannibal Polynesian Queequeg, a harpooneer whose father was king of the fictional island of Rokovoko. The next morning, Ishmael and Queequeg attend Father Mapple's sermon on Jonah, then head for Nantucket. Ishmael signs up with the Quaker ship-owners Bildad and Peleg for a voyage on their whaler "Pequod". Peleg describes Captain Ahab: "He's a grand, ungodly, god-like man" who nevertheless "has his humanities". They hire Queequeg the following morning. A man named Elijah prophesies a dire fate should Ishmael and Queequeg join Ahab. While provisions are loaded, shadowy figures board the ship. On a cold Christmas Day, the "Pequod" leaves the harbor.
Ishmael discusses cetology (the zoological classification and natural history of the whale), and describes the crew members. The chief mate is 30-year-old Starbuck, a Nantucket Quaker with a realist mentality, whose harpooneer is Queequeg; second mate is Stubb, from Cape Cod, happy-go-lucky and cheerful, whose harpooneer is Tashtego, a proud, pure-blooded Indian from Gay Head, and the third mate is Flask, also from Martha's Vineyard, short, stout, whose harpooneer is Daggoo, a tall African, now a resident of Nantucket.
When Ahab finally appears on the quarterdeck, he announces he is out for revenge on the white whale which took one leg from the knee down and left him with a prosthesis fashioned from a whale's jawbone. Ahab will give the first man to sight Moby Dick a doubloon, a gold coin, which he nails to the mast. Starbuck objects that he has not come for vengeance but for profit. Ahab's purpose exercises a mysterious spell on Ishmael: "Ahab's quenchless feud seemed mine". Instead of rounding Cape Horn, Ahab heads for the equatorial Pacific Ocean via southern Africa. One afternoon, as Ishmael and Queequeg are weaving a mat — "its warp seemed necessity, his hand free will, and Queequeg's sword chance" — Tashtego sights a sperm whale. Five previously unknown men appear on deck and are revealed to be a special crew selected by Ahab and explain the shadowy figures seen boarding the ship. Their leader, Fedallah, a Parsee, is Ahab's harpooneer. The pursuit is unsuccessful.
Southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, the "Pequod" makes the first of nine sea-encounters, or "gams", with other ships: Ahab hails the "Goney" (Albatross) to ask whether they have seen the White Whale, but the trumpet through which her captain tries to speak falls into the sea before he can answer. Ishmael explains that because of Ahab's absorption with Moby Dick, he sails on without the customary "gam", which defines as a "social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships", in which the two captains remain on one ship and the chief mates on the other. In the second gam off the Cape of Good Hope, with the "Town-Ho", a Nantucket whaler, the concealed story of a "judgment of God" is revealed, but only to the crew: a defiant sailor who struck an oppressive officer is flogged, and when that officer led the chase for Moby Dick, he fell from the boat and was killed by the whale.
Ishmael digresses on pictures of whales, brit (microscopic sea creatures on which whales feed), squid and — after four boats lowered in vain because Daggoo mistook a giant squid for the white whale — whale-lines. The next day, in the Indian Ocean, Stubb kills a sperm whale, and that night Fleece, the "Pequod"s black cook, prepares him a rare whale steak. Fleece, at Stubb's request, delivers a sermon to the sharks that fight each other to feast on the whale's carcass, tied to the ship, saying that their nature is to be voracious, but they must overcome it. The whale is prepared, beheaded, and barrels of oil are tried out. Standing at the head of the whale, Ahab begs it to speak of the depths of the sea. The "Pequod" next encounters the "Jeroboam", which not only lost its chief mate to Moby Dick, but also is now plagued by an epidemic.
The whale carcass still lies in the water. Queequeg mounts it, tied to Ishmael's belt by a monkey-rope as if they were Siamese twins. Stubb and Flask kill a right whale whose head is fastened to a yardarm opposite the sperm whale's head. Ishmael compares the two heads in a philosophical way: the right whale is Lockean, stoic, and the sperm whale as Kantean, platonic. Tashtego cuts into the head of the sperm whale and retrieves buckets of spermaceti. He falls into the head, which in turn falls off the yardarm into the sea. Queequeg dives after him and frees his mate with his sword.
The "Pequod" next gams with the "Jungfrau" from Bremen. Both ships sight whales simultaneously, with the "Pequod" winning the contest. The three harpooneers dart their harpoons, and Flask delivers the mortal strike with a lance. The carcass sinks, and Queequeg barely manages to escape. The "Pequod"s next gam is with the French whaler "Bouton de Rose", whose crew is ignorant of the ambergris in the gut of the diseased whale in their possession. Stubb talks them out of it, but Ahab orders him away before he can recover more than a few handfuls. Days later, an encounter with a harpooned whale prompts Pip, a little black cabin-boy from Connecticut, to jump out of his whale boat. The whale must be cut loose, because the line has Pip so entangled in it. Furious, Stubb orders Pip to stay in the whale boat, but Pip later jumps again, and is left alone in the immense sea and has gone insane by the time he is picked up.
Cooled spermaceti congeals and must be squeezed back into liquid state; blubber is boiled in the try-pots on deck; the warm oil is decanted into casks, and then stowed in the ship. After the operation, the decks are scrubbed. The coin hammered to the main mast shows three Andes summits, one with a flame, one with a tower, and one a crowing cock. Ahab stops to look at the doubloon and interprets the coin as signs of his firmness, volcanic energy, and victory; Starbuck takes the high peaks as evidence of the Trinity; Stubb focuses on the zodiacal arch over the mountains; and Flask sees nothing of any symbolic value at all. The Manxman mutters in front of the mast, and Pip declines the verb "look".
The "Pequod" next gams with the "Samuel Enderby" of London, captained by Boomer, a down-to-earth fellow who lost his right arm to Moby Dick. Nevertheless, he carries no ill will toward the whale, which he regards not as malicious, but as awkward. Ahab puts an end to the gam by rushing back to his ship. The narrator now discusses the subjects of (1) whalers supply; (2) a glen in Tranque in the Arsacides islands full of carved whale bones, fossil whales, whale skeleton measurements; (3) the chance that the magnitude of the whale will diminish and that the leviathan might perish.
Leaving the "Samuel Enderby", Ahab wrenches his ivory leg and orders the carpenter to fashion him another. Starbuck informs Ahab of oil leakage in the hold. Reluctantly, Ahab orders the harpooneers to inspect the casks. Queequeg, sweating all day below decks, develops a chill and soon is almost mortally feverish. The carpenter makes a coffin for Queequeg, who fears an ordinary burial at sea. Queequeg tries it for size, with Pip sobbing and beating his tambourine, standing by and calling himself a coward while he praises Queequeg for his gameness. Yet Queequeg suddenly rallies, briefly convalesces, and leaps up, back in good health. Henceforth, he uses his coffin for a spare seachest, which is later caulked and pitched to replace the "Pequod"s life buoy.
The "Pequod" sails northeast toward Formosa and into the Pacific Ocean. Ahab, with one nostril, smells the musk from the Bashee isles, and with the other, the salt of the waters where Moby Dick swims. Ahab goes to Perth, the blacksmith, with a bag of racehorse shoenail stubs to be forged into the shank of a special harpoon, and with his razors for Perth to melt and fashion into a harpoon barb. Ahab tempers the barb in blood from Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo.
The "Pequod" gams next with the "Bachelor", a Nantucket ship heading home full of sperm oil. Every now and then, the "Pequod" lowers for whales with success. On one of those nights in the whaleboat, Fedallah prophesies that neither hearse nor coffin can be Ahab's, that before he dies, Ahab must see two hearses — one not made by mortal hands and the other made of American wood — that Fedallah will precede his captain in death, and finally that only hemp can kill Ahab.
As the "Pequod" approaches the Equator, Ahab scolds his quadrant for telling him only where he is and not where he will be. He dashes it to the deck. That evening, an impressive typhoon attacks the ship. Lightning strikes the mast, setting the doubloon and Ahab's harpoon aglow. Ahab delivers a speech on the spirit of fire, seeing the lightning as a portent of Moby Dick. Starbuck sees the lightning as a warning, and feels tempted to shoot the sleeping Ahab with a musket. Next morning, when he finds that the lightning disoriented the compass, Ahab makes a new one out of a lance, a maul, and a sailmaker's needle. He orders the log be heaved, but the weathered line snaps, leaving the ship with no way to fix its location.
The "Pequod" is now heading southeast toward Moby Dick. A man falls overboard from the mast. The life buoy is thrown, but both sink. Now Queequeg proposes that his superfluous coffin be used as a new life buoy. Starbuck orders the carpenter to seal and waterproof it. Next morning, the ship meets in another truncated gam with the "Rachel", commanded by Captain Gardiner from Nantucket. The "Rachel" is seeking survivors from one of her whaleboats which had gone after Moby Dick. Among the missing is Gardiner's young son. Ahab refuses to join the search.
Twenty-four hours a day, Ahab now stands and walks the deck, while Fedallah shadows him. Suddenly, a sea hawk grabs Ahab's slouched hat and flies off with it. Next, the "Pequod", in a ninth and final gam, meets the "Delight", badly damaged and with five of her crew left dead by Moby Dick. Her captain shouts that the harpoon which can kill the white whale has yet to be forged, but Ahab flourishes his special lance and once more orders the ship forward. Ahab shares a moment of contemplation with Starbuck. Ahab speaks about his wife and child, calls himself a fool for spending 40 years on whaling, and claims he can see his own child in Starbuck's eye. Starbuck tries to persuade Ahab to return to Nantucket to meet both their families, but Ahab simply crosses the deck and stands near Fedallah.
On the first day of the chase, Ahab smells the whale, climbs the mast, and sights Moby Dick. He claims the doubloon for himself, and orders all boats to lower except for Starbuck's. The whale bites Ahab's boat in two, tosses the captain out of it, and scatters the crew. On the second day of the chase, Ahab leaves Starbuck in charge of the "Pequod". Moby Dick smashes the three boats that seek him into splinters and tangles their lines. Ahab is rescued, but his ivory leg and Fedallah are lost. Starbuck begs Ahab to desist, but Ahab vows to slay the white whale, even if he would have to dive through the globe itself to get his revenge.
On the third day of the chase, Ahab sights Moby Dick at noon, and sharks appear, as well. Ahab lowers his boat for a final time, leaving Starbuck again on board. Moby Dick breaches and destroys two boats. Fedallah's corpse, still entangled in the fouled lines, is lashed to the whale's back, so Moby Dick turns out to be the hearse Fedallah prophesied.
"Possessed by all the fallen angels", Ahab plants his harpoon in the whale's flank. Moby Dick smites the whaleboat, tossing its men into the sea. Only Ishmael is unable to return to the boat. He is left behind in the sea, and so is the only crewman of the "Pequod" to survive the final encounter. The whale now fatally attacks the "Pequod". Ahab then realizes that the destroyed ship is the hearse made of American wood in Fedallah's prophecy.
The whale returns to Ahab, who stabs at him again. As he does so, the line gets tangled, and Ahab bends over to free it. In doing so the line loops around Ahab's neck, and as the stricken whale swims away, the captain is drawn with him out of sight. Queequeg's coffin comes to the surface, the only thing to escape the vortex when "Pequod" sank. For a day and a night, Ishmael floats on it, until the "Rachel", still looking for its lost seamen, rescues him.
Ishmael is the narrator, shaping his story with use of many different genres including sermons, stage plays, soliloquies, and emblematical readings. Repeatedly, Ishmael refers to his writing of the book: "But how can I hope to explain myself here; and yet, in some dim, random way, explain myself I must, else all these chapters might be naught." Scholar John Bryant calls him the novel's "central consciousness and narrative voice." Walter Bezanson first distinguishes Ishmael as narrator from Ishmael as character, whom he calls "forecastle Ishmael", the younger Ishmael of some years ago. Narrator Ishmael, then, is "merely young Ishmael grown older." A second distinction avoids confusion of either of both Ishmaels with the author Herman Melville. Bezanson warns readers to "resist any one-to-one equation of Melville and Ishmael."
According to critic Walter Bezanson, the chapter structure can be divided into "chapter sequences", "chapter clusters", and "balancing chapters". The simplest sequences are of narrative progression, then sequences of theme such as the three chapters on whale painting, and sequences of structural similarity, such as the five dramatic chapters beginning with "The Quarter-Deck" or the four chapters beginning with "The Candles". Chapter clusters are the chapters on the significance of the colour white, and those on the meaning of fire. Balancing chapters are chapters of opposites, such as "Loomings" versus the "Epilogue," or similars, such as "The Quarter-Deck" and "The Candles".
Scholar Lawrence Buell describes the arrangement of the non-narrative chapters as structured around three patterns: first, the nine meetings of the "Pequod" with ships that have encountered Moby Dick. Each has been more and more severely damaged, foreshadowing the "Pequod"s own fate. Second, the increasingly impressive encounters with whales. In the early encounters, the whaleboats hardly make contact; later there are false alarms and routine chases; finally, the massive assembling of whales at the edges of the China Sea in "The Grand Armada". A typhoon near Japan sets the stage for Ahab's confrontation with Moby Dick.
The third pattern is the cetological documentation, so lavish that it can be divided into two subpatterns. These chapters start with the ancient history of whaling and a bibliographical classification of whales, getting closer with second-hand stories of the evil of whales in general and of Moby Dick in particular, a chronologically ordered commentary on pictures of whales. The climax to this section is chapter 57, "Of whales in paint etc.", which begins with the humble (a beggar in London) and ends with the sublime (the constellation Cetus). The next chapter ("Brit"), thus the other half of this pattern, begins with the book's first description of live whales, and next the anatomy of the sperm whale is studied, more or less from front to rear and from outer to inner parts, all the way down to the skeleton. Two concluding chapters set forth the whale's evolution as a species and claim its eternal nature.
Some "ten or more" of the chapters on whale killings, beginning at two-fifths of the book, are developed enough to be called "events". As Bezanson writes, "in each case a killing provokes either a chapter sequence or a chapter cluster of cetological lore growing out of the circumstance of the particular killing," thus these killings are "structural occasions for ordering the whaling essays and sermons".
Buell observes that the "narrative architecture" is an "idiosyncratic variant of the bipolar observer/hero narrative", that is, the novel is structured around the two main characters, Ahab and Ishmael, who are intertwined and contrasted with each other, with Ishmael the observer and narrator. As the story of Ishmael, remarks Robert Milder, it is a "narrative of education".
Bryant and Springer find that the book is structured around the two consciousnesses of Ahab and Ishmael, with Ahab as a force of linearity and Ishmael a force of digression. While both have an angry sense of being orphaned, they try to come to terms with this hole in their beings in different ways: Ahab with violence, Ishmael with meditation. And while the plot in "Moby-Dick" may be driven by Ahab's anger, Ishmael's desire to get a hold of the "ungraspable" accounts for the novel's lyricism. Buell sees a double quest in the book: Ahab's is to hunt Moby Dick, Ishmael's is "to understand what to make of both whale and hunt".
One of the most distinctive features of the book is the variety of genres. Bezanson mentions sermons, dreams, travel account, autobiography, Elizabethan plays, and epic poetry. He calls Ishmael's explanatory footnotes to establish the documentary genre "a Nabokovian touch".
A significant structural device is the series of nine meetings (gams) between the "Pequod" and other ships. These meetings are important in three ways. First, their placement in the narrative. The initial two meetings and the last two are both close to each other. The central group of five gams are separated by about 12 chapters, more or less. This pattern provides a structural element, remarks Bezanson, as if the encounters were "bones to the book's flesh". Second, Ahab's developing responses to the meetings plot the "rising curve of his passion" and of his monomania. Third, in contrast to Ahab, Ishmael interprets the significance of each ship individually: "each ship is a scroll which the narrator unrolls and reads."
Bezanson sees no single way to account for the meaning of all of these ships. Instead, they may be interpreted as "a group of metaphysical parables, a series of biblical analogues, a masque of the situation confronting man, a pageant of the humors within men, a parade of the nations, and so forth, as well as concrete and symbolic ways of thinking about the White Whale".
Scholar Nathalia Wright sees the meetings and the significance of the vessels along other lines. She singles out the four vessels which have already encountered Moby Dick. The first, the "Jeroboam", is named after the predecessor of the biblical King Ahab. Her "prophetic" fate is "a message of warning to all who follow, articulated by Gabriel and vindicated by the "Samuel Enderby", the "Rachel", the "Delight", and at last the "Pequod"". None of the other ships has been completely destroyed because none of their captains shared Ahab's monomania; the fate of the "Jeroboam" reinforces the structural parallel between Ahab and his biblical namesake: "Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him" (I Kings 16:33).
An early enthusiast for the Melville Revival, British author E. M. Forster, remarked in 1927: ""Moby-Dick" is full of meanings: its meaning is a different problem." Yet he saw as "the essential" in the book "its prophetic song", which flows "like an undercurrent" beneath the surface action and morality.
Biographer Laurie Robertson-Lorant sees epistemology as the book's theme. Ishmael's taxonomy of whales merely demonstrates "the limitations of scientific knowledge and the impossibility of achieving certainty". She also contrasts Ishmael and Ahab's attitudes toward life, with Ishmael's open-minded and meditative, "polypositional stance" as antithetical to Ahab's monomania, adhering to dogmatic rigidity.
Melville biographer Andrew Delbanco cites race as an example of this search for truth beneath surface differences. All races are represented among the crew members of the "Pequod". Although Ishmael initially is afraid of Queequeg as a tattooed cannibal, he soon decides, "Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian." While it may be rare for a mid-19th century American book to feature black characters in a nonslavery context, slavery is frequently mentioned. The theme of race is primarily carried by Pip, the diminutive black cabin boy. When Pip has almost drowned, Ahab, genuinely touched by Pip's suffering, questions him gently, Pip "can only parrot the language of an advertisement for the return of a fugitive slave: 'Pip! Reward for Pip!'".
Editors Bryant and Springer suggest perception is a central theme, the difficulty of seeing and understanding, which makes deep reality hard to discover and truth hard to pin down. Ahab explains that, like all things, the evil whale wears a disguise: "All visible objects, man, are but pasteboard masks" — and Ahab is determined to "strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside, except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall" (Ch. 36, "The Quarter-Deck"). This theme pervades the novel, perhaps never so emphatically as in "The Doubloon" (Ch. 99), where each crewmember perceives the coin in a way shaped by his own personality. Later, the American edition has Ahab "discover no sign" (Ch. 133) of the whale when he is staring into the deep. In fact, Moby Dick is then swimming up at him. In the British edition, Melville changed the word "discover" to "perceive", and with good reason, for "discovery" means finding what is already there, but "perceiving", or better still, perception, is "a matter of shaping what exists by the way in which we see it". The point is not that Ahab would discover the whale as an object, but that he would perceive it as a symbol of his making.
Yet Melville does not offer easy solutions. Ishmael and Queequeg's sensual friendship initiates a kind of racial harmony that is shattered when the crew's dancing erupts into racial conflict in "Midnight, Forecastle" (Ch. 40). Fifty chapters later, Pip suffers mental disintegration after he is reminded that as a slave he would be worth less money than a whale. Commodified and brutalized, "Pip becomes the ship's conscience". His views of property are another example of wrestling with moral choice. In Chapter 89, Ishmael expounds the concept of the fast-fish and the loose-fish, which gives right of ownership to those who take possession of an abandoned fish or ship, and observes that the British Empire took possession of American Indian lands in colonial times in just the way that whalers take possession of an unclaimed whale.
The novel has also been read as being critical of the contemporary literary and philosophical movement Transcendentalism, attacking the thought of leading Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson in particular. The life and death of Ahab has been read as an attack on Emerson's philosophy of self reliance, for one, in its destructive potential and potential justification for egoism. Richard Chase writes that for Melville, 'Death–spiritual, emotional, physical–is the price of self-reliance when it is pushed to the point of solipsism, where the world has no existence apart from the all-sufficient self.' In that regard, Chase sees Melville's art as antithetical to that of Emerson's thought, in that Melville '[points] up the dangers of an exaggerated self-regard, rather than, as ... Emerson loved to do, [suggested] the vital possibilities of the self.' Newton Arvin further suggests that self-reliance was, for Melville, really the '[masquerade in kingly weeds of] a wild egoism, anarchic, irresponsible, and destructive.'
An incomplete inventory of the language of "Moby-Dick" by editors Bryant and Springer includes "nautical, biblical, Homeric, Shakespearean, Miltonic, cetological" influences, and his style is "alliterative, fanciful, colloquial, archaic, and unceasingly allusive": Melville tests and exhausts the possibilities of grammar, quotes from a range of well-known or obscure sources, and swings from calm prose to high rhetoric, technical exposition, seaman's slang, mystic speculation, or wild prophetic archaism.
Many words that make up the vocabulary of "Moby-Dick" are Melville's own coinages, critic Newton Arvin recognizes, as if the English vocabulary were too limited for the complex things Melville had to express. Perhaps the most striking example is the use of verbal nouns, mostly plural, such as "allurings", "coincidings", and "leewardings". Equally abundant are unfamiliar adjectives and adverbs, including participial adjectives such as "officered", "omnitooled", and "uncatastrophied"; participial adverbs such as "intermixingly", "postponedly", and "uninterpenetratingly"; rarities such as the adjectives "unsmoothable", "spermy", and "leviathanic", and adverbs such as "sultanically", "Spanishly", and "Venetianly"; and adjectival compounds ranging from odd to magnificent, such as "the "message-carrying" air", "the "circus-running" sun", and ""teeth-tiered" sharks". It is rarer for Melville to create his own verbs from nouns, but he does this with what Arvin calls "irresistible effect", such as in "who didst "thunder" him higher than a throne", and "my fingers ... began ... to "serpentine" and "spiralize"". For Arvin, the essence of the writing style of "Moby-Dick" lies in
Arvin's categories have been slightly expanded by later critics, most notably Warner Berthoff. The superabundant vocabulary of the work can be broken down into strategies used individually and in combination. First, the original modification of words as "Leviathanism" and the exaggerated repetition of modified words, as in the series "pitiable", "pity", "pitied" and "piteous" (Ch. 81, "The Pequod Meets the Virgin"). Second, the use of existing words in new ways, as when the whale "heaps" and "tasks". Third, words lifted from specialized fields, as "fossiliferous". Fourth, the use of unusual adjective-noun combinations, as in "concentrating brow" and "immaculate manliness" (Ch. 26, "Knights and Squires"). Fifth, using the participial modifier to emphasize and to reinforce the already established expectations of the reader, as the words "preluding" and "foreshadowing" ("so still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene ..."; "In this foreshadowing interval ...").
Characteristic stylistic elements of another kind are the echoes and overtones. Responsible for this are both Melville's imitation of certain distinct styles and his habitual use of sources to shape his own work. His three most important sources, in order, are the Bible, Shakespeare, and Milton.
Another notable stylistic element are the several levels of rhetoric, the simplest of which is "a relatively straightforward "expository" style" that is evident of many passages in the cetological chapters, though they are "rarely sustained, and serve chiefly as transitions" between more sophisticated levels. One of these is the ""poetic"" level of rhetoric, which Bezanson sees "well exemplified" in Ahab's quarter-deck monologue, to the point that it can be set as blank verse. Set over a metrical pattern, the rhythms are "evenly controlled—too evenly perhaps for prose," Bezanson suggests. A third level of rhetoric is the "idiomatic", and just as the poetic it hardly is present in pure form. Examples of this are "the consistently excellent idiom" of Stubb, such as in the way he encourages the rowing crew in a rhythm of speech that suggests "the beat of the oars takes the place of the metronomic meter". The fourth and final level of rhetoric is the "composite", "a magnificent blending" of the first three and possible other elements:
The Nantucketer, he alone resides and riots on the sea; he alone, in Bible language, goes down to it in ships; to and fro ploughing it as his own special plantation. "There" is his home; "there" lies his business, which a Noah's flood would not interrupt, though it overwhelmed all the millions in China. He lives on the sea, as prairie cocks in the prairie; he hides among the waves, he climbs them as chamois hunters climb the Alps. For years he knows not the land; so that when he comes to it at last, it smells like another world, more strangely than the moon would to an Earthsman. With the landless gull, that at sunset folds her wings and is rocked to sleep between billows; so at nightfall, the Nantucketer, out of sight of land, furls his sails, and lays him to his rest, while under his very pillow rush herds of walruses and whales.
("Nantucket," Ch. 14).
This passage, from a chapter that Bezanson calls a comical "prose poem", blends "high and low with a relaxed assurance". Similar great passages include the "marvelous hymn to spiritual democracy" that can be found in the middle of "Knights and Squires".
The elaborate use of the Homeric simile may not have been learned from Homer himself, yet Matthiessen finds the writing "more consistently alive" on the Homeric than on the Shakespearean level, especially during the final chase the "controlled accumulation" of such similes emphasizes Ahab's hubris through a succession of land-images, for instance: "The ship tore on; leaving such a furrow in the sea as when a cannon-ball, missent, becomes a ploughshare and turns up the level field" ("The Chase – Second Day," Ch. 134). One paragraph-long simile describes how the 30 men of the crew became a single unit:
For as the one ship that held them all; though it was put together of all contrasting things—oak, and maple, and pine wood; iron, and pitch, and hemp—yet all these ran into each other in the one concrete hull, which shot on its way, both balanced and directed by the long central keel; even so, all the individualities of the crew, this man's valor, that man's fear; guilt and guiltiness, all varieties were welded into oneness, and were all directed to that fatal goal which Ahab their one lord and keel did point to.
("The Chase – Second Day," Ch. 134).
The final phrase fuses the two halves of the comparison, the men become identical with the ship, which follows Ahab's direction. The concentration only gives way to more imagery, with the "mastheads, like the tops of tall palms, were outspreadingly tufted with arms and legs". All these images contribute their "startling energy" to the advance of the narrative. When the boats are lowered, the imagery serves to dwarf everything but Ahab's will in the presence of Moby Dick. These similes, with their astonishing "imaginative abundance," are not only invaluable in creating the dramatic movement, Matthiessen observes: "They are no less notable for breadth; and the more sustained among them, for an heroic dignity."
The influence of Shakespeare on the book was analyzed by F.O. Matthiessen in his 1941 study of the American Renaissance with such results that almost a half century later Bezanson still considered him "the richest critic on these matters." According to Matthiesen, then, Melville's "possession by Shakespeare went far beyond all other influences" in that it made Melville discover his own full strength "through the challenge of the most abundant imagination in history". Especially the influence of "King Lear" and "Macbeth" has attracted scholarly attention.
On almost every page debts to Shakespeare can be discovered, whether hard or easy to recognize. Matthiessen points out that the "mere sounds, full of Leviathanism, but signifying nothing" at the end of "Cetology" (Ch.32) echo the famous phrase in "Macbeth": "Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." As Matthiessen demonstrates, Ahab's first extended speech to the crew, in the "Quarter-Deck" (Ch.36), is "virtually blank verse, and can be printed as such":
But look ye, Starbuck, what is said in heat,
That thing unsays itself. There are men
From whom warm words are small indignity.
I mean not to incense thee. Let it go.
Look! see yonder Turkish cheeks of spotted tawn--
Living, breathing pictures painted by the sun.
The pagan leopards—the unrecking and
Unworshipping things, that live; and seek and give
No reason for the torrid life they feel!
Most importantly, through Shakespeare, Melville infused "Moby-Dick" with a power of expression he had not previously possessed. Reading Shakespeare, Matthiessen observes, had been "a catalytic agent" for Melville, one that transformed his writing "from limited reporting to the expression of profound natural forces". The extent to which Melville was in full possession of his powers is demonstrated by Matthiessen through the description of Ahab, which ends in language "that suggests Shakespeare's but is not an imitation of it: 'Oh, Ahab! what shall be grand in thee, it must needs be plucked from the skies and dived for in the deep, and featured in the unbodied air!' The imaginative richness of the final phrase seems particularly Shakespearean, "but its two key words appear only once each in the plays ... and to neither of these usages is Melville indebted for his fresh combination." Melville's assimilation of Shakespeare, Matthiessen concludes, gave "Moby-Dick" "a kind of diction that depended upon no source", and that could, as D.H. Lawrence put it, convey something "almost superhuman or inhuman, bigger than life". The prose is not based on anybody else's verse but on "a sense of speech rhythm".
In addition to this sense of rhythm, Melville acquired verbal resources which for Matthiessen showed that he "now mastered Shakespeare's mature secret of how to make language itself dramatic". He had learned three essential things, Matthiessen sums up:
The creation of Ahab, Melville biographer Leon Howard discovered, followed an observation by Coleridge in his lecture on "Hamlet": "one of Shakespeare's modes of creating characters is to conceive any one intellectual or moral faculty in "morbid" excess, and then to place himself. ... thus "mutilated" or "diseased", under given circumstances". Coleridge's vocabulary is echoed in some phrases that describe Ahab. Ahab seemed to have "what seems a half-wilful "over-ruling morbidness" at the bottom of his nature", and "all men tragically great", Melville added, "are made so through a certain "morbidness"; "all mortal greatness is but "disease"". In addition to this, in Howard's view, the self-references of Ishmael as a "tragic dramatist", and his defense of his choice of a hero who lacked "all outward majestical trappings" is evidence that Melville "consciously thought of his protagonist as a tragic hero of the sort found in "Hamlet" and "King Lear"".
"Moby-Dick" is based on Melville's experience on the whaler "Acushnet", however even the book's most factual accounts of whaling are not straight autobiography. On December 30, 1840, he signed on as a green hand for the maiden voyage of the "Acushnet", planned to last for 52 months. Its owner, Melvin O. Bradford, resembled Bildad, who signed on Ishmael, in that he was a Quaker: on several instances when he signed documents, he erased the word "swear" and replaced it with "affirm". But the shareholders of the "Acushnet" were relatively wealthy, whereas the owners of the "Pequod" included poor widows and orphaned children. Its captain was Valentine Pease, Jr., who was 43 years old at the start of the voyage.
Although 26 men signed up as crew members, two did not show up for the ship's departure and were replaced by one new crew member. The crew was not as heterogenous or exotic as the crew of the "Pequod". Five of the crew were foreigners, four of them Portuguese, and the others were American, either at birth or naturalized. Three black men were in the crew, two seamen and the cook. Fleece, the cook of the "Pequod", was also black, so probably modeled on this Philadelphia-born William Maiden, who was 38 years old when he signed for the "Acushnet".
Only 11 of the 26 original crew members completed the voyage. The others either deserted or were regularly discharged. The First Officer, Frederic Raymond, left the ship after a "fight" with the captain. A first mate, actually called Edward C. Starbuck, was on an earlier voyage with Captain Pease, in the early 1830s, and was discharged at Tahiti under mysterious circumstances. The second mate on the "Acushnet" was John Hall, English-born but a naturalized American. He is identified as Stubb in an annotation in the book's copy of crew member Henry Hubbard, who, like Melville, had joined the voyage as a green hand. Hubbard also identified the model for Pip: John Backus, a little black man added to the crew during the voyage. Hubbard's annotation appears in the chapter "The Castaway" and reveals that Pip's falling into the water was authentic; Hubbard was with him in the same boat when the incident occurred.
Ahab seems to have had no model in real life, though his death may have been based on an actual event. On May 18, 1843, Melville was aboard "The Star", which sailed for Honolulu. Aboard were two sailors from the "Nantucket" who could have told him that they had seen their second mate "taken out of a whaleboat by a foul line and drowned". The model for the Whaleman's Chapel of chapter 7 is the Seamen's Bethel on Johnny Cake Hill. Melville attended a service there shortly before he shipped out on the "Acushnet", and he heard a sermon by the chaplain, 63-year-old Reverend Enoch Mudge, who is at least in part the model for Father Mapple. Even the topic of Jonah and the Whale may be authentic, for Mudge was a contributor to "Sailor's Magazine", which printed in December 1840 the ninth of a series of sermons on Jonah.
In addition to his own experience on the whaling ship "Acushnet", two actual events served as the genesis for Melville's tale. One was the sinking of the Nantucket ship "Essex" in 1820, after a sperm whale rammed her 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the western coast of South America. First mate Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, recorded the events in his 1821 "Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex".
The other event was the alleged killing in the late 1830s of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick, in the waters off the Chilean island of Mocha. Mocha Dick was rumored to have 20 or so harpoons in his back from other whalers, and appeared to attack ships with premeditated ferocity. One of his battles with a whaler served as subject for an article by explorer Jeremiah N. Reynolds in the May 1839 issue of "The Knickerbocker or New-York Monthly Magazine". Melville was familiar with the article, which described: Significantly, Reynolds writes a first-person narration that serves as a frame for the story of a whaling captain he meets. The captain resembles Ahab and suggests a similar symbolism and single-minded motivation in hunting this whale, in that when his crew first encounters Mocha Dick and cowers from him, the captain rallies them:
Mocha Dick had over 100 encounters with whalers in the decades between 1810 and the 1830s. He was described as being gigantic and covered in barnacles. Although he was the most famous, Mocha Dick was not the only white whale in the sea, nor the only whale to attack hunters.
While an accidental collision with a sperm whale at night accounted for sinking of the "Union" in 1807, it was not until August 1851 that the whaler "Ann Alexander", while hunting in the Pacific off the Galápagos Islands, became the second vessel since the "Essex" to be attacked, holed, and sunk by a whale. Melville remarked, "Ye Gods! What a commentator is this "Ann Alexander" whale. What he has to say is short & pithy & very much to the point. I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster."
While Melville had already drawn on his different sailing experiences in his previous novels, such as "Mardi", he had never focused specifically on whaling. The 18 months he spent as an ordinary seaman aboard the whaler "Acushnet" in 1841–42, and one incident in particular, now served as inspiration. During a mid-ocean "gam" (rendezvous at sea between ships), he met Chase's son William, who lent him his father's book. Melville later wrote:
The book was out of print, and rare. Melville let his interest in the book be known to his father-in-law, Lemuel Shaw, whose friend in Nantucket procured an imperfect but clean copy which Shaw gave to Melville in April 1851. Melville read this copy avidly, made copious notes in it, and had it bound, keeping it in his library for the rest of his life.
"Moby-Dick" contains large sections—most of them narrated by Ishmael—that seemingly have nothing to do with the plot, but describe aspects of the whaling business. Although a successful earlier novel about Nantucket whalers had been written, "Miriam Coffin or The Whale-Fisherman" (1835) by Joseph C. Hart, which is credited with influencing elements of Melville's work, most accounts of whaling tended to be sensational tales of bloody mutiny, and Melville believed that no book up to that time had portrayed the whaling industry in as fascinating or immediate a way as he had experienced it.
Melville found the bulk of his data on whales and whaling in five books, the most important of which was by the English ship's surgeon Thomas Beale, "Natural History of the Sperm Whale" (1839), a book of reputed authority which Melville bought on July 10, 1850. "In scale and complexity," scholar Steven Olsen-Smith writes, "the significance of [this source] to the composition of "Moby-Dick" surpasses that of any other source book from which Melville is known to have drawn." According to scholar Howard P. Vincent, the general influence of this source is to supply the arrangement of whaling data in chapter groupings. Melville followed Beale's grouping closely, yet adapted it to what art demanded, and he changed the original's prosaic phrases into graphic figures of speech. The second most important whaling book is Frederick Debell Bennett, "A Whaling Voyage Round the Globe, from the Year 1833 to 1836" (1840), from which Melville also took the chapter organization, but in a lesser degree than he learned from Beale.
The third book was the one Melville reviewed for the "Literary World" in 1847, J. Ross Browne's "Etchings of a Whaling Cruise" (1846), which may have given Melville the first thought for a whaling book, and in any case contains passages embarrassingly similar to passages in "Moby-Dick". The fourth book, Reverend Henry T. Cheever's "The Whale and His Captors" (1850), was used for two episodes in "Moby-Dick" but probably appeared too late in the writing of the novel to be of much more use. Melville did plunder a fifth book, William Scoresby, Jr., "An Account of the Arctic Regions with a History and Description of the Northern Whale Fishery" (1820), though—unlike the other four books—its subject is the Greenland whale rather than the sperm whale. Although the book became the standard whaling reference soon after publication, Melville satirized and parodied it on several occasions—for instance in the description of narwhales in the chapter "Cetology", where he called Scoresby "Charley Coffin" and gave his account "a humorous twist of fact": "Scoresby will help out Melville several times, and on each occasion Melville will satirize him under a pseudonym." Vincent suggests several reasons for Melville's attitude towards Scoresby, including his dryness and abundance of irrelevant data, but the major reason seems to have been that the Greenland whale was the sperm whale's closest competitor for the public's attention, so Melville felt obliged to dismiss anything dealing with it.
Scholars have concluded that Melville composed "Moby-Dick" in two or even three stages. Reasoning from biographical evidence, analysis of the functions of characters, and a series of unexplained but perhaps meaningful inconsistencies in the final version, they hypothesize that reading Shakespeare and his new friendship with Hawthorne, in the words of Lawrence Buell, inspired Melville to rewrite a "relatively straightforward" whaling adventure into "an epic of cosmic encyclopedic proportions".
The earliest surviving mention of what became "Moby-Dick" is a letter Melville wrote to Richard Henry Dana, Jr. on May 1, 1850:
Bezanson objects that the letter contains too many ambiguities to assume "that Dana's 'suggestion' would obviously be that Melville do for whaling what he had done for life on a man-of-war in "White-Jacket"". Dana had experienced how incomparable Melville was in dramatic storytelling when he met him in Boston, so perhaps "his 'suggestion' was that Melville do a book that captured that gift". And the long sentence in the middle of the above quotation simply acknowledges that Melville is struggling with the problem, not of choosing between fact and fancy but of how to interrelate them. The most positive statements are that it will be a strange sort of a book and that Melville means to give the truth of the thing, but what thing exactly is not clear.
Melville may have found the plot before writing or developed it after the writing process was underway. Considering his elaborate use of sources, "it is safe to say" that they helped him shape the narrative, its plot included. Scholars John Bryant and Haskell Springer cite the development of the character Ishmael as another factor which prolonged Melville's process of composition and which can be deduced from the structure of the final version of the book. Ishmael, in the early chapters, is simply the narrator, just as the narrators in Melville's earlier sea adventures had been, but in later chapters becomes a mystical stage manager who is central to the tragedy.
Less than two months after mentioning the project to Dana, Melville reported in a letter of June 27 to Richard Bentley, his English publisher:
Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family had moved to a small red farmhouse near Lenox, Massachusetts, at the end of March 1850. He became friends with Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Melville beginning on August 5, 1850, when the authors met at a picnic hosted by a mutual friend. Melville wrote an unsigned review of Hawthorne's short story collection "Mosses from an Old Manse" titled "Hawthorne and His Mosses", which appeared in "The Literary World" on August 17 and 24. Bezanson finds the essay "so deeply related to Melville's imaginative and intellectual world while writing "Moby-Dick"" that it could be regarded as a virtual preface and should be "everybody's prime piece of contextual reading". In the essay, Melville compares Hawthorne to Shakespeare and Dante, and his "self-projection" is evident in the repeats of the word "genius", the more than two dozen references to Shakespeare, and in the insistence that Shakespeare's "unapproachability" is nonsense for an American.
The most intense work on the book was done during the winter of 1850–1851, when Melville had changed the noise of New York City for a farm in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The move may well have delayed finishing the book. During these months, he wrote several excited letters to Hawthorne, including one of June 1851 in which he summarizes his career: "What I feel most moved to write, that is banned, — it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the "other" way I cannot. So the product is a final hash, and all my books are botches."
This is the stubborn Melville who stood by "Mardi" and talked about his other, more commercial books with contempt. The letter also reveals how Melville experienced his development from his 25th year: "Three weeks have scarcely passed, at any time between then and now, that I have not unfolded within myself. But I feel that I am now come to the inmost leaf of the bulb, and that shortly the flower must fall to the mould."
Buell finds the evidence that Melville changed his ambitions during writing "on the whole convincing", since the impact of Shakespeare and Hawthorne was "surely monumental", but others challenge the theories of the composition in three ways. The first raises objections on the use of evidence and the evidence itself. Bryant finds "little concrete evidence, and nothing at all conclusive, to show that Melville radically altered the structure or conception of the book". and scholar Robert Milder sees "insufficient evidence and doubtful methodology" at work. A second type of objection is based on assumptions about Melville's intellectual development. Bryant and Springer object to the conclusion that Hawthorne inspired Melville to write Ahab's tragic obsession into the book; Melville already had experienced other encounters which could just as well have triggered his imagination, such as the Bible's Jonah and Job, Milton's Satan, Shakespeare's King Lear, Byron's heroes. Bezanson is also not convinced that before he met Hawthorne, "Melville was "not" ready for the kind of book "Moby-Dick" became", because in his letters from the time Melville denounces his last two "straight narratives, "Redburn" and "White-Jacket", as two books written just for the money, and he firmly stood by "Mardi" as the kind of book he believed in. His language is already "richly steeped in 17th-century mannerisms", characteristics of "Moby-Dick". A third type calls upon the literary nature of passages used as evidence. According to Milder, the cetological chapters cannot be leftovers from an earlier stage of composition and any theory that they are "will eventually founder on the stubborn meaningfulness of these chapters", because no scholar adhering to the theory has yet explained how these chapters "can bear intimate thematic relation to a symbolic story not yet conceived".
Buell finds that theories based on a combination of selected passages from letters and what are perceived as "loose ends" in the book not only "tend to dissolve into guesswork", but he also suggests that these so-called loose ends may be intended by the author: repeatedly the book mentions "the necessary unfinishedness of immense endeavors".
Melville first proposed the British publication in a June 27, 1850 letter to Richard Bentley, London publisher of his earlier works. Textual scholar G. Thomas Tanselle explains that for these earlier books, American proof sheets had been sent to the British publisher and that publication in the United States had been held off until the work had been set in type and published in England. This procedure was intended to provide the best (though still uncertain) claim for the UK copyright of an American work. In the case of "Moby-Dick", Melville had taken almost a year longer than promised, and could not rely on Harpers to prepare the proofs as they had done for the earlier books. Indeed, Harpers had denied him an advance, and since he was already in debt to them for almost $700, he was forced to borrow money and to arrange for the typesetting and plating himself. John Bryant suggests that he did so "to reduce the number of hands playing with his text".
The final stages of composition overlapped with the early stages of publication. In June 1851, Melville wrote to Hawthorne that he was in New York to "work and slave on my 'Whale' while it is driving through the press". By the end of the month, "wearied with the long delay of printers", Melville came back to finish work on the book in Pittsfield. Three weeks later, the typesetting was almost done, as he announced to Bentley on July 20: "I am now passing thro' the press, the closing sheets of my new work". While Melville was simultaneously writing and proofreading what had been set, the corrected proof would be plated, that is, the type fixed in final form. Since earlier chapters were already plated when he was revising the later ones, Melville must have "felt restricted in the kinds of revisions that were feasible".
On July 3, 1851, Bentley offered Melville £150 and "half profits", that is, half the profits that remained after the expenses of production and advertising. On July 20, Melville accepted, after which Bentley drew up a contract on August 13. Melville signed and returned the contract in early September, and then went to New York with the proof sheets, made from the finished plates, which he sent to London by his brother Allan on September 10. For over a month, these proofs had been in Melville's possession, and because the book would be set anew in London he could devote all his time to correcting and revising them. He still had no American publisher, so the usual hurry about getting the British publication to precede the American was not present. Only on September 12 was the Harper publishing contract signed. Bentley received the proof sheets with Melville's corrections and revisions marked on them on September 24. He published the book less than four weeks later.
In the October 1851 issue of "Harper's New Monthly Magazine" "The Town Ho's Story" was published, with a footnote reading: "From 'The Whale'. The title of a new work by Mr. Melville, in the press of Harper and Brothers, and now publishing in London by Mr. Bentley."
On October 18, the British edition, "The Whale", was published in a printing of only 500 copies, fewer than Melville's previous books. Their slow sales had convinced Bentley that a smaller number was more realistic. The London "Morning Herald" on October 20 printed the earliest known review. On November 14, the American edition, "Moby-Dick", was published and the same day reviewed in both the Albany "Argus" and the "Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer". On November 19, Washington received the copy to be deposited for copyright purposes. The first American printing of 2,915 copies was almost the same as the first of "Mardi", but the first printing of Melville's other three Harper books had been a thousand copies more.
The British edition, set by Bentley's printers from the American page proofs with Melville's revisions and corrections, differs from the American edition in over 700 wordings and thousands of punctuation and spelling changes.
Excluding the preliminaries and the one extract, the three volumes of the British edition came to 927 pages and the single American volume to 635 pages. Accordingly, the dedication to Hawthorne in the American edition — "this book is inscribed to"— became "these volumes are inscribed to" in the British. The table of contents in the British edition generally follows the actual chapter titles in the American edition, but 19 titles in the American table of contents differ from the titles above the chapters themselves. This list was probably drawn up by Melville himself: the titles of chapters describing encounters of the "Pequod" with other ships had—apparently to stress the parallelisms between these chapters—been standardized to "The Pequod meets the ...," with the exception of the already published 'The Town-Ho's Story'.
For unknown reasons, the "Etymology" and "Extracts" were moved to the end of the third volume. An epigraph from "Paradise Lost", taken from the second of the two quotations from that work in the American edition, appears on the title page of each of the three British volumes. Melville's involvement with this rearrangement is not clear: if it was Bentley's gesture toward accommodating Melville, as Tanselle suggests, its selection put an emphasis on the quotation Melville might not have agreed with.
The largest of Melville's revisions is the addition to the British edition of a 139-word footnote in Chapter 87 explaining the word "gally". The edition also contains six short phrases and some 60 single words lacking in the American edition. In addition, about 35 changes produce genuine improvements, as opposed to mere corrections: "Melville may not have made every one of the changes in this category, but it seems certain that he was responsible for the great majority of them."
The British publisher hired one or more revisers who were, in the evaluation of scholar Steven Olsen-Smith, responsible for "unauthorized changes ranging from typographical errors and omissions to acts of outright censorship". According to biographer Robertson-Lorant, the result was that the British edition was "badly mutilated". The expurgations fall into four categories, ranked according to the apparent priorities of the censor:
These expurgations also meant that any corrections or revisions Melville had marked upon these passages are now lost.
The final difference in the material not already plated is that the "Epilogue", thus Ishmael's miraculous survival, is omitted from the British edition. Obviously, the epilogue was not an afterthought supplied too late for the edition, for it is referred to in "The Castaway": "in the sequel of the narrative, it will then be seen what like abandonment befell myself." Why the "Epilogue" is missing is unknown. Since nothing objectionable was in it, most likely it was somehow lost by Bentley's printer when the "Etymology" and "Extracts" were moved.
After the sheets had been sent, Melville changed the title. Probably late in September, Allan sent Bentley two pages of proof with a letter of which only a draft survives which informed him that Melville "has determined upon a new title & dedication—Enclosed you have proof of both—It is thought here that the new title will be a better "selling" title". After expressing his hope that Bentley would receive this change in time, Allan said that "Moby-Dick is a legitimate title for the book, being the name given to a particular whale who if I may so express myself is the hero of the volume". Biographer Hershel Parker suggests that the reason for the change was that Harper's had two years earlier published a book with a similar title, "The Whale and His Captors".
Changing the title was not a problem for the American edition, since the running heads throughout the book only showed the titles of the chapters, and the title page, which would include the publisher's name, could not be printed until a publisher was found. In October "Harper's New Monthly Magazine" printed chapter 54, "The Town-Ho's Story", with a footnote saying: "From "The Whale." The title of a new work by Mr. Melville". The one surviving leaf of proof, "a 'trial' page bearing the title 'The Whale' and the Harper imprint," shows that at this point, after the publisher had been found, the original title still stood. When Allan's letter arrived, no sooner than early October, Bentley had already announced "The Whale" in both the "Athenaem" and the "Spectator" of October 4 and 11. Probably to accommodate Melville, Bentley inserted a half-title page in the first volume only, which reads "The Whale; or, Moby Dick".
The British printing of 500 copies sold fewer than 300 within the first four months. In 1852, some remaining sheets were bound in a cheaper casing, and in 1853, enough sheets were still left to issue a cheap edition in one volume. Bentley recovered only half on the £150 he advanced Melville, whose share from actual sales would have been just £38, and he did not print a new edition. Harper's first printing was 2,915 copies, including the standard 125 review copies. The selling price was $1.50, about a fifth of the price of the British three-volume edition.
About 1,500 copies were sold within 11 days, and then sales slowed down to less than 300 the next year. After three years, the first edition was still available, almost 300 copies of which were lost when a fire broke out at the firm in December 1853. In 1855, a second printing of 250 copies was issued, in 1863, a third of 253 copies, and finally in 1871, a fourth printing of 277 copies, which sold so slowly that no new printing was ordered. "Moby-Dick" was out of print during the last four years of Melville's life, having sold 2,300 in its first year and a half and on average 27 copies a year for the next 34 years, totaling 3,215 copies.
Melville's earnings from the book add up to $1,260: the £150 advance from Bentley was equivalent to $703, and the American printings earned him $556, which was $100 less than he earned from any of his five previous books. Melville's widow received another $81 when the United States Book Company issued the book and sold almost 1,800 copies between 1892 and 1898.
The reception of "The Whale" in Britain and of "Moby-Dick" in the United States differed in two ways, according to Parker. First, British literary criticism was more sophisticated and developed than in the still-young republic, with British reviewing done by "cadres of brilliant literary people" who were "experienced critics and trenchant prose stylists", while the United States had only "a handful of reviewers" capable enough to be called critics, and American editors and reviewers habitually echoed British opinion. American reviewing was mostly delegated to "newspaper staffers" or else by "amateur contributors more noted for religious piety than critical acumen." Second, the differences between the two editions caused "two distinct critical receptions."
Twenty-one reviews appeared in London, and later one in Dublin. The British reviewers, according to Parker, mostly regarded "The Whale" as "a phenomenal literary work, a philosophical, metaphysical, and poetic romance". The "Morning Advertiser" for October 24 was in awe of Melville's learning, of his "dramatic ability for producing a prose poem", and of the whale adventures which were "powerful in their cumulated horrors." To its surprise, "John Bull" found "philosophy in whales" and "poetry in blubber", and concluded that few books that claimed to be either philosophical or literary works "contain as much true philosophy and as much genuine poetry as the tale of the "Pequod"'s whaling expedition", making it a work "far beyond the level of an ordinary work of fiction". The "Morning Post" found it "one of the cleverest, wittiest, and most amusing of modern books", and predicted that it was a book "which will do great things for the literary reputation of its author".
Melville himself never saw these reviews, and Parker calls it a "bitter irony" that the reception overseas was "all he could possibly have hoped for, short of a few conspicuous proclamations that the distance between him and Shakespeare was by no means immeasurable."
One of the earliest reviews, by the extremely conservative critic Henry Chorley in the highly regarded London "Athenaeum", described it as
According to the London "Literary Gazette and Journal of Science and Art" for December 6, 1851, "Mr. Melville cannot do without savages, so he makes half of his "dramatis personae" wild Indians, Malays, and other untamed humanities", who appeared in "an odd book, professing to be a novel; wantonly eccentric, outrageously bombastic; in places charmingly and vividly descriptive". Most critics regretted the extravagant digressions because they distracted from an otherwise interesting and even exciting narrative, but even critics who did not like the book as a whole praised Melville's originality of imagination and expression.
Because the English edition omitted the epilogue describing Ishmael's escape, British reviewers read a book with a first-person narrator who apparently did not survive. The reviewer of the "Literary Gazette" asked how Ishmael, "who appears to have been drowned with the rest, communicated his notes to Mr. Bentley". The reviewer in the "Spectator" objected that "nothing should be introduced into a novel which it is physically impossible for the writer to have known: thus, he must not describe the conversation of miners in a pit if they "all" perish." The "Dublin University Magazine" asked "how does it happen that the author is alive to tell the story?" A few other reviewers, who did not comment upon the apparent impossibility of Ishmael telling the story, pointed out violations of narrative conventions in other passages.
Other reviewers accepted the flaws they perceived. "John Bull" praised the author for making literature out of unlikely and even unattractive matter, and the "Morning Post" found that delight far outstripped the improbable character of events. Though some reviewers viewed the characters, especially Ahab, as exaggerated, others felt that it took an extraordinary character to undertake the battle with the white whale. Melville's style was often praised, although some found it excessive or too American.
Some sixty reviews appeared in America, the criterion for counting as a review being more than two lines of comment. Only a couple of reviewers expressed themselves early enough not to be influenced by news of the British reception. Though "Moby-Dick" did contain the "Epilogue" and so accounted for Ishmael's survival, the British reviews influenced the American reception. The earliest American review, in the Boston "Post" for November 20, quoted the London "Athenaeum"s scornful review, not realizing that some of the criticism of "The Whale" did not pertain to "Moby-Dick". This last point, and the authority and influence of British criticism in American reviewing, is clear from the review's opening: "We have read nearly one half of this book, and are satisfied that the London Athenaeum is right in calling it 'an ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact'". Though the "Post" quoted the greater portion of the review, it omitted the condensed extract of Melville's prose the "Athenaeum" had included to give readers an example of it. The "Post" deemed the price of one dollar and fifty cents far too much: "'The Whale' is not worth the money asked for it, either as a literary work or as a mass of printed paper".
The New York "North American Miscellany" for December summarized the verdict in the "Athenaeum". The reviewer of the December New York "Eclectic Magazine" had actually read "Moby-Dick" in full, and was puzzled why the "Athenaeum" was so scornful of the ending. The attack on "The Whale" by the "Spectator" was reprinted in the December New York "International Magazine", which inaugurated the influence of another unfavorable review. Rounding off what American readers were told about the British reception, in January "Harper's Monthly Magazine" attempted some damage control, and wrote that the book had "excited a general interest" among the London magazines.
The most influential American review, ranked according to the number of references to it, appeared in the weekly magazine "Literary World", which had printed Melville's "Mosses" essay the preceding year. The author of the unsigned review in two installments, on November 15 and 22, was later identified as publisher Evert Duyckinck. The first half of the first installment was devoted to an event of remarkable coincidence: early in the month, between the publishing of the British and the American edition, a whale had sunk the New Bedford whaler "Ann Alexander" near Chile.
In the second installment, Duyckinck described "Moby-Dick" as three books rolled into one: he was pleased with the book as far as it was a thorough account of the sperm whale, less so with it as far as the adventures of the "Pequod" crew were considered, perceiving the characters as unrealistic and expressing inappropriate opinions on religions, and condemned the essayistic rhapsodizing and moralizing with what he thought was little respect of what "must be to the world the most sacred associations of life violated and defaced." The review prompted Hawthorne to take the "unusually aggressive step of reproving Duyckinck" by criticizing the review in a letter to Duyckinck of December 1:
What a book Melville has written! It gives me an idea of much greater power than his preceding ones. It hardly seemed to me that the review of it, in the Literary World, did justice to its best points.
The Transcendental socialist George Ripley published a review in the New York "Tribune" for November 22, in which he compared the book favorably to "Mardi", because the "occasional touches of the subtle mysticism" was not carried on to excess but kept within boundaries by the solid realism of the whaling context. Ripley was almost surely also the author of the review in "Harper's" for December, which saw in Ahab's quest the "slight framework" for something else: "Beneath the whole story, the subtle, imaginative reader may perhaps find a pregnant allegory, intended to illustrate the mystery of human life." Among the handful of other favorable reviews was one in the "Albion" on November 22 which saw the book as a blend of truth and satire.
Melville's friend Nathaniel Parker Willis, reviewing the book in November 29 "Home Journal", found it "a very racy, spirited, curious and entertaining book ... it enlists the curiosity, excites the sympathies, and often charms the fancy". In December 6 "Spirit of the Times", editor William T. Porter praised the book, and all of Melville's five earlier works, as the writings "of a man who is at once philosopher, painter, and poet". Some other, shorter reviews mixed their praise with genuine reservations about the "irreverence and profane jesting", as the New Haven "Daily Palladium" for November 17 phrased it. Many reviewers, Parker observes, had come to the conclusion that Melville was capable of producing enjoyable romances, but they could not see in him the author of great literature.
Within a year after Melville's death in 1891, "Moby-Dick", along with "Typee", "Omoo", and "Mardi", was reprinted by Harper & Brothers, giving it a chance to be rediscovered. However, only New York's literary underground showed interest, just enough to keep Melville's name circulating for the next 25 years in the capital of American publishing. During this time, a few critics were willing to devote time, space, and a modicum of praise to Melville and his works, or at least those that could still be easily obtained or remembered. Other works, especially the poetry, went largely forgotten.
In 1917, American author Carl Van Doren became the first of this period to proselytize about Melville's value in his 1921 study, "The American Novel", called "Moby-Dick" a pinnacle of American Romanticism.
In his 1923 idiosyncratic but influential "Studies in Classic American Literature", novelist, poet, and short story writer D. H. Lawrence celebrated the originality and value of American authors, among them Melville. Perhaps surprisingly, Lawrence saw "Moby-Dick" as a work of the first order despite his using the expurgated original English edition which also lacked the epilogue.
The Modern Library brought out "Moby-Dick" in 1926 and the Lakeside Press in Chicago commissioned Rockwell Kent to design and illustrate a striking three-volume edition which appeared in 1930. Random House then issued a one-volume trade version of Kent's edition, which in 1943 they reprinted as a less expensive Modern Library Giant.
The novel has been adapted or represented in art, film, books, cartoons, television, and more than a dozen versions in comic-book format. The first adaptation was the 1926 silent movie "The Sea Beast", starring John Barrymore, in which Ahab returns to marry his fiancée after killing the whale. The most famous adaptation was the John Huston 1956 film produced from a screenplay by author Ray Bradbury. The long list of adaptations, as Bryant and Springer put it, demonstrates that "the iconic image of an angry embittered American slaying a mythic beast seemed to capture the popular imagination." They conclude that "different readers in different periods of popular culture have rewritten "Moby-Dick"" to make it a "true cultural icon". American artist David Klamen has cited the novel as an important influence on his dark, slow-to-disclose paintings, noting a passage in the book in which a mysterious, undecipherable painting in a bar is gradually revealed to depict a whale.
American author Ralph Ellison wrote a tribute to the book in the prologue of his 1952 novel "Invisible Man". The narrator remembers a moment of truth under the influence of marijuana and evokes a church service: "Brothers and sisters, my text this morning is the 'Blackness of Blackness.' And the congregation answers: 'That blackness is most black, brother, most black ... '" This scene, Ellison biographer Arnold Rampersad observes, "reprises a moment in the second chapter of "Moby-Dick"", where Ishmael wanders around New Bedford looking for a place to spend the night, and momentarily joins a congregation: "It was a negro church; and the preacher's text was about the blackness of darkness, and the weeping and wailing and teeth-gnashing there." According to Rampersad, it was Melville who "empowered Ellison to insist on a place in the American literary tradition" by his example of "representing the complexity of race and racism so acutely and generously in his text". Rampersad also believes Ellison's choice of a first-person narrator was inspired above all by "Moby-Dick", and the novel even has a similar opening sentence with the narrator introducing himself ("I am an invisible man"). The oration by Ellison's blind preacher Barbee resembles Father Mapple's sermon in that both prepare the reader for what is to come.
American songwriter Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech of 2017 cited "Moby-Dick" as one of the three books that influenced him most. Dylan's description ends with an acknowledgment: "That theme, and all that it implies, would work its way into more than a few of my songs." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19859 |
Madeira River
The Madeira River ( ) is a major waterway in South America, approximately long. The Madeira is the biggest tributary of the Amazon, accounting for about 15% of the water in the basin. A map from Emanuel Bowen in 1747, held by the David Rumsey Map Collection, refers to the Madeira by the pre-colonial, indigenous name Cuyari:
The River of Cuyari, called by the Portuguese Madeira or the Wood River, is formed by two great rivers, which join near its mouth. It was by this River, that the Nation of Topinambes passed into the River Amazon.
The mean inter-annual precipitations on the great basins vary from , the entire upper Madeira basin receiving . The greatest extremes of rainfall are between . At its head, the Madeira on its own is one of the largest rivers of the world, with a mean inter-annual discharge of , i.e., per year, approximately half the discharge of the Congo River. The mean inter-annual contribution of the Bolivian Andes is , i.e., per year, representing 25% of the discharge of the entire upper Madeira basin. On the further course towards the Amazon, the mean discharge of the Madeira increases up to .
Between Guajará-Mirim and the falls of Teotônio, the Madeira receives the drainage of the north-eastern slopes of the Andes from Santa Cruz de la Sierra to Cuzco, the whole of the south-western slope of Brazilian Mato Grosso and the northern slope of the Chiquitos sierras. In total, the catchment area is , almost equal in area to France and Spain combined. The waters flow into the Madeira from many large rivers, the principal of which, (from east to west), are the Guaporé or Itenez, the Baures and Blanco, the Itonama or San Miguel, the Mamoré, Beni, and Mayutata or Madre de Dios, all of which are reinforced by numerous secondary but powerful affluents. The climate of the upper catchment area varies from humid in the western edge with the origin of the river's main stem by volume (Río Madre de Dios, Río Beni) to semi arid in the southernmost part with the andine headwaters of the main stem by length (Río Caine, Río Rocha, Río Grande, Mamoré).
All of the upper branches of the river Madeira find their way to the falls across the open, almost level Mojos and Beni plains, of which are yearly flooded to an average depth of about for a period of from three to four months.
From its source in the confluence of Madre de Dios and Mamoré rivers and downstream to Abuna river the Madeira flows northward forming border between Bolivia and Brazil. Below its confluence with the latter tributary the flow of river changes to north-eastward direction, inland of Rondônia state of Brazil. The section of the river from the border to Porto Velho has notable drop of bed and was not navigable. Before 2012 the falls of Teotônio and of San Antonio existed here, they had higher flow rate and bigger level drop than more famous Boyoma Falls in Africa. Currently these rapids are submerged by the reservoir of Santo Antônio Dam. Below Porto Velho the Madeira meanders north-eastward through the Rondônia and Amazonas states of north west Brazil to its junction with the Amazon.
The Rio Madeira Sustainable Development Reserve, created in 2006, extends along the north bank of the river opposite the town of Novo Aripuanã.
At its mouth is Ilha Tupinambaranas, an extensive marshy region formed by the Madeira's distributaries.
The Madeira river rises more than 15 m (50 ft) during the rainy season, and ocean vessels may ascend it to the Falls of San Antonio, near Porto Velho, Brazil, above its mouth; but in the dry months, from June to November, it is only navigable for the same distance for craft drawing about of water. The Madeira-Mamoré Railroad runs in a loop around the unnavigable section to Guajará-Mirim on the Mamoré River, but is not functional, limiting shipping from the Atlantic at Porto Velho.
Today, it is also one of the Amazon Basin's most active waterways, and helps export close to four million tons of grains, which are loaded onto barges in Porto Velho, where both Cargill and Amaggi have loading facilities, and then shipped down the Madeira to the ports of Itacoatiara, near the mouth of the Madeira, just upstream on the left bank of the Amazon, or further down the Amazon, to the port of Santarem, at the mouth of the Tapajos River. From these two ports, Panamax type ships then export the grains - mainly soy and corn - to Europe and Asia. The Madeira waterway is also used to take fuel from the REMAN refinery (Petrobras) in Manaus, state capital of Amazonas, to Porto Velho, from where the states of Acre, Rondonia and parts of Mato Grosso are supplied mainly with gasoline (petrol) refined in Manaus. Cargo barges also use the Madeira on the route between Manaus and Porto Velho, which is along the Rio Negro, Amazon and Madeira, connecting Manaus' industrial district with the rest of Brazil, as Manaus is land-locked as far as logistics with the rest of the country are concerned, to bring in part of its raw materials, and export its produce to the major consumer centres of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In 2012, the cargo amounted to 287,835 tons (both directions). The total tonnage shipped in 2012 on the Madeira accounted to 5,076,014.
Two large dams (see below) are under construction as part of the IIRSA regional integration project. The dam projects include large ship-locks capable of moving oceangoing vessels between the impounded reservoir and the downstream river. If the project is completed, "more than of waterways upstream from the dams in Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru would become navigable."
As typical of Amazonian rivers with the primary headwaters in the Andes, the Madeira River is turbid because of high sediment levels and it is whitewater, but some of its tributaries are clearwater (e.g., Aripuanã and Ji-Paraná) or blackwater (e.g., Manicoré).
The Bolivian river dolphin, variously considered a subspecies of the Amazon river dolphin or a separate species, is restricted to the upper Madeira River system. It has been estimated that there are more than 900 fish species in the Madeira River Basin, making it one of the freshwater systems in the world with the highest species richness.
The river is the fifth title of the 1993/1999 Philip Glass album Aguas da Amazonia.
In July 2007, plans have been approved by the Brazilian Government to construct two hydroelectric dams on the Madeira River, the Santo Antonio Dam near Porto Velho and the Jirau Dam about 100 km upstream. Both the Jirau and Santo Antonio dams are run-of-the-river projects that do not impound a large reservoir. Both dams also feature some environmental re-mediation efforts (such as fish ladders). As a consequence, it has been suggested that there has not been strong environmental opposition to the implementation of the Madeira river complex. Yet, if the fish ladders fail, "several valuable migratory fish species could suffer near-extinction as a result of the Madeira dams."
There are also concerns with deforestation and pressure on conservation areas and indigenous peoples' territories.
The Worldwatch institute has also criticized the fast-track approval process for "kindler, gentler dams with smaller reservoirs, designed to lessen social and environmental impacts", claiming that no project should "fast-track the licensing of new dams in Amazonia and allow projects to circumvent Brazil's tough environmental laws". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19863 |
Marañón River
The Marañón River (, ) is the principal or mainstem source of the Amazon River, arising about 160 km to the northeast of Lima, Peru, and flowing through a deeply eroded Andean valley in a northwesterly direction, along the eastern base of the Cordillera of the Andes, as far as 5° 36′ southern latitude; from where it makes a great bend to the northeast, and cuts through the jungle Andes, until at the Pongo de Manseriche it flows into the flat Amazon basin. Although historically, the term "Marañon River" often was applied to the river all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, nowadays the Marañon River is generally thought to end at the confluence with the Ucayali River, after which most cartographers label the ensuing waterway the Amazon River.
The Marañón River is Peru's second longest river according to a 2005 statistical publication by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática.
The Marañon River was considered the source of the Amazon River starting with the 1707 map published by Padre Samuel Fritz, who indicated the great river “has its source on the southern shore of a lake that is called Lauricocha, near Huánuco." Fritz's reasoning was based on the fact that the Marañon River is the largest river branch one encounters when journeying upstream, something clearly evident on his map. For most of the 18th–19th centuries and into the 20th century, the Marañon River was generally considered the source of the Amazon. The Marañon River continues to claim the title of the "mainstem source" or "hydrological source" of the Amazon due to its contribution of the highest annual discharge rates.
The initial section of the Marañon contains a plethora of pongos, which are gorges in the jungle areas often with difficult rapids.
The Pongo de Manseriche is the final pongo on the Marañon located just before the river enters the flat Amazon basin. It is long and located between the confluence with the Rio Santiago, and the village of Borja. According to Captain Carbajal, who attempted ascent through the Pongo de Manseriche in the little steamer "Napo," in 1868, it is a vast rent in the Andes about 600 m (2000 ft) deep, narrowing in places to a width of only 30 m (100 ft), the precipices "seeming to close in at the top." Through this canyon the Marañón leaps along, at times, at the rate of 20 km/h (12 miles an hour). The pongo is known for wrecking many ships and many drownings.
Downstream of the Pongo de Manseriche the river often has islands, and there is usually nothing visible from its low banks but an immense forest-covered plain known as the "selva baja" ("low jungle") or Peruvian Amazonia. It is home to indigenous peoples such as the Urarina of the Chambira Basin , the Candoshi, and the Cocama-Cocamilla peoples.
A 552 km (343 mile) section of the Marañon River between Puente Copuma (Puchka confluence) and Corral Quemado is a class IV raftable river that is similar in many ways to the Grand Canyon of the United States and has been labeled the "Grand Canyon of the Amazon". Most of this section of the river is in a canyon that is up to 3000 m deep on both sides – over twice the depth of the Colorado's Grand Canyon. It is in dry desert-like terrain, much of which receives only 250–350 mm/rain per year (10–14"/year) with parts such as from Balsas to Jaén known as the hottest "infierno" area of Peru. The Marañon Grand Canyon section flows by the village of Calemar, where Peruvian writer Ciro Alegría based one of his most important novels: "La serpiente de oro" (1935).
One of the first popular descents of the Marañon River occurred In 1743 the Frenchman Charles Marie de La Condamine, who journeyed from the Chinchipe confluence all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. La Condamine did not descend the initial section of the Marañon by boat due to the plethora of pongos. From where he began his boating descent at the Chiriaco confluence, La Condamine still had to confront several pongos, including the Pongo de Huaracayo (or Guaracayo) and the Pongo de Manseriche.
The upper Marañon River has seen a number of descents. An attempt to paddle the river was made by Herbert Rittlinger in 1936. Sebastian Snow was an adventurer who journeyed down most of the river by trekking to Chiriaco River starting at the source near Lake Niñacocha.
In 1976 and/or 1977 Laszlo Berty descended the section from Chagual to the jungle in raft. In 1977, a group composed of Tom Fisher, Steve Gaskill, Ellen Toll, and John Wasson spent over a month descending the river from Rondos to Nazareth with kayaks and a raft. In 2004, Tim Biggs and companions kayaked the entire river from the Nupe River to Iquitos. In 2012, Rocky Contos descended the entire river with various companions along the way.
The Marañon River may supply 20 hydroelectric mega-dams planned in the Andes, and it has been speculated that most of the power is destined for export to Brazil, Chile or Ecuador. Dam survey crews have drafted construction blueprints and the Environmental Impact Statements have been available since November 2009 for the Veracruz dam and since November 2011 the Chadin2 dam.
A 2011 law stated "national demand" for the hydroelectric energy, while in 2013 Peruvian president Ollanta Humala explicitly made a connection with mining; the energy is to supply mines in the Cajamarca Region, La Libertad, Ancash Region and Piura Region. Construction of the 406 MW dam in Chaglla District started in 2012.
Opposition arose because the dams are expected to disrupt the major source of the Amazon, alter normal silt deposition into the lower river, damage habitat and migration patterns for fish and other aquatic life, displace thousands of residents along the river, and damage a national treasure "at least as nice as the Grand Canyon in the USA". Residents have launched efforts to halt the dams along the river with conservation groups such as SierraRios and International Rivers.
Potential ecological impacts of 151 new dams greater than 2 MW on five of the six major Andean tributaries of the Amazon over the next 20 years are estimated to be high, including the first major break in connectivity between Andean headwaters and lowland Amazon and deforestation due to infrastructure. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19864 |
Max Newman
Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman, FRS, (7 February 1897 – 22 February 1984), generally known as Max Newman, was a British mathematician and codebreaker. His work in World War II led to the construction of Colossus, the world's first operational, programmable electronic computer, and he established the Royal Society Computing Machine Laboratory at the University of Manchester, which produced the world's first working, electronic stored-program electronic computer in 1948, the Manchester Baby.
Max Newman was born Maxwell Herman Alexander Neumann in Chelsea, London, England, to a Jewish family, on 7 February 1897. His father was Herman Alexander Neumann, originally from the German city of Bromberg (now in Poland) who had emigrated with his family to London at the age of 15. Herman worked as a secretary in a company, and married Sarah Ann (Pike), an English schoolteacher, in 1896.
The family moved to Dulwich in 1903, and Newman attended Goodrich Road school, then City of London School from 1908. At school, he excelled in classics and in mathematics. He played chess and the piano well.
Newman won a scholarship to study mathematics at St John's College, Cambridge in 1915, and in 1916 gained a First in Part I of the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos.
His studies were interrupted by World War I. His father was interned as an enemy alien after the start of the war in 1914, and upon his release he returned to Germany. In 1916, Herman changed his name by deed poll to the anglicised "Newman" and Sarah did likewise in 1920. In January 1917 Newman took up a teaching post at Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School in York, leaving in April 1918. He spent some months in the Royal Army Pay Corps, and then taught at Chigwell School for six months in 1919 before returning to Cambridge. He was called up for military service in February 1918, but claimed conscientious objection due to his beliefs and his father's country of origin, and thereby avoided any direct role in the fighting.
He resumed his interrupted studies in October 1919, and graduated in 1921 as a Wrangler (equivalent to a First) in Part II of the Mathematical Tripos, and gained distinction in Schedule B (the equivalent of Part III). His dissertation considered the use of "symbolic machines" in physics, foreshadowing his later interest in computing machines.
On 5 November 1923 he was elected a Fellow of St John's. He worked on the foundations of combinatorial topology, and proposed that a notion of equivalence be defined using only three elementary "moves". Newman's definition avoided difficulties that had arisen from previous definitions of the concept. Publishing over twenty papers established his reputation as an "expert in modern topology". Newman wrote "Elements of the topology of plane sets of points", a work on general topology and undergraduate text. He also published papers on mathematical logic, and solved a special case of Hilbert's fifth problem.
He was appointed a lecturer in mathematics at Cambridge in 1927, where his 1935 lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics and Gödel's theorem inspired Alan Turing to embark on his pioneering work on the "Entscheidungsproblem" (decision problem) using a hypothetical computing machine. In spring 1936, Newman was presented by Turing with a draft of "On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem". He realised the paper's importance and helped ensure swift publication. Newman subsequently arranged for Turing to visit Princeton where Alonzo Church was working on the same problem but using his Lambda calculus. During this period, Newman started to share Turing's dream of building a stored-program computing machine.
During this time at Cambridge, he developed close friendships with Patrick Blackett, Henry Whitehead and Lionel Penrose.
In September 1937, Newman and his family accepted an invitation to work for six months at Princeton. At Princeton, he worked on the Poincaré Conjecture and, in his final weeks there, presented a proof. However, in July 1938, after he returned to Cambridge, Newman discovered that his proof was fatally flawed.
In 1939, Newman was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In December 1934 he married Lyn Lloyd Irvine, a writer, with Patrick Blackett as best man. They had two sons, Edward (born 1935) and William (born 1939).
The United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. Newman's father was Jewish, which was of particular concern in the face of Nazi Germany, and Lyn, Edward and William were evacuated to America in July 1940 (where they spent three years before returning to England in October 1943). After Oswald Veblen—maintaining 'that every able-bodied man ought to be carrying a gun or hand-grenade and fight for his country'—opposed moves to bring him to Princeton, Newman remained at Cambridge and at first continued research and lecturing.
By spring 1942, he was considering involvement in war work. He made enquiries. After Patrick Blackett recommended him to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Newman was sounded out by Frank Adcock in connection with the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park.
Newman was cautious, concerned to ensure that the work would be sufficiently interesting and useful, and there was also the possibility that his father's German nationality would rule out any involvement in top-secret work. The potential issues were resolved by the summer, and he agreed to arrive at Bletchley Park on 31 August 1942. Newman was invited by F. L. (Peter) Lucas to work on Enigma but decided to join Tiltman's group working on Tunny.
He was assigned to the Research Section and set to work on a German teleprinter cipher known as "Tunny". He joined the "Testery" in October. Newman enjoyed the company but disliked the work and found that it was not suited to his talents. He persuaded his superiors that Tutte's method could be mechanised, and he was assigned to develop a suitable machine in December 1942. Shortly afterwards, Edward Travis (then operational head of Bletchley Park) asked Newman to lead research into mechanised codebreaking.
When the war ended, Newman was presented with a silver tankard inscribed 'To MHAN from the Newmanry, 1943-45'.
Construction started in January 1943, and the first prototype was delivered in June 1943. It was operated in Newman's new section, termed the "Newmanry", was housed initially in Hut 11 and initially staffed by himself, Donald Michie, two engineers, and 16 Wrens. The Wrens nicknamed the machine the "Heath Robinson", after the cartoonist of the same name who drew humorous drawings of absurd mechanical devices.
The Robinson machines were limited in speed and reliability. Tommy Flowers of the Post Office Research Station, Dollis Hill had experience of thermionic valves and built an electronic machine, the Colossus computer which was installed in the Newmanry. This was a great success and ten were in use by the end of the war.
In September 1945, Newman was appointed head of the Mathematics Department and to the Fielden Chair of Pure Mathematics at the University of Manchester.
Newman lost no time in establishing the renowned Royal Society Computing Machine Laboratory at the University. In February 1946, he wrote to John von Neumann, expressing his desire to build a computing machine. The Royal Society approved Newman's grant application in July 1946. Frederic Calland Williams and Thomas Kilburn, experts in electronic circuit design, were recruited from the Telecommunications Research Establishment. Kilburn and Williams built Baby, the world's first electronic stored-program digital computer based on Alan Turing's and John von Neumann's ideas.
After the Automatic Computing Engine suffered delays and set backs, Turing accepted Newman's offer and joined the Computer Machine Laboratory in May 1948 as Deputy Director (there being no Director). Turing joined Kilburn and Williams to work on Baby's successor, the Manchester Mark I. Collaboration between the University and Ferranti later produced the Ferranti Mark I, the first mass-produced computer to go on sale.
Newman retired in 1964 to live in Comberton, near Cambridge. After Lyn's death in 1973 he married Margaret Penrose, widow of his friend Lionel Penrose.
He continued to do research on combinatorial topology during a period when England was a major centre of activity notably Cambridge under the leadership of Christopher Zeeman. Newman made important contributions leading to an invitation to present his work at the 1962 International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm at the age of 65, and proved a Generalized Poincaré conjecture for topological manifolds in 1966.
At the age of 85, Newman began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. He died in Cambridge two years later.
The Newman Building at Manchester was named in his honour. The building housed the pure mathematicians from the Victoria University of Manchester between moving out of the Mathematics Tower in 2004 and July 2007 when the School of Mathematics moved into its new Alan Turing Building, where a lecture room is named in his honour.
In 1946, Newman declined the offer of an OBE as he considered the offer derisory. Alan Turing had been appointed an OBE six months earlier and Newman felt that it was inadequate recognition of Turing's contribution to winning the war, referring to it as the "ludicrous treatment of Turing". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19867 |
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. Earlier modes of public transportation in Boston were independently owned and operated; many were first folded into a single agency with the formation of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in 1947. The MTA was replaced in 1964 with the present-day MBTA, which was established as an individual department within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts before becoming a division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) in 2009.
The MBTA and Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) are the only US transit agencies that operate all five major types of terrestrial mass transit vehicles: light rail vehicles (the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed and Green Lines); heavy rail trains (the Blue, Orange, and Red Lines); regional rail trains (the Commuter Rail); electric trolleybuses (the Silver Line and several routes in the northern suburbs of Boston); and motor buses (MBTA Bus). In 2016, the system averaged 1,277,200 passengers per weekday, of which heavy rail averaged 552,500 and the light-rail lines 226,500, making it the fourth-busiest subway system and the busiest light rail system in the United States.
The MBTA is the largest consumer of electricity in Massachusetts, and the second-largest land owner (after the Department of Conservation and Recreation).
In 2007, its CNG bus fleet was the largest consumer of alternative fuels in the state. The MBTA operates an independent law enforcement agency, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police.
Mass transportation in Boston was provided by private companies, often granted charters by the state legislature for limited monopolies, with powers of eminent domain to establish a right-of-way, until the creation of the MTA in 1947. Development of mass transportation both followed and shaped economic and population patterns.
Shortly after the steam locomotive became practical for mass transportation, the private Boston and Lowell Railroad was chartered in 1830. The rail, which opened in 1835, connected Boston to Lowell, a major northerly mill town in northeast Massachusetts' Merrimack Valley, via one of the oldest railroads in North America. This marked the beginning of the development of American intercity railroads, which in Massachusetts would later become the MBTA Commuter Rail system and the Green Line D branch.
Starting with the opening of the Cambridge Railroad on March 26, 1856, a profusion of streetcar lines appeared in Boston under chartered companies. Despite the change of companies, Boston is the city with the oldest continuously working streetcar system in the world. Many of these companies consolidated, and animal-drawn vehicles were converted to electric propulsion.
Streetcar congestion in downtown Boston led to the subways in 1897 and elevated rail in 1901. The Tremont Street subway was the first rapid transit tunnel in the United States. Grade-separation added capacity and avoided delays caused by cross streets. The first elevated railway and the first rapid transit line in Boston were built three years before the first underground line of the New York City Subway, but 34 years after the first London Underground lines, and long after the first elevated railway in New York City; its Ninth Avenue El started operations on July 1, 1868 in Manhattan as an elevated cable car line.
Various extensions and branches were added at both ends, bypassing more surface tracks. As grade-separated lines were extended, street-running lines were cut back for faster downtown service. The last elevated heavy rail or "El" segments in Boston were at the extremities of the Orange Line: its northern end was relocated in 1975 from Everett to Malden, MA, and its southern end was relocated into the Southwest Corridor in 1987. However, the Green Line's Causeway Street Elevated remained in service until 2004, when it was relocated into a tunnel with an incline to reconnect to the Lechmere Viaduct. The Lechmere Viaduct and a short section of steel-framed elevated at its northern end remain in service, though the elevated section will be cut back slightly and connected to a northwards viaduct extension in 2017 as part of the Green Line Extension.
The old elevated railways proved to be an eyesore and required several sharp curves in Boston's twisty streets. The Atlantic Avenue Elevated was closed in 1938 amidst declining ridership and was demolished in 1942. As rail passenger service became increasingly unprofitable, largely due to rising automobile ownership, government takeover prevented abandonment and dismantlement. The MTA purchased and took over subway, elevated, streetcar, and bus operations from the Boston Elevated Railway in 1947.
In the 1950s, the MTA ran new subway extensions, while the last two streetcar lines running into the Pleasant Street Portal of the Tremont Street Subway were substituted with buses in 1953 and 1962. In 1958 the MTA purchased the Highland Branch from the Boston and Albany Railroad, reopening a year later as rapid transit line (now the Green Line D branch).
While the operations of the MTA were relatively stable by the early 1960s, the privately operated commuter rail lines were in freefall. The New Haven Railroad, New York Central Railroad, and Boston and Maine Railroad were all financially struggling; deferred maintenance was hurting the mainlines while most branch lines had been discontinued. The 1945 Coolidge Commission plan assumed that most of the commuter rail lines would be replaced by shorter rapid transit extensions, or simply feed into them at reduced service levels. Passenger service on the entire Old Colony Railroad system serving the southeastern part of the state was abandoned by the New Haven Railroad in 1959, triggering calls for state intervention. Between January 1963 and March 1964, the Mass Transportation Commission tested different fare and service levels on the B&M and New Haven systems. Determining that commuter rail operations were important but could not be financially self-sustaining, the MTC recommended an expansion of the MTA to commuter rail territory.
On August 3, 1964, the MBTA succeeded the MTA, with an enlarged service area intended to subsidize continued commuter rail operations. The original 14-municipality MTA district was expanded to 78 cities and towns. Several lines were briefly cut back while contracts with out-of-district towns were reached, but, except for the outer portions of the Central Mass Branch (cut back from Hudson to South Sudbury), West Medway Branch (cut back from West Medway to Millis), Blackstone Line (cut back from Blackstone to Franklin), and B&M New Hampshire services (cut back from Portsmouth to Newburyport), these cuts were temporary; however, service on three branch lines (all of them with only one round trip daily: one morning rush-hour trip in to Boston, and one evening rush-hour trip back out to the suburbs) was dropped permanently between 1965 and 1976 (the Millis (the new name of the truncated West Medway Branch) and Dedham Branches were discontinued in 1967, while the Central Mass Branch was abandoned in 1971). The MBTA bought the Penn Central (New York Central and New Haven) commuter rail lines in January 1973, Penn Central equipment in April 1976, and all B&M commuter assets in December 1976; these purchases served to make the system state-owned with the private railroads retained solely as operators. Only two branch lines were abandoned after 1976: service on the Lexington Branch (also with only one round trip daily) was discontinued in January 1977 after a snowstorm blocked the line, while the Lowell Line's full-service Woburn Branch was eliminated in January 1981 due to poor track conditions.
The MBTA assigned colors to its four rapid transit lines in 1965, and lettered the branches of the Green Line from north to south. Shortages of streetcars, among other factors, caused bustitution of rail service on two branches of the Green Line. The A branch ceased operating entirely in 1969 and was replaced by the 57 bus, while the E branch was truncated from Arborway to Heath Street in 1985, with the section between Heath Street and Arborway being replaced by the 39 bus.
The MBTA purchased bus routes in the outer suburbs to the north and south from the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway in 1968. As with the commuter rail system, many of the outlying routes were dropped shortly before or after the takeover due to low ridership and high operating costs.
In the 1970s, the MBTA received a boost from the Boston Transportation Planning Review area-wide re-evaluation of the role of mass transit relative to highways. Producing a moratorium on highway construction inside Route 128, numerous mass transit lines were planned for expansion by the Voorhees-Skidmore, Owings and Merrill-ESL consulting team. The removal of elevated lines continued, and the closure of the Washington Street Elevated in 1987 brought the end of rapid transit service to the Roxbury neighborhood. Between 1971 and 1985, the Red Line was extended both north and south, providing not only additional subway system coverage, but also major parking structures at several of the terminal and intermediate stations.
In 1981, seventeen people and one corporation were indicted for their roles in a number of kickback schemes at the MBTA. Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation and MBTA Chairman Barry Locke was convicted of five counts of bribery and sentenced to 7 to 10 years in prison.
By 1999, the district was expanded further to 175 cities and towns, adding most that were served by or adjacent to commuter rail lines, though the MBTA did not assume responsibility for local service in those communities adjacent to or served by commuter rail.
A turning point in funding occurred in 2000. Prior to July 1, 2000, the MBTA was reimbursed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for all costs above revenue collected (net cost of service). Beginning on that date, the T was granted a dedicated revenue stream consisting of amounts assessed on served cities and towns, along with a dedicated 20% portion of the 5% state sales tax. The MBTA now had to live within this "forward funding" budget.
The Commonwealth assigned to the MBTA responsibility for increasing public transit to compensate for increased automobile pollution from the Big Dig. However, these projects have strained the MBTA's limited resources, since the Big Dig project did not include funding for these improvements. Since 1988, the MBTA has been the fastest expanding transit system in the country, even as Greater Boston has been one of the slowest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. The MBTA subsequently went into debt, and rates underwent an appreciable hike on January 1, 2007.
In 2006, the creation of the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority saw several towns subtract their MWRTA assessment from their MBTA assessment, though the amount of funding the MBTA received remained the same. The next year, the MBTA started commuter rail service to the Greenbush section of Scituate, the third branch of the Old Colony service. Rhode Island also paid for extensions of the Providence/Stoughton Line to T.F. Green Airport in 2010 and Wickford Junction in 2012. A new station on the Fairmount Line, the Talbot Avenue station, opened in November 2012.
On June 26, 2009, Governor Deval Patrick signed a law to place the MBTA along with other state transportation agencies within the administrative authority of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), with the MBTA now part of the Mass Transit division (MassTrans).
The 2009 transportation law continued the MBTA corporate structure and changed the MBTA board membership to the five Governor-appointed members of the Mass DOT Board.
In February 2015, there was record breaking snowfall in Boston from the 2014–15 North American winter causing severe delays on all MBTA subway lines. and many long-term operational and financial problems with the entire MBTA system coming under greater public attention, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker indicated at the time that he was reluctant to discuss the financing issues but that he would "have more to say about that in a couple of weeks." Baker subsequently announced the formation of a special advisory panel to diagnose the MBTA's problems and write a report recommending proposals to address them. The special advisory panel formed the previous February released its report in April 2015. The next month, Baker appointed a new MassDOT Board of Directors and proposed a five-year winter resiliency plan with $83 million being spent to update infrastructure, purchase new equipment, and improve operations during severe weather.
Ground was broken for the $38.5 million renovation of Ruggles Station, in Roxbury, in August 2017. This was followed by the start of construction on the Green Line Extension the following June. In April 2018, the MBTA Silver Line began operating a route from Chelsea to South Station.
A Red Line derailment that resulted in train delays for several months brought more attention to capital maintenance problems at the T. After complaints from many riders and business groups, the governor proposed adding $50 million for an independent team to speed up inspections and capital projects, and general efforts to speed up existing capital spending from $1 billion to $1.5 billion per year. Replacement of the Red Line signal system were accelerated, including equipment that was damaged in the derailment. Baker proposed allocating to the MBTA $2.7 billion from the state's five-year transportation bond bill plus more money from the proposed multi-state Transportation Climate Initiative.
A December 2019 report by the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board panel found "safety is not the priority at the T, but it must be." The report said "there is a general feeling that fiscal controls over the years may have gone too far, which coupled with staff cutting has resulted in the inability to accomplish required maintenance and inspections, or has hampered work keeping legacy system assets fully functional."
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts most businesses closed or sent staff to work from home, and people were advised to avoid riding public transit unless necessary. At the lowest point, MBTA ridership dropped about 78% on buses, 92% on the subway, on 71% paratransit, and 97% on commuter rail. Bus and subway ran on a modified Saturday schedule; commuter rail was on a reduced schedule and ferries were shut down completely. To facilitate social distancing from drivers, buses started running fare-free with rear-door-only boarding, passengers were required to wear face masks (except small children and people with relevant medical conditions), and the agency began frequently sanitizing vehicles and stations. Driver availability was limited as some employees contracted the virus. The T received $827 million in federal aid for FY2020 and FY2021 to make up for increased costs and lost revenue.
In June, the MBTA announced that commuter rail tickets and passes valid as of March 10 would be valid for 90 days starting on June 22. It also made various fare changes to encourage riders to shift from potentially crowded bus or subway, including discounted ten-ride tickets, half-price tickets for youth, and Zone 1A fares extended to Lynn and River Works stations.
"See also:" List of MBTA bus routes
The MBTA bus system is the nation's sixth largest by ridership and comprises over 150 routes across the Greater Boston area. The area served by the MBTA's bus operations is somewhat larger than its subway and light rail service area, but is significantly smaller than that served by the MBTA's commuter rail operation. At least eight other regional transit authorities also provide bus services within that larger area, these being the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, Brockton Area Transit Authority, Cape Ann Transportation Authority, Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority, Lowell Regional Transit Authority, Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority, Montachusett Regional Transit Authority, and Worcester Regional Transit Authority. All of these authorities have their own fare structures and some subcontract operation to private bus companies. In many cases, their buses serve as feeders to the MBTA commuter rail.
Within MBTA's bus service area, transfers "from" the subway are free if using a CharlieCard (for local buses); transfers "to" the subway require paying the difference between bus and the higher subway fare (for local buses; if not using a CharlieCard, full subway fare must be paid in addition to full bus fare). Bus-to-bus transfers (for local buses) are free unless paying cash. Many of the outlying routes run express along major highways to downtown. The buses are colored yellow on maps and in station decor.
The Silver Line is the MBTA's first service designated as bus rapid transit (BRT), even though it lacks many of the characteristics of bus rapid transit. The first segment began operations in 2002, replacing the 49 bus, which in turn replaced the Washington Street Elevated section of the Orange Line. A full subway fare was charged, with free transfers to the subways downtown until January 1, 2007, when the fare system was revised to categorize the service as a "bus" for fare purposes. The "Washington Street" segment runs along various downtown streets, and mostly in dedicated bus lanes on Washington Street itself. Two Washington Street routes start at Dudley Station in Roxbury and one terminates at Downtown Crossing on Temple Place (SL5-the 2002 route) and one to South Station on Essex Street (SL4)
The "Waterfront" section opened at the end of 2004, and connects South Station to Logan Airport with route SL1 via Ted Williams Tunnel and South Boston (Design Center area) with route SL2. A new service to Chelsea opened April 21, 2018 via the same tunnel that SL1 uses and stops at the Airport Station of the Blue Line. The buses that run the Waterfront section are 2004-05 dual-mode buses, trackless trolley in the Silver Line tunnel and diesel outside. Service to Logan Airport began in June 2005. The Waterfront segment is classified as a "subway" for fare purposes. A transfer between segments is possible at South Station.
A "Phase III" tunneled segment was proposed to connect the two segments for through service, but it was controversial due to high cost and the fact that many did not consider Phase I to be adequate replacement service for the old Elevated. All Phase III tunneling proposals have been suspended due to lack of funds, as has the Urban Ring, which was intended to expand upon existing crosstown buses.
The MBTA contracts with private bus companies to provide subsidized service on certain routes outside of the usual fare structure. These are known collectively as the HI-RIDE Commuter Bus service, and are not numbered or mapped in the same way as integral bus services.
Four routes connecting to Harvard Station (Red Line) still run as trackless trolleys; there was once a much larger trackless trolley system. (See Trolleybuses in Greater Boston.)
In FY2005, there were on average 363,500 weekday boardings of MBTA-operated buses and trackless trolleys (not including the Silver Line), or 31.8% of the MBTA system. Another 4,400 boardings (0.38%) occurred on subsidized bus routes operated by private carriers.
In June 2020 in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic, the MBTA had begun providing real-time information on crowding. The information would be available on the MBTA website, E Ink screens, and in the Transit app. At conception the service is was only available on bus routes 1, 15, 16, 22, 23, 31, 32, 109, and 110, and it remains unclear if further lines or transit modes will be introduced in the future or if this feature will remain permanent. This feature however is not new, since 2019 Google Maps has provided this data.
The subway system has three heavy rail rapid transit lines (the Red, Orange and Blue Lines), and two light rail lines (the Green Line and the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line, the latter designated an extension of the Red Line). The system operates according to a spoke-hub distribution paradigm, with the lines running radially between central Boston and its environs. It is common usage in Boston to refer to all four of the color-coded rail lines which run underground as "the subway" or "the T", regardless of the actual railcar equipment used.
All four subway lines cross downtown, forming a quadrilateral configuration, and the Orange and Green Lines (which run approximately parallel in that district) also connect directly at two stations just north of downtown. The Red Line and Blue Line are the only pair of subway lines which do not have a direct transfer connection to each other. Because the various subway lines do not consistently run in any given compass direction, it is customary to refer to line directions as "inbound" or "outbound". Inbound trains travel towards the four downtown transfer stations, and outbound trains travel away from these hub stations.
The Green Line has four branches in the west: B (Boston College), C (Cleveland Circle), D (Riverside), and E (Heath Street). The A branch formerly went to Watertown, filling in the north-to-south letter assignment pattern, and the E branch formerly continued beyond Heath Street to Arborway.
The Red Line has two branches in the south—Ashmont and Braintree, named after their terminal stations.
The colors were assigned on August 26, 1965 in conjunction with design standards developed by Cambridge Seven Associates, and have served as the primary identifier for the lines since the 1964 reorganization of the MTA into the MBTA. The Orange Line is so named because it used to run along Orange Street (now lower Washington Street), as the former "Orange Street" also was the street that joined the city to the mainland through Boston Neck in colonial times; the Green Line because it runs adjacent to parts of the Emerald Necklace park system; the Blue Line because it runs under Boston Harbor; and the Red Line because its northernmost station used to be at Harvard University, whose school color is crimson.
The four transit lines all use standard rail gauge, but are otherwise incompatible; trains of one line would have to be modified to run on another. Orange and Blue Line trains are similar enough that modification of some Blue Line trains for operation on the Orange Line was considered, although ultimately rejected for cost reasons. Also, some of the new Blue Line cars from Siemens Transportation were tested on the Orange Line after hours, before acceptance for revenue service on the Blue Line. There are no direct track connections between lines, except between the Red Line and Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line, but all except the Blue Line have little-used connections to the national rail network, which have been used for deliveries of railcars and supplies.
Opened in September 1897, the four-track-wide segment of the Green Line tunnel between Park Street and Boylston stations was the first subway in the United States, and has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The downtown portions of what are now the Green, Orange, Blue, and Red line tunnels were all in service by 1912. Additions to the rapid transit network occurred in most decades of the 1900s, and continue in the 2000s with the addition of Silver Line bus rapid transit and planned Green Line expansion. (See History and Future plans sections.)
In FY2005, there were on average 628,400 weekday boardings on the rapid transit and light rail lines (including the Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit), or 55.0% of the MBTA system.
On January 29, 2014, the MBTA completed a countdown clock display system, alerting passengers to arriving trains, at all 53 heavy rail subway stations (the Red, Blue and Orange Lines). The MBTA introduced countdown clocks in underground Green Line stations during 2015. Unlike the other countdown clocks which count down in minutes, the Green Line clocks count down the number of stops away the train is.
The MBTA Commuter Rail system is a regional rail network that reaches from Boston into the suburbs of eastern Massachusetts. The system consists of twelve main lines, three of which have two branches. The rail network operates according to a spoke-hub distribution paradigm, with the lines running radially outward from the city of Boston. Eight of the lines converge at South Station, with four of these passing through Back Bay station. The other four converge at North Station. There is no passenger connection between the two sides; the Grand Junction Railroad is used for non-revenue equipment moves accessing the maintenance facility. The North–South Rail Link has been proposed to connect the two halves of the system; it would be constructed under the Central Artery tunnel of the Big Dig.
Special MBTA trains are run over the Franklin Line and the Providence/Stoughton Line to Foxborough station for New England Patriots home games and other events at Gillette Stadium. The "CapeFLYER" intercity service, operated on summer weekends, uses MBTA equipment and operates over the Middleborough/Lakeville Line. Amtrak runs regularly scheduled intercity rail service over four lines: the "Lake Shore Limited" over the Framingham/Worcester Line, "Acela Express" and "Northeast Regional" services over the Providence/Stoughton Line, and the "Downeaster" over sections of the Lowell Line and Haverhill Line. Freight trains run by Pan Am Southern, Pan Am Railways, CSX Transportation, the Providence and Worcester Railroad, and the Fore River Railroad also use parts of the network.
The first commuter rail service in the United States was operated over what is now the Framingham/Worcester Line beginning in 1834. Within the next several decades, Boston was the center of a massive rail network, with eight trunk lines and dozens of branches. By 1900, ownership was consolidated under the Boston and Maine Railroad to the north, the New York Central Railroad to the west, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad to the south. Most branches and one trunk line – the former Old Colony Railroad main – had their passenger services discontinued during the middle of the 20th century. In 1964, the MBTA was formed to subsidize the failing suburban railroad operations, with an eye towards converting many to extensions of the existing rapid transit system. The first unified branding of the system was applied on October 8, 1974, with "MBTA Commuter Rail" naming and purple coloration analogous to the four subway lines. The system continued to shrink – mostly with the loss of marginal lines with one daily round trip – until 1981. The system has been expanded since, with four lines restored (Fairmount Line in 1979, Old Colony Lines in 1997, and Greenbush Line in 2007), six extended., and a number of stations added and rebuilt.
Several further expansions are planned or proposed. The South Coast Rail project, for which preliminary construction began in 2014, would extend the Stoughton section of the Providence/Stoughton Line to Taunton, with two branches to New Bedford and Fall River. Extensions of the Providence/Stoughton Line to Kingston, the Middleborough/Lakeville Line to Buzzards Bay, and the Lowell Line into New Hampshire are also proposed. Infill stations at Boston Landing, Blue Hill Avenue, West Station, and South Salem are under construction or planned.
Each commuter rail line has up to eleven fare zones, numbered 1A and 1 through 10. Riders are charged based on the number of zones they travel through. Tickets can be purchased on the train, from ticket counters or machines in some rail stations, or with a mobile app. If a local vendor or ticket machine is available, riders will pay a surcharge for paying with cash on board. Fares range from $2.25 to $12.50, with multi-ride and monthly passes available. In 2016, the system averaged 122,600 daily riders, making it the fourth-busiest commuter rail system in the nation.
The MBTA commuter rail network was the first in the nation to offer free on-board Wi-Fi. It offers Wi-Fi-enabled coaches on all train sets.
The MBTA Boat system comprises several ferry routes via Boston Harbor. One of these is an inner harbor service, linking the downtown waterfront with the Boston Navy Yard in Charlestown. The other routes are commuter routes, linking downtown to Hingham, Hull, and Salem. Some commuter services operate via Logan International Airport.
All boat services are operated by private sector companies under contract to the MBTA. In FY2005, the MBTA boat system carried 4,650 passengers (0.41% of total MBTA passengers) per weekday. The service is provided through contract of the MBTA by Boston Harbor Cruises (BHC).
The MBTA contracts out operation of "The Ride", an on-demand pickup and dropoff service for people with mobility challenges. Paratransit services carry 5,400 passengers on a typical weekday, or 0.47% of the MBTA system ridership. The three private service providers under contractual agreement with the MBTA for The Ride service are: Greater Lynn Senior Services (GLSS), Veterans Transportation LLC, and The Joint Venture of TTI/YCN, LLC.
In September 2016, the MBTA announced that paratransit users would be able to get rides from transportation network companies Uber and Lyft. Riders would pay $2 for a pickup within a few minutes (more for longer trips worth more than $15) instead of $3.15 for a scheduled pickup the next day. The MBTA would pay $13 instead of $31 per ride ($46 per trip when fixed costs of The Ride are considered).
Conventional bicycles are generally allowed on MBTA commuter rail, commuter boat, and rapid transit lines during off-peak hours and all day on weekends and holidays. However, bicycles are "not" allowed at any time on the Green Line, or the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line segment of the Red Line. Buses equipped with bike racks at the front (including the Silver Line) may always accommodate bicycles, up to the capacity limit of the racks. The MBTA claims that 95% of its buses are now equipped with bike racks, except for trackless trolleys which still lack this capability.
Due to congestion and tight clearances, bicycles are banned from Park Street, Downtown Crossing, and Government Center stations at all times.
However, compact folding bicycles are permitted on all MBTA vehicles at all times, provided that they are kept completely folded for the duration of the trip, including passage through faregates. Gasoline-powered vehicles, bike trailers, and Segways are prohibited.
No special permit is required to take a bicycle onto an MBTA vehicle, but bicyclists are expected to follow the rules and hours of operation. Cyclists under 16 years old are supposed to be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Detailed rules, and an explanation of how to use front-of-bus bike racks and bike parking are on the MBTA website.
The MBTA says that over 95% of its stations are equipped with bike racks, many of them under cover from the weather. In addition, over a dozen stations are equipped with "Pedal & Park" fully enclosed areas protected with video surveillance and controlled door access, for improved security. To obtain access, a personally registered CharlieCard must be used. Registration is done online, and requires a valid email address and the serial number of the CharlieCard. All bike parking is free of charge.
, the MBTA operates park and ride facilities at 103 locations with a total capacity of 55,000 automobiles, and is the owner of the largest number of off-street paid parking spaces in New England. The number of spaces at stations with parking varies from a few dozen to over 2,500. The larger lots and garages are usually near a major highway exit, and most lots fill up during the morning rush hour. There are some 22,000 spaces on the southern portion of the commuter rail system, 9,400 on the northern portion and 14,600 at subway stations. The parking fee ranges from $4 to $7 per day, and overnight parking (maximum 7 days) is permitted at some stations.
Management for a number of parking lots owned by the MBTA is handled by a private contractor. The 2012 contract with LAZ Parking (which was not its first) was terminated in 2017 after employees were discovered "skimming" revenue; the company paid $5.5 million to settle the case. A new contract with stronger performance incentives and anti-fraud penalties was then awarded to Republic Parking System of Tennessee.
Customers parking in MBTA-owned and operated lots with existing cash "honor boxes" can pay for parking online or via phone while in their cars or once they board a train, bus, or commuter boat. , the MBTA switched from ParkMobile to PayByPhone as its provider for mobile parking payments by smartphone. Monthly parking permits are available, offering a modest discount. Detailed parking information by station is available online, including prices, estimated vacancy rate, and number of accessible and bicycle parking slots.
, the MBTA has a policy for electric vehicle charging stations in its parking spaces, but does not yet have such facilities available.
From time to time the MBTA has made various agreements with companies that contribute to commuting options. One company the MBTA selected was Zipcar; the MBTA provides Zipcar with a limited number of parking spaces at various subway stations throughout the system.
Traditionally, the MBTA has stopped running around 1 am each night, despite the fact that bars and clubs in most areas of Boston are open until 2 am. Like nearly all subways worldwide, the MBTA's subway does not have parallel express and local tracks, so much rail maintenance is only done when the trains are not running. An MBTA spokesperson has said, "with a 109-year-old system you have to be out there every night" to do necessary maintenance. The MBTA did experiment with "Night Owl" substitute bus service from 2001 to 2005, but abandoned it because of insufficient ridership, citing a $7.53 per rider cost to keep the service open, five times the cost per passenger of an average bus route.
A modified form of the MBTA's previous "Night Owl" service was experimentally reinstated starting in the spring of 2014—this time, all subway lines were proposed to run until 3 am on weekends, along with the 15 most heavily used bus lines and the para-transit service "The Ride".
Starting March 28, 2014, the late-night service began operation on a one-year trial basis, with service continuation depending on late-night ridership and on possible corporate sponsorship. , late-night ridership was stable, and much higher than the earlier failed experimental service. However, it is still unclear whether and on what basis the program might be extended past its first year. The extended hours program has not been implemented on the MBTA commuter rail operations.
In early 2016, the MBTA decided that Late-Night service would be canceled because of lack of funding. The last night for late-night service was on March 19, 2016. The last train left at 2 a.m. on March 19, 2016.
in 2018 the MBTA further tried "Early Morning and Late Night Bus Service Pilots".
In June 2019, a year after the trials the board voted to make some changes to the schedule which would allow for further late night service to be incorporated long term
During Fiscal Year 2013, the entire MBTA system had a typical weekday passenger ridership of 1,297,650. The MBTA's rapid transit lines (Red, Green, Orange, and Blue) accounted for 59% of all rides, buses accounted for 30%, and commuter rail accounted for 10% of all rides. The MBTA's ferries and paratransit accounted for the remaining 1% of rides.
Passenger ridership has been steadily growing over the years, and between 2010 and 2013, the system saw passenger ridership grow 4.6% or an additional 57,000 daily passengers to the system.
The MBTA has various fare structures for its various types of service. The CharlieCard electronic farecard is accepted on the subway and bus systems, but not on commuter rail, ferry, or paratransit services. Passengers pay for subway and bus rides at faregates in station entrances or fareboxes in the front of vehicles; MBTA employees manually check tickets on the commuter rail and ferries.
Since the 1980s, the MBTA has offered discounted monthly passes on all modes for the convenience of daily commuters and other frequent riders. One-day and seven-day passes, intended primarily for tourists, are available for buses, subway, and inner harbor ferries.
The MBTA has periodically raised fares to match inflation and keep the system financially solvent. A substantial increase effective July 2012 raised public ire including an "Occupy the MBTA" protest. A transportation funding law passed in 2013 limits MBTA fare increases to 7% every two years. A 5% fare increase effective July 1, 2014 was implemented.
, all subway trips (Green Line, Blue Line, Orange Line, Red Line, Ashmont-Mattapan Line, and the Waterfront section of the Silver Line) cost $2.40 for CharlieCard holders and $2.90 for CharlieTicket or cash payers. Local bus and trackless trolley fares (including the Washington Street section of the Silver Line) are $1.70 for CharlieCard holders and $2.00 for others. All transfers between subway lines are free with all fare media. Passengers using CharlieCards can transfer free from a subway to a bus, and from a bus to a subway for the difference in price ("step-up fare"). CharlieTicket holders can transfer free between buses, but not between subway and bus, except between rapid transit and the Washington Street section of the Silver Line. Paying directly with cash is only available on buses, Green Line surface stops, and the Ashmont-Mattapan Line; a higher price is charged because it slows the process of boarding.
The MBTA operates "Inner Express" and "Outer Express" buses to suburbs outside the subway system. Inner Express bus trips cost $3.65 with a CharlieCard or $4.75 without; Outer Express trips cost $5.25 with and $6.80 without. Free transfers are available to the subway and local buses with a CharlieCard, and to local buses with a CharlieTicket.
CharlieTickets are available from ticket vending machines in MBTA rapid transit stations. CharlieCards are not dispensed by the machines, but are available free of charge on request at most MBTA Customer Service booths in stations, or at the CharlieCard Store at Downtown Crossing station. As given out, the CharlieCards are "empty", and must have value added at an MBTA ticket machine before they can be used.
The fare system, including on-board and in-station fare vending machines, was purchased from German-based Scheidt and Bachmann, which developed the technology. The CharlieCards were developed by Gemalto and later by Giesecke & Devrient. In 2006 electronic fares replaced metal tokens, which had been used on and off on transit systems in Boston for over a century.
Until 2007, not all subway fares were identical - passengers were not charged for boarding outbound Green Line trains at surface stops, while double fares were charged for the outer ends of the Green Line D branch and the Red Line Braintree Branch. As part of a general fare hike effective January 1, 2007, the MBTA eliminated these inconsistent fares.
Commuter rail fares are on a zone-based system, with fares dependent on the distance from downtown. Rides between Zone 1A stations - South Station, Back Bay, most of the Fairmount Line, and eight other stations within several miles of downtown - cost $2.10, the same as a subway fare with a CharlieCard. Fares for other stations range from $5.75 from Zone 1 (~5–10 miles from downtown) to $14.50 from Zone 10 (~60 miles). All Massachusetts stations are Zone 8 or closer; only T.F. Green Airport and Wickford Junction in Rhode Island are Zone 9 and 10.
Interzone fares - for trips that do not go to Zone 1A - are offered at a substantial discount to encourage riders to take the commuter rail for less common commuting patterns for which transit is not usually taken. Discounted monthly passes are available for all trips; 10-ride passes at full price are also available for trips to Zone 1A. All monthly passes include unlimited trips on the subway and local bus; some outer-zone monthlies also offer free use of express buses and ferries. A cash-on-board surcharge of $3.00 is added for trips originating from stations with fare vending machines.
The Inner Harbor Ferry costs $3.25 per ride, and is grouped as a Zone 1A monthly commuter rail pass. Single rides cost $8.50 from Hull or Hingham to Boston, $17.00 from Hull or Hingham to Logan Airport, and $13.75 from Boston to Logan Airport.
Fares on The Ride, the MBTA's paratransit program, are structured differently from other modes. Passengers using The Ride must maintain an account with the MBTA in order to pay for service. Fares are $3.00 for "ADA trips" originating within of fixed-route bus or subway service and booked in advance, and $5.00 for "premium trips" booked the same day, or originating further away.
Discounted fares (, $1.10 for the subway, $1.10 for a subway-bus transfer, and $0.85 for local buses including transfer) as well as discounted monthly local bus and subway passes are available to seniors over 65, and passengers who are permanently disabled who utilize a special photo CharlieCard (called "Senior ID" and "Transportation Access Pass", respectively). Holders of these passes are also entitled to 50% off the Commuter Rail fares. Passengers who are legally blind ride for free on all MBTA services (including express buses and the Commuter Rail) with a "Blind Access Card".
Children under 12 ride for free with an adult (up to 2 per adult). Military personnel, public servants, and certain government officials ride at no charge upon presentation of proper ID, or if dressed in official work uniforms.
Middle school and high school students receive the aforementioned discounts on fares. Student discounts require a "Student CharlieCard" or "S-Card" issued through the holder's school which is valid year-round. From the first day of school until June 31 of the next year, students can buy a 30-day LinkPass for $30 that allows for unlimited usage of the bus and rapid transit lines until the last day of that month. From July 1 to August 31, students can only load money on and pay as they would with a standard CharlieCard. Passes expire on August 31 and are reissued by the school the following school year.
College students are not eligible for reduced fares, but some colleges offer a "Semester Pass" program.
A special "Youth Pass" program was introduced in 2017, allowing young adults less than 25 years old who reside in participating cities or towns and are enrolled in specific low income programs to pay reduced fares.
Since the "forward funding" reform in 2000, the MBTA is funded primarily through 16% of the state sales tax excluding the meals tax (with minimum dollar amount guarantee), which is set at 6.25% statewide, and therefore equal to 1% of taxable non-meal purchases statewide. The authority is also funded by passenger fares and formula assessments of the cities and towns in its service area (excepting those which are assessed for the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority). Supplemental income is obtained from its paid parking lots, renting space to retail vendors in and around stations, rents from utility companies using MBTA rights of way, selling surplus land and movable property, advertising on vehicles and properties, and federal operating subsidies for special programs.
A May 2019 report found the MBTA had a maintenance backlog of approximately $10 billion, which it hopes to clear by 2032 by increasing spending on capital projects.
The Capital Investment Program is a rolling 5-year plan which programs capital expenses. The draft FY2009-2014 CIP allocates $3,795M, including $879M in projects funded from non-MBTA state sources (required for Clean Air Act compliance), and $299M in projects with one-time federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Capital projects are paid for by federal grants, allocations from the general budget of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (for legal commitments and expansion projects) and MBTA bonds (which are paid off through the operating budget). The FY2014 budget includes $1.422 billion for operating expenses and $443.8M in debt and lease payments.
The FY2010 budget was supplemented by $160 million in sales tax revenue when the statewide rate was raised from 5% to 6.25%, to avoid service cuts or a fare increase in a year when deferred debt payments were coming due.
The Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization is responsible for overall regional surface transportation planning. As required by federal law for projects to be eligible for federal funding (except earmarks), the MPO maintains a fiscally constrained 20+ year Regional Transportation Plan for surface transportation expansion, the current edition of which is called "Journey to 2030". The required 4-year MPO plan is called the Transportation Improvement Plan.
The MBTA maintains its own 25-year capital planning document, called the Program for Mass Transportation, which is fiscally unconstrained. The agency's 4-year plan is called the Capital Improvement Plan; it is the primary mechanism by which money is actually allocated to capital projects. Major capital spending projects must be approved by the MBTA Board, and except for unexpected needs, are usually included in the initial CIP.
In addition to federal funds programmed through the Boston MPO, and MBTA capital funds derived from fares, sales tax, municipal assessments, and other minor internal sources, the T receives funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for certain projects. The state may fund items in the State Implementation Plan (SIP) - such as the Big Dig mitigation projects - which is the plan required under the Clean Air Act to reduce air pollution. (, all of Massachusetts is designated as a clean air "non-attainment" zone.)
In 2005, the administration of then-governor Mitt Romney announced a long range transportation plan that emphasized repair and maintenance over expansion.
Due to the financial constraints on the MBTA budget, it is expected that funds for all further expansion projects will be funded with money outside the MBTA's budget. A state transportation bond bill is being used to fund the Green Line Extension to Somerville and Medford, and planning South Coast Rail commuter rail service to Fall River and New Bedford.
There is a proposal to extend the Blue Line northward to Lynn, with two potential extension routes having been identified. One proposed path would run through marshland alongside the existing Newburyport/Rockport commuter rail line, while the other would extend the line along the remainder of the BRB&L right of way.
In addition, the MBTA has committed to designing an extension of the line's southern terminus westward to Charles/MGH, where it would connect with the Red Line. This was one of the mitigation measures the Commonwealth of Massachusetts agreed to offset increased automobile emissions from the Big Dig, but it was later replaced in this agreement by other projects.
To settle a lawsuit with the Conservation Law Foundation to mitigate increased automobile emissions from the Big Dig, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts agreed to extend the Green Line north to Somerville and Medford, two suburbs currently under-served by the MBTA. This plan starts at a relocated Lechmere station, and terminates at College Avenue in Medford and Union Square in Somerville. The original settlement-imposed deadline was December 31, 2014. There will be an expected daily ridership of 8,420. After projected costs increased to $3 billion, the project was halted in 2015 and scaled back. The revised project broke ground in June 2018 and is expected to serve passengers beginning in late 2021.
Another mitigation project in the initial settlement was restoration of service on the E branch between Heath Street and Arborway/Forest Hills. A revised settlement agreement resulted in the substitution of other projects with similar air quality benefits. The state Executive Office of Transportation promised to consider other transit enhancements in the Arborway corridor.
In October 2013, MassDOT announced plans for a $1.3 billion subway car order for the Orange and Red Lines, which would replace and expand the existing car fleets and add more frequent service. The MassDOT Board awarded a $566.6 million contract to a China based manufacturer CNR (which became part of CRRC the following year) to build 404 replacement railcars for the Orange Line and Red Line. The other bidders were Bombardier Transportation, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Hyundai Rotem. CNR began building the cars at a new manufacturing plant in Springfield, Massachusetts, with initial deliveries expected in 2018 and all cars in service by 2023. The Board forwent federal funding to allow the contract to specify the cars be built in Massachusetts, in order to create a local railcar manufacturing industry. In addition to the new rolling stock, the $1.3 billion allocated for the project will pay for testing, signal improvements and expanded maintenance facilities, as well as other related expenses. Sixty percent of the car's components are sourced from the United States. Replacement of the signal systems, which will increase reliability and allow more frequent trains, is expected to be complete by 2022, with a total cost of $218 million for both lines.
The Urban Ring is a project of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to develop new public transportation routes that would provide improved circumferential connections among many existing transit lines that project radially from downtown Boston, allowing easier travel between locations outside of downtown. The project corridor passes through various neighborhoods of Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Somerville, Cambridge, and Brookline. The capital cost for this version of the plan is estimated at $2.2 billion, with a projected daily ridership of 170,000. 53% of the route is either in a bus-only lane, dedicated busway, or tunnel. The Urban Ring would have a higher collective ridership than the Orange Line, Blue Line, or the entire commuter rail system.
There are several proposed extensions to current commuter rail lines. An extension of the Stoughton Line known as South Coast Rail is proposed to serve Fall River, and New Bedford. Critics argue that building the extension does not make economic sense.
A extension of the Providence Line past Providence to T. F. Green Airport and Wickford Junction in Rhode Island opened in 2012. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation is also studying the feasibility of serving existing Amtrak stations in Kingston and Westerly as well as constructing new stations in Cranston, East Greenwich, and West Davisville. Federal funding has also been provided for preliminary planning of a new station in Pawtucket.
In September 2009, CSX Transportation and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts finalized a $100 million agreement to purchase CSX's Framingham to Worcester tracks, as well as some other track, to improve service on the Framingham/Worcester Line. A liability issue that had held up the agreement was resolved. There is also a project underway to upgrade the Fitchburg Line to have cab signaling and to construct a second track along a run near Acton which is shared with freight traffic, so that the Fitchburg to Boston trip will be able to take only about an hour. Completion is expected in December 2015.
The state of New Hampshire created the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority and allocated money to build platforms at Nashua and Manchester. An article in "The Eagle-Tribune" claimed that Massachusetts was negotiating to buy property which has the potential to extend the Haverhill Line to Plaistow, New Hampshire.
Massachusetts agreed in 2005 to make improvements on the Fairmount Line part of its legally binding commitment to mitigate increased air pollution from the Big Dig. These improvements, including four new infill stations, were supposed to be complete by December 31, 2011. The total cost of the project was estimated at $79.4 million, and it was expected to divert 220 daily trips from automobiles to transit. , three of the new stations were open; the fourth station has been delayed by community opposition. In 2014, the MBTA announce it would purchase Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) self-propelled rail cars for the Fairmount Line with eventual expansion to five other lines to be known as the Indigo Line. The planned DMU procurement was canceled in 2015.
No direct rail connection exists between North Station and South Station, effectively splitting the commuter rail network into separate pieces. A North–South Rail Link has been proposed to unite the two halves of the commuter rail system, to allow more convenient and efficient through-routed service. However, because of high cost, Massachusetts withdrew its sponsorship of the proposal in 2006, in communications with the United States Department of Transportation. Advocacy groups continue to press for the project as a better alternative than expanding South Station, which would also be costly but provide fewer overall improvements in service.
In 2015, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed new legislation creating a financial control board to oversee the MBTA. The Fiscal and Management Control Board started meeting in July 2015 and is charged with bringing financial stability to the agency. The Fiscal and Management Control Board reports to Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack. Three of the five members of the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board are also members of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation leads the executive management team of MassDOT in addition to serving in the Governor's Cabinet. The MBTA's executive management team is led by its General Manager, who is currently also serving as the MassDOT Rail and Transit Administrator, overseeing all public transit in the state.
The MBTA Advisory Board represents the cities and towns in the MBTA service district. The municipalities are assessed a total of $143M annually (). In return, the Advisory Board has veto power over the MBTA operating and capital budgets, including the power to reduce the overall amount.
The MBTA's buses are maintained and stored at several bus garages located throughout eastern Massachusetts:
Rail lines have their own maintenance facilities:
Major administrative facilities:
, the MBTA employs 6,346 workers, of which roughly 600 are in part-time jobs.
Structurally, the employees of the MBTA function as part of a handful of trade unions. The largest union of the MBTA is the Carmen's Union (Local 589), representing bus and subway operators. This includes full and part-time bus drivers, motorpersons and streetcar motorpersons, full and part-time train attendants, and Customer Service Agents (CSAs). Further unions include the Machinists Union, Local 264; Electrical Workers Union, Local 717; the Welder's Union, Local 651; the Executive Union; the Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 453; the Professional and Technical Engineers Union, Local 105; and the Office and Professional Employees Union, Local 6.
Within the authority, employees are ranked according to seniority (or "rating"). This is categorized by an employee's five or six-digit badge number, though some of the longest serving employees still have only three or four-digits. An employee's badge number indicates the relative length of employment with the MBTA; badges are issued in sequential order. The rating structure determines many different things, including the rank in which perks are to be offered to employee, such as: When offering the choice for quarter-annual route assignments ("picks"), overtime offerings, and even the rank to transfer new hires from part-time roles to a full-time role.
The MBTA maintains its own police force which actively patrols all areas and vehicles used by the Authority. MBTA Police conduct routine vehicle patrol, routine foot patrol, incident investigations, and specialized patrol with K-9 dogs, and other specialized methods of explosive and narcotics detection.
The MBTA also maintains several closed-circuit television facilities located throughout its service area. The cameras monitor various areas including trains stations, and MBTA vehicles throughout the system on a 24-hour basis. MBTA phone numbers pasted onto the front of the fare gates can place customers having a problem directly into contact with one of these operations centers.
Ahead of the MBTA's 2009 restructuring with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), the MBTA had a total debenture of over US$8 billion. As a direct result, MBTA fares and parking fees have increased significantly. On July 1, 2012, MBTA fares went up as well as multiple service cuts, another fare hike took place on July 1, 2016.
On the last day of Winter in 2015, seventy two Massachusetts legislators participated in the "GovOnTheT" an exercise where Steve Kropper and Michele Rapp challenged officials with a one-hour commute or less, to take a train, subway, bus or ferry to the State House in Boston.
When the Orange Line was rebuilt in the 1980s, it was rerouted from deteriorating elevated railway structures to instead follow existing rail right-of-way, to greatly reduce land acquisition and construction costs. This had the side effect of changing its course away from the lower income areas of Everett, Chelsea, and Roxbury (where residents are less likely to own cars, and depend more on public transit), toward the more affluent towns of Malden and Medford, as well as sections of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood (where car ownership is higher, and thus, reliance on public transit is far lower).
To mitigate this, the MBTA set up a new bus line served by articulated buses equipped with specialized dispatching equipment, and a few of the features of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route. The MBTA named this new service the Silver Line, and classified it as though it were a high-capacity rail transit service, though it fails to meet full service standards for a BRT route. The Silver Line service has been criticized in many respects, most notably for its slow speed and the fact that it operates in mixed street traffic, subject to gridlock and collisions, earning it the nickname "Silver Lie" among some critics. A rating from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) determined that the MBTA Silver Line was best classified as "Not BRT" after local decision makers gradually decided to do away with most BRT-specific features.
Transportation advocates in Boston have complained that rail transit riders cannot travel from one outlying area to another without first traveling to the downtown hub stations, changing lines, and traveling outbound again. Some of the radial transit lines, notably the Green Line, are so overcrowded that service is very slow, unreliable, and capacity-limited because of rush-hour "crush loads". There are several crosstown bus lines, such as the #1, #66, CT2, and CT3 routes, but they are slow, unreliable, and subject to bus bunching because they must operate in mixed street traffic.
The MBTA Urban Ring Project would provide faster and more reliable circumferential service, and relieve overcrowding in the downtown hub stations. This issue has been studied as early as 1972, in the Boston Transportation Planning Review, and has been in detailed planning stages since before 2000, but has only been partially implemented due to lack of funding. A similar problem also occurs in the Washington Metro system, where customers cannot travel between suburbs on the same side of Washington without going through downtown, and Chicago's Metra and CTA systems, where all lines lead into and out of the central business district, rather than around it.
In 1951, the growing subway network was the setting of "A Subway Named Mobius", a science fiction short story written by the American astronomer Armin Joseph Deutsch. The tale described a Boston subway train which accidentally became a "phantom" by becoming lost in the fourth dimension, analogous to a topological Mobius strip. In 2001, a half-century later, the narrative was awarded a Retro Hugo Award for Best Short Story at the World Science Fiction Convention.
In 1959, the satirical song "M.T.A." (informally known as "Charlie on the MTA") was a hit single, as performed by the folksingers the Kingston Trio. It tells the absurd story of a passenger named Charlie, who cannot pay a newly imposed 5-cent exit fare, and thus remains trapped in the subway system. The song was still well known in 2006, when the MBTA named its new electronic farecards the "CharlieCard" and "CharlieTicket". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19869 |
Meson
In particle physics, mesons ( or ) are hadronic subatomic particles composed of one quark and one antiquark, bound together by strong interactions. Because mesons are composed of quark subparticles, they have a meaningful physical size, a diameter of roughly one femtometer (1×10 m), which is about 1.2 times the size of a proton or neutron. All mesons are unstable, with the longest-lived lasting for only a few hundredths of a microsecond. Charged mesons decay (sometimes through mediating particles) to form electrons and neutrinos. Uncharged mesons may decay to photons. Both of these decays imply that color is no longer a property of the byproducts.
Outside the nucleus, mesons appear in nature only as short-lived products of very high-energy collisions between particles made of quarks, such as cosmic rays (high-energy protons and neutrons) and Mesons are often produced artificially in a cyclotron in the collisions of protons, antiprotons, or other particles.
Higher-energy (more massive) mesons were created momentarily in the Big Bang, but are not thought to play a role in nature today. However, such heavy mesons are regularly created in particle accelerator experiments, in order to understand the nature of the heavier types of quark that compose the heavier mesons.
Mesons are part of the hadron particle family, and are defined simply as particles composed of an even number of quarks. The other members of the hadron family are the baryons: subatomic particles composed of odd numbers of valence quarks (at least 3), and some experiments show evidence of exotic mesons, which do not have the conventional valence quark content of two quarks (one quark and one antiquark), but 4 or more.
Because quarks have a spin , the difference in quark number between mesons and baryons results in conventional two-quark mesons being bosons, whereas baryons are fermions.
Each type of meson has a corresponding antiparticle (antimeson) in which quarks are replaced by their corresponding antiquarks and vice versa. For example, a positive pion () is made of one up quark and one down antiquark; and its corresponding antiparticle, the negative pion (), is made of one up antiquark and one down quark.
Because mesons are composed of quarks, they participate in both the weak and strong interactions. Mesons with net electric charge also participate in the electromagnetic interaction. Mesons are classified according to their quark content, total angular momentum, parity and various other properties, such as C-parity and G-parity. Although no meson is stable, those of lower mass are nonetheless more stable than the more massive, and hence are easier to observe and study in particle accelerators or in cosmic ray experiments. Mesons are also typically less massive than baryons, meaning that they are more easily produced in experiments, and thus exhibit certain higher-energy phenomena more readily than do baryons. For example, the charm quark was first seen in the J/Psi meson () in 1974, and the bottom quark in the upsilon meson () in 1977.
From theoretical considerations, in 1934 Hideki Yukawa predicted the existence and the approximate mass of the "meson" as the carrier of the nuclear force that holds atomic nuclei together. If there were no nuclear force, all nuclei with two or more protons would fly apart due to electromagnetic repulsion. Yukawa called his carrier particle the meson, from μέσος "mesos", the Greek word for "intermediate", because its predicted mass was between that of the electron and that of the proton, which has about 1,836 times the mass of the electron. Yukawa had originally named his particle the "mesotron", but he was corrected by the physicist Werner Heisenberg (whose father was a professor of Greek at the University of Munich). Heisenberg pointed out that there is no "tr" in the Greek word "mesos".
The first candidate for Yukawa's meson, now known in modern terminology as the muon, was discovered in 1936 by Carl David Anderson and others in the decay products of cosmic ray interactions. The mu meson had about the right mass to be Yukawa's carrier of the strong nuclear force, but over the course of the next decade, it became evident that it was not the right particle. It was eventually found that the "mu meson" did not participate in the strong nuclear interaction at all, but rather behaved like a heavy version of the electron, and was eventually classed as a lepton like the electron, rather than a meson. Physicists in making this choice decided that properties other than particle mass should control their classification.
There were years of delays in the subatomic particle research during World War II (1939–1945), with most physicists working in applied projects for wartime necessities. When the war ended in August 1945, many physicists gradually returned to peacetime research. The first true meson to be discovered was what would later be called the "pi meson" (or pion). This discovery was made in 1947, by Cecil Powell, César Lattes, and Giuseppe Occhialini, who were investigating cosmic ray products at the University of Bristol in England, based on photographic films placed in the Andes mountains. Some of those mesons had about the same mass as the already-known mu "meson", yet seemed to decay into it, leading physicist Robert Marshak to hypothesize in 1947 that it was actually a new and different meson. Over the next few years, more experiments showed that the pion was indeed involved in strong interactions. The pion (as a virtual particle) is also believed to be the primary force carrier for the nuclear force in atomic nuclei. Other mesons, such as the virtual rho mesons are involved in mediating this force as well, but to a lesser extent. Following the discovery of the pion, Yukawa was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physics for his predictions.
In the past, the word "meson" was sometimes used to mean "any" force carrier, such as "the Z0 meson", which is involved in mediating the weak interaction. However, this use has fallen out of favor, and mesons are now defined as particles composed of pairs of quarks and antiquarks.
Spin (quantum number S) is a vector quantity that represents the "intrinsic" angular momentum of a particle. It comes in increments of "ħ". The "ħ" is often dropped because it is the "fundamental" unit of spin, and it is implied that "spin 1" means "spin 1 "ħ"". (In some systems of natural units, "ħ" is chosen to be 1, and therefore does not appear in equations.)
Quarks are fermions—specifically in this case, particles having spin ("S" = ). Because spin projections vary in increments of 1 (that is 1 "ħ"), a single quark has a spin vector of length , and has two spin projections ("S"z = + and "S"z = ). Two quarks can have their spins aligned, in which case the two spin vectors add to make a vector of length "S" = 1 and three spin projections ("S"z = +1, "S"z = 0, and "S"z = −1), called the spin-1 triplet. If two quarks have unaligned spins, the spin vectors add up to make a vector of length S = 0 and only one spin projection ("S"z = 0), called the spin-0 singlet. Because mesons are made of one quark and one antiquark, they can be found in triplet and singlet spin states.
There is another quantity of quantized angular momentum, called the orbital angular momentum (quantum number "L"), that is the angular momentum due to quarks orbiting each other, and comes in increments of 1 "ħ". The total angular momentum (quantum number "J") of a particle is the combination of intrinsic angular momentum (spin) and orbital angular momentum. It can take any value from to , in increments of 1.
Particle physicists are most interested in mesons with no orbital angular momentum ("L" = 0), therefore the two groups of mesons most studied are the "S" = 1; "L" = 0 and "S" = 0; "L" = 0, which corresponds to "J" = 1 and "J" = 0, although they are not the only ones. It is also possible to obtain "J" = 1 particles from "S" = 0 and "L" = 1. How to distinguish between the "S" = 1, "L" = 0 and "S" = 0, "L" = 1 mesons is an active area of research in meson spectroscopy.
If the universe were reflected in a mirror, most laws of physics would be identical—things would behave the same way regardless of what we call "left" and what we call "right". This concept of mirror reflection is called parity ("P"). Gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the strong interaction all behave in the same way regardless of whether or not the universe is reflected in a mirror, and thus are said to conserve parity (P-symmetry). However, the weak interaction does" "distinguish "left" from "right", a phenomenon called parity violation (P-violation).
Based on this, one might think that, if the wavefunction for each particle (more precisely, the quantum field for each particle type) were simultaneously mirror-reversed, then the new set of wavefunctions would perfectly satisfy the laws of physics (apart from the weak interaction). It turns out that this is not quite true: In order for the equations to be satisfied, the wavefunctions of certain types of particles have to be multiplied by −1, in addition to being mirror-reversed. Such particle types are said to have "negative" or "odd" parity ("P" = −1, or alternatively "P" = −), whereas the other particles are said to have "positive" or "even" parity ("P" = +1, or alternatively "P" = +).
For mesons, parity is related to the orbital angular momentum by the relation:
where the "L" is a result of the parity of the corresponding spherical harmonic of the wavefunction. The "+1" comes from the fact that, according to the Dirac equation, a quark and an antiquark have opposite intrinsic parities. Therefore, the intrinsic parity of a meson is the product of the intrinsic parities of the quark (+1) and antiquark (−1). As these are different, their product is −1, and so it contributes the "+1" that appears in the exponent.
As a consequence, all mesons with no orbital angular momentum ("L" = 0) have odd parity ("P" = −1).
C-parity is only defined for mesons that are their own antiparticle (i.e. neutral mesons). It represents whether or not the wavefunction of the meson remains the same under the interchange of their quark with their antiquark. If
then, the meson is "C even" (C = +1). On the other hand, if
then the meson is "C odd" (C = −1).
C-parity rarely is studied on its own, but more commonly in combination with P-parity into CP-parity. CP-parity was thought to be conserved, but was later found to be violated in weak interactions.
G parity is a generalization of the C-parity. Instead of simply comparing the wavefunction after exchanging quarks and antiquarks, it compares the wavefunction after exchanging the meson for the corresponding antimeson, regardless of quark content.
If
then, the meson is "G even" (G = +1). On the other hand, if
then the meson is "G odd" (G = −1).
The concept of isospin was first proposed by Werner Heisenberg in 1932 to explain the similarities between protons and neutrons under the strong interaction. Although they had different electric charges, their masses were so similar that physicists believed that they were actually the same particle. The different electric charges were explained as being the result of some unknown excitation similar to spin. This unknown excitation was later dubbed "isospin" by Eugene Wigner in 1937. When the first mesons were discovered, they too were seen through the eyes of isospin and so the three pions were believed to be the same particle, but in different isospin states.
This belief lasted until Murray Gell-Mann proposed the quark model in 1964 (containing originally only the u, d, and s quarks). The success of the isospin model is now understood to be the result of the similar masses of the u and d quarks. Because the u and d quarks have similar masses, particles made of the same number of them also have similar masses. The exact specific u and d quark composition determines the charge, because u quarks carry charge whereas d quarks carry charge . For example, the three pions all have different charges ( (), (a quantum superposition of and states), ()), but have similar masses (c. ) as they are each composed of a same total number of up and down quarks and antiquarks. Under the isospin model, they were considered a single particle in different charged states.
The mathematics of isospin was modeled after that of spin. Isospin projections varied in increments of 1 just like those of spin, and to each projection was associated a "charged state". Because the "pion particle" had three "charged states", it was said to be of isospin "I" = 1. Its "charged states" , , and , corresponded to the isospin projections "I"3 = +1, "I"3 = 0, and "I"3 = −1 respectively. Another example is the "rho particle", also with three charged states. Its "charged states" , , and , corresponded to the isospin projections "I"3 = +1, "I"3 = 0, and "I"3 = −1 respectively. It was later noted that the isospin projections were related to the up and down quark content of particles by the relation
where the "n"'s are the number of up and down quarks and antiquarks.
In the "isospin picture", the three pions and three rhos were thought to be the different states of two particles. However, in the quark model, the rhos are excited states of pions. Isospin, although conveying an inaccurate picture of things, is still used to classify hadrons, leading to unnatural and often confusing nomenclature. Because mesons are hadrons, the isospin classification is also used, with "I"3 = for up quarks and down antiquarks, and "I"3 = for up antiquarks and down quarks.
The strangeness quantum number "S" (not to be confused with spin) was noticed to go up and down along with particle mass. The higher the mass, the lower the strangeness (the more s quarks). Particles could be described with isospin projections (related to charge) and strangeness (mass) (see the uds nonet figures). As other quarks were discovered, new quantum numbers were made to have similar description of udc and udb nonets. Because only the u and d mass are similar, this description of particle mass and charge in terms of isospin and flavour quantum numbers only works well for the nonets made of one u, one d and one other quark and breaks down for the other nonets (for example ucb nonet). If the quarks all had the same mass, their behaviour would be called "symmetric", because they would all behave in exactly the same way with respect to the strong interaction. However, as quarks do not have the same mass, they do not interact in the same way (exactly like an electron placed in an electric field will accelerate more than a proton placed in the same field because of its lighter mass), and the symmetry is said to be broken.
It was noted that charge ("Q") was related to the isospin projection ("I"3), the baryon number ("B") and flavour quantum numbers ("S", "C", "B"′, "T") by the Gell-Mann–Nishijima formula:
where "S", "C", "B"′, and "T" represent the strangeness, charm, bottomness and topness flavour quantum numbers respectively. They are related to the number of strange, charm, bottom, and top quarks and antiquark according to the relations:
meaning that the Gell-Mann–Nishijima formula is equivalent to the expression of charge in terms of quark content:
Mesons are classified into groups according to their isospin ("I"), total angular momentum ("J"), parity ("P"), G-parity ("G") or C-parity ("C") when applicable, and quark (q) content. The rules for classification are defined by the Particle Data Group, and are rather convoluted. The rules are presented below, in table form for simplicity.
Mesons are classified into types according to their spin configurations. Some specific configurations are given special names based on the mathematical properties of their spin configuration.
Flavourless mesons are mesons made of pair of quark and antiquarks of the same flavour (all their flavour quantum numbers are zero: "S" = 0, "C" = 0, "B"′ = 0, "T" = 0). The rules for flavourless mesons are:
† The C parity is only relevant to neutral mesons.
†† For "J""PC"=1−−, the ψ is called the
In addition:
Flavoured mesons are mesons made of pair of quark and antiquarks of different flavours. The rules are simpler in this case: the main symbol depends on the heavier quark, the superscript depends on the charge, and the subscript (if any) depends on the lighter quark. In table form, they are:
In addition:
There is experimental evidence for particles that are hadrons (i.e., are composed of quarks) and are color-neutral with zero baryon number, and thus by conventional definition are mesons. Yet, these particles do not consist of a single quark/antiquark pair, as all the other conventional mesons discussed above do. A tentative category for these particles is exotic mesons.
There are at least five exotic meson resonances that have been experimentally confirmed to exist by two or more independent experiments. The most statistically significant of these is the Z(4430), discovered by the Belle experiment in 2007 and confirmed by LHCb in 2014. It is a candidate for being a tetraquark: a particle composed of two quarks and two antiquarks. See the main article above for other particle resonances that are candidates for being exotic mesons. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19870 |
Marvel Super Heroes (role-playing game)
Marvel Super Heroes (MSHRPG) is a role playing game set in the Marvel Universe, first published by TSR as "" under license from Marvel Comics in 1984. In 1986, TSR published an expanded edition, entitled the "Marvel Superheroes Advanced Game". Jeff Grubb designed both editions, and Steve Winter wrote both editions. Both use the same game system.
The basic game was designed to let players assume the roles of superheroes from Marvel Comics, such as Spider-Man, Daredevil, Hulk, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and
others.
The game was designed to be easy to understand, and the simplest version, found in the 16-page "Battle Book" of the Basic Set, contains a bare-bones combat system sufficient to resolve comic book style superheroic fights.
Most game situations are resolved by rolling percentile dice and comparing the results against a column of the colorful "Universal Results Table". The column used is determined by the attribute used; different tasks are resolved by reference to different attributes. All characters have seven basic attributes:
Fighting, which determines hit probability in and defense against hand-to-hand attacks.
Agility, which determines hit probability in and defense against ranged attacks, feats of agility vs. the environment, and similar acrobatics.
Strength, which determines damage inflicted by hand-to-hand attacks as well as the success of tasks such as grappling or the lifting and breaking of heavy objects.
Endurance, which determines resistance to physical damage (e.g., poison, disease, death) it also determined how long a character can fight and how fast a character could move at top speed by exerting themselves.
Reason, which determines the success of tasks relating to knowledge, puzzle-solving, and advanced technology.
Intuition, which determines the success of tasks relating to awareness, perception, and instinct.
Psyche, which determines the success of tasks relating to willpower, psionics, and magic.
Players sometimes refer to this set of attributes, or the game system as a whole, by the acronym "FASERIP". Attribute scores for the majority of characters range from 1 to 100, where normal human ability is Typical (6), and peak (non-superheroic) human ability is Excellent (20). However, the designers minimize use of the numerical figures, instead preferring adjectives in the Marvel Comics tradition, such as "Incredible" (scores from 36-45) and "Amazing" (46-62). A "Typical" (5-7) attribute has a 50% base chance for success at most tasks relating to that attribute. For example, a character with "Typical" fighting skill has a base chance of 50% to connect with a punch. As an attribute increases, the chance of success increases by about 5% per 10 points. Thus a character with an "Amazing" (50) attribute has a 75% chance of success at tasks relating to that attribute.
Beyond the seven attributes, characters possessed superpowers, such as Spider-Man's wall crawling, or Mister Fantastic's elasticity. The powers function on a mostly "ad hoc" basis, and thus each character's description gives considerable space to a description of how his or her powers work in the game.
Each character had an origin, which put ceilings on a character's abilities and superpowers. The origins included: Altered Humans (normal people who acquired powers, such as Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four), High-Tech Wonders (normal people whose powers come from devices, e.g., Iron Man), Mutants (persons born with superpowers, such as the X-Men), Robots (created beings such as the Vision and Ultron), and Aliens (a blanket term used to cover non-humans, including extra-dimensional beings such as Thor and Hercules).
The game also features a simple skill system, referred to as Talents. Talents have to be learned and cover a wide range of areas of knowledge from Archery to Zoology. A Talent raises a character's ability by one rank when attempting actions related to that Talent. For example, a character uses his Agility score when attempting ranged attacks. A character with an Agility of Excellent would normally roll on that column when attacking with a rifle. However, if the character has the "Guns" Talent, they would treat their Agility as the next higher power rank (Remarkable). The GM is free to determine if a character would be unable to attempt an action without the appropriate Talent (such as a character with no medical background attempting to make a pill that can cure a rare disease).
Characters also had two variable attributes: Resources and Popularity. These attributes were described using the same terms as the character's seven attributes ("Poor," "Amazing," "Unearthly," etc.). But unlike the seven physical and mental attributes which changed very slowly, if at all, Resources and Popularity could change very quickly.
The first of the variables, Resources, represented the character's wealth and ability to obtain goods or services. Rather than have the player keep track of how much money the character had in the bank or with him, the Advanced Game assumed the character had enough money coming in to cover his basic living expenses. The Resources ability was used when the character wished to purchase something out of the ordinary like a new car or house. For example, the referee might decide a character with Typical resources would probably be unable to purchase a brand new sports car, but with a Yellow Resources roll might be able to afford a used car in good condition. The game books note that a character's Resources score can change for a variety of reasons, such as winning the lottery or having a major business transaction go bad.
The second variable, Popularity, reflected how much the character was liked (or disliked) in the Marvel Universe. Popularity could be used to influence non-player characters. A superhero with a high rating, like Captain America (whose popularity is Unearthly-the highest most characters can achieve), might be able to use his Popularity to gain entrance to a club because the general population of the Marvel Universe admires him. If he were to try the same thing as his secret identity Steve Rogers (whose Popularity is only Typical), he would probably be unable to do it. Villains also had a Popularity score, which was usually negative (a bouncer might let Doctor Doom or Magneto into the aforementioned club simply out of fear). There were several ways Popularity could change. For example, if Doctor Doom defeated Spider-Man in front of the general public, Spidey's Popularity would go down for a short time. But if everyone's favorite web-slinger managed to foil one of Doctor Doom's plans and the word got out, he would enjoy a temporary Popularity boost. Since mutants were generally feared and distrusted in the Marvel Universe, these characters start with a Popularity of 0 and have a hard time improving this attribute.
The game was intended to be played using existing Marvel characters as the heroes. The and "Advanced Set" both contained fairly simple systems for creating original superheroes, based on random ability rolls (as in "Dungeons & Dragons"). In addition, the Basic Set Campaign Book also allowed players to create original heroes by simply describing the desired kind of hero, and working together with the GM to assign the appropriate abilities, powers, and talents.
"The Ultimate Powers Book", by David Edward Martin, expanded and organized the game's list of powers, making a fairly comprehensive survey of comic book-style super-powers. Players were given a wide variety of body types, secret origins, weaknesses, and powers. The "UPB" gave a much greater range to characters one could create. Additionally, the book suffered from editing problems and omissions; several errata and partial revisions were released in the pages of TSR's "Dragon" magazine in issue #122 "The Ultimate Addenda to the Ultimate Powers Book", issue #134 "The Ultimate Addenda's Addenda", issue #150 "Death Effects on Superheroes", and issue #151 "Son of the Ultimate Addenda".
The game's equivalent of experience points was "Karma", a pool of points initially determined as the sum of a character's three mental attributes (Reason, Intuition, and Psyche).
The basic system allowed players to increase their chances of success at most tasks by spending points of Karma. For example, a player who wanted to make sure he would hit a villain in a critical situation could spend however many Karma points were necessary to raise the dice roll to the desired result. Additional Karma points were distributed by the referee at the end of game sessions, typically as rewards for accomplishing heroic goals, such as defeating villains, saving innocents, and foiling crimes. Conversely, Karma could be lost for unheroic actions such as fleeing from a villain, or failing to stop a crime: in fact, in a notable departure from many RPGs (but strongly in keeping with the genre), all Karma was lost if a hero killed someone or allowed someone to die.
In the Advanced Game, Karma points could also be spent to permanently increase character attributes and powers (at a relatively moderate cost, ten times the attribute number raised, powers were steeper, at twenty times the number). The Karma system thus united two RPG mechanics—"Action" or "Hero" points (which allow players to control random outcomes) and character advancement (e.g., "experience points")—in one system. Though this system could frustrate both referees and players (the former because a player willing and able to spend Karma could effectively overcome any challenge at least once; the latter because advancement was slow compared with most other RPGs), it had the virtue of emulating two central features of super-hero comics, namely, that heroes almost always win, even in improbable circumstances, and that heroes' power levels remain mostly static. Furthermore, the system encouraged players to keep their characters' behavior to the equivalent concept of their alignment by giving an incentive to behave heroically and morally correct.
Marvel Superheroes was driven by two primary game mechanics: column shifts and colored results. Both essentially influenced the difficulty of an action.
A column shift is used when a character is attempting an exceptionally hard or easy action. A column shift to the left indicates a penalty, while a shift to the right indicates a bonus. For example, Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) has an Intuition of Excellent, making him significantly more perceptive than the average person whose Intuition is Typical (two ranks lower). The GM might determine that spotting a trap hidden beneath a few sticks and leaves will be fairly easy, and give the player running Mr. Fantastic a +1 column shift. His Intuition will be treated as Remarkable (the next column to the right). However, a trap buried underground might be considerably harder to spot, and the GM might give the player a -1 column shift penalty. In this case, Mr. Fantastic's Intuition will only be treated as Good (the column to the left).
The column for each ability is divided into four colors: white, green, yellow, and red. A white result is always a failure or unfavorable outcome. In most cases, getting a green result was all that was needed to succeed at a particular action. Yellow and red results usually indicated more favorable results that could knock back, stun, or even kill an opponent. However, the GM could determine that succeeding at an exceptionally hard task might require a yellow or red result.
Additional rules in the "Campaign Book" of the , and the subsequent Advanced Set, used the same game mechanic to resolve non-violent tasks. For example, if a superhero needs to figure out how to operate a piece of alien technology, the hero would have to succeed at a Reason roll, where the chance of success is modified by the complexity of the device.
The original Marvel Super Heroes game received extensive support from TSR, covering a wide variety of Marvel Comics characters and settings, including a "Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe" patterned after Marvel's "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe". MSH even received its own column in the (at the time) TSR-published gaming magazine, Dragon, called "The Marvel-phile", which usually spotlighted a character or group of characters that hadn't yet appeared in a published game product.
In the July-August 1984 edition of "Space Gamer" (No. 70), Allen Varney thought this game was only suited to younger players and Marvel fanatics, saying, "this is a respectable effort, and an excellent introductory game for a devoted Marvel fan aged 10 to 12; older, more experienced, or less devoted buyers will probably be disappointed. 'Nuff said."
Pete Tamlyn reviewed "Marvel Super Heroes" for "Imagine" magazine, and stated that "this game has been produced in collaboration with Marvel and that opportunity itself is probably worth a new game release. However, "Marvel Superheroes" is not just another Superhero game. In many ways it is substantially different from other SHrpgs."
Seven years later, Varney revisited the game in the August 1991 edition of "Dragon" (Issue #172), reviewing the new Basic Set edition that had just been released. While Varney appreciated that the game was designed for younger players, he felt that it failed to recreate the excitement of the comics. "This is the gravest flaw of this system and support line: its apathy about recreating the spirit of Marvel stories. In this new Basic Set edition... you couldn’t find a miracle if you used microscopic vision. Look at this set’s few elementary mini-scenarios: all fight scenes. The four-color grandeur and narrative magic in the best Marvel stories are absent. Is this a good introduction to role-playing?" Varney instead suggested "Toon" by Steve Jackson Games or "Ghostbusters" by West End Games as better role-playing alteratives for new and beginning young players.
In the 2007 book "", Steve Kenson commented that "it's a testament to the game's longevity that it still has enthusiastic fan support on the Internet and an active play community more than a decade after its last product was published. Even more so that it continues to set a standard by which new superhero roleplaying games are measured. Like modern comic book writers and artists following the greats of the Silver Age, modern RPG designers have a tough act to follow."
Before losing the Marvel license back to Marvel Comics, TSR published a different game using their SAGA System game engine, called the "Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game". This version, written by Mike Selinker, was published in the late 1990s as a card-based version of the Marvel role-playing game (though a method of converting characters from the prior format to the SAGA System was included in the core rules). Though critically praised in various reviews at the time, it never reached a large market and has since faded into obscurity.
In 2003, after the gaming license had reverted to Marvel Comics, the "Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game" was published by Marvel Comics. This edition uses mechanics that are totally different from any previous versions, using a diceless game mechanic that incorporated a Karma-based resolution system of "stones" (or tokens) to represent character effort. Since its initial publication, a few additional supplements were published by Marvel Comics. However, Marvel stopped supporting the game a little over a year after its initial release, despite going through several printings of the core rulebook.
In August 2011, Margaret Weis Productions acquired the licence to publish an RPG based on Marvel superheroes, and "Marvel Heroic Roleplaying" was released beginning in 2012. Margaret Weis Productions, however, found that although the game was critically acclaimed, winning two Origins Awards, "Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War" "didn’t garner the level of sales necessary to sustain the rest of the line" so they brought the game to a close at the end of April 2013. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19871 |
Measure (mathematics)
In mathematical analysis, a measure on a set is a systematic way to assign a number to each suitable subset of that set, intuitively interpreted as its size. In this sense, a measure is a generalization of the concepts of length, area, and volume. A particularly important example is the Lebesgue measure on a Euclidean space, which assigns the conventional length, area, and volume of Euclidean geometry to suitable subsets of the -dimensional Euclidean space . For instance, the Lebesgue measure of the interval in the real numbers is its length in the everyday sense of the word, specifically, 1.
Technically, a measure is a function that assigns a non-negative real number or to (certain) subsets of a set ("see" Definition below). It must further be countably additive: the measure of a 'large' subset that can be decomposed into a finite (or countably infinite) number of 'smaller' disjoint subsets is equal to the sum of the measures of the "smaller" subsets. In general, if one wants to associate a "consistent" size to "each" subset of a given set while satisfying the other axioms of a measure, one only finds trivial examples like the counting measure. This problem was resolved by defining measure only on a sub-collection of all subsets; the so-called "measurable" subsets, which are required to form a -algebra. This means that countable unions, countable intersections and complements of measurable subsets are measurable. Non-measurable sets in a Euclidean space, on which the Lebesgue measure cannot be defined consistently, are necessarily complicated in the sense of being badly mixed up with their complement. Indeed, their existence is a non-trivial consequence of the axiom of choice.
Measure theory was developed in successive stages during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Émile Borel, Henri Lebesgue, Johann Radon, and Maurice Fréchet, among others. The main applications of measures are in the foundations of the Lebesgue integral, in Andrey Kolmogorov's axiomatisation of probability theory and in ergodic theory. In integration theory, specifying a measure allows one to define integrals on spaces more general than subsets of Euclidean space; moreover, the integral with respect to the Lebesgue measure on Euclidean spaces is more general and has a richer theory than its predecessor, the Riemann integral. Probability theory considers measures that assign to the whole set the size 1, and considers measurable subsets to be events whose probability is given by the measure. Ergodic theory considers measures that are invariant under, or arise naturally from, a dynamical system.
Let be a set and a -algebra over . A function from to the extended real number line is called a measure if it satisfies the following properties:
If at least one set formula_4 has finite measure, then the requirement that formula_1 is met automatically. Indeed, by countable additivity,
and therefore formula_7
If only the second and third conditions of the definition of measure above are met, and takes on at most one of the values , then is called a signed measure.
The pair is called a measurable space, the members of Σ are called measurable sets. If formula_8 and formula_9 are two measurable spaces, then a function formula_10 is called measurable if for every -measurable set formula_11, the inverse image is -measurable – i.e.: formula_12. In this setup, the composition of measurable functions is measurable, making the measurable spaces and measurable functions a category, with the measurable spaces as objects and the set of measurable functions as arrows. See also Measurable function#Term usage variations about another setup.
A triple is called a measure space. A probability measure is a measure with total measure one – i.e. . A probability space is a measure space with a probability measure.
For measure spaces that are also topological spaces various compatibility conditions can be placed for the measure and the topology. Most measures met in practice in analysis (and in many cases also in probability theory) are Radon measures. Radon measures have an alternative definition in terms of linear functionals on the locally convex space of continuous functions with compact support. This approach is taken by Bourbaki (2004) and a number of other sources. For more details, see the article on Radon measures.
Some important measures are listed here.
Other 'named' measures used in various theories include: Borel measure, Jordan measure, ergodic measure, Euler measure, Gaussian measure, Baire measure, Radon measure, Young measure, and Loeb measure.
In physics an example of a measure is spatial distribution of mass (see e.g., gravity potential), or another non-negative extensive property, conserved (see conservation law for a list of these) or not. Negative values lead to signed measures, see "generalizations" below.
Let be a measure.
If and are measurable sets with then
For any countable sequence of (not necessarily disjoint) measurable sets in Σ:
If are measurable sets and formula_15 for all , then the union of the sets is measurable, and
If are measurable sets and, for all , formula_17 then the intersection of the sets is measurable; furthermore, if at least one of the has finite measure, then
This property is false without the assumption that at least one of the has finite measure. For instance, for each , let , which all have infinite Lebesgue measure, but the intersection is empty.
A measure space is called finite if is a finite real number (rather than ∞). Nonzero finite measures are analogous to probability measures in the sense that any finite measure is proportional to the probability measure formula_19. A measure is called "σ-finite" if can be decomposed into a countable union of measurable sets of finite measure. Analogously, a set in a measure space is said to have a "σ-finite measure" if it is a countable union of sets with finite measure.
For example, the real numbers with the standard Lebesgue measure are σ-finite but not finite. Consider the closed intervals for all integers ; there are countably many such intervals, each has measure 1, and their union is the entire real line. Alternatively, consider the real numbers with the counting measure, which assigns to each finite set of reals the number of points in the set. This measure space is not σ-finite, because every set with finite measure contains only finitely many points, and it would take uncountably many such sets to cover the entire real line. The σ-finite measure spaces have some very convenient properties; σ-finiteness can be compared in this respect to the Lindelöf property of topological spaces. They can be also thought of as a vague generalization of the idea that a measure space may have 'uncountable measure'.
A measure is said to be s-finite if it is a countable sum of bounded measures. S-finite measures are more general than sigma-finite ones and have applications in the theory of stochastic processes.
A measurable set is called a "null set" if . A subset of a null set is called a "negligible set". A negligible set need not be measurable, but every measurable negligible set is automatically a null set. A measure is called "complete" if every negligible set is measurable.
A measure can be extended to a complete one by considering the σ-algebra of subsets which differ by a negligible set from a measurable set , that is, such that the symmetric difference of and is contained in a null set. One defines to equal .
Measures are required to be countably additive. However, the condition can be strengthened as follows.
For any set formula_20 and any set of nonnegative formula_21 define:
That is, we define the sum of the formula_23 to be the supremum of all the sums of finitely many of them.
A measure formula_24 on formula_25 is formula_26-additive if for any formula_27 and any family of disjoint sets formula_28 the following hold:
Note that the second condition is equivalent to the statement that the ideal of null sets is formula_26-complete.
If the axiom of choice is assumed to be true, it can be proved that not all subsets of Euclidean space are Lebesgue measurable; examples of such sets include the Vitali set, and the non-measurable sets postulated by the Hausdorff paradox and the Banach–Tarski paradox.
For certain purposes, it is useful to have a "measure" whose values are not restricted to the non-negative reals or infinity. For instance, a countably additive set function with values in the (signed) real numbers is called a "signed measure", while such a function with values in the complex numbers is called a "complex measure". Measures that take values in Banach spaces have been studied extensively. A measure that takes values in the set of self-adjoint projections on a Hilbert space is called a "projection-valued measure"; these are used in functional analysis for the spectral theorem. When it is necessary to distinguish the usual measures which take non-negative values from generalizations, the term positive measure is used. Positive measures are closed under conical combination but not general linear combination, while signed measures are the linear closure of positive measures.
Another generalization is the "finitely additive measure", also known as a content. This is the same as a measure except that instead of requiring "countable" additivity we require only "finite" additivity. Historically, this definition was used first. It turns out that in general, finitely additive measures are connected with notions such as Banach limits, the dual of "L"∞ and the Stone–Čech compactification. All these are linked in one way or another to the axiom of choice. Contents remain useful in certain technical problems in geometric measure theory; this is the theory of Banach measures.
A charge is a generalization in both directions: it is a finitely additive, signed measure. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19873 |
Motorcycle
A motorcycle, often called a motorbike, bike, or cycle, is a two- or three-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long distance travel, commuting, cruising, sport including racing, and off-road riding. Motorcycling is riding a motorcycle and related social activity such as joining a motorcycle club and attending motorcycle rallies.
The 1885 Daimler Reitwagen made by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Germany was the first internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle. In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle.
In 2014, the three top motorcycle producers globally by volume were Honda (28%), Yamaha (17%) (both from Japan), and Hero MotoCorp (India). In developing countries, motorcycles are considered utilitarian due to lower prices and greater fuel economy. Of all the motorcycles in the world, 58% are in the Asia-Pacific and Southern and Eastern Asia regions, excluding car-centric Japan.
According to the US Department of Transportation the number of fatalities per vehicle mile traveled was 37 times higher for motorcycles than for cars.
The term motorcycle has different legal definitions depending on jurisdiction (see ).
There are three major types of motorcycle: street, off-road, and dual purpose. Within these types, there are many sub-types of motorcycles for different purposes. There is often a racing counterpart to each type, such as road racing and street bikes, or motocross including dirt bikes.
Street bikes include cruisers, sportbikes, scooters and mopeds, and many other types. Off-road motorcycles include many types designed for dirt-oriented racing classes such as motocross and are not street legal in most areas. Dual purpose machines like the dual-sport style are made to go off-road but include features to make them legal and comfortable on the street as well.
Each configuration offers either specialised advantage or broad capability, and each design creates a different riding posture.
In some countries the use of pillions (rear seats) is restricted.
The first internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle was the Daimler "Reitwagen". It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt, Germany in 1885. This vehicle was unlike either the safety bicycles or the boneshaker bicycles of the era in that it had zero degrees of steering axis angle and no fork offset, and thus did not use the principles of bicycle and motorcycle dynamics developed nearly 70 years earlier. Instead, it relied on two outrigger wheels to remain upright while turning.
The inventors called their invention the "Reitwagen" ("riding car"). It was designed as an expedient testbed for their new engine, rather than a true prototype vehicle.
The first commercial design for a self-propelled cycle was a three-wheel design called the Butler Petrol Cycle, conceived of Edward Butler in England in 1884. He exhibited his plans for the vehicle at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1884. The vehicle was built by the Merryweather Fire Engine company in Greenwich, in 1888.
The Butler Petrol Cycle was a three-wheeled vehicle, with the rear wheel directly driven by a , displacement, bore × stroke, flat twin four-stroke engine (with magneto ignition replaced by coil and battery) equipped with rotary valves and a float-fed carburettor (five years before Maybach) and Ackermann steering, all of which were state of the art at the time. Starting was by compressed air. The engine was liquid-cooled, with a radiator over the rear driving wheel. Speed was controlled by means of a throttle valve lever. No braking system was fitted; the vehicle was stopped by raising and lowering the rear driving wheel using a foot-operated lever; the weight of the machine was then borne by two small castor wheels. The driver was seated between the front wheels. It wasn't, however, a success, as Butler failed to find sufficient financial backing.
Many authorities have excluded steam powered, electric motorcycles or diesel-powered two-wheelers from the definition of a 'motorcycle', and credit the Daimler "Reitwagen" as the world's first motorcycle. Given the rapid rise in use of electric motorcycles worldwide, defining only internal-combustion powered two-wheelers as 'motorcycles' is increasingly problematic. The first (petroleum fueled) internal-combustion motorcycles, like the German "Reitwagen", were, however, also the first practical motorcycles.
If a two-wheeled vehicle with steam propulsion is considered a motorcycle, then the first motorcycles built seem to be the French Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede which patent application was filled in December 1868, constructed around the same time as the American Roper steam velocipede, built by Sylvester H. Roper Roxbury, Massachusetts.
who demonstrated his machine at fairs and circuses in the eastern U.S. in 1867, Roper built about 10 steam cars and cycles from the 1860s until his death in 1896.
In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle, and the first to be called a motorcycle (). Excelsior Motor Company, originally a bicycle manufacturing company based in Coventry, England, began production of their first motorcycle model in 1896. The first production motorcycle in the US was the Orient-Aster, built by Charles Metz in 1898 at his factory in Waltham, Massachusetts.
In the early period of motorcycle history, many producers of bicycles adapted their designs to accommodate the new internal combustion engine. As the engines became more powerful and designs outgrew the bicycle origins, the number of motorcycle producers increased. Many of the nineteenth-century inventors who worked on early motorcycles often moved on to other inventions. Daimler and Roper, for example, both went on to develop automobiles.
At the end of the 19th century the first major mass-production firms were set up. In 1898, Triumph Motorcycles in England began producing motorbikes, and by 1903 it was producing over 500 bikes. Other British firms were Royal Enfield, Norton and Birmingham Small Arms Company who began motorbike production in 1899, 1902 and 1910, respectively. Indian began production in 1901 and Harley-Davidson was established two years later. By the outbreak of World War I, the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world was Indian,
producing over 20,000 bikes per year.
During the First World War, motorbike production was greatly ramped up for the war effort to supply effective communications with front line troops. Messengers on horses were replaced with despatch riders on motorcycles carrying messages, performing reconnaissance and acting as a military police. American company Harley-Davidson was devoting over 50% of its factory output toward military contract by the end of the war. The British company Triumph Motorcycles sold more than 30,000 of its Triumph Type H model to allied forces during the war. With the rear wheel driven by a belt, the Model H was fitted with a air-cooled four-stroke single-cylinder engine. It was also the first Triumph without pedals.
The Model H in particular, is regarded by many as having been the first "modern motorcycle". Introduced in 1915 it had a 550 cc side-valve four-stroke engine with a three-speed gearbox and belt transmission. It was so popular with its users that it was nicknamed the "Trusty Triumph".
By 1920, Harley-Davidson was the largest manufacturer, with their motorcycles being sold by dealers in 67 countries.
Amongst many British motorcycle manufacturers, Chater-Lea with its twin-cylinder models followed by its large singles in the 1920s stood out. Initially, using converted a Woodmann-designed ohv Blackburne engine it became the first 350 cc to exceed 100 mph (160 km/h), recording 100.81 mph (162.24 km/h) over the flying kilometre during April 1924.[7] Later, Chater-Lea set a world record for the flying kilometre for 350 cc and 500 cc motorcycles at 102.9 mph (165.6 km/h) for the firm. Chater-Lea produced variants of these world-beating sports models and became popular among racers at the Isle of Man TT. Today, the firm is probably best remembered for its long term contract to manufacture and supply AA Patrol motorcycles and sidecars.
By the late 1920s or early 1930s, DKW in Germany took over as the largest manufacturer.
In the 1950s, streamlining began to play an increasing part in the development of racing motorcycles and the "dustbin fairing" held out the possibility of radical changes to motorcycle design. NSU and Moto Guzzi were in the vanguard of this development, both producing very radical designs well ahead of their time.
NSU produced the most advanced design, but after the deaths of four NSU riders in the 1954–1956 seasons, they abandoned further development and quit Grand Prix motorcycle racing.
Moto Guzzi produced competitive race machines, and until the end of 1957 had a succession of victories. The following year, 1958, full enclosure fairings were banned from racing by the FIM in the light of the safety concerns.
From the 1960s through the 1990s, small two-stroke motorcycles were popular worldwide, partly as a result of East German MZs Walter Kaaden's engine work in the 1950s.
In the 21st century, the motorcycle industry is mainly dominated by the Indian motorcycle industry and by Japanese motorcycle companies. In addition to the large capacity motorcycles, there is a large market in smaller capacity (less than 300 cc) motorcycles, mostly concentrated in Asian and African countries and produced in China and India. A Japanese example is the 1958 Honda Super Cub, which went on to become the biggest selling vehicle of all time, with its 60 millionth unit produced in April 2008.
Today, this area is dominated by mostly with Hero MotoCorp emerging as the world's largest manufacturer of two wheelers. Its Splendor model has sold more than 8.5 million to date. Other major producers are Bajaj and TVS Motors.
Motorcycle construction is the engineering, manufacturing, and assembly of components and systems for a motorcycle which results in the performance, cost, and aesthetics desired by the designer. With some exceptions, construction of modern mass-produced motorcycles has standardised on a steel or aluminium frame, telescopic forks holding the front wheel, and disc brakes. Some other body parts, designed for either aesthetic or performance reasons may be added. A petrol powered engine typically consisting of between one and four cylinders (and less commonly, up to eight cylinders) coupled to a manual five- or six-speed sequential transmission drives the swingarm-mounted rear wheel by a chain, driveshaft, or belt. Repair can be done using a Motorcycle lift.
Motorcycle fuel economy varies greatly with engine displacement and riding style. A streamlined, fully faired Matzu Matsuzawa Honda XL125 achieved in the Craig Vetter Fuel Economy Challenge "on real highways in real conditions."
Due to low engine displacements (), and high power-to-mass ratios, motorcycles offer good fuel economy. Under conditions of fuel scarcity like 1950s Britain and modern developing nations, motorcycles claim large shares of the vehicle market.
Very high fuel economy equivalents are often derived by electric motorcycles. Electric motorcycles are nearly silent, zero-emission electric motor-driven vehicles. Operating range and top speed are limited by battery technology. Fuel cells and petroleum-electric hybrids are also under development to extend the range and improve performance of the electric drive system.
A 2013 survey of 4,424 readers of the US "Consumer Reports" magazine collected reliability data on 4,680 motorcycles purchased new from 2009 to 2012. The most common problem areas were accessories, brakes, electrical (including starters, charging, ignition), and fuel systems, and the types of motorcycles with the greatest problems were touring, off-road/dual sport, sport-touring, and cruisers. There were not enough sport bikes in the survey for a statistically significant conclusion, though the data hinted at reliability as good as cruisers. These results may be partially explained by accessories including such equipment as fairings, luggage, and auxiliary lighting, which are frequently added to touring, adventure touring/dual sport and sport touring bikes. Trouble with fuel systems is often the result of improper winter storage, and brake problems may also be due to poor maintenance. Of the five brands with enough data to draw conclusions, Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha were statistically tied, with 11 to 14% of those bikes in the survey experiencing major repairs. Harley-Davidsons had a rate of 24%, while BMWs did worse, with 30% of those needing major repairs. There were not enough Triumph and Suzuki motorcycles surveyed for a statistically sound conclusion, though it appeared Suzukis were as reliable as the other three Japanese brands while Triumphs were comparable to Harley-Davidson and BMW. Three fourths of the repairs in the survey cost less than US$200 and two thirds of the motorcycles were repaired in less than two days. In spite of their relatively worse reliability in this survey, Harley-Davidson and BMW owners showed the greatest owner satisfaction, and three-fourths of them said they would buy the same bike again, followed by 72% of Honda owners and 60 to 63% of Kawasaki and Yamaha owners.
Different types of motorcycles have different dynamics and these play a role in how a motorcycle performs in given conditions. For example, one with a longer wheelbase provides the feeling of more stability by responding less to disturbances. Motorcycle tyres have a large influence over handling.
Motorcycles must be leaned in order to make turns. This lean is induced by the method known as countersteering, in which the rider momentarily steers the handlebars in the direction opposite of the desired turn. This practice is counterintuitive and therefore often confusing to novices and even many experienced motorcyclists.
With such short wheelbase, motorcycles can generate enough torque at the rear wheel, and enough stopping force at the front wheel, to lift the opposite wheel off the road. These actions, if performed on purpose, are known as wheelies and stoppies (or endos) respectively.
Various features and accessories may be attached to a motorcycle either as OEM (factory-fitted) or aftermarket. Such accessories are selected by the owner to enhance the motorcycle's appearance, safety, performance, or comfort, and may include anything from mobile electronics to sidecars and trailers.
Motorcycles have a higher rate of fatal accidents than automobiles or trucks and buses. United States Department of Transportation data for 2005 from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System show that for passenger cars, 18.62 fatal crashes occur per 100,000 registered vehicles. For motorcycles this figure is higher at 75.19 per 100,000 registered vehicles four times higher than for cars.
The same data shows that 1.56 fatalities occur per 100 million vehicle miles travelled for passenger cars, whereas for motorcycles the figure is 43.47 which is 28 times higher than for cars (37 times more deaths per mile travelled in 2007).
Furthermore, for motorcycles the accident rates have increased significantly since the end of the 1990s, while the rates have dropped for passenger cars.
The most common configuration of motorcycle accidents in the United States is when a motorist pulls out or turns in front of a motorcyclist, violating their right-of-way. This is sometimes called a , an acronym formed from the motorists' common response of "Sorry mate, I didn't see you".
Motorcyclists can anticipate and avoid some of these crashes with proper training, increasing their visibility to other traffic, keeping to the speed limits, and not consuming alcohol or other drugs before riding.
The United Kingdom has several organisations dedicated to improving motorcycle safety by providing advanced rider training beyond what is necessary to pass the basic motorcycle licence test. These include the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). Along with increased personal safety, riders with these advanced qualifications may benefit from reduced insurance costs
In South Africa, the Think Bike campaign is dedicated to increasing both motorcycle safety and the awareness of motorcycles on the country's roads. The campaign, while strongest in the Gauteng province, has representation in Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal and the Free State. It has dozens of trained marshals available for various events such as cycle races and is deeply involved in numerous other projects such as the annual Motorcycle Toy Run.
Motorcycle safety education is offered throughout the United States by organisations ranging from state agencies to non-profit organisations to corporations. Most states use the courses designed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), while Oregon and Idaho developed their own. All of the training programs include a Basic Rider Course, an Intermediate Rider Course and an Advanced Rider Course.
In Ireland, since 2010, in the UK and some Australian jurisdictions, such as Victoria, New South Wales,
the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania
and the Northern Territory, it is compulsory to complete a basic rider training course before being issued a Learners Licence, after which they can ride on public roads.
In Canada, motorcycle rider training is compulsory in Quebec and Manitoba only, but all provinces and territories have graduated licence programs which place restrictions on new drivers until they have gained experience. Eligibility for a full motorcycle licence or endorsement for completing a Motorcycle Safety course varies by province. The Canada Safety Council, a non-profit safety organisation, offers the Gearing Up program across Canada and is endorsed by the Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council. Training course graduates may qualify for reduced insurance premiums.
The motorcyclist's riding position depends on rider body-geometry (anthropometry) combined with the geometry of the motorcycle itself. These factors create a set of three basic postures.
Factors of a motorcycle's ergonomic geometry that determine the seating posture include the height, angle and location of footpegs, seat and handlebars. Factors in a rider's physical geometry that contribute to seating posture include torso, arm, thigh and leg length, and overall rider height.
A motorcycle is broadly defined by law in most countries for the purposes of registration, taxation and rider licensing as a powered two-wheel motor vehicle. Most countries distinguish between mopeds of 49 cc and the more powerful, larger vehicles (scooters do not count as a separate category). Many jurisdictions include some forms of three-wheeled cars as motorcycles.
Motorcycles and scooters' low fuel consumption has attracted interest in the United States from environmentalists and those affected by increased fuel prices.
Piaggio Group Americas supported this interest with the launch of a "Vespanomics" website and platform, claiming lower per-mile carbon emissions of 0.4 lb/mile (113 g/km) less than the average car, a 65% reduction, and better fuel economy.
However, a motorcycle's exhaust emissions may contain 10–20 times more oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide, and unburned hydrocarbons than exhaust from a similar-year passenger car or SUV.
This is because many motorcycles lack a catalytic converter, and the emission standard is much more permissive for motorcycles than for other vehicles. While catalytic converters have been installed in most gasoline-powered cars and trucks since 1975 in the United States, they can present fitment and heat difficulties in motorcycle applications.
United States Environmental Protection Agency 2007 certification result reports for all vehicles versus on highway motorcycles (which also includes scooters), the average certified emissions level for 12,327 vehicles tested was 0.734. The average "Nox+Co End-Of-Useful-Life-Emissions" for 3,863 motorcycles tested was 0.8531. 54% of the tested 2007-model motorcycles were equipped with a catalytic converter.
The following table shows maximum acceptable legal emissions of the combination of hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, and carbon monoxide for new motorcycles sold in the United States with 280 cc or greater piston displacement.
The maximum acceptable legal emissions of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide for new Class I and II motorcycles (50 cc–169 cc and 170 cc–279 cc respectively) sold in the United States are as follows:
European emission standards for motorcycles are similar to those for cars. New motorcycles must meet Euro 4 standards,
while cars must meet Euro 6D-temp standards. Motorcycle emission controls are being updated and it has been proposed to update to Euro 5 in 2020. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19876 |
Map
A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes.
Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although most commonly used to depict geography, maps may represent any space, real or fictional, without regard to context or scale, such as in brain mapping, DNA mapping, or computer network topology mapping. The space being mapped may be two dimensional, such as the surface of the earth, three dimensional, such as the interior of the earth, or even more abstract spaces of any dimension, such as arise in modeling phenomena having many independent variables.
Although the earliest maps known are of the heavens, geographic maps of territory have a very long tradition and exist from ancient times. The word "map" comes from the medieval Latin "Mappa mundi", wherein "mappa" meant napkin or cloth and "mundi" the world. Thus, "map" became a shortened term referring to a two-dimensional representation of the surface of the world.
Cartography or "map-making" is the study and practice of crafting representations of the Earth upon a flat surface (see History of cartography), and one who makes maps is called a cartographer.
Road maps are perhaps the most widely used maps today, and form a subset of navigational maps, which also include aeronautical and nautical charts, railroad network maps, and hiking and bicycling maps. In terms of quantity, the largest number of drawn map sheets is probably made up by local surveys, carried out by municipalities, utilities, tax assessors, emergency services providers, and other local agencies. Many national surveying projects have been carried out by the military, such as the British Ordnance Survey: a civilian government agency, internationally renowned for its comprehensively detailed work.
In addition to location information, maps may also be used to portray contour lines indicating constant values of elevation, temperature, rainfall, etc.
The orientation of a map is the relationship between the directions on the map and the corresponding compass directions in reality. The word "orient" is derived from Latin , meaning east. In the Middle Ages many maps, including the T and O maps, were drawn with east at the top (meaning that the direction "up" on the map corresponds to East on the compass). The most common cartographic convention, is that north is at the top of a map.
Maps not oriented with north at the top:
Many maps are drawn to a scale expressed as a ratio, such as 1:10,000, which means that 1 unit of measurement on the map corresponds to 10,000 of that same unit on the ground. The scale statement can be accurate when the region mapped is small enough for the curvature of the Earth to be neglected, such as a city map. Mapping larger regions, where curvature cannot be ignored, requires projections to map from the curved surface of the Earth to the plane. The impossibility of flattening the sphere to the plane without distortion means that the map cannot have constant scale. Rather, on most projections the best that can be attained is accurate scale along one or two paths on the projection. Because scale differs everywhere, it can only be measured meaningfully as point scale per location. Most maps strive to keep point scale variation within narrow bounds. Although the scale statement is nominal it is usually accurate enough for most purposes unless the map covers a large fraction of the earth. At the scope of a world map, scale as a single number is practically meaningless throughout most of the map. Instead, it usually refers to the scale along the equator.
Some maps, called cartograms, have the scale deliberately distorted to reflect information other than land area or distance. For example, this map (at the right) of Europe has been distorted to show population distribution, while the rough shape of the continent is still discernible.
Another example of distorted scale is the famous London Underground map. The basic geographical structure is respected but the tube lines (and the River Thames) are smoothed to clarify the relationships between stations. Near the center of the map stations are spaced out more than near the edges of map.
Further inaccuracies may be deliberate. For example, cartographers may simply omit military installations or remove features solely in order to enhance the clarity of the map. For example, a road map may not show railroads, smaller waterways or other prominent non-road objects, and even if it does, it may show them less clearly (e.g. dashed or dotted lines/outlines) than the main roads. Known as decluttering, the practice makes the subject matter that the user is interested in easier to read, usually without sacrificing overall accuracy. Software-based maps often allow the user to toggle decluttering between ON, OFF and AUTO as needed. In AUTO the degree of decluttering is adjusted as the user changes the scale being displayed.
Geographic maps use a projection to translating the three-dimensional real surface of the geoid to a two-dimensional picture. Projection always distorts the surface. There are many ways to apportion the distortion, and so there are many map projections. Which projection to use depends on the purpose of the map.
The various features shown on a map are represented by conventional signs or symbols. For example, colors can be used to indicate a classification of roads. Those signs are usually explained in the margin of the map, or on a separately published characteristic sheet.
Some cartographers prefer to make the map cover practically the entire screen or sheet of paper, leaving no room "outside" the map for information about the map as a whole.
These cartographers typically place such information in an otherwise "blank" region "inside" the mapcartouche, map legend, title, compass rose, bar scale, etc.
In particular, some maps contain smaller "sub-maps" in otherwise blank regions—often one at a much smaller scale showing the whole globe and where the whole map fits on that globe, and a few showing "regions of interest" at a larger scale in order to show details that wouldn't otherwise fit.
Occasionally sub-maps use the same scale as the large map—a few maps of the contiguous United States include a sub-map to the same scale for each of the two non-contiguous states.
To communicate spatial information effectively, features such as rivers, lakes, and cities need to be labeled. Over centuries cartographers have developed the art of placing names on even the densest of maps. Text placement or name placement can get mathematically very complex as the number of labels and map density increases. Therefore, text placement is time-consuming and labor-intensive, so cartographers and GIS users have developed automatic label placement to ease this process.
Maps of the world or large areas are often either 'political' or 'physical'. The most important purpose of the political map is to show territorial borders; the purpose of the physical is to show features of geography such as mountains, soil type or land use including infrastructure such as roads, railroads and buildings. Topographic maps show elevations and relief with contour lines or shading. Geological maps show not only the physical surface, but characteristics of the underlying rock, fault lines, and subsurface structures.
From the last quarter of the 20th century, the indispensable tool of the cartographer has been the computer. Much of cartography, especially at the data-gathering survey level, has been subsumed by Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The functionality of maps has been greatly advanced by technology simplifying the superimposition of spatially located variables onto existing geographical maps. Having local information such as rainfall level, distribution of wildlife, or demographic data integrated within the map allows more efficient analysis and better decision making. In the pre-electronic age such superimposition of data led Dr. John Snow to identify the location of an outbreak of cholera. Today, it is used by agencies of the human kind, as diverse as wildlife conservationists and militaries around the world.
Even when GIS is not involved, most cartographers now use a variety of computer graphics programs to generate new maps.
Interactive, computerised maps are commercially available, allowing users to "zoom in" or "zoom out" (respectively meaning to increase or decrease the scale), sometimes by replacing one map with another of different scale, centered where possible on the same point. In-car global navigation satellite systems are computerised maps with route-planning and advice facilities which monitor the user's position with the help of satellites. From the computer scientist's point of view, zooming in entails one or a combination of:
For example:
"See also: Webpage (Graphics), PDF (Layers), MapQuest, Google Maps, Google Earth, OpenStreetMap or Yahoo! Maps."
The maps that reflect the territorial distribution of climatic conditions based on the results of long-term observations are called climatic maps. These maps can be compiled both for individual climatic features (temperature, precipitation, humidity) and for combinations of them at the earth's surface and in the upper layers of the atmosphere. Climatic maps show climatic features across a large region and permit values of climatic features to be compared in different parts of the region. When generating the map, interpolation can be used to synthesize values where there are no measurements, under the assumption that conditions change smoothly.
Climatic maps generally apply to individual months and to the year as a whole, sometimes to the four seasons, to the growing period, and so forth. On maps compiled from the observations of ground meteorological stations, atmospheric pressure is converted to sea level. Air temperature maps are compiled both from the actual values observed on the surface of the earth and from values converted to sea level. The pressure field in free atmosphere is represented either by maps of the distribution of pressure at different standard altitudes—for example, at every kilometer above sea level—or by maps of baric topography on which altitudes (more precisely geopotentials) of the main isobaric surfaces (for example, 900, 800, and 700 millibars) counted off from sea level are plotted. The temperature, humidity, and wind on aeroclimatic maps may apply either to standard altitudes or to the main isobaric surfaces.
Isolines are drawn on maps of such climatic features as the long-term mean values (of atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, total precipitation, and so forth) to connect points with equal values of the feature in question—for example, isobars for pressure, isotherms for temperature, and isohyets for precipitation. Isoamplitudes are drawn on maps of amplitudes (for example, annual amplitudes of air temperature—that is, the differences between the mean temperatures of the warmest and coldest month). Isanomals are drawn on maps of anomalies (for example, deviations of the mean temperature of each place from the mean temperature of the entire latitudinal zone). Isolines of frequency are drawn on maps showing the frequency of a particular phenomenon (for example, annual number of days with a thunderstorm or snow cover). Isochrones are drawn on maps showing the dates of onset of a given phenomenon (for example, the first frost and appearance or disappearance of the snow cover) or the date of a particular value of a meteorological element in the course of a year (for example, passing of the mean daily air temperature through zero). Isolines of the mean numerical value of wind velocity or isotachs are drawn on wind maps (charts); the wind resultants and directions of prevailing winds are indicated by arrows of different length or arrows with different plumes; lines of flow are often drawn. Maps of the zonal and meridional components of wind are frequently compiled for the free atmosphere. Atmospheric pressure and wind are usually combined on climatic maps. Wind roses, curves showing the distribution of other meteorological elements, diagrams of the annual course of elements at individual stations, and the like are also plotted on climatic maps.
Maps of climatic regionalization, that is, division of the earth's surface into climatic zones and regions according to some classification of climates, are a special kind of climatic map.
Climatic maps are often incorporated into climatic atlases of varying geographic range (globe, hemispheres, continents, countries, oceans) or included in comprehensive atlases. Besides general climatic maps, applied climatic maps and atlases have great practical value. Aeroclimatic maps, aeroclimatic atlases, and agroclimatic maps are the most numerous.
Maps exist of the Solar System, and other cosmological features such as star maps. In addition maps of other bodies such as the Moon and other planets are technically not "geo"graphical maps.
Diagrams such as schematic diagrams and Gantt charts and treemaps display logical relationships between items, rather than geographical relationships. Topological in nature, only the connectivity is significant. The London Underground map and similar subway maps around the world are a common example of these maps.
General-purpose maps provide many types of information on one map. Most atlas maps, wall maps, and road maps fall into this category. The following are some features that might be shown on general-purpose maps: bodies of water, roads, railway lines, parks, elevations, towns and cities, political boundaries, latitude and longitude, national and provincial parks. These maps give a broad understanding of location and features of an area. The reader may gain an understanding of the type of landscape, the location of urban places, and the location of major transportation routes all at once.
Some countries required that all published maps represent their national claims regarding border disputes. For example:
In 2010, the People's Republic of China began requiring that all online maps served from within China be hosted there, making them subject to Chinese laws. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19877 |
Management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a not-for-profit organization, or government body. Management includes the activities of setting the strategy of an organization and coordinating the efforts of its employees (or of volunteers) to accomplish its objectives through the application of available resources, such as financial, natural, technological, and human resources. The term "management" may also refer to those people who manage an organization - individually: managers.
Social scientists study management as an academic discipline, investigating areas such as social organization and organizational leadership. Some people study management at colleges or universities; major degrees in management include the Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA.) Master of Business Administration (MBA.) Master in Management (MScM or MIM) and, for the public sector, the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. Individuals who aim to become management specialists or experts, management researchers, or professors may complete the Doctor of Management (DM), the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), or the PhD in Business Administration or Management. There has recently been a movement for evidence-based management.
Larger organizations generally have three levels of managers, which are typically organized in a hierarchical, pyramid structure:
In smaller organizations, a manager may have a much wider scope and may perform several roles or even all of the roles commonly observed in a large organization.
Views on the definition and scope of management include:
Ann Viola Ulvin
Management involves identifying the mission, objective, procedures, rules and manipulation
of the human capital of an enterprise to contribute to the success of the enterprise. This implies effective communication: an enterprise environment (as opposed to a physical or mechanical mechanism) implies human motivation and implies some sort of successful progress or system outcome. As such, management is not the manipulation of a mechanism (machine or automated program), not the herding of animals, and can occur either in a legal or in an illegal enterprise or environment. From an individual's perspective, management does not need to be seen solely from an enterprise point of view, because management is an essential function in improving one's life and relationships. Management is therefore everywhere and it has a wider range of application. Based on this, management must have humans. Communication and a positive endeavor are two main aspects of it either through enterprise or through independent pursuit. Plans, measurements, motivational psychological tools, goals, and economic measures (profit, etc.) may or may not be necessary components for there to be management. At first, one views management functionally, such as measuring quantity, adjusting plans, meeting goals. This applies even in situations where planning does not take place. From this perspective, Henri Fayol (1841–1925)
considers management to consist of five functions:
In another way of thinking, Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933), allegedly defined management as "the art of getting things done through people".
She described management as philosophy.
Critics, however, find this definition useful but far too narrow. The phrase "management is what managers do" occurs widely,
suggesting the difficulty of defining management without circularity, the shifting nature of definitions and the connection of managerial practices with the existence of a managerial cadre or of a class.
One habit of thought regards management as equivalent to "business administration" and thus excludes management in places outside commerce, as for example in charities and in the public sector. More broadly, every organization must "manage" its work, people, processes, technology, etc. to maximize effectiveness. Nonetheless, many people refer to university departments that teach management as "business schools". Some such institutions (such as the Harvard Business School) use that name, while others (such as the Yale School of Management) employ the broader term "management".
English-speakers may also use the term "management" or "the management" as a collective word describing the managers of an organization, for example of a corporation.
Historically this use of the term often contrasted with the term "labor" – referring to those being managed.
But in the present era the concept of management is identified in the wide areas and its frontiers have been pushed to a broader range. Apart from profitable organizations even non-profitable organizations (NGOs) apply management concepts. The concept and its uses are not constrained. Management on the whole is the process of planning, organizing, coordinating, leading
and controlling.
In profitable organizations, management's primary function is the satisfaction of a range of stakeholders. This typically involves making a profit (for the shareholders), creating valued products at a reasonable cost (for customers), and providing great employment opportunities for employees. In nonprofit management, add the importance of keeping the faith of donors. In most models of management and governance, shareholders vote for the board of directors, and the board then hires senior management. Some organizations have experimented with other methods (such as employee-voting models) of selecting or reviewing managers, but this is rare.
Some see management as a late-modern (in the sense of late modernity) conceptualization. On those terms it cannot have a pre-modern history – only harbingers (such as stewards). Others, however, detect management-like thought among ancient Sumerian traders and the builders of the pyramids of ancient Egypt. Slave-owners through the centuries faced the problems of exploiting/motivating a dependent but sometimes unenthusiastic or recalcitrant workforce, but many pre-industrial enterprises, given their small scale, did not feel compelled to face the issues of management systematically. However, innovations such as the spread of Hindu numerals (5th to 15th centuries) and the codification of double-entry book-keeping (1494) provided tools for management assessment, planning and control.
With the changing workplaces of industrial revolutions in the 18th and 19th centuries, military theory and practice contributed approaches to managing the newly-popular factories.
Given the scale of most commercial operations and the lack of mechanized record-keeping and recording before the industrial revolution, it made sense for most owners of enterprises in those times to carry out management functions by and for themselves. But with growing size and complexity of organizations, a distinction between owners (individuals, industrial dynasties or groups of shareholders) and day-to-day managers (independent specialists in planning and control) gradually became more common.
The English verb "manage" comes from the Italian "maneggiare" (to handle, especially tools or a horse), which derives from the two Latin words "manus" (hand) and "agere" (to act). The French word for housekeeping, "ménagerie", derived from "ménager" ("to keep house"; compare "ménage" for "household"), also encompasses taking care of domestic animals. "Ménagerie" is the French translation of Xenophon's famous book "Oeconomicus" () on household matters and husbandry. The French word "mesnagement" (or "ménagement") influenced the semantic development of the English word "management" in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Management (according to some definitions) has existed for millennia, and several writers have produced background works that have contributed to modern management theories. Some theorists have cited as providing lessons for civilian managers. For example, Chinese general Sun Tzu in his 6th-century BC work "The Art of War" recommends (when re-phrased in modern terminology) being aware of and acting on strengths and weaknesses of both a manager's organization and a foe's. The writings of influential Chinese Legalist philosopher Shen Buhai may be considered to embody a rare premodern example of abstract theory of administration.
Various ancient and medieval civilizations produced "mirrors for princes" books, which aimed to advise new monarchs on how to govern. Plato described job specialization in 350 BC, and Alfarabi listed several leadership traits in AD 900. Other examples include the Indian "Arthashastra" by Chanakya (written around 300 BC), and "The Prince" by Italian author
Niccolò Machiavelli (c. 1515).
Written in 1776 by Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher, "The Wealth of Nations" discussed efficient organization of work through division of labour.
Smith described how changes in processes could boost productivity in the manufacture of pins. While individuals could produce 200 pins per day, Smith analyzed the steps involved in manufacture and, with 10 specialists, enabled production of 48,000 pins per day.
Classical economists such as Adam Smith (1723–1790) and John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) provided a theoretical background to resource allocation, production (economics), and pricing issues. About the same time, innovators like Eli Whitney (1765–1825), James Watt (1736–1819), and Matthew Boulton (1728–1809) developed elements of technical production such as standardization, quality-control procedures, cost-accounting, interchangeability of parts, and work-planning. Many of these aspects of management existed in the pre-1861 slave-based sector of the US economy. That environment saw 4 million people, as the contemporary usages had it, "managed" in profitable quasi-mass production.
Salaried managers as an identifiable group first became prominent in the late 19th century.
By about 1900 one finds managers trying to place their theories on what they regarded as a thoroughly scientific basis (see scientism for perceived limitations of this belief). Examples include Henry R. Towne's "Science of management" in the 1890s, Frederick Winslow Taylor's "The Principles of Scientific Management" (1911), Lillian Gilbreth's "Psychology of Management" (1914), Frank and Lillian Gilbreth's "Applied motion study" (1917), and Henry L. Gantt's charts (1910s). J. Duncan wrote the first college management-textbook in 1911. In 1912 Yoichi Ueno introduced Taylorism to Japan and became the first management consultant of the "Japanese-management style". His son Ichiro Ueno pioneered Japanese quality assurance.
The first comprehensive theories of management appeared around 1920. The Harvard Business School offered the first Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) in 1921. People like Henri Fayol (1841–1925) and Alexander Church (1866–1936) described the various branches of management and their inter-relationships. In the early-20th century, people like Ordway Tead (1891–1973), Walter Scott (1869–1955) and J. Mooney applied the principles of psychology to management. Other writers, such as Elton Mayo (1880–1949), Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933), Chester Barnard (1886–1961), Max Weber (1864–1920), who saw what he called the "administrator" as bureaucrat, Rensis Likert (1903–1981), and Chris Argyris (born 1923) approached the phenomenon of management from a sociological perspective.
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) wrote one of the earliest books on applied management: "Concept of the Corporation" (published in 1946). It resulted from Alfred Sloan (chairman of General Motors until 1956) commissioning a study of the organisation. Drucker went on to write 39 books, many in the same vein.
H. Dodge, Ronald Fisher (1890–1962), and Thornton C. Fry introduced statistical techniques into management-studies. In the 1940s, Patrick Blackett worked in the development of the applied-mathematics science of operations research, initially for military operations. Operations research, sometimes known as "management science" (but distinct from Taylor's scientific management), attempts to take a scientific approach to solving decision-problems, and can apply directly to multiple management problems, particularly in the areas of logistics and operations.
Some of the more developments include the Theory of Constraints, management by objectives, reengineering, Six Sigma, the Viable system model, and various information-technology-driven theories such as agile software development, as well as group-management theories such as Cog's Ladder.
As the general recognition of managers as a class solidified during the 20th century and gave perceived practitioners of the art/science of management a certain amount of prestige, so the way opened for popularised systems of management ideas to peddle their wares. In this context many management fads may have had more to do with pop psychology than with scientific theories of management.
Business management includes the following branches:
In the 21st century observers find it increasingly difficult to subdivide management into functional categories in this way. More and more processes simultaneously involve several categories. Instead, one tends to think in terms of the various processes, tasks, and objects subject to management.
Branches of management theory also exist relating to nonprofits and to government: such as public administration, public management, and educational management. Further, management programs related to civil-society organizations have also spawned programs in nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship.
Note that many of the assumptions made by management have come under attack from business-ethics viewpoints, critical management studies, and anti-corporate activism.
As one consequence, workplace democracy (sometimes referred to as Workers' self-management) has become both more common and more advocated, in some places distributing all management functions among workers, each of whom takes on a portion of the work. However, these models predate any current political issue, and may occur more naturally than does a command hierarchy. All management embraces to some degree a democratic principle—in that in the long term, the majority of workers must support management. Otherwise, they leave to find other work or go on strike. Despite the move toward workplace democracy, command-and-control organization structures remain commonplace as "de facto" organization structures. Indeed, the entrenched nature of command-and-control is evident in the way that recent layoffs have been conducted with management ranks affected far less than employees at the lower levels. In some cases, management has even rewarded itself with bonuses after laying off lower-level workers.
According to leadership-academic Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, a contemporary senior-management team will almost inevitably have some personality disorders.
According to Fayol, management operates through five basic functions: planning, organizing, coordinating, commanding, and controlling.
Figurehead, leader
Nerve centre, disseminator
Entrepreneur, negotiator, allocator
Management skills include:
Most organizations have three management levels: first-level, middle-level, and top-level managers. First-line managers are the lowest level of management and manage the work of nonmanagerial individuals who are directly involved with the production or creation of the organization's products. First-line managers are often called supervisors, but may also be called line managers, office managers, or even foremen. Middle managers include all levels of management between the first-line level and the top level of the organization. These managers manage the work of first-line managers and may have titles such as department head, project leader, plant manager, or division manager. Top managers are responsible for making organization-wide decisions and establishing the plans and goals that affect the entire organization. These individuals typically have titles such as executive vice president, president, managing director, chief operating officer, chief executive officer, or chairman of the board.
These managers are classified in a hierarchy of authority, and perform different tasks. In many organizations, the number of managers in every level resembles a pyramid. Each level is explained below in specifications of their different responsibilities and likely job titles.
The top or senior layer of management consists of the board of directors (including non-executive directors, executive directors and independent directors), president, vice-president, CEOs and other members of the C-level executives. Different organizations have various members in their C-suite, which may include a chief financial officer, chief technology officer, and so on. They are responsible for controlling and overseeing the operations of the entire organization. They set a "tone at the top" and develop strategic plans, company policies, and make decisions on the overall direction of the organization. In addition, top-level managers play a significant role in the mobilization of outside resources. Senior managers are accountable to the shareholders, the general public and to public bodies that oversee corporations and similar organizations. Some members of the senior management may serve as the public face of the organization, and they may make speeches to introduce new strategies or appear in marketing.
The board of directors is typically primarily composed of non-executives who owe a fiduciary duty to shareholders and are not closely involved in the day-to-day activities of the organization, although this varies depending on the type (e.g., public versus private), size and culture of the organization. These directors are theoretically liable for breaches of that duty and typically insured under directors and officers liability insurance. Fortune 500 directors are estimated to spend 4.4 hours per week on board duties, and median compensation was $212,512 in 2010. The board sets corporate strategy, makes major decisions such as major acquisitions, and hires, evaluates, and fires the top-level manager (chief executive officer or CEO). The CEO typically hires other positions. However, board involvement in the hiring of other positions such as the chief financial officer (CFO) has increased. In 2013, a survey of over 160 CEOs and directors of public and private companies found that the top weaknesses of CEOs were "mentoring skills" and "board engagement", and 10% of companies never evaluated the CEO. The board may also have certain employees (e.g., internal auditors) report to them or directly hire independent contractors; for example, the board (through the audit committee) typically selects the auditor.
Helpful skills of top management vary by the type of organization but typically include a broad understanding of competition, world economies, and politics. In addition, the CEO is responsible for implementing and determining (within the board's framework) the broad policies of the organization. Executive management accomplishes the day-to-day details, including: instructions for preparation of department budgets, procedures, schedules; appointment of middle level executives such as department managers; coordination of departments; media and governmental relations; and shareholder communication.
Consist of general managers, branch managers and department managers. They are accountable to the top management for their department's function. They devote more time to organizational and directional functions. Their roles can be emphasized as executing organizational plans in conformance with the company's policies and the objectives of the top management, they define and discuss information and policies from top management to lower management, and most importantly they inspire and provide guidance to lower level managers towards better performance.
Middle management is the midway management of a categorized organization, being secondary to the senior management but above the deepest levels of operational members. An operational manager may be well-thought-out by middle management, or may be categorized as non-management operate, liable to the policy of the specific organization. Efficiency of the middle level is vital in any organization, since they bridge the gap between top level and bottom level staffs.
Their functions include:
Lower managers include supervisors, section leaders, forepersons and team leaders. They focus on controlling and directing regular employees. They are usually responsible for assigning employees' tasks, guiding and supervising employees on day-to-day activities, ensuring the quality and quantity of production and/or service, making recommendations and suggestions to employees on their work, and channeling employee concerns that they cannot resolve to mid-level managers or other administrators. First-level or "front line" managers also act as role models for their employees. In some types of work, front line managers may also do some of the same tasks that employees do, at least some of the time. For example, in some restaurants, the front line managers will also serve customers during a very busy period of the day.
Front-line managers typically provide:
Some front-line managers may also provide career planning for employees who aim to rise within the organization.
Colleges and universities around the world offer bachelor's degrees, graduate degrees, diplomas and certificates in management, generally within their colleges of business, business schools or faculty of management but also in other related departments. In the 2010s, there has been an increase in online management education and training in the form of electronic educational technology ( also called e-learning). Online education has increased the accessibility of management training to people who do not live near a college or university, or who cannot afford to travel to a city where such training is available.
While some professions require academic credentials in order to work in the profession (e.g., law, medicine, engineering, which require, respectively the Bachelor of Law, Doctor of Medicine and Bachelor of Engineering degrees), management and administration positions do not necessarily require the completion of academic degrees. Some well-known senior executives in the US who did not complete a degree include Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. However, many managers and executives have completed some type of business or management training, such as a Bachelor of Commerce or a Master of Business Administration degree. Some major organizations, including companies, not-for-profit organizations and governments, require applicants to managerial or executive positions to hold at minimum bachelor's degree in a field related to administration or management, or in the case of business jobs, a Bachelor of Commerce or a similar degree.
At the undergraduate level, the most common business program are the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.).
These typically comprise a four-year program designed to give students an overview of the role of managers in planning and directing within an organization.
Course topics include accounting, financial management, statistics, marketing, strategy, and other related areas.
There are many other undergraduate degrees that include the study of management, such as Bachelor of Arts degrees with a major in business administration or management and Bachelor of Public Administration (B.P.A), a degree designed for individuals aiming to work as bureaucrats in the government jobs.
Many colleges and universities also offer certificates and diplomas in business administration or management, which typically require one to two years of full-time study.
Note that to manage technological areas, one often needs an undergraduate degree in a STEM-area.
At the graduate level students aiming at careers as managers or executives may choose to specialize in major subareas of management or business administration such as entrepreneurship, human resources, international business, organizational behavior, organizational theory, strategic management, accounting, corporate finance, entertainment, global management, healthcare management, investment management, sustainability and real estate.
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is the most popular professional degree at the master's level and can be obtained from many universities in the United States. MBA programs provide further education in management and leadership for graduate students. Other master's degrees in business and management include Master of Management (MM) and the Master of Science (M.Sc.) in business administration or management, which is typically taken by students aiming to become researchers or professors.
There are also specialized master's degrees in administration for individuals aiming at careers outside of business, such as the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree (also offered as a Master of Arts in Public Administration in some universities), for students aiming to become managers or executives in the public service and the Master of Health Administration, for students aiming to become managers or executives in the health care and hospital sector.
Management doctorates are the most advanced terminal degrees in the field of business and management. Most individuals obtaining management doctorates take the programs to obtain the training in research methods, statistical analysis and writing academic papers that they will need to seek careers as researchers, senior consultants and/or professors in business administration or management. There are three main types of management doctorates: the Doctor of Management (D.M.), the Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), and the Ph.D. in Business Administration or Management. In the 2010s, doctorates in business administration and management are available with many specializations.
While management trends can change so fast, the long term trend in management has been defined by a market embracing diversity and a rising service industry. Managers are currently being trained to encourage greater equality for minorities and women in the workplace, by offering increased flexibility in working hours, better retraining, and innovative (and usually industry-specific) performance markers. Managers destined for the service sector are being trained to use unique measurement techniques, better worker support and more charismatic leadership styles. Human resources finds itself increasingly working with management in a training capacity to help collect management data on the success (or failure) of management actions with employees.
Evidence-based management is an emerging movement to use the current, best evidence in management and decision-making. It is part of the larger movement towards evidence-based practices. Evidence-based management entails managerial decisions and organizational practices informed by the best available evidence. As with other evidence-based practice, this is based on the three principles of: 1) published peer-reviewed (often in management or social science journals) research evidence that bears on whether and why a particular management practice works; 2) judgement and experience from contextual management practice, to understand the organization and interpersonal dynamics in a situation and determine the risks and benefits of available actions; and 3) the preferences and values of those affected. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19881 |
Mineralogy
Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.
Early writing on mineralogy, especially on gemstones, comes from ancient Babylonia, the ancient Greco-Roman world, ancient and medieval China, and Sanskrit texts from ancient India and the ancient Islamic World. Books on the subject included the "Naturalis Historia" of Pliny the Elder, which not only described many different minerals but also explained many of their properties, and Kitab al Jawahir (Book of Precious Stones) by Persian scientist Al-Biruni. The German Renaissance specialist Georgius Agricola wrote works such as "De re metallica" ("On Metals", 1556) and "De Natura Fossilium" ("On the Nature of Rocks", 1546) which began the scientific approach to the subject. Systematic scientific studies of minerals and rocks developed in post-Renaissance Europe. The modern study of mineralogy was founded on the principles of crystallography (the origins of geometric crystallography, itself, can be traced back to the mineralogy practiced in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) and to the microscopic study of rock sections with the invention of the microscope in the 17th century.
Nicholas Steno first observed the law of constancy of interfacial angles (also known as the first law of crystallography) in quartz crystals in 1669. This was later generalized and established experimentally by Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Islee in 1783. René Just Haüy, the "father of modern crystallography", showed that crystals are periodic and established that the orientations of crystal faces can be expressed in terms of rational numbers, as later encoded in the Miller indices. In 1814, Jöns Jacob Berzelius introduced a classification of minerals based on their chemistry rather than their crystal structure. William Nicol developed the Nicol prism, which polarizes light, in 1827–1828 while studying fossilized wood; Henry Clifton Sorby showed that thin sections of minerals could be identified by their optical properties using a polarizing microscope. James D. Dana published his first edition of "A System of Mineralogy" in 1837, and in a later edition introduced a chemical classification that is still the standard. X-ray diffraction was demonstrated by Max von Laue in 1912, and developed into a tool for analyzing the crystal structure of minerals by the father/son team of William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg.
More recently, driven by advances in experimental technique (such as neutron diffraction) and available computational power, the latter of which has enabled extremely accurate atomic-scale simulations of the behaviour of crystals, the science has branched out to consider more general problems in the fields of inorganic chemistry and solid-state physics. It, however, retains a focus on the crystal structures commonly encountered in rock-forming minerals (such as the perovskites, clay minerals and framework silicates). In particular, the field has made great advances in the understanding of the relationship between the atomic-scale structure of minerals and their function; in nature, prominent examples would be accurate measurement and prediction of the elastic properties of minerals, which has led to new insight into seismological behaviour of rocks and depth-related discontinuities in seismograms of the Earth's mantle. To this end, in their focus on the connection between atomic-scale phenomena and macroscopic properties, the "mineral sciences" (as they are now commonly known) display perhaps more of an overlap with materials science than any other discipline.
An initial step in identifying a mineral is to examine its physical properties, many of which can be measured on a hand sample. These can be classified into density (often given as specific gravity); measures of mechanical cohesion (hardness, tenacity, cleavage, fracture, parting); macroscopic visual properties (luster, color, streak, luminescence, diaphaneity); magnetic and electric properties; radioactivity and solubility in hydrogen chloride ().
"Hardness" is determined by comparison with other minerals. In the Mohs scale, a standard set of minerals are numbered in order of increasing hardness from 1 (talc) to 10 (diamond). A harder mineral will scratch a softer, so an unknown mineral can be placed in this scale by which minerals it scratches and which scratch it. A few minerals such as calcite and kyanite have a hardness that depends significantly on direction. Hardness can also be measured on an absolute scale using a sclerometer; compared to the absolute scale, the Mohs scale is nonlinear.
"Tenacity" refers to the way a mineral behaves when it is broken, crushed, bent or torn. A mineral can be brittle, malleable, sectile, ductile, flexible or elastic. An important influence on tenacity is the type of chemical bond ("e.g.," ionic or metallic). Of the other measures of mechanical cohesion, "cleavage" is the tendency to break along certain crystallographic planes. It is described by the quality ("e.g.", perfect or fair) and the orientation of the plane in crystallographic nomenclature. "Parting" is the tendency to break along planes of weakness due to pressure, twinning or exsolution. Where these two kinds of break do not occur, "fracture" is a less orderly form that may be "conchoidal" (having smooth curves resembling the interior of a shell), "fibrous", "splintery", "hackly" (jagged with sharp edges), or "uneven".
If the mineral is well crystallized, it will also have a distinctive crystal habit (for example, hexagonal, columnar, botryoidal) that reflects the crystal structure or internal arrangement of atoms. It is also affected by crystal defects and twinning. Many crystals are polymorphic, having more than one possible crystal structure depending on factors such as pressure and temperature.
The crystal structure is the arrangement of atoms in a crystal. It is represented by a lattice of points which repeats a basic pattern, called a unit cell, in three dimensions. The lattice can be characterized by its symmetries and by the dimensions of the unit cell. These dimensions are represented by three "Miller indices". The lattice remains unchanged by certain symmetry operations about any given point in the lattice: reflection, rotation, inversion, and rotary inversion, a combination of rotation and reflection. Together, they make up a mathematical object called a "crystallographic point group" or "crystal class". There are 32 possible crystal classes. In addition, there are operations that displace all the points: translation, screw axis, and glide plane. In combination with the point symmetries, they form 230 possible space groups.
Most geology departments have X-ray powder diffraction equipment to analyze the crystal structures of minerals. X-rays have wavelengths that are the same order of magnitude as the distances between atoms. Diffraction, the constructive and destructive interference between waves scattered at different atoms, leads to distinctive patterns of high and low intensity that depend on the geometry of the crystal. In a sample that is ground to a powder, the X-rays sample a random distribution of all crystal orientations. Powder diffraction can distinguish between minerals that may appear the same in a hand sample, for example quartz and its polymorphs tridymite and cristobalite.
Isomorphous minerals of different compositions have similar powder diffraction patterns, the main difference being in spacing and intensity of lines. For example, the (halite) crystal structure is space group "Fm3m"; this structure is shared by sylvite (), periclase (), bunsenite (), galena (), alabandite (), chlorargyrite (), and osbornite ().
A few minerals are chemical elements, including sulfur, copper, silver, and gold, but the vast majority are compounds. The classical method for identifying composition is "wet chemical analysis", which involves dissolving a mineral in an acid such as hydrochloric acid (). The elements in solution are then identified using colorimetry, volumetric analysis or gravimetric analysis.
Since 1960, most chemistry analysis is done using instruments. One of these, atomic absorption spectroscopy, is similar to wet chemistry in that the sample must still be dissolved, but it is much faster and cheaper. The solution is vaporized and its absorption spectrum is measured in the visible and ultraviolet range. Other techniques are X-ray fluorescence, electron microprobe analysis atom probe tomography and optical emission spectrography.
In addition to macroscopic properties such as color or lustre, minerals have properties that require a polarizing microscope to observe.
When light passes from air or a vacuum into a transparent crystal, some of it is reflected at the surface and some refracted. The latter is a bending of the light path that occurs because the speed of light changes as it goes into the crystal; Snell's law relates the bending angle to the Refractive index, the ratio of speed in a vacuum to speed in the crystal. Crystals whose point symmetry group falls in the cubic system are "isotropic": the index does not depend on direction. All other crystals are "anisotropic": light passing through them is broken up into two plane polarized rays that travel at different speeds and refract at different angles.
A polarizing microscope is similar to an ordinary microscope, but it has two plane-polarized filters, a ("polarizer") below the sample and an analyzer above it, polarized perpendicular to each other. Light passes successively through the polarizer, the sample and the analyzer. If there is no sample, the analyzer blocks all the light from the polarizer. However, an anisotropic sample will generally change the polarization so some of the light can pass through. Thin sections and powders can be used as samples.
When an isotropic crystal is viewed, it appears dark because it does not change the polarization of the light. However, when it is immersed in a calibrated liquid with a lower index of refraction and the microscope is thrown out of focus, a bright line called a "Becke line" appears around the perimeter of the crystal. By observing the presence or absence of such lines in liquids with different indices, the index of the crystal can be estimated, usually to within .
Systematic mineralogy is the identification and classification of minerals by their properties. Historically, mineralogy was heavily concerned with taxonomy of the rock-forming minerals. In 1959, the International Mineralogical Association formed the Commission of New Minerals and Mineral Names to rationalize the nomenclature and regulate the introduction of new names. In July 2006, it was merged with the Commission on Classification of Minerals to form the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature, and Classification. There are over 6,000 named and unnamed minerals, and about 100 are discovered each year. The "Manual of Mineralogy" places minerals in the following classes: native elements, sulfides, sulfosalts, oxides and hydroxides, halides, carbonates, nitrates and borates, sulfates, chromates, molybdates and tungstates, phosphates, arsenates and vanadates, and silicates.
The environments of mineral formation and growth are highly varied, ranging from slow crystallization at the high temperatures and pressures of igneous melts deep within the Earth's crust to the low temperature precipitation from a saline brine at the Earth's surface.
Various possible methods of formation include:
Biomineralogy is a cross-over field between mineralogy, paleontology and biology. It is the study of how plants and animals stabilize minerals under biological control, and the sequencing of mineral replacement of those minerals after deposition. It uses techniques from chemical mineralogy, especially isotopic studies, to determine such things as growth forms in living plants and animals as well as things like the original mineral content of fossils.
A new approach to mineralogy called mineral evolution explores the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere, including the role of minerals in the origin of life and processes as mineral-catalyzed organic synthesis and the selective adsorption of organic molecules on mineral surfaces.
In 2011, several researchers began to develop a Mineral Evolution Database. This database integrates the crowd-sourced site Mindat.org, which has over 690,000 mineral-locality pairs, with the official IMA list of approved minerals and age data from geological publications.
This database makes it possible to apply statistics to answer new questions, an approach that has been called "mineral ecology". One such question is how much of mineral evolution is deterministic and how much the result of chance. Some factors are deterministic, such as the chemical nature of a mineral and conditions for its stability; but mineralogy can also be affected by the processes that determine a planet's composition. In a 2015 paper, Robert Hazen and others analyzed the number of minerals involving each element as a function of its abundance. They found that Earth, with over 4800 known minerals and 72 elements, has a power law relationship. The Moon, with only 63 minerals and 24 elements (based on a much smaller sample) has essentially the same relationship. This implies that, given the chemical composition of the planet, one could predict the more common minerals. However, the distribution has a long tail, with 34% of the minerals having been found at only one or two locations. The model predicts that thousands more mineral species may await discovery or have formed and then been lost to erosion, burial or other processes. This implies a role of chance in the formation of rare minerals occur.
In another use of big data sets, network theory was applied to a dataset of carbon minerals, revealing new patterns in their diversity and distribution. The analysis can show which minerals tend to coexist and what conditions (geological, physical, chemical and biological) are associated with them. This information can be used to predict where to look for new deposits and even new mineral species.
Minerals are essential to various needs within human society, such as minerals used as ores for essential components of metal products used in various commodities and machinery, essential components to building materials such as limestone, marble, granite, gravel, glass, plaster, cement, etc. Minerals are also used in fertilizers to enrich the growth of agricultural crops.
Mineral collecting is also a recreational study and collection hobby, with clubs and societies representing the field. Museums, such as the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Natural History Museum, London, and the private Mim Mineral Museum in Beirut, Lebanon, have popular collections of mineral specimens on permanent display. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19883 |
Maple syrup
Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Maple trees are tapped by drilling holes into their trunks and collecting the exuded sap, which is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup. Most trees can produce of sap per season.
Maple syrup was first made and used by the indigenous peoples of North America, and the practice was adopted by European settlers, who gradually refined production methods. Technological improvements in the 1970s further refined syrup processing. The Canadian province of Quebec is by far the largest producer, responsible for 70 percent of the world's output; Canadian exports of maple syrup in 2016 were C$487 million (about US$360 million), with Quebec accounting for some 90 percent of this total.
Maple syrup is graded according to the Canada, United States, or Vermont scales based on its density and translucency. Sucrose is the most prevalent sugar in maple syrup. In Canada, syrups must be made exclusively from maple sap to qualify as maple syrup and must also be at least 66 percent sugar. In the United States, a syrup must be made almost entirely from maple sap to be labelled as "maple", though states such as Vermont and New York have more restrictive definitions.
Maple syrup is often used as a condiment for pancakes, waffles, French toast, oatmeal or porridge. It is also used as an ingredient in baking and as a sweetener or flavouring agent. Culinary experts have praised its unique flavour, although the chemistry responsible is not fully understood.
Three species of maple trees are predominantly used to produce maple syrup: the sugar maple ("Acer saccharum"), the black maple ("A. nigrum"), and the red maple ("A. rubrum"), because of the high sugar content (roughly two to five percent) in the sap of these species. The black maple is included as a subspecies or variety in a more broadly viewed concept of "A. saccharum", the sugar maple, by some botanists. Of these, the red maple has a shorter season because it buds earlier than sugar and black maples, which alters the flavour of the sap.
A few other species of maple ("Acer") are also sometimes used as sources of sap for producing maple syrup, including the box elder or Manitoba maple ("Acer negundo"), the silver maple ("A. saccharinum"), and the bigleaf maple ("A. macrophyllum"). In the Southeastern United States, Florida sugar maple ("Acer floridanum") is occasionally used for maple syrup production.
Similar syrups may also be produced from walnut, birch or palm trees, among other sources.
Indigenous peoples living in northeastern North America were the first groups known to have produced maple syrup and maple sugar. According to aboriginal oral traditions, as well as archaeological evidence, maple tree sap was being processed into syrup long before Europeans arrived in the region. There are no authenticated accounts of how maple syrup production and consumption began, but various legends exist; one of the most popular involves maple sap being used in place of water to cook venison served to a chief. Aboriginal tribes developed rituals around sugar-making, celebrating the Sugar Moon (the first full moon of spring) with a Maple Dance. Many aboriginal dishes replaced the salt traditional in European cuisine with maple sugar or syrup.
The Algonquians recognized maple sap as a source of energy and nutrition. At the beginning of the spring thaw, they made V-shaped incisions in tree trunks; they then inserted reeds or concave pieces of bark to run the sap into buckets, which were often made from birch bark. The maple sap was concentrated either by dropping hot cooking stones into the buckets or by leaving them exposed to the cold temperatures overnight and disposing of the layer of ice that formed on top.
In the early stages of European colonization in northeastern North America, local Indigenous peoples showed the arriving colonists how to tap the trunks of certain types of maples during the spring thaw to harvest the sap. André Thevet, the "Royal Cosmographer of France", wrote about Jacques Cartier drinking maple sap during his Canadian voyages. By 1680, European settlers and fur traders were involved in harvesting maple products. However, rather than making incisions in the bark, the Europeans used the method of drilling tapholes in the trunks with augers. During the 17th and 18th centuries, processed maple sap was used primarily as a source of concentrated sugar, in both liquid and crystallized-solid form, as cane sugar had to be imported from the West Indies.
Maple sugaring parties typically began to operate at the start of the spring thaw in regions of woodland with sufficiently large numbers of maples. Syrup makers first bored holes in the trunks, usually more than one hole per large tree; they then inserted wooden spouts into the holes and hung a wooden bucket from the protruding end of each spout to collect the sap. The buckets were commonly made by cutting cylindrical segments from a large tree trunk and then hollowing out each segment's core from one end of the cylinder, creating a seamless, watertight container. Sap filled the buckets, and was then either transferred to larger holding vessels (barrels, large pots, or hollowed-out wooden logs), often mounted on sledges or wagons pulled by draft animals, or carried in buckets or other convenient containers. The sap-collection buckets were returned to the spouts mounted on the trees, and the process was repeated for as long as the flow of sap remained "sweet". The specific weather conditions of the thaw period were, and still are, critical in determining the length of the sugaring season. As the weather continues to warm, a maple tree's normal early spring biological process eventually alters the taste of the sap, making it unpalatable, perhaps due to an increase in amino acids.
The boiling process was very time-consuming. The harvested sap was transported back to the party's base camp, where it was then poured into large vessels (usually made from metal) and boiled to achieve the desired consistency. The sap was usually transported using large barrels pulled by horses or oxen to a central collection point, where it was processed either over a fire built out in the open or inside a shelter built for that purpose (the "sugar shack").
Around the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865), syrup makers started using large, flat sheet metal pans as they were more efficient for boiling than heavy, rounded iron kettles, because of a greater surface area for evaporation. Around this time, cane sugar replaced maple sugar as the dominant sweetener in the US; as a result, producers focused marketing efforts on maple syrup. The first evaporator, used to heat and concentrate sap, was patented in 1858. In 1872, an evaporator was developed that featured two pans and a metal arch or firebox, which greatly decreased boiling time. Around 1900, producers bent the tin that formed the bottom of a pan into a series of flues, which increased the heated surface area of the pan and again decreased boiling time. Some producers also added a finishing pan, a separate batch evaporator, as a final stage in the evaporation process.
Buckets began to be replaced with plastic bags, which allowed people to see at a distance how much sap had been collected. Syrup producers also began using tractors to haul vats of sap from the trees being tapped (the sugarbush) to the evaporator. Some producers adopted motor-powered tappers and metal tubing systems to convey sap from the tree to a central collection container, but these techniques were not widely used. Heating methods also diversified: modern producers use wood, oil, natural gas, propane, or steam to evaporate sap. Modern filtration methods were perfected to prevent contamination of the syrup.
A large number of technological changes took place during the 1970s. Plastic tubing systems that had been experimental since the early part of the century were perfected, and the sap came directly from the tree to the evaporator house. Vacuum pumps were added to the tubing systems, and preheaters were developed to recycle heat lost in the steam. Producers developed reverse-osmosis machines to take a portion of water out of the sap before it was boiled, increasing processing efficiency.
Improvements in tubing and vacuum pumps, new filtering techniques, "supercharged" preheaters, and better storage containers have since been developed. Research continues on pest control and improved woodlot management. In 2009, researchers at the University of Vermont unveiled a new type of tap that prevents backflow of sap into the tree, reducing bacterial contamination and preventing the tree from attempting to heal the bore hole. Experiments show that it may be possible to use saplings in a plantation instead of mature trees, dramatically boosting productivity per acre.
Open pan evaporation methods have been streamlined since colonial days, but remain basically unchanged. Sap must first be collected and boiled down to obtain pure syrup without chemical agents or preservatives. Maple syrup is made by boiling between 20 and 50 volumes of sap (depending on its concentration) over an open fire until 1 volume of syrup is obtained, usually at a temperature over the boiling point of water. As the boiling point of water varies with changes in air pressure the correct value for pure water is determined at the place where the syrup is being produced, each time evaporation is begun and periodically throughout the day. Syrup can be boiled entirely over one heat source or can be drawn off into smaller batches and boiled at a more controlled temperature.
Boiling the syrup is a tightly controlled process, which ensures appropriate sugar content. Syrup boiled too long will eventually crystallize, whereas under-boiled syrup will be watery, and will quickly spoil. The finished syrup has a density of 66° on the Brix scale (a hydrometric scale used to measure sugar solutions). The syrup is then filtered to remove precipitated "sugar sand", crystals made up largely of sugar and calcium malate. These crystals are not toxic, but create a "gritty" texture in the syrup if not filtered out.
In addition to open pan evaporation methods, many large producers use the more fuel efficient reverse osmosis procedure to separate the water from the sap.
The higher the sugar content of the sap, the smaller the volume of sap is needed to obtain the same amount of syrup. 57 units of sap with 1.5 percent sugar content will yield 1 unit of syrup, but only 25 units of sap with a 3.5 percent sugar content are needed to obtain one unit of syrup. The sap's sugar content is highly variable and will fluctuate even within the same tree.
The filtered syrup is graded and packaged while still hot, usually at a temperature of or greater. The containers are turned over after being sealed to sterilize the cap with the hot syrup. Packages can be made of metal, glass, or coated plastic, depending on volume and target market. The syrup can also be heated longer and further processed to create a variety of other maple products, including maple sugar, maple butter or cream, and maple candy or taffy.
Off-flavours can sometimes develop during the production of maple syrup, resulting from contaminants in the boiling apparatus (such as disinfectants), microorganisms, fermentation products, metallic can flavours, and "buddy sap", an off-flavour occurring late in the syrup season when tree budding has begun. In some circumstances, it is possible to remove off-flavours through processing.
Maple syrup production is centred in northeastern North America; however, given the correct weather conditions, it can be made wherever suitable species of maple trees grow.
A maple syrup production farm is called a "sugarbush" or "sugarwood". Sap is often boiled in a "sugar house" (also known as a "sugar shack", "sugar shanty", or "cabane à sucre"), a building louvered at the top to vent the steam from the boiling sap.
Maples are usually tapped beginning at 30 to 40 years of age. Each tree can support between one and three taps, depending on its trunk diameter. The average maple tree will produce of sap per season, up to per day. This is roughly equal to seven percent of its total sap. Seasons last for four to eight weeks, depending on the weather. During the day, starch stored in the roots for the winter rises through the trunk as sugary sap, allowing it to be tapped. Sap is not tapped at night because the temperature drop inhibits sap flow, although taps are typically left in place overnight. Some producers also tap in autumn, though this practice is less common than spring tapping. Maples can continue to be tapped for sap until they are over 100 years old.
Until the 1930s, the United States produced most of the world's maple syrup. Today, after rapid growth in the 1990s, Canada produces more than 80 percent of the world's maple syrup, producing about in 2016. The vast majority of this comes from the province of Quebec, which is the world's largest producer, with about 70 percent of global production. Canada exported more than C$362 million of maple syrup in 2016. In 2015, 64 percent of Canadian maple syrup exports went to the United States (a value of C$229 million), 8 percent to Germany (C$31 million), 6 percent to Japan (C$26 million), and 5 percent to the United Kingdom (C$16 million).
In 2015, Quebec accounts for 90.83 percent of maple syrup produced in Canada, followed by New Brunswick at 4.83 percent, Ontario at 4.14 percent, and Nova Scotia at 0.2 percent. However, 94.28 percent of exported Canadian maple syrup originated from Quebec, whereas 4.91 percent of exported syrup originated from New Brunswick, and the remaining 0.81 percent from all other provinces. Ontario holds the most maple syrup farms in Canada outside of Quebec, with 2,240 maple syrup producers in 2011. This is followed by New Brunswick, with 191 maple syrup producers; and Nova Scotia, with 152 maple syrup producers.
As of 2016, Quebec had some 7,300 producers working with 13,500 farmers, collectively making over of syrup. Production in Quebec is controlled through a supply management system, with producers receiving quota allotments from the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers ("Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec", FPAQ), which also maintains reserves of syrup, although there is a black-market trade in Quebec product. In 2017, the FPAQ mandated increased output of maple syrup production, attempting to establish Quebec's dominance in the world market.
The Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan produce maple syrup using the sap of the box elder or Manitoba maple ("Acer negundo"). In 2011, there were 67 maple syrup producers in Manitoba, and 24 in Saskatchewan. A Manitoba maple tree's yield is usually less than half that of a similar sugar maple tree. Manitoba maple syrup has a slightly different flavour from sugar-maple syrup, because it contains less sugar and the tree's sap flows more slowly. British Columbia is home to a growing maple sugar industry using sap from the bigleaf maple, which is native to the West Coast of the United States and Canada. In 2011, there were 82 maple syrup producers in British Columbia.
Vermont is the biggest US producer, with over during the 2013 season, followed by New York with and Maine with . Wisconsin, Ohio, New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut all produced marketable quantities of maple syrup of less than each in 2013. As of 2003, Vermont produced about 5.5 percent of the global syrup supply.
Maple syrup has been produced on a small scale in some other countries, notably Japan and South Korea. However, in South Korea in particular, it is traditional to consume maple sap, called "gorosoe", instead of processing it into syrup.
Under Canadian Maple Product Regulations, containers of maple syrup must include the words "maple syrup", its grade name and net quantity in litres or millilitres, on the main display panel with a minimum font size of 1.6 mm. If the maple syrup is of Canada Grade A level, the name of the colour class must appear on the label in both English and French. Also, the lot number or production code, and either: (1) the name and address of the sugar bush establishment, packing or shipper establishment, or (2) the first dealer and the registration number of the packing establishment, must be labeled on any display panel other than the bottom.
Following an effort from the International Maple Syrup Institute (IMSI) and many maple syrup producer associations, both Canada and the United States have altered their laws regarding the classification of maple syrup to be uniform. Whereas in the past each state or province had their own laws on the classification of maple syrup, now those laws define a unified grading system. This had been a work in progress for several years, and most of the finalization of the new grading system was made in 2014. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced in the "Canada Gazette" on 28 June 2014 that rules for the sale of maple syrup would be amended to include new descriptors, at the request of the IMSI.
As of December 31, 2014, the CFIA and as of March 2, 2015, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service issued revised standards intended to harmonize Canada-United States regulations on the classification of maple syrup as follows:
As long as maple syrup does not have an off-flavour, is of a uniform colour, and is free from turbidity and sediment, it can be labelled as one of the A grades. If it exhibits any problems, it does not meet Grade A requirements, and then must be labelled as Processing Grade maple syrup and may not be sold in containers smaller than . If maple syrup does not meet the requirements of Processing Grade maple syrup (including a fairly characteristic maple taste), it is classified as Substandard.
This grading system was accepted and made law by most maple-producing states and provinces, and became compulsory in Canada as of 13 December 2016. Vermont, in an effort to "jump-start" the new grading regulations, adopted the new grading system as of January 1, 2014, after the grade changes passed the Senate and House in 2013. Maine passed a bill to take effect as soon as both Canada and the United States adopted the new grades. In New York, the new grade changes became law on January 1, 2015. New Hampshire did not require legislative approval and so the new grade laws became effective as of December 16, 2014, and producer compliance was required as of January 1, 2016.
Golden and Amber grades typically have a milder flavour than Dark and Very dark, which are both dark and have an intense maple flavour. The darker grades of syrup are used primarily for cooking and baking, although some specialty dark syrups are produced for table use. Syrup harvested earlier in the season tends to yield a lighter colour. With the new grading system, the classification of maple syrup depends ultimately on its internal transmittance at 560 nm wavelength through a 10 mm sample. Golden must have 75 percent or more transmittance, Amber must have 50.0 to 74.9 percent transmittance, Dark must have 25.0 to 49.9 percent transmittance, and Very Dark is any product having less than 25.0 percent transmittance.
In Canada, maple syrup was classified prior to December 31, 2014, by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) as one of three grades, each with several colour classes:
Producers in Ontario or Quebec may have followed either federal or provincial grading guidelines. Quebec's and Ontario's guidelines differed slightly from the federal:
A typical year's yield for a maple syrup producer will be about 25 to 30 percent of each of the #1 colours, 10 percent #2 Amber, and 2 percent #3 Dark.
The United States used different grading standards — some states still do as they await state regulation. Maple syrup was divided into two major grades:
In Massachusetts, the Grade B was renamed as "Grade A Very Dark, Strong Taste."
The Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets used a similar grading system of colour, and is roughly equivalent, especially for lighter syrups, but using letters: "AA", "A", etc. The Vermont grading system differed from the US system in maintaining a slightly higher standard of product density (measured on the Baumé scale). New Hampshire maintained a similar standard, but not a separate state grading scale. The Vermont-graded product had 0.9 percent more sugar and less water in its composition than US-graded. One grade of syrup not for table use, called commercial or Grade C, was also produced under the Vermont system.
In Canada, the packing of maple syrup must follow the "Packing" conditions stated in the Maple Products Regulations, or utilize the equivalent Canadian or imported grading system.
As stated in the Maple Products Regulations, Canadian maple syrup can be classified as "Canadian Grade A" and "Canadian Processing Grade". Any maple syrup container under these classifications should be filled to at least 90% of the bottle size while still containing the net quantity of syrup product as stated on the label. Every container of maple syrup must be new if it has a capacity of 5 litres or less or is marked with a grade name. Every container of maple sugar must also be new if it has a capacity of less than 5 kg or is either exported out of Canada or conveyed from one province to another.
Each maple syrup product must be verified clean if it follows a grade name or if it is exported out of the province in which it was originally manufactured.
The basic ingredient in maple syrup is the sap from the xylem of sugar maple or various other species of maple trees. It consists primarily of sucrose and water, with small amounts of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose from the invert sugar created in the boiling process.
In a 100g amount, maple syrup provides 260 calories and is composed of 32 percent water by weight, 67 percent carbohydrates (90 percent of which are sugars), and no appreciable protein or fat (table). Maple syrup is generally low in overall micronutrient content, although manganese and riboflavin are at high levels along with moderate amounts of zinc and calcium (right table). It also contains trace amounts of amino acids which increase in content as sap flow occurs.
Maple syrup contains a wide variety of polyphenols and volatile organic compounds, including vanillin, hydroxybutanone, lignans, propionaldehyde, and numerous organic acids. It is not yet known exactly all compounds responsible for the distinctive flavour of maple syrup, although primary flavour-contributing compounds are maple furanone (5-ethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5H)-furanone), strawberry furanone, and maltol. New compounds have been identified in maple syrup, one of which is quebecol, a natural phenolic compound created when the maple sap is boiled to create syrup. Its sweetness derives from a high content of sucrose (99% of total sugars). Its brown colour – a significant factor in the appeal and quality grading of maple syrup – develops during thermal evaporation.
One author described maple syrup as "a unique ingredient, smooth- and silky-textured, with a sweet, distinctive flavour – hints of caramel with overtones of toffee will not do – and a rare colour, amber set alight. Maple flavour is, well, maple flavour, uniquely different from any other." Agriculture Canada has developed a "flavour wheel" that details 91 unique flavours that can be present in maple syrup. These flavours are divided into 13 families: vanilla, burnt, milky, fruity, floral, spicy, foreign (deterioration or fermentation), foreign (environment), maple, confectionery, plant (herbaceous), plant (forest, humus or cereals), and plant (ligneous). These flavours are evaluated using a procedure similar to wine tasting. Other culinary experts praise its unique flavour.
Maple syrup and its various artificial imitations are widely used as toppings for pancakes, waffles, and French toast in North America. They can also be used to flavour a variety of foods, including fritters, ice cream, hot cereal, fresh fruit, and sausages. It is also used as sweetener for granola, applesauce, baked beans, candied sweet potatoes, winter squash, cakes, pies, breads, tea, coffee, and hot toddies.
In Canada, maple syrup must be made entirely from maple sap, and syrup must have a density of 66° on the Brix scale to be marketed as maple syrup. In the United States, maple syrup must be made almost entirely from maple sap, although small amounts of substances such as salt may be added. Labeling laws prohibit imitation syrups from having "maple" in their names unless the finished product contains 10 percent or more of natural maple syrup.
"Maple-flavoured" syrups include maple syrup, but may contain additional ingredients. "Pancake syrup", "waffle syrup", "table syrup", and similarly named syrups are substitutes which are less expensive than maple syrup. In these syrups, the primary ingredient is most often high-fructose corn syrup flavoured with sotolon; they have little genuine maple content, and are usually thickened above the viscosity of maple syrup.
Imitation syrups are generally cheaper than maple syrup, with less natural flavour. In the United States, consumers generally prefer imitation syrups, likely because of the significantly lower cost and sweeter flavour; they typically cost about , whereas authentic maple syrup costs as of 2015.
In 2016, maple syrup producers from nine US states petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate labeling of products containing maple syrup or using the word "maple" in manufactured products, indicating that imitation maple products contained insignificant amounts of natural maple syrup. In September 2016, the FDA published a consumer advisory to carefully inspect the ingredient list of products labeled as "maple".
Maple products are considered emblematic of Canada, and are frequently sold in tourist shops and airports as souvenirs from Canada. The sugar maple's leaf has come to symbolize Canada, and is depicted on the country's flag. Several US states, including West Virginia, New York, Vermont and Wisconsin, have the sugar maple as their state tree. A scene of sap collection is depicted on the Vermont state quarter, issued in 2001.
Maple syrup and maple sugar were used during the American Civil War and by abolitionists in the years before the war because most cane sugar and molasses were produced by Southern slaves. Because of food rationing during the Second World War, people in the northeastern United States were encouraged to stretch their sugar rations by sweetening foods with maple syrup and maple sugar, and recipe books were printed to help housewives employ this alternative source. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19886 |
Macron (diacritic)
A macron () is a diacritical mark: it is a straight bar placed above a letter, usually a vowel. Its name derives from Ancient Greek ("makrón") "long", since it was originally used to mark long or heavy syllables in Greco-Roman metrics. It now more often marks a long vowel. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the macron is used to indicate a mid-tone; the sign for a long vowel is instead a modified triangular colon .
The opposite is the breve , which marks a short or light syllable or a short vowel.
In Greco-Roman metrics and in the description of the metrics of other literatures, the macron was introduced and is still widely used to mark a long (heavy) syllable. Even relatively recent classical Greek and Latin dictionaries are still concerned with indicating only the length (weight) of syllables; that is why most still do not indicate the length of vowels in syllables that are otherwise metrically determined. Many textbooks about Ancient Rome and Greece use the macron even if it was not actually used at that time.
The following languages or transliteration systems use the macron to mark long vowels:
The following languages or alphabets use the macron to mark tones:
Sometimes the macron marks an omitted "n" or "m", like the tilde:
The macron is used in the orthography of a number of vernacular languages of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, particularly those first transcribed by Anglican missionaries. The macron has no unique value, and is simply used to distinguish between two different phonemes.
Thus, in several languages of the Banks Islands, including Mwotlap, the simple "m" stands for , but an "m" with a macron (m̄) is a rounded labial-velar nasal ; while the simple "n" stands for the common alveolar nasal , an "n" with macron (n̄) represents the velar nasal ; the vowel ē stands for a (short) higher by contrast with plain "e" ; likewise ō contrasts with plain "o" .
In Hiw orthography, the consonant "r̄" stands for the prestopped velar lateral approximant .
In Araki, the same symbol "r̄" encodes the alveolar trill – by contrast with "r", which encodes the alveolar flap .
In Bislama (orthography before 1995), Lamenu and Lewo, a macron is used on two letters "". "m̄" represents , and "p̄" represents . The orthography after 1995 (which has no diacritics) has these written as "mw" and "pw".
In Kokota, "ḡ" is used for the velar stop , but "g" without macron is the voiced velar fricative .
In Marshallese, a macron is used on four letters – ' – whose pronunciations differ from the unmarked '. Marshallese uses a vertical vowel system with three to four vowel phonemes, but traditionally their allophones have been written out, so vowel letters with macron are used for some of these allophones. Though the standard diacritic involved is a macron, there are no other diacritics used "above" letters, so in practice other diacritics can and have been used in less polished writing or print, yielding nonstandard letters like ", depending on displayability of letters in computer fonts.
Also, in some instances, a diacritic will be written like a macron, although it represents another diacritic whose standard form is different:
In medical prescriptions and other handwritten notes, macrons mean:
The overline is a typographical symbol similar to the macron, used in a number of ways in mathematics and science, for example to represent complex conjugation:
formula_1
It is also used in Hermann–Mauguin notation.
In music, the tenuto marking resembles the macron.
The macron is also used in German lute tablature to distinguish repeating alphabetic characters.
The Unicode Standard encodes combining and precomposed macron characters:
Macron-related Unicode characters not included in the table above:
In LaTeX a macron is created with the command "\=", for example: M\=aori for Māori.
In OpenOffice, if the extension Compose Special Characters is installed, a macron may be added by following the letter with a hyphen and pressing the user's predefined shortcut key for composing special characters. A macron may also be added by following the letter with the character's four-digit hex-code, and pressing the user's predefined shortcut key for adding unicode characters. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19891 |
Mosque
A mosque (; from , ; literally "place of ritual prostration") is a place of worship for Muslims. Any act of worship that follows the Islamic rules of prayer can be said to create a mosque, whether or not it takes place in a special building. Informal and open-air places of worship are called "musalla", while mosques used for communal prayer on Fridays are known as "jāmiʿ". Mosque buildings typically contain an ornamental niche ("mihrab") set into the wall that indicates the direction of Mecca ("qiblah"), ablution facilities and minarets from which calls to prayer are issued. The pulpit ("minbar"), from which the Friday (jumu'ah) sermon ("khutba") is delivered, was in earlier times characteristic of the central city mosque, but has since become common in smaller mosques. Mosques typically have segregated spaces for men and women. This basic pattern of organization has assumed different forms depending on the region, period and denomination.
Mosques commonly serve as locations for prayer, Ramadan vigils, funeral services, Sufi ceremonies, marriage and business agreements, alms collection and distribution, as well as homeless shelters. Historically, mosques were also important centers of elementary education and advanced training in religious sciences. In modern times, they have preserved their role as places of religious instruction and debate, but higher learning now generally takes place in specialised institutions. Special importance is accorded to the Great Mosque of Mecca (centre of the hajj), the Prophet's Mosque in Medina (burial place of Muhammad) and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (believed to be the site of Muhammad's ascent to heaven). In the past, many mosques in the Muslim world were built over burial places of Sufi saints and other venerated figures, which has turned them into popular pilgrimage destinations.
With the spread of Islam, mosques multiplied across the Islamic world. Sometimes churches and other temples were converted into mosques, which influenced Islamic architectural styles. While most pre-modern mosques were funded by charitable endowments, modern states in the Muslim world have attempted to bring mosques under government control. Increasing government regulation of large mosques has been countered by a rise of privately funded mosques of various affiliations and ideologies, many of which serve as bases for different Islamic revivalist currents and social activism. Mosques have played a number of political roles. The rates of mosque attendance vary widely depending on the region.
The word 'mosque' entered the English language from the French word "mosquée", probably derived from Italian "moschea" (a variant of Italian "moscheta"), from either Middle Armenian մզկիթ ("mzkit‘"), Medieval ("masgídion"), or Spanish "mezquita", from (meaning "site of prostration (in prayer)" and hence a place of worship), either from Nabataean "masgĕdhā́" or from Arabic (meaning "to bow down in prayer"), probably ultimately from Nabataean Arabic "masgĕdhā́" or Aramaic "sĕghēdh".
According to some scholars, Islam started during the lifetime of Muhammad in the 7th century CE, and so did architectural components such as the mosque. In this case, either the Mosque of the Companions in the Eritrean city of Massawa, or the Quba Mosque in the Hejazi city of Medina (the first structure built by Muhammad upon his emigration from Mecca in 622 CE), would be the first mosque that was built in the history of Islam.
Other scholars, referring to passages of the Quran, state that Islam as a religion preceded Muhammad, and includes previous prophets such as Abraham. Abraham in Islam is credited with having built the "Ka'bah" ('Cube') in Mecca, and consequently its sanctuary, "Al-Masjid Al-Haram" (The Sacred Mosque), which is seen as the first mosque that existed. A Hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari states that the sanctuary of the "Kaaba" was the first mosque on Earth, with the second mosque being Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which is also associated with Abraham. Since as early as 638 AD, the Sacred Mosque of Mecca has been expanded on several occasions to accommodate the increasing number of Muslims who either live in the area or make the annual pilgrimage known as "Hajj" to the city.
Either way, after the Quba Mosque, Muhammad went on to establish another mosque in Medina, which is now known as "Al-Masjid an-Nabawi" (The Prophet's Mosque). Built on the site of his home, Muhammad participated in the construction of the mosque himself and helped pioneer the concept of the mosque as the focal point of the Islamic city. The Prophet's mosque introduced some of the features still common in today's mosques, including the niche at the front of the prayer space known as the "mihrab" and the tiered pulpit called the "minbar". The mosque was also constructed with a large courtyard, a motif common among mosques built since then.
Mosques had been built in Iraq and North Africa by the end of the 7th century, as Islam spread outside the Arabian Peninsula with early caliphates. The Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala is reportedly one of the oldest mosques in Iraq, although its present formtypical of Persian architectureonly goes back to the 11th century. The shrine, while still operating as a mosque, remains one of the holiest sites for Shi'ite Muslims, as it honors the death of the third Shia imam, and Muhammad's grandson, Hussein ibn Ali. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As was reportedly the first mosque in Egypt, serving as a religious and social center for Fustat (present-day Cairo) during its prime. Like the Imam Husayn Shrine, though, nothing of its original structure remains. With the later Shia Fatimid Caliphate, mosques throughout Egypt evolved to include schools (known as "madrasas"), hospitals, and tombs.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan in present-day Tunisia was reportedly the first mosque built in northwest Africa, with its present form (dating from the 9th century) serving as a model for other Islamic places of worship in the Maghreb. It was the first to incorporate a square minaret (as opposed to the more common circular minaret) and includes naves akin to a basilica. Those features can also be found in Andalusian mosques, including the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, as they tended to reflect the architecture of the Moors instead of their Visigoth predecessors. Still, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb.
The first mosque in East Asia was reportedly established in the 8th century in Xi'an. However, the Great Mosque of Xi'an, whose current building dates from the 18th century, does not replicate the features often associated with mosques elsewhere. Minarets were initially prohibited by the state. Following traditional Chinese architecture, the Great Mosque of Xi'an, like many other mosques in eastern China, resembles a pagoda, with a green roof instead of the yellow roof common on imperial structures in China. Mosques in western China were more likely to incorporate elements, like domes and minarets, traditionally seen in mosques elsewhere.
A similar integration of foreign and local influences could be seen on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java, where mosques, including the Demak Great Mosque, were first established in the 15th century. Early Javanese mosques took design cues from Hindu, Buddhist, and Chinese architectural influences, with tall timber, multi-level roofs similar to the pagodas of Balinese Hindu temples; the ubiquitous Islamic dome did not appear in Indonesia until the 19th century. In turn, the Javanese style influenced the styles of mosques in Indonesia's Austronesian neighbors—Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines.
Muslim empires were instrumental in the evolution and spread of mosques. Although mosques were first established in India during the 7th century, they were not commonplace across the subcontinent until the arrival of the Mughals in the 16th and 17th centuries. Reflecting their Timurid origins, Mughal-style mosques included onion domes, pointed arches, and elaborate circular minarets, features common in the Persian and Central Asian styles. The Jama Masjid in Delhi and the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, built in a similar manner in the mid-17th century, remain two of the largest mosques on the Indian subcontinent.
The Umayyad Caliphate was particularly instrumental in spreading Islam and establishing mosques within the Levant, as the Umayyads constructed among the most revered mosques in the region — Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. The designs of the Dome of the Rock and the Umayyad Mosque were influenced by Byzantine architecture, a trend that continued with the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
Several of the early mosques in the Ottoman Empire were originally churches or cathedrals from the Byzantine Empire, with the Hagia Sophia (one of those converted cathedrals) informing the architecture of mosques from after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. Still, the Ottomans developed their own architectural style characterized by large central rotundas (sometimes surrounded by multiple smaller domes), pencil-shaped minarets, and open facades.
Mosques from the Ottoman period are still scattered across Eastern Europe, but the most rapid growth in the number of mosques in Europe has occurred within the past century as more Muslims have migrated to the continent. Many major European cities are home to mosques, like the Grand Mosque of Paris, that incorporate domes, minarets, and other features often found with mosques in Muslim-majority countries. The first mosque in North America was founded by Albanian Americans in 1915, but the continent's oldest surviving mosque, the Mother Mosque of America, was built in 1934. As in Europe, the number of American mosques has rapidly increased in recent decades as Muslim immigrants, particularly from South Asia, have come in the United States. Greater than forty percent of mosques in the United States were constructed after 2000.
According to early Muslim historians, towns that surrendered without resistance and made treaties with the Muslims were allowed to retain their churches and the towns captured by Muslims had many of their churches converted to mosques. One of the earliest examples of these kinds of conversions was in Damascus, Syria, where in 705 Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I bought the church of St. John from the Christians and had it rebuilt as a mosque in exchange for building a number of new churches for the Christians in Damascus. Overall, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (Al-Waleed's father) is said to have transformed 10 churches in Damascus into mosques.
The process of turning churches into mosques were especially intensive in the villages where most of the inhabitants converted to Islam. The Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun turned many churches into mosques. Ottoman Turks converted nearly all churches, monasteries, and chapels in Constantinople, including the famous Hagia Sophia, into mosques immediately after capturing the city in 1453. In some instances mosques have been established on the places of Jewish or Christian sanctuaries associated with Biblical personalities who were also recognized by Islam.
Mosques have also been converted for use by other religions, notably in southern Spain, following the conquest of the Moors in 1492. The most prominent of them is the Great Mosque of Cordoba, itself constructed on the site of a church demolished during the period of Muslim rule. Outside of the Iberian Peninsula, such instances also occurred in southeastern Europe once regions were no longer under Muslim rule.
The "masjid jāmiʿ" (), a central mosque, can play a role in religious activities such as teaching the Quran and educating future imams.
There are two holidays ("Eids") in the Islamic calendar: "ʿĪd al-Fiṭr" and "ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā", during which there are special prayers held at mosques in the morning. These Eid prayers are supposed to be offered in large groups, and so, in the absence of an outdoor "Eidgah", a large mosque will normally host them for their congregants as well as the congregants of smaller local mosques. Some mosques will even rent convention centers or other large public buildings to hold the large number of Muslims who attend. Mosques, especially those in countries where Muslims are the majority, will also host Eid prayers outside in courtyards, town squares or on the outskirts of town in an "Eidgah".
Islam's holiest month, "Ramaḍān", is observed through many events. As Muslims must fast during the day during Ramadan, mosques will host "Ifṭār" dinners after sunset and the fourth required prayer of the day, that is "Maghrib". Food is provided, at least in part, by members of the community, thereby creating daily potluck dinners. Because of the community contribution necessary to serve "iftar" dinners, mosques with smaller congregations may not be able to host the "iftar" dinners daily. Some mosques will also hold "Suḥūr" meals before dawn to congregants attending the first required prayer of the day, "Fajr". As with iftar dinners, congregants usually provide the food for suhoor, although able mosques may provide food instead. Mosques will often invite poorer members of the Muslim community to share in beginning and breaking the fasts, as providing charity during Ramadan is regarded in Islam as especially honorable.
Following the last obligatory daily prayer ("ʿIshāʾ") special, optional "Tarāwīḥ" prayers are offered in larger mosques. During each night of prayers, which can last for up to two hours each night, usually one member of the community who has memorized the entire Quran (a Hafiz) will recite a segment of the book. Sometimes, several such people (not necessarily of the local community) take turns to do this. During the last ten days of Ramadan, larger mosques will host all-night programs to observe "Laylat al-Qadr", the night Muslims believe that Muhammad first received Quranic revelations. On that night, between sunset and sunrise, mosques employ speakers to educate congregants in attendance about Islam. Mosques or the community usually provide meals periodically throughout the night
During the last ten days of Ramadan, larger mosques within the Muslim community will host "Iʿtikāf", a practice in which at least one Muslim man from the community must participate. Muslims performing itikaf are required to stay within the mosque for ten consecutive days, often in worship or learning about Islam. As a result, the rest of the Muslim community is responsible for providing the participants with food, drinks, and whatever else they need during their stay.
The third of the Five Pillars of Islam states that Muslims are required to give approximately one-fortieth of their wealth to charity as "Zakat". Since mosques form the center of Muslim communities, they are where Muslims go to both give "zakat" and, if necessary, collect it. Before the holiday of "Eid ul-Fitr", mosques also collect a special "zakat" that is supposed to assist in helping poor Muslims attend the prayers and celebrations associated with the holiday.
The frequency by which Muslims attend mosque services vary greatly around the world. In some countries, weekly attendance at religious services are common among Muslims while in others, attendance is rare.
In the United States in particular, it has been shown in a study done by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding that Muslim Americans who regularly attend mosques are more likely to work with their neighbors to solve community problems (49 vs. 30 percent), be registered to vote (74 vs. 49 percent), and plan to vote (92 vs. 81 percent). The study also states that “there is no correlation between Muslim attitudes toward violence and their frequency of mosque attendance.”
When it comes to mosque attendance, data shows that American Muslim women and American Muslim men attend the mosque at similar rates (45% for men and 35% for women). Additionally, when compared to the general public looking at the attendance of religious services, young Muslim Americans attend the mosque at closer rates to older Muslim Americans.
The late 20th century saw an increase in the number of mosques used for political purposes. While some governments in the Muslim world have attempted to limit the content of Friday sermons to strictly religious topics, there are also independent preachers who deliver "khutbas" that address social and political issues, often in emotionally charged terms. Common themes include social inequalities, necessity of jihad in the face of injustice, the universal struggle between good and evil, with the West often symbolizing moral and spiritual decadence, and criticism of local rulers for corruption and inefficiency. In Islamic countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, political subjects are preached by imams at Friday congregations on a regular basis. Mosques often serve as meeting points for political opposition in times of crisis.
Countries with a minority Muslim population are more likely than Muslim-majority countries of the Greater Middle East to use mosques as a way to promote civic participation. Studies of US Muslims have consistently shown a positive correlation between mosque attendance and political involvement. Some of the research connects civic engagement specifically with mosque attendance for social and religious activities other than prayer. American mosques host voter registration and civic participation drives that promote involving Muslims, who are often first- or second-generation immigrants, in the political process. As a result of these efforts as well as attempts at mosques to keep Muslims informed about the issues facing the Muslim community, regular mosque attendants are more likely to participate in protests, sign petitions, and otherwise be involved in politics. Research on Muslim civic engagement in other Western countries "is less conclusive but seems to indicate similar trends."
As they are considered important to the Muslim community, mosques, like other places of worship, can be at the heart of social conflicts. The Babri Mosque was the subject of such a conflict up until the early 1990s when it was demolished. Before a mutual solution could be devised, the mosque was destroyed on December 6, 1992 as the mosque was built by Babur allegedly on the site of a previous Hindu temple marking the birthplace of Rama. The controversy surrounded the mosque was directly linked to rioting in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) as well as bombings in 1993 that killed 257 people.
Bombings in February 2006 and June 2007 seriously damaged Iraq's al-Askari Mosque and exacerbated existing tensions. Other mosque bombings in Iraq, both before and after the February 2006 bombing, have been part of the conflict between the country's groups of Muslims. However, mosque bombings have not been exclusive to Iraq; in June 2005, a suicide bomber killed at least 19 people at an Afghan Shia mosque near Jade Maivand. In April 2006, two explosions occurred at India's Jama Masjid. Following the al-Askari Mosque bombing in Iraq, imams and other Islamic leaders used mosques and Friday prayers as vehicles to call for calm and peace in the midst of widespread violence.
A study 2005 indicated that while support for suicide bombings is not correlated with personal devotion to Islam among Palestinian Muslims, it is correlated with mosque attendance because "participating in communal religious rituals of any kind likely encourages support for self-sacrificing behaviors that are done for the collective good."
Following the September 11 attacks, several American mosques were targeted in attacks ranging from simple vandalism to arson. Furthermore, the Jewish Defense League was suspected of plotting to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California. Similar attacks occurred throughout the United Kingdom following the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Outside the Western world, in June 2001, the Hassan Bek Mosque was the target of vandalism and attacks by hundreds of Israelis after a suicide bomber killed 19 people in a night club in Tel Aviv. Although mosquegoing is highly encouraged for men, it is permitted to stay at home when one feels at risk from Islamophobic persecution.
Although the Saudi involvement in Sunni mosques around the world can be traced back to the 1960s, it was not until later in the 20th century that the government of Saudi Arabia became a large influence in foreign Sunni mosques. Beginning in the 1980s, the Saudi Arabian government began to finance the construction of Sunni mosques in countries around the world. An estimated US$45 billion has been spent by the Saudi Arabian government financing mosques and Sunni Islamic schools in foreign countries. "Ain al-Yaqeen", a Saudi newspaper, reported in 2002 that Saudi funds may have contributed to building as many as 1,500 mosques and 2,000 other Islamic centers.
Saudi citizens have also contributed significantly to mosques in the Islamic world, especially in countries where they see Muslims as poor and oppressed. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1992, mosques in war-torn Afghanistan saw many contributions from Saudi citizens. The King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California and the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy in Rome represent two of Saudi Arabia's largest investments in foreign mosques as former Saudi king Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud contributed US$8 million and US$50 million to the two mosques, respectively.
In the western world, and in the United States in particular, Anti-Muslim sentiment and targeted domestic policy has created challenges for mosques and those looking to build them. There has been government and police surveillance of mosques in the US and local attempts to ban mosques and block constructions, despite data showing that in fact, most Americans opposing banning the building of mosques (79%) and the surveillance of U.S. mosques (63%) as shown in a 2018 study done by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
Ningxia officials were notified on 3 August 2018 that the Weizhou Grand Mosque would be forcibly demolished because it had not received the proper permits before construction. Officials in the town said that the mosque had not been given proper building permits, because it is built in a Middle Eastern style and includes numerous domes and minarets. The residents of Weizhou alarmed each other through social media and finally stopped the mosque destruction by public demonstrations.
"Arab-plan" or hypostyle mosques are the earliest type of mosques, pioneered under the Umayyad Dynasty. These mosques have square or rectangular plans with an enclosed courtyard and covered prayer hall. Historically, in the warm Middle Eastern and Mediterranean climates, the courtyard served to accommodate the large number of worshippers during Friday prayers. Most early hypostyle mosques had flat roofs on prayer halls, which required the use of numerous columns and supports. One of the most notable hypostyle mosques is the Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain, the building being supported by over 850 columns. Frequently, hypostyle mosques have outer arcades so that visitors can enjoy the shade. Arab-plan mosques were constructed mostly under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties; subsequently, however, the simplicity of the Arab plan limited the opportunities for further development, the mosques consequently losing popularity.
The first departure within mosque design started in Persia (Iran). The Persians had inherited a rich architectural legacy from the earlier Persian dynasties, and they began incorporating elements from earlier Parthian and Sassanid designs into their mosques, influenced by buildings such as the Palace of Ardashir and the Sarvestan Palace. Thus, Islamic architecture witnessed the introduction of such structures as domes and large, arched entrances, referred to as "iwans". During Seljuq rule, as Islamic mysticism was on the rise, the four-iwan arrangement took form. The four-iwan format, finalized by the Seljuqs, and later inherited by the Safavids, firmly established the courtyard façade of such mosques, with the towering gateways at every side, as more important than the actual buildings themselves. They typically took the form of a square-shaped central courtyard with large entrances at each side, giving the impression of gateways to the spiritual world. The Persians also introduced Persian gardens into mosque designs. Soon, a distinctly Persian style of mosques started appearing that would significantly influence the designs of later Timurid, and also Mughal, mosque designs.
The Ottomans introduced central dome mosques in the 15th century. These mosques have a large dome centered over the prayer hall. In addition to having a large central dome, a common feature is smaller domes that exist off-center over the prayer hall or throughout the rest of the mosque, where prayer is not performed. This style was heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture with its use of large central domes. Hajja Soad's mosque took a pyramid shape that is a creative style in Islamic architecture.
Mosques built in Southeast Asia often represent the Indonesian-Javanese style architecture, which are different from the ones found throughout the Greater Middle East. The ones found in Europe and North America appear to have various styles but most are built on Western architectural designs, some are former churches or other buildings that were used by non-Muslims. In Africa, most mosques are old but the new ones are built in imitation of those of the Middle East. This can be seen in the Abuja National Mosque in Nigeria and others.
A common feature in mosques is the minaret, the tall, slender tower that usually is situated at one of the corners of the mosque structure. The top of the minaret is always the highest point in mosques that have one, and often the highest point in the immediate area. The tallest minaret in the world is located at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. It has a height of and completed in 1993, it was designed by Michel Pinseau.
The first mosques had no minarets, and even nowadays the most conservative Islamic movements, like Wahhabis, avoid building minarets, seeing them as ostentatious and hazardous in case of collapse. The first minaret was constructed in 665 in Basra during the reign of the Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I. Muawiyah encouraged the construction of minarets, as they were supposed to bring mosques on par with Christian churches with their bell towers. Consequently, mosque architects borrowed the shape of the bell tower for their minarets, which were used for essentially the same purpose—calling the faithful to prayer. The oldest standing minaret in the world is the minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, built between the 8th and the 9th century, it is a massive square tower consisting of three superimposed tiers of gradual size and decor.
Before the five required daily prayers, a "Mu’adhdhin" () calls the worshippers to prayer from the minaret. In many countries like Singapore where Muslims are not the majority, mosques are prohibited from loudly broadcasting the "Adhān" (, Call to Prayer), although it is supposed to be said loudly to the surrounding community. The "adhan" is required before every prayer. However, nearly every mosque assigns a "muezzin" for each prayer to say the "adhan" as it is a recommended practice or "Sunnah" () of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. At mosques that do not have minarets, the "adhan" is called instead from inside the mosque or somewhere else on the ground. The "Iqâmah" (), which is similar to the "adhan" and proclaimed right before the commencement of prayers, is usually not proclaimed from the minaret even if a mosque has one.
A "miḥrāb", also spelled as "mehrab" is a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the "qiblah" (the direction of the Kaaba) in Mecca, and hence the direction that Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a "mihrab" appears is thus the ""qibla" wall." "Mihrab"s should not be confused with the "minbar", which is the raised platform from which an Imam (leader of prayer) addresses the congregation.
The domes, often placed directly above the main prayer hall, may signify the vaults of the heaven and sky. As time progressed, domes grew, from occupying a small part of the roof near the mihrab to encompassing the whole roof above the prayer hall. Although domes normally took on the shape of a hemisphere, the Mughals in India popularized onion-shaped domes in South Asia which has gone on to become characteristic of the Arabic architectural style of dome. Some mosques have multiple, often smaller, domes in addition to the main large dome that resides at the center.
The prayer hall, also known as the "muṣallá" (), rarely has furniture; chairs and pews are generally absent from the prayer hall so as to allow as many worshipers as possible to line the room. Some mosques have Islamic calligraphy and Quranic verses on the walls to assist worshippers in focusing on the beauty of Islam and its holiest book, the Quran, as well as for decoration.
Often, a limited part of the prayer hall is sanctified formally as a masjid in the sharia sense (although the term masjid is also used for the larger mosque complex as well). Once designated, there are onerous limitations on the use of this formally designated masjid, and it may not be used for any purpose other than worship; restrictions that do not necessarily apply to the rest of the prayer area, and to the rest of the mosque complex (although such uses may be restricted by the conditions of the "waqf" that owns the mosque).
In many mosques, especially the early congregational mosques, the prayer hall is in the hypostyle form (the roof held up by a multitude of columns). One of the finest examples of the hypostyle-plan mosques is the Great Mosque of Kairouan (also known as the Mosque of Uqba) in Tunisia.
Usually opposite the entrance to the prayer hall is the "qiblah" wall, the visually emphasized area inside the prayer hall. The qiblah wall should, in a properly oriented mosque, be set perpendicular to a line leading to Mecca, the location of the Kaaba. Congregants pray in rows parallel to the qiblah wall and thus arrange themselves so they face Mecca. In the qiblah wall, usually at its center, is the mihrab, a niche or depression indicating the direction of Mecca. Usually the mihrab is not occupied by furniture either. A raised "minbar" or pulpit is located to the right side of the mihrab for a "Khaṭīb", or some other speaker, to offer a "Khuṭbah" (Sermon) during Friday prayers. The mihrab serves as the location where the imam leads the five daily prayers on a regular basis.
Left to the mihrab, in the front left corner of the mosque, sometimes there is a "kursu" (Turkish , Bosnian ""), a small elevated plateau (rarely with a chair or other type of seat) used for less formal preaching and speeches.
Women who pray in mosques are separated from men there. Their part for prayer is called "makhphil" or "maqfil" (Bosnian ""). It is located above the main prayer hall, elevated in the background as stairs-separated gallery or plateau (surface-shortened to the back relative to the bottom main part). It usually has a perforated fence at the front, through which imam (and male prayers in the main hall) can be partially seen. Makhphil is completely used by men when Jumu'ah is practised (due to lack of space).
As ritual purification precedes all prayers, mosques often have ablution fountains or other facilities for washing in their entryways or courtyards. However, worshippers at much smaller mosques often have to use restrooms to perform their ablutions. In traditional mosques, this function is often elaborated into a freestanding building in the center of a courtyard. This desire for cleanliness extends to the prayer halls where shoes are disallowed to be worn anywhere other than the cloakroom. Thus, foyers with shelves to put shoes and racks to hold coats are commonplace among mosques.
Modern mosques have a variety of amenities available to their congregants. As mosques are supposed to appeal to the community, they may also have additional facilities, from health clinics and clubs (gyms) to libraries to gymnasiums, to serve the community.
Certain symbols are represented in a mosque's architecture to allude to different aspects of the Islamic religion. One of these feature symbols is the spiral. The "cosmic spiral" found in designs and on minarets is a references to heaven as it has "no beginning and no end". Mosques also often have floral patterns or images of fruit and vegetables. These are allusions to the paradise after death.
Mosques, in accordance with Islamic practices, institute a number of rules intended to keep Muslims focused on worshiping God. While there are several rules, such as those regarding not allowing shoes in the prayer hall, that are universal, there are many other rules that are dealt with and enforced in a variety of ways from mosque to mosque.
Appointment of a prayer leader is considered desirable, but not always obligatory. The permanent prayer leader (imam) must be a free honest individual and is authoritative in religious matters. In mosques constructed and maintained by the government, the prayer leader is appointed by the ruler; in private mosques, however, appointment is made by members of the congregation through majority voting. According to the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence, the individual who built the mosque has a stronger claim to the title of imam, but this view is not shared by the other schools.
Leadership at prayer falls into three categories, depending on the type of prayer: five daily prayers, Friday prayer, or optional prayers. According to the Hanafi and Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, appointment of a prayer leader for Friday service is mandatory because otherwise the prayer is invalid. The Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, however, argue that the appointment is not necessary and the prayer is valid as long as it is performed in a congregation. A slave may lead a Friday prayer, but Muslim authorities disagree over whether the job can be done by a minor. An imam appointed to lead Friday prayers may also lead at the five daily prayers; Muslim scholars agree to the leader appointed for five daily services may lead the Friday service as well.
All Muslim authorities hold the consensus opinion that only men may lead prayer for men. Nevertheless, women prayer leaders are allowed to lead prayer in front of all-female congregations.
All mosques have rules regarding cleanliness, as it is an essential part of the worshippers' experience. Muslims before prayer are required to cleanse themselves in an ablution process known as "wudu". However, even to those who enter the prayer hall of a mosque without the intention of praying, there are still rules that apply. Shoes must not be worn inside the carpeted prayer hall. Some mosques will also extend that rule to include other parts of the facility even if those other locations are not devoted to prayer. Congregants and visitors to mosques are supposed to be clean themselves. It is also undesirable to come to the mosque after eating something that smells, such as garlic.
Islam requires that its adherents wear clothes that portray modesty. Men are supposed to come to the mosque wearing loose and clean clothes that do not reveal the shape of the body. Likewise, it is recommended that women at a mosque wear loose clothing that covers to the wrists and ankles, and cover their heads with a "Ḥijāb" (), or other covering. Many Muslims, regardless of their ethnic background, wear Middle Eastern clothing associated with Arabic Islam to special occasions and prayers at mosques.
As mosques are places of worship, those within the mosque are required to remain respectful to those in prayer. Loud talking within the mosque, as well as discussion of topics deemed disrespectful, is forbidden in areas where people are praying. In addition, it is disrespectful to walk in front of or otherwise disturb Muslims in prayer. The walls within the mosque have few items, except for possibly Islamic calligraphy, so Muslims in prayer are not distracted. Muslims are also discouraged from wearing clothing with distracting images and symbols so as not to divert the attention of those standing behind them during prayer. In many mosques, even the carpeted prayer area has no designs, its plainness helping worshippers to focus.
There is nothing written in the Qur'an about the issue of space in mosques and gender separation. However, traditional rules have segregated women and men. By traditional rules, women are most often told to occupy the rows behind the men. In part, this was a practical matter as the traditional posture for prayerkneeling on the floor, head to the groundmade mixed-gender prayer uncomfortably revealing for many women and distracting for some men. Traditionalists try to argue that Muhammad preferred women to pray at home rather than at a mosque, and they cite a "ḥadīth" in which Muhammad supposedly said: "The best mosques for women are the inner parts of their houses," although women were active participants in the mosque started by Muhammad. Muhammad told Muslims not to forbid women from entering mosques. They are allowed to go in. The second Sunni caliph 'Umar at one time prohibited women from attending mosques especially at night because he feared they may be sexually harassed or assaulted by men, so he required them to pray at home. Sometimes a special part of the mosque was railed off for women; for example, the governor of Mecca in 870 had ropes tied between the columns to make a separate place for women.
Many mosques today will put the women behind a barrier or partition or in another room. Mosques in South and Southeast Asia put men and women in separate rooms, as the divisions were built into them centuries ago. In nearly two-thirds of American mosques, women pray behind partitions or in separate areas, not in the main prayer hall; some mosques do not admit women at all due to the lack of space and the fact that some prayers, such as the Friday Jumuʻah, are mandatory for men but optional for women. Although there are sections exclusively for women and children, the Grand Mosque in Mecca is desegregated.
Under most interpretations of "sharia", non-Muslims are permitted to enter mosques provided that they respect the place and the people inside it. A dissenting opinion and minority view is presented by followers of the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, who argue that non-Muslims may not be allowed into mosques under any circumstances.
The Quran addresses the subject of non-Muslims, and particularly polytheists, in mosques in two verses in its ninth chapter, Sura At-Tawba. The seventeenth verse of the chapter prohibits those who "join gods with Allah"—polytheists—from maintaining mosques:
The twenty-eighth verse of the same chapter is more specific as it only considers polytheists in the Sacred Mosque, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca:
According to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, these verses were followed to the letter at the times of Muhammad, when Jews and Christians, considered monotheists, were still allowed to "Al-Masjid Al-Haram". However, the Umayyad caliph Umar II later forbade non-Muslims from entering mosques, and his ruling remains in practice in present-day Saudi Arabia. Today, the decision on whether non-Muslims should be allowed to enter mosques varies. With few exceptions, mosques in the Arabian Peninsula as well as Morocco do not allow entry to non-Muslims. For example, the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca is one of only two mosques in Morocco currently open to non-Muslims.
However, there are also many other places in the West as well as the Islamic world where non-Muslims are welcome to enter mosques. Most mosques in the United States, for example, report receiving non-Muslim visitors every month. Many mosques throughout the United States welcome non-Muslims as a sign of openness to the rest of the community as well as to encourage conversions to Islam.
In modern-day Saudi Arabia, the Grand Mosque and all of Mecca are open only to Muslims. Likewise, Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi and the city of Medina that surrounds it are also off-limits to those who do not practice Islam. For mosques in other areas, it has most commonly been taken that non-Muslims may only enter mosques if granted permission to do so by Muslims, and if they have a legitimate reason. All entrants regardless of religious affiliation are expected to respect the rules and decorum for mosques.
In modern Turkey, non-Muslim tourists are allowed to enter any mosque, but there are some strict rules. Visiting a mosque is allowed only between prayers; visitors are required to wear long trousers and not to wear shoes, women must cover their heads; visitors are not allowed to interrupt praying Muslims, especially by taking photos of them; no loud talk is allowed; and no references to other religions are allowed (no crosses on necklaces, no cross gestures, etc.) Similar rules apply to mosques in Malaysia, where larger mosques that are also tourist attractions (such as the Masjid Negara) provide robes and headscarves for visitors who are deemed inappropriately attired.
In certain times and places, non-Muslims were expected to behave a certain way in the vicinity of a mosque: in some Moroccan cities, Jews were required to remove their shoes when passing by a mosque; in 18th-century Egypt, Jews and Christians had to dismount before several mosques in veneration of their sanctity.
The association of the mosque with education remained one of its main characteristics throughout history, and the school became an indispensable appendage to the mosque. From the earliest days of Islam, the mosque was the center of the Muslim community, a place for prayer, meditation, religious instruction, political discussion, and a school. Anywhere Islam took hold, mosques were established; and basic religious and educational instruction began. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19894 |
Molecular cloud
A molecular cloud, sometimes called a stellar nursery (if star formation is occurring within), is a type of interstellar cloud, the density and size of which permit the formation of molecules, most commonly molecular hydrogen (H2). This is in contrast to other areas of the interstellar medium that contain predominantly ionized gas.
Molecular hydrogen is difficult to detect by infrared and radio observations, so the molecule most often used to determine the presence of H2 is carbon monoxide (CO). The ratio between CO luminosity and H2 mass is thought to be constant, although there are reasons to doubt this assumption in observations of some other galaxies.
Within molecular clouds are regions with higher density, where much dust and many gas cores reside, called clumps. These clumps are the beginning of star formation if gravitational forces are sufficient to cause the dust and gas to collapse.
Within the Milky Way, molecular gas clouds account for less than one percent of the volume of the interstellar medium (ISM), yet it is also the densest part of the medium, comprising roughly half of the total gas mass interior to the Sun's galactic orbit. The bulk of the molecular gas is contained in a ring between from the center of the Milky Way (the Sun is about 8.5 kiloparsecs from the center). Large scale CO maps of the galaxy show that the position of this gas correlates with the spiral arms of the galaxy. That molecular gas occurs predominantly in the spiral arms suggests that molecular clouds must form and dissociate on a timescale shorter than 10 million years—the time it takes for material to pass through the arm region.
Vertically to the plane of the galaxy, the molecular gas inhabits the narrow midplane of the galactic disc with a characteristic scale height, "Z", of approximately 50 to 75 parsecs, much thinner than the warm atomic ("Z "from 130 to 400 parsecs) and warm ionized ("Z "around 1000 parsecs) gaseous components of the ISM. The exception to the ionized-gas distribution are H II regions, which are bubbles of hot ionized gas created in molecular clouds by the intense radiation given off by young massive stars and as such they have approximately the same vertical distribution as the molecular gas.
This distribution of molecular gas is averaged out over large distances; however, the small scale distribution of the gas is highly irregular with most of it concentrated in discrete clouds and cloud complexes.
A vast assemblage of molecular gas that has more than 10 thousand times the mass of the Sun is called a giant molecular cloud (GMC). GMCs are around 15 to 600 light-years in diameter (5 to 200 parsecs) and typical masses of 10 thousand to 10 million solar masses. Whereas the average density in the solar vicinity is one particle per cubic centimetre, the average density of a GMC is a hundred to a thousand times as great. Although the Sun is much more dense than a GMC, the volume of a GMC is so great that it contains much more mass than the Sun. The substructure of a GMC is a complex pattern of filaments, sheets, bubbles, and irregular clumps.
The densest parts of the filaments and clumps are called "molecular cores", while the densest molecular cores are called "dense molecular cores" and have densities in excess of 104 to 106 particles per cubic centimeter. Observationally, typical molecular cores are traced with CO and dense molecular cores are traced with ammonia. The concentration of dust within molecular cores is normally sufficient to block light from background stars so that they appear in silhouette as dark nebulae.
GMCs are so large that "local" ones can cover a significant fraction of a constellation; thus they are often referred to by the name of that constellation, e.g. the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC) or the Taurus Molecular Cloud (TMC). These local GMCs are arrayed in a ring in the neighborhood of the Sun coinciding with the Gould Belt. The most massive collection of molecular clouds in the galaxy forms an asymmetrical ring about the galactic center at a radius of 120 parsecs; the largest component of this ring is the Sagittarius B2 complex. The Sagittarius region is chemically rich and is often used as an exemplar by astronomers searching for new molecules in interstellar space.
Isolated gravitationally-bound small molecular clouds with masses less than a few hundred times that of the Sun are called Bok globules. The densest parts of small molecular clouds are equivalent to the molecular cores found in GMCs and are often included in the same studies.
In 1984 IRAS identified a new type of diffuse molecular cloud. These were diffuse filamentary clouds that are visible at high galactic latitudes. These clouds have a typical density of 30 particles per cubic centimeter.
The formation of stars occurs exclusively within molecular clouds. This is a natural consequence of their low temperatures and high densities, because the gravitational force acting to collapse the cloud must exceed the internal pressures that are acting "outward" to prevent a collapse. There is observed evidence that the large, star-forming clouds are confined to a large degree by their own gravity (like stars, planets, and galaxies) rather than by external pressure. The evidence comes from the fact that the "turbulent" velocities inferred from CO linewidth scale in the same manner as the orbital velocity (a virial relation).
The physics of molecular clouds is poorly understood and much debated. Their internal motions are governed by turbulence in a cold, magnetized gas, for which the turbulent motions are highly supersonic but comparable to the speeds of magnetic disturbances. This state is thought to lose energy rapidly, requiring either an overall collapse or a steady reinjection of energy. At the same time, the clouds are known to be disrupted by some process—most likely the effects of massive stars—before a significant fraction of their mass has become stars.
Molecular clouds, and especially GMCs, are often the home of astronomical masers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19895 |
Minoru Yamasaki
was a Japanese-American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward Durell Stone are generally considered to be the two master practitioners of "New Formalism".
Yamasaki was born in Seattle, Washington, the son of John Tsunejiro Yamasaki and Hana Yamasaki, "issei" Japanese immigrants. The family later moved to Auburn, Washington and he graduated from Garfield Senior High School in Seattle. He enrolled in the University of Washington program in architecture in 1929, and graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) in 1934. During his college years, he was strongly encouraged by faculty member Lionel Pries. He earned money to pay for his tuition by working at an Alaskan salmon cannery.
After moving to New York City in the 1930s, he enrolled at New York University for a master's degree in architecture and got a job with the architecture firm Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, designers of the Empire State Building. In 1945, Yamasaki moved to Detroit, where he was hired by Smith, Hinchman & Grylls. The firm helped Yamasaki avoid internment as a Japanese-American during World War II, and he himself sheltered his parents in New York City. Yamasaki left the firm in 1949, and started his own partnership. He worked out of Birmingham and Troy, Michigan. One of the first projects he designed at his own firm was Ruhl's Bakery at 7 Mile Road and Monica Street in Detroit. In 1964, Yamasaki received a D.F.A. from Bates College.
His firm, Yamasaki & Associates, closed on December 31, 2009.
His first internationally recognized design, the Pacific Science Center with its iconic arches, was constructed by the City of Seattle for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. His first significant project was the Pruitt–Igoe housing project in St. Louis in 1955. Despite his love of Japanese traditional design, this was a stark, modernist concrete structure. The housing project experienced so many problems that it was demolished in 1972, less than twenty years after its completion. Its destruction is considered by some to be the beginning of postmodern architecture.
In 1955, he also designed the "sleek" terminal at Lambert–St. Louis International Airport which led to his 1959 commission to design the Dhahran International Airport in Saudi Arabia. In the 1950s, Yamasaki was commissioned by the Reynolds Company to design an aluminum-wrapped building in Southfield, Michigan, which would "symbolize the auto industry's past and future progress with aluminum." The three-story glass building wrapped in aluminum, known as the Reynolds Metals Company's Great Lakes Sales Headquarters Building, was also supposed to reinforce the company's main product and showcase its admirable characteristics of strength and beauty. During this period, he created a number of office buildings which led to his innovative design of the towers of the World Trade Center in 1964, which began construction March 21, 1966. The first of the towers was finished in 1970. Many of his buildings feature superficial details inspired by the pointed arches of Gothic architecture, and make use of extremely narrow vertical windows. This narrow-windowed style arose from his own personal fear of heights. One particular design challenge of the World Trade Center's design related to the efficacy of the elevator system, which was unique in the world. Yamasaki integrated the fastest elevators at the time, running at 1,700 feet per minute. Instead of placing a large traditional elevator shaft in the core of each tower, Yamasaki created the Twin Towers' "Skylobby" system. The Skylobby design created three separate, connected elevator systems which would serve different segments of the building, depending on which floor was chosen, saving approximately 70% of the space used for a traditional shaft. The space saved was then used for office space.
In 1978, Yamasaki designed the Federal Reserve Bank tower in Richmond, Virginia. The work was designed with a similar appearance as the World Trade Center complex, with its narrow fenestration, and now stands at .
Yamasaki was a member of the Pennsylvania Avenue Commission, created in 1961 to restore the grand avenue in Washington, D.C., but resigned after disagreements and disillusionment with the design by committee approach.
After partnering with Emery Roth and Sons on the design of the World Trade Center, they collaborated on other projects including new buildings at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.
The campus for the University of Regina was designed in tandem with Yamasaki's plan for Wascana Centre, a park built around Wascana Lake in Regina, Saskatchewan. The original campus design was approved in 1962. Yamasaki was awarded contracts to design the first three buildings: the Classroom Building; the Laboratory Building; and the Dr. John Archer Library, which were built between 1963 and 1967.
Yamasaki designed two notable synagogues during this period, North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, Illinois in 1964 and Temple Beth El, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1973. He designed a number of buildings on the campus of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota between 1958 and 1968.
Yamasaki was first married in 1941 to Teruko "Teri" Hirashiki. They divorced in 1961 and Yamasaki married Peggy Watty. He and Watty divorced two years later and Yamasaki would marry a third time briefly before remarrying Teruko in 1969. In a 1969 "Detroit News" article about the remarriage, Yamasaki said "I'm just going to be nicer to her". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19897 |
Madeira
Madeira ( , also , ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira ("Região Autónoma da Madeira"), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (the other being the Azores). It is an archipelago situated in the north Atlantic Ocean, in a region known as Macaronesia, just under to the north of the Canary Islands and west of Morocco. Madeira is geographically located in the African Tectonic Plate, even though the archipelago is culturally, economically and politically European. Its total population was estimated in 2016 at 289,000. The capital of Madeira is Funchal, which is located on the main island's south coast.
The archipelago includes the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas, administered together with the separate archipelago of the Savage Islands. The region has political and administrative autonomy through the Administrative Political Statute of the Autonomous Region of Madeira provided for in the Portuguese Constitution. The autonomous region is an integral part of the European Union as an outermost region. Madeira generally has a very mild and moderated subtropical climate with mediterranean summer droughts and winter rain. There are many microclimates courtesy of the elevation changes.
Madeira was claimed by Portuguese sailors in the service of Prince Henry the Navigator in 1419 and settled after 1420. The archipelago is considered to be the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of the Age of Discovery.
Today, it is a popular year-round resort, being visited every year by about 1.4 million tourists, almost five times its population. The region is noted for its Madeira wine, gastronomy, historical and cultural value, flora and fauna, landscapes (laurel forest) that are classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and embroidery artisans. The main harbour in Funchal has long been the leading Portuguese port in cruise liner dockings, receiving more than half a million tourists through its main port in 2017, being an important stopover for commercial and trans-Atlantic passenger cruises between Europe, the Caribbean and North Africa. In addition, the International Business Centre of Madeira, also known as the Madeira Free Trade Zone, was created formally in the 1980s as a tool of regional economic policy. It consists of a set of incentives, mainly tax-related, granted with the objective of attracting foreign direct investment based on international services into Madeira.
Plutarch in his "Parallel Lives" ("Sertorius", 75 AD) referring to the military commander Quintus Sertorius (d. 72 BC), relates that after his return to Cádiz, he met sailors who spoke of idyllic Atlantic islands: "The islands are said to be two in number separated by a very narrow strait and lie 10,000 furlongs (2,011.68 km) from Africa. They are called the Isles of the Blessed."
Archaeological evidence suggests that the islands may have been visited by the Vikings sometime between 900 and 1030.
During the reign of King Edward III of England, lovers Robert Machim and Anna d'Arfet were said to have fled from England to France in 1346. Driven off course by a violent storm, their ship ran aground along the coast of an island that may have been Madeira. Later this legend was the basis of the naming of the city of Machico on the island, in memory of the young lovers.
Knowledge of some Atlantic islands, such as Madeira, existed before their formal discovery and settlement, as the islands were shown on maps as early as 1339.
In 1418, two captains under service to Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven off course by a storm to an island they named Porto Santo (English: "holy harbour") in gratitude for divine deliverance from a shipwreck. The following year, an organised expedition, under the captaincy of Zarco, Vaz Teixeira, and Bartolomeu Perestrello, traveled to the island to claim it on behalf of the Portuguese Crown. Subsequently, the new settlers observed "a heavy black cloud suspended to the southwest." Their investigation revealed it to be the larger island they called Madeira.
The first Portuguese settlers began colonizing the islands around 1420 or 1425.
Grain production began to fall and the ensuing crisis forced Henry the Navigator to order other commercial crops to be planted so that the islands could be profitable. These specialised plants, and their associated industrial technology, created one of the major revolutions on the islands and fuelled Portuguese industry. Following the introduction of the first water-driven sugar mill on Madeira, sugar production increased to over 6,000 "arrobas" (an "arroba" was equal to 11 to 12 kilograms) by 1455, using advisers from Sicily and financed by Genoese capital. (Genoa acted as an integral part of the island economy until the 17th century.) The accessibility of Madeira attracted Genoese and Flemish traders, who were keen to bypass Venetian monopolies.
Sugarcane production was the primary engine of the island's economy, increasing the demand for labour. Enslaved Africans were used during portions of the island's history to cultivate sugar cane, and the proportion of enslaved people brought from Africa reached 10% of the total population of Madeira by the 16th century. Barbary corsairs from North Africa, who enslaved Europeans from ships and coastal communities throughout the Mediterranean region, captured 1,200 people in Porto Santo in 1617. After the 17th century, as Portuguese sugar production was shifted to Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe and elsewhere, Madeira's most important commodity product became its wine.
The British first amicably occupied the island in 1801 whereafter Colonel William Henry Clinton became governor. A detachment of the 85th Regiment of Foot under Lieutenant-colonel James Willoughby Gordon garrisoned the island.
After the Peace of Amiens, British troops withdrew in 1802, only to reoccupy Madeira in 1807 until the end of the Peninsular War in 1814. In 1856, British troops recovering from cholera, and widows and orphans of soldiers fallen in the Crimean War, were stationed in Funchal, Madeira.
On 31 December 1916, during the Great War, a German U-boat, , captained by Max Valentiner, entered Funchal harbour on Madeira. "U-38" torpedoed and sank three ships, bringing the war to Portugal by extension. The ships sunk were:
After attacking the ships, "U-38" bombarded Funchal for two hours from a range of about . Batteries on Madeira returned fire and eventually forced "U-38" to withdraw.
On 12 December 1917, two German U-boats, "SM U-156" and "SM U-157" (captained by Max Valentiner), again bombarded Funchal. This time the attack lasted around 30 minutes. The U-boats fired 40 shells. There were three fatalities and 17 wounded; a number of houses and Santa Clara church were hit.
Charles I (Karl I), the last Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was exiled to Madeira after the war. Determined to prevent an attempt to restore Charles to the throne, the Council of Allied Powers agreed he could go into exile on Madeira because it was isolated in the Atlantic and easily guarded. He died there on 1 April 1922 and his coffin lies in a chapel of the Church of Our Lady of Monte.
The archipelago of Madeira is located from the African coast and from the European continent (approximately a one-and-a-half-hour flight from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon). Madeira is on the same parallel as Bermuda a few time zones further west in the Atlantic. The two archipelagos are the only land in the Atlantic on the 32nd parallel north. Madeira is found in the extreme south of the Tore-Madeira Ridge, a bathymetric structure of great dimensions oriented along a north-northeast to south-southwest axis that extends for . This submarine structure consists of long geomorphological relief that extends from the abyssal plain to 3500 metres; its highest submersed point is at a depth of about 150 metres (around latitude 36ºN). The origins of the Tore-Madeira Ridge are not clearly established, but may have resulted from a morphological "buckling" of the lithosphere.
The island of Madeira is at the top of a massive shield volcano that rises about from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, on the Tore underwater mountain range. The volcano formed atop an east-west rift in the oceanic crust along the African Plate, beginning during the Miocene epoch over 5 million years ago, continuing into the Pleistocene until about 700,000 years ago. This was followed by extensive erosion, producing two large amphitheatres open to south in the central part of the island. Volcanic activity later resumed, producing scoria cones and lava flows atop the older eroded shield. The most recent volcanic eruptions were on the west-central part of the island only 6,500 years ago, creating more cinder cones and lava flows.
It is the largest island of the group with an area of , a length of (from Ponte de São Lourenço to Ponte do Pargo), while approximately at its widest point (from Ponte da Cruz to Ponte São Jorge), with a coastline of . It has a mountain ridge that extends along the centre of the island, reaching at its highest point (Pico Ruivo), while much lower (below 200 metres) along its eastern extent. The primitive volcanic foci responsible for the central mountainous area, consisted of the peaks: Ruivo (1,862 m), Torres (1,851 m), Arieiro (1,818 m), Cidrão (1,802 m), Cedro (1,759 m), Casado (1,725 m), Grande (1,657 m), Ferreiro (1,582 m). At the end of this eruptive phase, an island circled by reefs was formed, its marine vestiges are evident in a calcareous layer in the area of Lameiros, in São Vicente (which was later explored for calcium oxide production). Sea cliffs, such as Cabo Girão, valleys and ravines extend from this central spine, making the interior generally inaccessible. Daily life is concentrated in the many villages at the mouths of the ravines, through which the heavy rains of autumn and winter usually travel to the sea.
Madeira has many different bioclimates
Based on differences in sun exposure, humidity, and annual mean temperature, there are clear variations between north- and south-facing regions, as well as between some islands. The islands are strongly influenced by the Gulf Stream and Canary Current, giving mild year-round temperatures; according to the Instituto de Meteorologia (IM), the average annual temperature at Funchal weather station is for the 1980–2010 period. Porto Santo has at least one weather station with a semiarid climate ("BSh"). On the highest windward slopes of Madeira, rainfall exceeds 1,250 mm (50 inches) per year, mostly falling between October and April. In most winters snowfall occurs in the mountains of Madeira. The main Madeira island has areas with an annual average temperature exceeding 20 °C (68 °F) along the coast (according to the Portuguese Meteorological Institute).
Madeira island is home to several endemic plant and animal species.
In the south, there is very little left of the indigenous subtropical rainforest that once covered the whole island (the original settlers set fire to the island to clear the land for farming) and gave it the name it now bears ("Madeira" means "wood" in Portuguese). However, in the north, the valleys contain native trees of fine growth. These "laurisilva" forests, called "lauraceas madeirense", notably the forests on the northern slopes of Madeira Island, are designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The paleobotanical record of Madeira reveals that laurisilva forest has existed in this island for at least 1.8 million years. Critically endangered species such as the vine "Jasminum azoricum" and the rowan "Sorbus maderensis" are endemic to Madeira. The Madeiran large white butterfly was an endemic subspecies of the Large white which inhabited the laurisilva forests but has not been seen since 1977 so may now be extinct.
The Madeiran wall lizard ("Lacerta dugesii") is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is endemic to the Island where it is very common, and is the only small lizard, ranging from sea coasts to altitudes of . It is usually found in rocky places or among scrub and may climb into trees. It is also found in gardens and on the walls of buildings. It feeds on small invertebrates such as ants and also eats some vegetable matter. The tail is easily shed and the stump regenerates slowly. The colouring is variable and tends to match the colour of the animal's surroundings, being some shade of brown or grey with occasionally a greenish tinge. Most animals are finely flecked with darker markings. The underparts are white or cream, sometimes with dark spots, with some males having orange or red underparts and blue throats, but these bright colours may fade if the animal is disturbed. The Madeiran wall lizard grows to a snout-to-vent length of about with a tail about 1.7 times the length of its body. Females lay two to three clutches of eggs in a year with the juveniles being about when they hatch.
Two species of birds are endemic to Maderia, the Trocaz pigeon and the Madeira firecrest. In addition to these are the extinct Madeiran scops owl which may have died out soon after the islands were settled, and the Madeiran wood pigeon, a subspecies of the widespread Common wood pigeon and which was last seen in the early 20th century.
The island of Madeira is wet in the northwest, but dry in the southeast. In the 16th century the Portuguese started building levadas or aqueducts to carry water to the agricultural regions in the south. Madeira is very mountainous, and building the levadas was difficult and often convicts or slaves were used. Many are cut into the sides of mountains, and it was also necessary to dig of tunnels, some of which are still accessible.
Today the levadas not only supply water to the southern parts of the island, but provide hydro-electric power. There are over of levadas and they provide a network of walking paths. Some provide easy and relaxing walks through the countryside, but others are narrow, crumbling ledges where a slip could result in serious injury or death. Since 2011, some improvements have been made to these pathways, after the 2010 Madeira floods and mudslides on the Island, to clean and reconstruct some critical parts of the island, including the levadas. Such improvements involved the continuous maintenance of the water streams, cementing the trails, and positioning safety fences on dangerous paths.
Two of the most popular levadas to hike are the "Levada do Caldeirão Verde" and the "Levada do Caldeirão do Inferno", which should not be attempted by hikers prone to vertigo or without torches and helmets. The "Levada do Caniçal" is a much easier walk, running from Maroços to the "Caniçal Tunnel". It is known as the "mimosa levada", because "mimosa" trees, (the colloquial name for invasive acacia) are found all along the route.
Due to its distinct geography, economy, social and cultural situation, as well as the historical autonomic aspirations of the Madeiran island population, the Autonomous Regions of Madeira was established in 1976. Although it is a politico-administrative autonomic region the Portuguese constitution specifies both a regional and national connection, obliging their administrations to maintain democratic principles and promote regional interests, while still reinforcing national unity.
As defined by the Portuguese constitution and other laws, Madeira possesses its own political and administrative statute and has its own government. The branches of Government are the Regional Government and the Legislative Assembly, the later being elected by universal suffrage, using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation.
The president of the Regional Government is appointed by the Representative of the Republic according to the results of the election to the legislative assemblies.
The sovereignty of the Portuguese Republic was represented in Madeira by the Minister of the Republic, proposed by the Government of the Republic and appointed by the President of the Republic. However, after the sixth amendment to the Portuguese Constitution was passed in 2006, the Minister of the Republic was replaced by a less-powerful Representative of the Republic who is appointed by the President, after listening to the Government, but otherwise it is a presidential prerogative. The other tasks of Representative of the Republic are to sign and order the publication of regional legislative decrees and regional regulatory decrees or to exercise the right of veto over regional laws, should these laws be unconstitutional.
Madeira is also an Outermost Region (OMR) of the European Union, meaning that due to its geographical situation, it is entitled to derogation from some EU policies despite being part of the European Union.
According to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, both primary and secondary European Union law applies automatically to Madeira, with possible derogations to take account of its "structural social and economic situation (...) which is compounded by their remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult topography and climate, economic dependence on a few products, the permanence and combination of which severely restrain their development". An example of such derogation is seen in the approval of the International Business Centre of Madeira and other state aid policies to help the rum industry.
Its forms part of the European Union customs area, the Schengen Area and the European Union Value Added Tax Area.
Administratively, Madeira (with a population of 267,302 inhabitants in 2011) and covering an area of is organised into eleven municipalities:
Funchal is the capital and principal city of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, located along the southern coast of the island of Madeira. It is a modern city, located within a natural geological "amphitheatre" composed of vulcanological structure and fluvial hydrological forces. Beginning at the harbour (Porto de Funchal), the neighbourhoods and streets rise almost , along gentle slopes that helped to provide a natural shelter to the early settlers.
The island was settled by Portuguese people, especially farmers from the Minho region, meaning that Madeirans (), as they are called, are ethnically Portuguese, though they have developed their own distinct regional identity and cultural traits.
The region has a total population of just under 270,000, the majority of whom live on the main island of Madeira where the population density is ; meanwhile only around 5,000 live on the Porto Santo island where the population density is .
About 247,000 (96%) of the population are Catholic and Funchal is the location of the Catholic cathedral.
Madeirans migrated to the United States, Venezuela, Brazil, British Guiana, St. Vincent and Trinidad. Madeiran immigrants in North America mostly clustered in the New England and mid-Atlantic states, Toronto, Northern California, and Hawaii. The city of New Bedford is especially rich in Madeirans, hosting the Museum of Madeira Heritage, as well as the annual Madeiran and Luso-American celebration, the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, the world's largest celebration of Madeiran heritage, regularly drawing crowds of tens of thousands to the city's Madeira Field.
In 1846, when a famine struck Madeira over 6,000 of the inhabitants migrated to British Guiana. In 1891 they numbered 4.3% of the population. In 1902 in Honolulu, Hawaii there were 5,000 Portuguese people, mostly Madeirans. In 1910 this grew to 21,000.
1849 saw an emigration of Protestant religious exiles from Madeira to the United States, by way of Trinidad and other locations in the West Indies. Most of them settled in Illinois with financial and physical aid of the American Protestant Society, headquartered in New York City. In the late 1830s the Reverend Robert Reid Kalley, from Scotland, a Presbyterian minister as well as a physician, made a stop at Funchal, Madeira on his way to a mission in China, with his wife, so that she could recover from an illness. The Rev. Kalley and his wife stayed on Madeira where he began preaching the Protestant gospel and converting islanders from Catholicism. Eventually, the Rev. Kalley was arrested for his religious conversion activities and imprisoned. Another missionary from Scotland, William Hepburn Hewitson, took on Protestant ministerial activities in Madeira. By 1846, about 1,000 Protestant Madeirenses, who were discriminated against and the subjects of mob violence because of their religious conversions, chose to immigrate to Trinidad and other locations in the West Indies in answer for a call for sugar plantation workers. The Madeirenses exiles did not fare well in the West Indies. The tropical climate was unfamiliar and they found themselves in serious economic difficulties. By 1848, the American Protestant Society raised money and sent the Rev. Manuel J. Gonsalves, a Baptist minister and a naturalized U.S. citizen from Madeira, to work with the Rev. Arsénio da Silva, who had emigrated with the exiles from Madeira, to arrange to resettle those who wanted to come to the United States. The Rev. da Silva died in early 1849. Later in 1849, the Rev. Gonsalves was then charged with escorting the exiles from Trinidad to be settled in Sangamon and Morgan counties in Illinois on land purchased with funds raised by the American Protestant Society. Accounts state that anywhere from 700 to 1,000 exiles came to the United States at this time.
There are several large Madeiran communities around the world, such as the number in the UK, including Jersey, the Portuguese British community mostly made up of Madeirans celebrate Madeira Day.
Madeira is part of the Schengen Area.
The Venezuelan (14.4%), British (14.2%), Brazilian (12.1%) and German (7.0%) nationalities constituted the largest foreign communities residing in the Autonomous Region of Madeira in 2017. The Venezuelan community showed a sharp increase (38.0%) in 2017 after migration Socioeconomic crisis in Venezuela. In terms of geographical distribution, it is in Funchal that the foreign population mainly concentrates (59.2% of the total of the Region), followed by Santa Cruz (13.8%), Calheta (7.3%) and Porto Santo (4.0%). The foreign population with resident status in the Autonomous Region of Madeira totaled 6,720 (up by 10.0% from 2016), distributed between residence permits (6,692) and long-stay visas (28).
The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 4.9 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 2.4% of Portugal's economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 22,500 euros or 75% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 71% of the EU average.
The setting-up of a free trade zone, also known as the Madeira International Business Center (MIBC) has led to the installation, under more favorable conditions, of infrastructure, production shops and essential services for small and medium-sized industrial enterprises. The International Business Centre of Madeira comprises presently three sectors of investment: the Industrial Free Trade Zone, the International Shipping Register – MAR and the International Services. Madeira's tax regime has been approved by the European Commission as legal State Aid and its deadline has recently been extended by the E.C. until the end of 2027. The International Business Center of Madeira, also known as Madeira Free Trade Zone, was created formally in the 1980s as a tool of regional economic policy. It consists of a set of incentives, mainly of a tax nature, granted with the objective of attracting inward investment into Madeira, recognized as the most efficient mechanism to modernize, diversify and internationalize the regional economy. The decision to create the International Business Center of Madeira was the result of a thorough process of analysis and study. Other small island economies, with similar geographical and economic restraints, had successfully implemented projects of attraction of foreign direct investment based on international services activities, becoming therefore examples of successful economic policies.
Since the beginning, favorable operational and fiscal conditions have been offered in the context of a preferential tax regime, fully recognized and approved by the European Commission in the framework of State aid for regional purposes and under the terms for the Ultra-peripheral Regions set in the Treaties, namely Article 299 of the Treaty on European Union. The IBC of Madeira has therefore been fully integrated in the Portuguese and EU legal systems and, as a consequence, it is regulated and supervised by the competent Portuguese and EU authorities in a transparent and stable business environment, marking a clear difference from the so-called "tax havens" and "offshore jurisdictions", since its inception. In 2015, the European Commission authorized the new state aid regime for new companies incorporated between 2015 and 2020 and the extension of the deadline of the tax reductions until the end of 2027. The present tax regime is outlined in Article 36°-A of the Portuguese Tax Incentives Statute. Available data clearly demonstrates the contribution that this development programme has brought to the local economy over its 20 years of existence: impact in the local labor market, through the creation of qualified jobs for the young population but also for Madeiran professionals who have returned to Madeira thanks to the opportunities now created; an increase in productivity due to the transfer of know how and the implementation of new business practices and technologies; indirect influence on other sectors of activity: business tourism benefits from the visits of investors and their clients and suppliers, and other sectors such as real estate, telecommunications and other services benefit from the growth of their client base; impact on direct sources of revenue: the companies attracted by the IBC of Madeira represent over 40% of the revenue in terms of corporate income tax for the Government of Madeira and nearly 3.000 jobs, most of which qualified, among other benefits. Also there are above average salaries paid by the companies in the IBC of Madeira in comparison with the wages paid in the other sectors of activity in Madeira.
Madeira has been a significant recipient of European Union funding, totaling up to €2 billion. In 2012, it was reported that despite a population of just 250,000, the local administration owes some €6 billion. Furthermore, the Portuguese treasury (IGCP) assumed Madeira's debt management between 2012 and 2015. The region continues to work with the central government on a long-term plan to reduce its debt levels and commercial debt stock. Moody's notes that the region has made significant fiscal consolidation efforts and that its tax revenue collection has increased significantly in recent years due to tax rate hikes. Madeira's tax revenues increased by 41% between 2012 and 2016, helping the region to reduce its deficit to operating revenue ratio to 10% in 2016 from 77% in 2013.
Tourism is an important sector in the region's economy, contributing 20% to the region's GDP, providing support throughout the year for commercial, transport and other activities and constituting a significant market for local products. The share in Gross Value Added of hotels and restaurants (9%) also highlights this phenomenon. The island of Porto Santo, with its beach and its climate, is entirely devoted to tourism.
Visitors are mainly from the European Union, with German, British, Scandinavian and Portuguese tourists providing the main contingents. The average annual occupancy rate was 60.3% in 2008, reaching its maximum in March and April, when it exceeds 70%.
Whale watching has become very popular in recent years. Many species of dolphins, such as common dolphin, spotted dolphin, striped dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, short-finned pilot whale, and whales such as Bryde's whale, Sei whale, fin whale, sperm whale, beaked whales can be spotted near the coast or offshore.
Electricity on Madeira is provided solely through EEM (Empresa de Electricidade da Madeira, SA, which holds a monopoly for the provision of electrical supply on the autonomous region) and consists largely of fossil fuels, but with a significant supply of seasonal hydroelectricity from the levada system, wind power and a small amount of solar. Energy production comes from conventional thermal and hydropower, as well as wind and solar energy. The Ribeira dos Soccoridos hydropower plant, rated at 15MW utilises a pumped hydropower reservoir to recycle mountain water during the dry summer.
In 2011, renewable energy formed 26.5% of the electricity used in Madeira. By 2020, half of Madeira's energy will come from renewable energy sources. This is due to the planned completion of the Pico da Urze / Calheta pumped storage hydropower plant, rated at 30MW.
Battery technologies are being tested to minimize Madeira's reliance on fossil fuel imports. Renault SA and EEM piloted the Sustainable Porto Santo—Smart Fossil Free Island project on Porto Santo to demonstrate how fossil fuels can be entirely replaced with renewable energy.
The Islands have two airports, Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport and Porto Santo Airport, on the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo respectively. From Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport the most frequent flights are to Lisbon. There are also direct flights to over 30 other airports in Europe and nearby islands.
Transport between the two main islands is by plane, or ferries from the Porto Santo Line, the latter also carrying vehicles. Visiting the interior of the islands is now easy thanks to construction of the "Vias Rápidas", major roads that cross the island. Modern roads reach all points of interest on the islands.
Funchal has an extensive public transportation system. Bus companies, including Horários do Funchal, which has been operating for over a hundred years, have regularly scheduled routes to all points of interest on the island.
Folklore music in Madeira is widespread and mainly uses local musical instruments such as the machete, rajao, brinquinho and cavaquinho, which are used in traditional folkloric dances like the "bailinho da Madeira".
Emigrants from Madeira also influenced the creation of new musical instruments. In the 1880s, the ukulele was created, based on two small guitar-like instruments of Madeiran origin, the cavaquinho and the rajao. The ukulele was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira and Cape Verde. Three immigrants in particular, Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers. Two weeks after they disembarked from the "SS Ravenscrag" in late August 1879, the "Hawaiian Gazette" reported that "Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts."
Because of the geographic situation of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean, the island has an abundance of fish of various kinds. The species that are consumed the most are espada (black scabbardfish), blue fin tuna, white marlin, blue marlin, albacore, bigeye tuna, wahoo, spearfish, skipjack tuna and many others are found in the local dishes as they are found up and down the coast of Madeira. Espada is often served with banana. Bacalhau is also popular, as it is in Portugal.
There are many meat dishes on Madeira, one of the most popular being espetada. Espetada is traditionally made of large chunks of beef rubbed in garlic, salt and bay leaf and marinated for 4 to 6 hours in Madeira wine, red wine vinegar and olive oil then skewered onto a bay laurel stick and left to grill over smouldering wood chips. These are so integral a part of traditional eating habits that a special iron stand is available with a T-shaped end, each branch of the "T" having a slot in the middle to hold a brochette (espeto in Portuguese); a small plate is then placed underneath to collect the juices. The brochettes are very long and have a V-shaped blade in order to pierce the meat more easily. It is usually accompanied with the local bread called bolo do caco.
Other popular dishes in Madeira include açorda, feijoada, carne de vinha d'alhos.
Traditional pastries in Madeira usually contain local ingredients, one of the most common being "mel de cana", literally "sugarcane honey" (molasses). The traditional cake of Madeira is called "Bolo de Mel", which translates as (Sugarcane) "Honey Cake" and according to custom, is never cut with a knife, but broken into pieces by hand. It is a rich and heavy cake. The cake commonly well known as "Madeira cake" in England also finds its naming roots in the Island of Madeira.
Malasadas are a Madeiran creation that were taken around the world by emigrants to places such as Hawaii. In Madeira, Malasadas are mainly consumed during the Carnival of Madeira. Pastéis de nata, as in the rest of Portugal, are also very popular.
Milho Frito is a very popular dish in Madeira that is very similar to the Italian dish polenta. Açorda Madeirense is another popular local dish.
The island of Madeira is famous for the quality of its Cherimoya fruits. The Annona Festival is traditional and occurs annually in the parish of Faial. This event encourages the consumption of this fruit and its derivatives, such as liqueurs, puddings, ice cream and smoothies.
Madeira is a fortified wine, produced in the Madeira Islands; varieties may be sweet or dry. It has a history dating back to the Age of Exploration when Madeira was a standard port of call for ships heading to the New World or East Indies. To prevent the wine from spoiling, neutral grape spirits were added. However, wine producers of Madeira discovered, when an unsold shipment of wine returned to the islands after a round trip, that the flavour of the wine had been transformed by exposure to heat and movement. Today, Madeira is noted for its unique winemaking process that involves heating the wine and deliberately exposing the wine to some levels of oxidation. Most countries limit the use of the term "Madeira" to those wines that come from the Madeira Islands, to which the European Union grants Protected designation of origin (PDO) status.
A local beer called Coral is produced by the Madeira Brewery, which dates from 1872. It has achieved 2 Monde Selection Grand Gold Medals, 24 Monde Selection Gold Medals and 2 Monde Selection Silver Medals. Other alcoholic drinks are also popular in Madeira, such as the locally created Poncha, Niquita, Pé de Cabra, Aniz, as well as Portuguese drinks such as Macieira Brandy, Licor Beirão.
Laranjada is a type of carbonated soft drink with an orange flavour, its name being derived from the Portuguese word "laranja" ("orange"). Launched in 1872 it was the first soft drink to be produced in Portugal, and remains very popular to the present day. Brisa drinks, a brand name, are also very popular and come in a range of flavours.
There is also a huge coffee culture in Madeira. Like in mainland Portugal, popular coffee-based drinks include Garoto, Galão, Bica, Café com Cheirinho, Mazagran, Chinesa and many more.
Madeira Island has the following sister provinces:
Portugal has issued postage stamps for Madeira during several periods, beginning in 1868.
The following people were either born or have lived part of their lives in Madeira: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19898 |
M16 rifle
The M16 rifle, officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16, is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56mm automatic rifle with a 20-round magazine.
In 1964, the M16 entered US military service and the following year was deployed for jungle warfare operations during the Vietnam War. In 1969, the M16A1 replaced the M14 rifle to become the US military's standard service rifle. The M16A1 improvements include a bolt-assist, chrome-plated bore and a 30-round magazine.
In 1983, the US Marine Corps adopted the M16A2 rifle and the US Army adopted it in 1986. The M16A2 fires the improved 5.56×45mm NATO (M855/SS109) cartridge and has a newer adjustable rear sight, case deflector, heavy barrel, improved handguard, pistol grip and buttstock, as well as a semi-auto and three-round burst fire selector. Adopted in July 1997, the M16A4 is the fourth generation of the M16 series. It is equipped with a removable carrying handle and Picatinny rail for mounting optics and other ancillary devices.
The M16 has also been widely adopted by other armed forces around the world. Total worldwide production of M16s is approximately 8 million, making it the most-produced firearm of its 5.56 mm caliber. The US military has largely replaced the M16 in frontline combat units with a shorter and lighter version, the M4 carbine.
In 1928, a U.S. Army 'Caliber Board' conducted firing tests at Aberdeen Proving Grounds and recommended transitioning to smaller caliber rounds, mentioning in particular the .27. Largely in deference to tradition, this recommendation was ignored and the Army referred to the .30 caliber as "full sized" for the next 35 years. After World War II, the United States military started looking for a single automatic rifle to replace the M1 Garand, M1/M2 Carbines, M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, M3 "Grease Gun" and Thompson submachine gun. However, early experiments with select-fire versions of the M1 Garand proved disappointing. During the Korean War, the select-fire M2 carbine largely replaced the submachine gun in US service and became the most widely used carbine variant. However, combat experience suggested that the .30 Carbine round was under-powered. American weapons designers concluded that an intermediate round was necessary, and recommended a small-caliber, high-velocity cartridge.
However, senior American commanders having faced fanatical enemies and experienced major logistical problems during WWII and the Korean War, insisted that a single powerful .30 caliber cartridge be developed, that could not only be used by the new automatic rifle, but by the new general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) in concurrent development. This culminated in the development of the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge.
The U.S. Army then began testing several rifles to replace the obsolete M1 Garand. Springfield Armory's T44E4 and heavier T44E5 were essentially updated versions of the Garand chambered for the new 7.62 mm round, while Fabrique Nationale submitted their FN FAL as the T48. ArmaLite entered the competition late, hurriedly submitting several AR-10 prototype rifles in the fall of 1956 to the U.S. Army's Springfield Armory for testing. The AR-10 featured an innovative straight-line barrel/stock design, forged aluminum alloy receivers and with phenolic composite stocks. It had rugged elevated sights, an oversized aluminum flash suppressor and recoil compensator, and an adjustable gas system. The final prototype featured an upper and lower receiver with the now-familiar hinge and takedown pins, and the charging handle was on top of the receiver placed inside of the carry handle. For a 7.62mm NATO rifle, the AR-10 was incredibly lightweight at only 6.85 lb empty. Initial comments by Springfield Armory test staff were favorable, and some testers commented that the AR-10 was the best lightweight automatic rifle ever tested by the Armory. In the end the U.S. Army chose the T44 now named M14 rifle which was an improved M1 Garand with a 20-round magazine and automatic fire capability. The U.S. also adopted the M60 general purpose machine gun (GPMG). Its NATO partners adopted the FN FAL and HK G3 rifles, as well as the FN MAG and Rheinmetall MG3 GPMGs.
The first confrontations between the AK-47 and the M14 came in the early part of the Vietnam War. Battlefield reports indicated that the M14 was uncontrollable in full-auto and that soldiers could not carry enough ammunition to maintain fire superiority over the AK-47. And, while the M2 carbine offered a high rate of fire, it was under-powered and ultimately outclassed by the AK-47. A replacement was needed: a medium between the traditional preference for high-powered rifles such as the M14, and the lightweight firepower of the M2 Carbine.
As a result, the Army was forced to reconsider a 1957 request by General Willard G. Wyman, commander of the U.S. Continental Army Command (CONARC) to develop a .223-inch caliber (5.56 mm) select-fire rifle weighing when loaded with a 20-round magazine. The 5.56 mm round had to penetrate a standard U.S. helmet at 500 yards (460 meters) and retain a velocity in excess of the speed of sound, while matching or exceeding the wounding ability of the .30 Carbine cartridge.
This request ultimately resulted in the development of a scaled-down version of the Armalite AR-10, named ArmaLite AR-15 rifle. In the late 1950s, designer Eugene Stoner was completing his work on the AR-15. The AR-15 used .22-caliber bullets, which destabilized when they hit a human body, as opposed to the .30 round, which typically passed through in a straight line. The smaller caliber meant that it could be controlled in autofire due the reduced recoil. Being almost one-third the weight of the .30 meant that the soldier could sustain fire for longer with the same load. Due to design innovations, the AR-15 could fire 600 to 700 rounds a minute with an extremely low jamming rate. Parts were stamped out, not hand-machined, so could be mass-produced, and the stock was plastic to reduce weight.
In 1958, the Army's Combat Developments Experimentation Command ran experiments with small squads in combat situations using the M14, AR-15, and another rifle designed by Winchester. The resulting study recommended adopting a lightweight rifle like the AR-15. In response, the Army declared that all rifles and machine guns should use the same ammunition, and ordered full production of the M-14. However, advocates for the AR-15 gained the attention of Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay. After testing the AR-15 with the ammunition manufactured by Remington that Armalite and Colt recommended, the Air Force declared that the AR-15 was its 'standard model' and ordered 8,500 rifles and 8.5 million rounds. Advocates for the AR-15 in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency acquired 1,000 Air Force AR-15s and shipped them to be tested by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). The South Vietnam soldiers issued glowing reports of the weapon's reliability, recording zero broken parts while firing 80,000 rounds in one stage of testing, and requiring only two replacement parts for the 1,000 weapons over the entire course of testing. The report of the experiment recommended that the U.S. provide the AR-15 as the standard rifle of the ARVN, but Admiral Harry Felt, then Commander in Chief, Pacific Forces, rejected the recommendations on the advice of the U.S. Army.
Throughout 1962 and 1963, the U.S. military extensively tested the AR-15. Positive evaluations emphasized its lightness, "lethality", and reliability. However, the Army Materiel Command criticized its inaccuracy at longer ranges and lack of penetrating power at higher ranges. In early 1963, the U.S. Special Forces asked, and was given permission, to make the AR-15 its standard weapon. Other users included Army Airborne units in Vietnam and some units affiliated with the Central Intelligence Agency. As more units adopted the AR-15, Secretary of the Army Cyrus Vance ordered an investigation into why the weapon had been rejected by the Army. The resulting report found that Army Materiel Command had rigged the previous tests, selecting tests that would favor the M14 and choosing match grade M14s to compete against AR-15s out of the box. At this point, the bureaucratic battle lines were well-defined, with the Army ordnance agencies opposed to the AR-15 and the Air Force and civilian leadership of the Defense Department in favor.
In January 1963, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara concluded that the AR-15 was the superior weapon system and ordered a halt to M14 production. In late 1963, the Defense Department began mass procurement of rifles for the Air Force and special Army units. Secretary McNamara designated the Army as the procurer for the weapon with the Department, which allowed the Army ordnance establishment to modify the weapon as they wished. The first modification was the additions of a "manual bolt closure," allowing a soldier to ram in a round if it failed to seat properly. The Air Force, which was buying the rifle, and the Marine Corps, which had tested it both objected to this addition, with the Air Force noting, "During three years of testing and operation of the AR-15 rifle under all types of conditions the Air Force has no record of malfunctions that could have been corrected by a manual bolt closing device." They also noted that the closure added weight and complexity, reducing the reliability of the weapon. Colonel Howard Yount, who managed the Army procurement, would later state the bolt closure was added after direction from senior leadership, rather than as a result of any complaint or test result, and testified about the reasons: "the M-1, the M-14, and the carbine had always had something for the soldier to push on; that maybe this would be a comforting feeling to him, or something."
After modifications, the new redesigned rifle was subsequently adopted as the M16 Rifle. "(The M16) was much lighter compared to the M14 it replaced, ultimately allowing soldiers to carry more ammunition. The air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle was made of steel, aluminum alloy and composite plastics, truly cutting-edge for the time. Designed with full and semi-automatic capabilities, the weapon initially did not respond well to wet and dirty conditions, sometimes even jamming in combat. After a few minor modifications, the weapon gained in popularity among troops on the battlefield."
Despite its early failures the M16 proved to be a revolutionary design and stands as the longest continuously serving rifle in US military history. It has been adopted by many US allies and the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge has become not only the NATO standard, but "the standard assault-rifle cartridge in much of the world." It also led to the development of small-caliber high-velocity service rifles by every major army in the world. It is a benchmark against which other assault rifles are judged.
M16s were produced by Colt until the late 1980s, when FN Herstal began to manufacture them.
In July 1960, General Curtis LeMay was impressed by a demonstration of the ArmaLite AR-15. In the summer of 1961, General LeMay was promoted to U.S. Air Force, Chief of Staff, and requested 80,000 AR-15s. However, General Maxwell D. Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised President John F. Kennedy that having "two" different calibers within the military system at the same time would be problematic and the request was rejected. In October 1961, William Godel, a senior man at the Advanced Research Projects Agency, sent 10 AR-15s to South Vietnam. The reception was enthusiastic, and in 1962 another 1,000 AR-15s were sent. United States Army Special Forces personnel filed battlefield reports lavishly praising the AR-15 and the stopping-power of the 5.56 mm cartridge, and pressed for its adoption.
The damage caused by the 5.56 mm bullet was originally believed to be caused by "tumbling" due to the slow 1 turn in rifling twist rate. However, any pointed lead core bullet will "tumble" after penetration in flesh, because the center of gravity is towards the rear of the bullet. The large wounds observed by soldiers in Vietnam were actually caused by bullet fragmentation created by a combination of the bullet's velocity and construction. These wounds were so devastating, that the photographs remained classified into the 1980s.
However, despite overwhelming evidence that the AR-15 could bring more firepower to bear than the M14, the Army opposed the adoption of the new rifle. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara now had two conflicting views: the ARPA report favoring the AR-15 and the Army's position favoring the M14. Even President Kennedy expressed concern, so McNamara ordered Secretary of the Army Cyrus Vance to test the M14, the AR-15 and the AK-47. The Army reported that only the M14 was suitable for service, but Vance wondered about the impartiality of those conducting the tests. He ordered the Army Inspector General to investigate the testing methods used; the Inspector General confirmed that the testers were biased towards the M14.
In January 1963, Secretary McNamara received reports that M14 production was insufficient to meet the needs of the armed forces and ordered a halt to M14 production. At the time, the AR-15 was the only rifle that could fulfill a requirement of a "universal" infantry weapon for issue to all services. McNamara ordered its adoption, despite receiving reports of several deficiencies, most notably the lack of a chrome-plated chamber.
After modifications (most notably, the charging handle was re-located from under the carrying handle like AR-10 to the rear of the receiver), the new redesigned rifle was renamed the "Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16". Inexplicably, the modification to the new M16 did not include a chrome-plated barrel. Meanwhile, the Army relented and recommended the adoption of the M16 for jungle warfare operations. However, the Army insisted on the inclusion of a forward assist to help push the bolt into battery in the event that a cartridge failed to seat into the chamber. The Air Force, Colt and Eugene Stoner believed that the addition of a forward assist was an unjustified expense. As a result, the design was split into two variants: the Air Force's M16 without the forward assist, and the XM16E1 with the forward assist for the other service branches.
In November 1963, McNamara approved the U.S. Army's order of 85,000 XM16E1s; and to appease General LeMay, the Air Force was granted an order for another 19,000 M16s. In March 1964, the M16 rifle went into production and the Army accepted delivery of the first batch of 2,129 rifles later that year, and an additional 57,240 rifles the following year.
In 1964, the Army was informed that DuPont could not mass-produce the IMR 4475 stick powder to the specifications demanded by the M16. Therefore, Olin Mathieson Company provided a high-performance ball propellant. While the Olin WC 846 powder achieved the desired per second muzzle velocity, it produced much more fouling, that quickly jammed the M16s action (unless the rifle was cleaned well and often).
In March 1965, the Army began to issue the XM16E1 to infantry units. However, the rifle was initially delivered without adequate cleaning kits or instructions because Colt had claimed the M16 was self-cleaning. As a result, reports of stoppages in combat began to surface. The most severe problem was known as "failure to extract"—the spent cartridge case remained lodged in the chamber after the rifle was fired. Documented accounts of dead U.S. troops found next to disassembled rifles eventually led to a Congressional investigation.
In February 1967, the improved XM16E1 was standardized as the M16A1. The new rifle had a chrome-plated chamber and bore to eliminate corrosion and stuck cartridges and other, minor, modifications. New cleaning kits, powder solvents and lubricants were also issued. Intensive training programs in weapons cleaning were instituted including a comic book-style operations manual. As a result, reliability problems greatly diminished and the M16A1 rifle achieved widespread acceptance by U.S. troops in Vietnam.
In 1969, the M16A1 officially replaced the M14 rifle to become the U.S. military's standard service rifle. In 1970, the new WC 844 powder was introduced to reduce fouling.
During the early part of its career, the M16 had a reputation for poor reliability and a malfunction rate of two per 1000 rounds fired. The M16's action works by passing high pressure propellant gasses tapped from the barrel down a tube and into the carrier group within the upper receiver, and is commonly referred to as a "direct impingement gas system". The gas goes from the gas tube, through the bolt carrier key, and into the inside of the carrier where it expands in a donut shaped gas cylinder. Because the bolt is prevented from moving forward by the barrel, the carrier is driven to the rear by the expanding gases and thus converts the energy of the gas to movement of the rifle's parts. The back part of the bolt forms a piston head and the cavity in the bolt carrier is the piston sleeve. It is more correct to call it an "internal piston" system."
This design is much lighter and more compact than a gas-piston design. However, this design requires that combustion byproducts from the discharged cartridge be blown into the receiver as well. This accumulating carbon and vaporized metal build-up within the receiver and bolt-carrier negatively affects reliability and necessitates more intensive maintenance on the part of the individual soldier. The channeling of gasses into the bolt carrier during operation increases the amount of heat that is deposited in the receiver while firing the M16 and causes essential lubricant to be "burned off". This requires frequent and generous applications of appropriate lubricant. Lack of proper lubrication is the most common source of weapon stoppages or jams.
The original M16 fared poorly in the jungles of Vietnam and was infamous for reliability problems in the harsh environment. As a result, it became the target of a Congressional investigation. The investigation found that:
When these issues were addressed and corrected by the M16A1, the reliability problems decreased greatly. According to a 1968 Department of Army report, the M16A1 rifle achieved widespread acceptance by U.S. troops in Vietnam. "Most men armed with the M16 in Vietnam rated this rifle's performance high, however, many men entertained some misgivings about the M16's reliability. When asked what weapon they preferred to carry in combat, 85 percent indicated that they wanted either the M16 or its [smaller]carbine-length version, the XM177E2." Also "the M14 was preferred by 15 percent, while less than one percent wished to carry either the Stoner rifle, the AK-47, the carbine or a pistol." In March 1970, the "President's Blue Ribbon Defense Panel" concluded that the issuance of the M16 saved the lives of 20,000 U.S. servicemen during the Vietnam War, who would have otherwise died had the M14 remained in service. However, the M16 rifle's reputation continues to suffer.
After the introduction of the M4 Carbine, it was found that the shorter barrel length of 14.5 inches also has a negative effect on reliability, as the gas port is located closer to the chamber than the gas port of the standard length M16 rifle: 7.5 inches instead of 13 inches. This affects the M4's timing and increases the amount of stress and heat on the critical components, thereby reducing reliability. In a 2002 assessment the USMC found that the M4 malfunctioned three times more often than the M16A4 (the M4 failed 186 times for 69,000 rounds fired, while the M16A4 failed 61 times). Thereafter, the Army and Colt worked to make modifications to the M4s and M16A4s in order to address the problems found. In tests conducted in 2005 and 2006 the Army found that on average, the new M4s and M16s fired approximately 5,000 rounds between stoppages.
In December 2006, the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) released a report on U.S. small arms in combat. The CNA conducted surveys on 2,608 troops returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 12 months. Only troops who had fired their weapons at enemy targets were allowed to participate. 1,188 troops were armed with M16A2 or A4 rifles, making up 46 percent of the survey. 75 percent of M16 users (891 troops) reported they were satisfied with the weapon. 60 percent (713 troops) were satisfied with handling qualities such as handguards, size, and weight. Of the 40 percent dissatisfied, most were with its size. Only 19 percent of M16 users (226 troops) reported a stoppage, while 80 percent of those that experienced a stoppage said it had little impact on their ability to clear the stoppage and re-engage their target. Half of the M16 users never experienced failures of their magazines to feed. 83 percent (986 troops) did not need their rifles repaired while in theater. 71 percent (843 troops) were confident in the M16's reliability, defined as level of soldier confidence their weapon will fire without malfunction, and 72 percent (855 troops) were confident in its durability, defined as level of soldier confidence their weapon will not break or need repair. Both factors were attributed to high levels of soldiers performing their own maintenance. 60 percent of M16 users offered recommendations for improvements. Requests included greater bullet lethality, new-built instead of rebuilt rifles, better quality magazines, decreased weight, and a collapsible stock. Some users recommended shorter and lighter weapons such as M4 carbine. Some issues have been addressed with the issuing of the Improved STANAG magazine in March 2009, and the M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round in June 2010.
In early 2010, two journalists from "The New York Times" spent three months with soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan. While there, they questioned around 100 infantry troops about the reliability of their M16 rifles, as well as the M4 carbine. The troops did not report reliability problems with their rifles. While only 100 troops were asked, they engaged in daily fighting in Marja, including least a dozen intense engagements in Helmand Province, where the ground is covered in fine powdered sand (called "moon dust" by troops) that can stick to firearms. Weapons were often dusty, wet, and covered in mud. Intense firefights lasted hours with several magazines being expended. Only one soldier reported a jam when his M16 was covered in mud after climbing out of a canal. The weapon was cleared and resumed firing with the next chambered round. Furthermore, the Marine Chief Warrant Officer responsible for weapons training and performance of the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, reported that "We've had nil in the way of problems; we've had no issues", with his battalion's 350 M16s and 700 M4s.
The M16 is a lightweight, 5.56 mm, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle, with a rotating bolt. The M16's receivers are made of 7075 aluminum alloy, its barrel, bolt, and bolt carrier of steel, and its handguards, pistol grip, and buttstock of plastics.
The M16A1 was especially lightweight at with a loaded 30-round magazine. This was significantly less than the M14 that it replaced at with a loaded 20-round magazine. It is also lighter when compared to the AKM's with a loaded 30-round magazine.
The M16A2 weighs loaded with a 30-round magazine, because of the adoption of a thicker barrel profile. The thicker barrel is more resistant to damage when handled roughly and is also slower to overheat during sustained fire. Unlike a traditional "bull" barrel that is thick its entire length, the M16A2's barrel is only thick forward of the handguards. The barrel profile under the handguards remained the same as the M16A1 for compatibility with the M203 grenade launcher.
Early model M16 barrels had a rifling twist of 4 grooves, right hand twist, 1 turn in 14 inches (1:355.6 mm) bore – as it was the same rifling used by the .222 Remington sporting round. This was shown to make the light .223 Remington bullet yaw in flight at long ranges and it was soon replaced. Later models had an improved rifling with 6 grooves, right hand twist, 1 turn in 12 inches (1:304.8 mm) for increased accuracy and was optimized for use with the standard U.S. M193 cartridge. Current models are optimized for the heavier NATO SS109 bullet and have 6 grooves, right hand twist, 1 turn in 7 in (1:177.8 mm). Weapons designed to accept both the M193 or SS109 rounds (like civilian market clones) usually have a 6-groove, right hand twist, 1 turn in 9 inches (1:228.6 mm) bore, although 1:8 inches and 1:7 inches twist rates are available as well.
"The (M16's) Stoner system provides a very symmetric design that allows straight line movement of the operating components. This allows recoil forces to drive straight to the rear. Instead of connecting or other mechanical parts driving the system, high pressure gas performs this function, reducing the weight of moving parts and the rifle as a whole." The M16's straight-line recoil design, where the recoil spring is located in the stock directly behind the action, and serves the dual function of operating spring and recoil buffer. The stock being in line with the bore also reduces muzzle rise, especially during automatic fire. Because recoil does not significantly shift the point of aim, faster follow-up shots are possible and user fatigue is reduced. Also, current model M16 flash-suppressors also act as compensators to reduce recoil further.
Notes: Free recoil is mathematical equation calculated by using the rifle weight, bullet weight, muzzle velocity, and charge weight. It is that which would be measured if the rifle were fired suspended from strings, free to recoil. A rifle's perceived recoil is also dependent on many other factors which are not readily quantified.
The M16's most distinctive ergonomic feature is the carrying handle and rear sight assembly on top of the receiver. This is a by-product of the original design, where the carry handle served to protect the charging handle. As the line of sight is over the bore, the M16 has an inherent parallax problem. At closer ranges (typically inside 15–20 meters), the shooter must compensate by aiming high to place shots where desired. The M16 has a 500 mm (19.75 inches) sight radius. The M16 uses an L-type flip, aperture rear sight and it is adjustable with two settings: 0 to 300 meters and 300 to 400 meters. The front sight is a post adjustable for elevation in the field. The rear sight can be adjusted in the field for windage. The sights can be adjusted with a bullet tip or pointed tool, as troops are trained to zero their own rifles. The sight picture is the same as the M14, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine and the M1917 Enfield. The M16 also has a "Low Light Level Sight System", which includes a front sight post with a weak light source provided by tritium radioluminescence in an embedded small glass vial and a larger aperture rear sight.
The M16 can also mount a scope on the carrying handle. With the advent of the M16A2, a new fully adjustable rear sight was added, allowing the rear sight to be dialed in for specific range settings between 300 and 800 meters and to allow windage adjustments without the need of a tool or cartridge. Modern versions such as M16A4 have a detachable carrying handle and use Picatinny rails, which allows for the use of various scopes and sighting devices. The current U.S. Army and Air Force issue M4 Carbine comes with the M68 Close Combat Optic and Back-up Iron Sight. The U.S. Marine Corps uses the ACOG Rifle Combat Optic and the U.S. Navy uses EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight.
The M16 rifle is considered to be very accurate. Its light recoil, high-velocity and flat trajectory allow shooters to take head shots out to 300 meters. Newer M16s use the newer M855 cartridge increasing their effective range to 600 meters. They are more accurate than their predecessors and are capable of shooting 1–3-inch groups at 100 yards. "In Fallujah, [Iraq] Marines with ACOG-equipped M16A4s created a stir by taking so many head shots that until the wounds were closely examined, some observers thought the insurgents had been executed." The newest M855A1 EPR cartridge is even more accurate and during testing "...has shown that, on average, 95 percent of the rounds will hit within an 8 × 8-inch target at 600 meters."
Note *: The effective range of a firearm is the maximum distance at which a weapon may be expected to be accurate and achieve the desired effect. Note **: The horizontal range is the distance traveled by a bullet, fired from the rifle at a height of 1.6 meters and 0° elevation, until the bullet hits the ground. Note ***: The lethal range is the maximum range of a small-arms projectile, while still maintaining the minimum energy required to put a man out of action, which is generally believed to be 15 kilogram-meters (108 ft.-Ibs.). This is the equivalent of the muzzle energy of a .22LR handgun. Note ****: The maximum range of a small-arms projectile is attained at about 30° elevation. This maximum range is only of safety interest, not for combat firing.
The 5.56×45mm cartridge had several advantages over the 7.62×51mm NATO round used in the M14 rifle. It enabled each soldier to carry more ammunition and was easier to control during automatic or burst fire. The 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge can also produce massive wounding effects when the bullet impacts at high speed and yaws ("tumbles") in tissue leading to fragmentation and rapid transfer of energy.
The original ammunition for the M16 was the 55-grain M193 cartridge. When fired from a 20" barrel at ranges of up to 100 meters, the thin-jacketed lead-cored round traveled fast enough (above 2900 ft/s) that the force of striking a human body would cause the round to yaw (or tumble) and fragment into about a dozen pieces of various sizes thus created wounds that were out of proportion to its caliber. These wounds were so devastating that many considered the M16 to be an inhumane weapon. As the 5.56mm round's velocity decreases, so does the number of fragments that it produces. The 5.56mm round does not normally fragment at distances beyond 200 meters or at velocities below 2500 ft/s, and its lethality becomes largely dependent on shot placement.
With the development of the M16A2, the new 62-grain M855 cartridge was adopted in 1983. The heavier bullet had more energy, and was made with a steel core to penetrate Soviet body armor. However, this caused less fragmentation on impact and reduced effects against targets without armor, both of which lessened kinetic energy transfer and wounding ability. Some soldiers and Marines coped with this through training, with requirements to shoot vital areas three times to guarantee killing the target.
However, there have been repeated and consistent reports of the M855's inability to wound effectively (i.e. fragment) when fired from the short barreled M4 carbine (even at close ranges). The M4's 14.5" barrel length reduces muzzle velocity to about 2900 ft/s. This reduced wounding ability is one reason that, despite the Army's transition to short-barrel M4's, the Marine Corps has decided to continue using the M16A4 with its 20″ barrel as the 5.56×45mm M855 is largely dependent upon high velocity in order to wound effectively.
In 2003, the U.S. Army contended that the lack of lethality of the 5.56×45mm was more a matter of perception than fact. With good shot placement to the head and chest, the target was usually defeated without issue. The majority of failures were the result of hitting the target in non-vital areas such as extremities. However, a minority of failures occurred in spite of multiple hits to the chest. In 2006, a study found that 20% of soldiers using the M4 Carbine wanted more lethality or stopping power. In June 2010, the U.S. Army announced it began shipping its new 5.56mm, lead-free, M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round to active combat zones. This upgrade is designed to maximize performance of the 5.56×45mm round, to extend range, improve accuracy, increase penetration and to consistently fragment in soft-tissue when fired from not only standard length M16s, but also the short-barreled M4 carbines. The U.S. Army has been impressed with the new M855A1 EPR round.
The M855A1 EPR may be green, and reports are still pretty thin, but it very well could be the ammunition the Army was asking for all along. It is more effective all around, with improved penetration through Kevlar, mild steel, concrete, and vehicle components like doors and auto glass and even helicopters bodies, to name a few, and better accuracy, higher velocities, less wind sensitivity and more precision complementing its superior terminal results. that they developed a 7.62 NATO M80A1 EPR variant.
The M16's magazine was meant to be a lightweight, disposable item. As such, it is made of pressed/stamped aluminum and was not designed to be durable. The M16 originally used a 20-round magazine which was later replaced by a bent 30-round design. As a result, the magazine follower tends to rock or tilt, causing malfunctions. Many non-U.S. and commercial magazines have been developed to effectively mitigate these shortcomings (e.g., H&K's all-stainless-steel magazine, Magpul's polymer P-MAG, etc.).
Production of the 30-round magazine started late 1967 but did not fully replace the 20-round magazine until the mid-1970s. Standard USGI aluminum 30-round M16 magazines weigh empty and are long. The newer plastic magazines are about a half-inch longer. The newer steel magazines are about 0.5-inch longer and four ounces heavier. The M16's magazine has become the unofficial NATO STANAG magazine and is currently used by many Western Nations, in numerous weapon systems.
In 2009, the U.S. Military began fielding an "improved magazine" identified by a tan-colored follower. "The new follower incorporates an extended rear leg and modified bullet protrusion for improved round stacking and orientation. The self-leveling/anti-tilt follower minimizes jamming while a wider spring coil profile creates even force distribution. The performance gains have not added weight or cost to the magazines."
In July 2016, the U.S. Army introduced another improvement, the new Enhanced Performance Magazine, which it says will result in a 300% increase in reliability in the M4 Carbine. Developed by the United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Army Research Laboratory in 2013, it is tan colored with blue follower to distinguish it from earlier, incompatible magazines.
Most M16 rifles have a barrel threaded in 1⁄2-28" threads to incorporate the use of a muzzle device such as a flash suppressor or sound suppressor. The initial flash suppressor design had three tines or prongs and was designed to preserve the shooter's night vision by disrupting the flash. Unfortunately it was prone to breakage and getting entangled in vegetation. The design was later changed to close the end to avoid this and became known as the "A1" or "bird cage" flash suppressor on the M16A1. Eventually on the M16A2 version of the rifle, the bottom port was closed to reduce muzzle climb and prevent dust from rising when the rifle was fired in the prone position. For these reasons, the U.S. military declared the A2 flash suppressor as a compensator or a muzzle brake; but it is more commonly known as the "GI" or "A2" flash suppressor.
The M16's Vortex Flash Hider weighs 3 ounces, is 2.25 inches long, and does not require a lock washer to attach to barrel. It was developed in 1984, and is one of the earliest privately designed muzzle devices. The U.S. military uses the Vortex Flash Hider on M4 carbines and M16 rifles. A version of the Vortex has been adopted by the Canadian Military for the Colt Canada C8 CQB rifle. Other flash suppressors developed for the M16 include the Phantom Flash Suppressor by Yankee Hill Machine (YHM) and the KX-3 by Noveske Rifleworks.
The threaded barrel allows sound suppressors with the same thread pattern to be installed directly to the barrel; however this can result in complications such as being unable to remove the suppressor from the barrel due to repeated firing on full auto or three-round burst. A number of suppressor manufacturers have designed "direct-connect" sound suppressors which can be installed over an existing M16's flash suppressor as opposed to using the barrel's threads.
All current M16 type rifles can mount under-barrel 40 mm grenade-launchers, such as the M203 and M320. Both use the same 40 mm grenades as the older, stand-alone M79 grenade launcher. The M16 can also mount under-barrel 12 gauge shotguns such as KAC Masterkey or the M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System.
The M234 Riot Control Launcher is an M16-series rifle attachment firing an M755 blank round. The M234 mounts on the muzzle, bayonet lug and front sight post of the M16. It fires either the M734 64 mm Kinetic Riot Control or the M742 64 mm CSI Riot Control Ring Airfoil Projectiles. The latter produces a 4 to 5-foot tear gas cloud on impact. The main advantage to using Ring Airfoil Projectiles is that their design does not allow them be thrown back by rioters with any real effect. The M234 is no longer used by U.S. forces. It has been replaced by the M203 40 mm grenade launcher and nonlethal ammunition.
The M16 is 44.25 inches (1124 mm) long with an M7 bayonet attached. The M7 bayonet is based on earlier designs such as the M4, M5, & M6 bayonets, all of which are direct descendants of the M3 Fighting Knife and have spear-point blade with a half sharpened secondary edge. The newer M9 bayonet has a clip-point blade with saw teeth along the spine, and can be used as a multi-purpose knife and wire-cutter when combined with its scabbard. The current USMC OKC-3S bayonet bears a resemblance to the Marines' iconic Ka-Bar fighting knife with serrations near the handle.
For use as an ad-hoc automatic rifle, the M16 and M16A1 could be equipped with the XM3 bipod, later standardized as the "Bipod, M3" (1966) and "Rifle Bipod M3" (1983). Weighing only 0.6 lb, the simple and non-adjustable bipod clamped unto the barrel of the rifle to allow for supported fire.
The M3 bipod continues to be referenced in at least one official manual as late as 1985, where it is stated one of the most stable firing positions is "the prone biped [sic] supported for automatic fire."
In March 1970, the U.S. recommended that all NATO forces adopt the 5.56×45mm cartridge. This shift represented a change in the philosophy of the military's long-held position about caliber size. By the mid 1970s, other armies were looking at M16-style weapons. A NATO standardization effort soon started and tests of various rounds were carried out starting in 1977. The U.S. offered the 5.56×45mm M193 round, but there were concerns about its penetration in the face of the wider introduction of body armor. In the end the Belgian 5.56×45mm SS109 round was chosen (STANAG 4172) in October 1980. The SS109 round was based on the U.S. cartridge but included a new stronger, heavier, 62 grain bullet design, with better long range performance and improved penetration (specifically, to consistently penetrate the side of a steel helmet at 600 meters). Due to its design and lower muzzle velocity (about 3110 ft/s) the Belgian SS109 round is considered more humane because it is less likely to fragment than the U.S. M193 round. The NATO 5.56×45mm standard ammunition produced for U.S. forces is designated M855.
In October 1980, shortly after NATO accepted the 5.56×45mm NATO rifle cartridge. Draft Standardization Agreement 4179 (STANAG 4179) was proposed to allow NATO members to easily share rifle ammunition and magazines down to the individual soldier level. The magazine chosen to become the "STANAG magazine" was originally designed for the U.S. M16 rifle. Many NATO member nations, but not all, subsequently developed or purchased rifles with the ability to accept this type of magazine. However, the standard was never ratified and remains a 'Draft STANAG'.
All current M16 type rifles are designed to fire STANAG 22 mm rifle grenades from their integral flash hiders without the use of an adapter. These 22 mm grenade types range from anti-tank rounds to simple finned tubes with a fragmentation hand grenade attached to the end. They come in the "standard" type which are propelled by a blank cartridge inserted into the chamber of the rifle. They also come in the "bullet trap" and "shoot through" types, as their names imply, they use live ammunition. The U.S. military does not generally use rifle grenades; however, they are used by other nations.
The NATO Accessory Rail STANAG 4694, or Picatinny rail STANAG 2324, or a "Tactical Rail" is a bracket used on M16 type rifles to provide a standardized mounting platform. The rail comprises a series of ridges with a T-shaped cross-section interspersed with flat "spacing slots". Scopes are mounted either by sliding them on from one end or the other; by means of a "rail-grabber" which is clamped to the rail with bolts, thumbscrews or levers; or onto the slots between the raised sections. The rail was originally for scopes. However, once established, the use of the system was expanded to other accessories, such as tactical lights, laser aiming modules, night vision devices, reflex sights, foregrips, bipods, and bayonets.
Currently, the M16 is in use by 15 NATO countries and more than 80 countries worldwide.
The weapon that eventually became the M16 series was basically a scaled down AR-10 with an ambidextrous charging handle located within the carrying handle, a narrower front sight "A" frame, and no flash suppressor.
Colt's first two models produced after the acquisition of the rifle from ArmaLite were the 601 and 602, and these rifles were in many ways clones of the original ArmaLite rifle (in fact, these rifles were often found stamped "Colt ArmaLite AR-15, Property of the U.S. Government caliber .223", with no reference to them being M16s). The 601 and 602 are easily identified by their flat lower receivers without raised surfaces around the magazine well and occasionally green or brown furniture. The 601 was adopted first of any of the rifles by the USAF, and was quickly supplemented with the XM16 (Colt Model 602) and later the M16 (Colt Model 604) as improvements were made. There was also a limited purchase of 602s, and a number of both of these rifles found their way to a number of Special Operations units then operating in South East Asia, most notably the U.S. Navy SEALs. The only major difference between the 601 and 602 is the switch from the original 1:14-inch rifling twist to the more common 1:12-inch twist. These weapons were equipped with a triangular charging handle and a bolt hold open device that lacked a raised lower engagement surface. The bolt hold open device had a slanted and serrated surface that had to be engaged with a bare thumb, index finger, or thumbnail because of the lack of this surface. The U.S. Air Force continued to use the ArmaLite AR-15 marked rifles in various configurations into the 1990s.
This was the first M16 variant adopted operationally, originally by the U.S. Air Force. It was equipped with triangular handguards, butt stocks without a compartment for the storage of a cleaning kit, a three-pronged flash suppressor, full auto, and no forward assist. Bolt carriers were originally chrome plated and slick-sided, lacking forward assist notches. Later, the chrome plated carriers were dropped in favor of Army issued notched and parkerized carriers though the interior portion of the bolt carrier is still chrome-lined. The Air Force continued to operate these weapons until around 2001, at which time the Air Force converted all of its M16s to the M16A2 configuration.
The M16 was also adopted by the British SAS, who used it during the Falklands War.
The U.S. Army XM16E1 was essentially the same weapon as the M16 with the addition of a forward assist and corresponding notches in the bolt carrier. The M16A1 was the finalized production model in 1967 and was produced until 1982.
To address issues raised by the XM16E1's testing cycle, a closed, bird-cage flash suppressor replaced the XM16E1's three-pronged flash suppressor which caught on twigs and leaves. Various other changes were made after numerous problems in the field. Cleaning kits were developed and issued while barrels with chrome-plated chambers and later fully lined bores were introduced.
With these and other changes, the malfunction rate slowly declined and new soldiers were generally unfamiliar with early problems. A rib was built into the side of the receiver on the XM16E1 to help prevent accidentally pressing the magazine release button while closing the ejection port cover. This rib was later extended on production M16A1s to help in preventing the magazine release from inadvertently being pressed. The hole in the bolt that accepts the cam pin was crimped inward on one side, in such a way that the cam pin may not be inserted with the bolt installed backwards, which would cause failures to eject until corrected. The M16A1 saw limited use in training capacities until the early 2000s, but is no longer in active service with the U.S., although is still standard issue in many world armies.
The development of the M16A2 rifle was originally requested by the United States Marine Corps as a result of combat experience in Vietnam with the XM16E1 and M16A1. It was officially adopted by the Department of Defense as the "US Rifle, 5.56mm, M16A2" in 1982. The Marines were the first branch of the U.S. Armed Forces to adopt it, in the early/mid-1980s, with the United States Army following suit in the late 1980s.
Modifications to the M16A2 were extensive. In addition to the new rifling, the barrel was made with a greater thickness in front of the front sight post, to resist bending in the field and to allow a longer period of sustained fire without overheating. The rest of the barrel was maintained at the original thickness to enable the M203 grenade launcher to be attached. A new adjustable rear sight was added, allowing the rear sight to be dialed in for specific range settings between 300 and 800 meters to take full advantage of the ballistic characteristics of the new SS109 rounds and to allow windage adjustments without the need of a tool or cartridge. The weapon's reliability allowed it to be widely used around the Marine Corps' special operations divisions as well. The flash suppressor was again modified, this time to be closed on the bottom so it would not kick up dirt or snow when being fired from the prone position, and acting as a recoil compensator.
The front grip was modified from the original triangular shape to a round one, which better fit smaller hands and could be fitted to older models of the M16. The new handguards were also symmetrical so armories need not separate left- and right-hand spares. The handguard retention ring was tapered to make it easier to install and uninstall the handguards. A notch for the middle finger was added to the pistol grip, as well as more texture to enhance the grip. The buttstock was lengthened by . The new buttstock became ten times stronger than the original due to advances in polymer technology since the early 1960s. Original M16 stocks were made from fiberglass-impregnated resin; the newer stocks were engineered from DuPont Zytel glass-filled thermoset polymers. The new stock included a fully textured polymer buttplate for better grip on the shoulder, and retained a panel for accessing a small compartment inside the stock, often used for storing a basic cleaning kit. The heavier bullet reduces muzzle velocity from , to about .
The A2 uses a faster 1:7 twist rifling to allow use of a trajectory-matched tracer round. A spent case deflector was incorporated into the upper receiver immediately behind the ejection port to prevent cases from striking left-handed users. The action was also modified, replacing the fully automatic setting with a three-round burst setting. When using a fully automatic weapon, inexperienced troops often hold down the trigger and "spray" when under fire. The U.S. Army concluded that three-shot groups provide an optimum combination of ammunition conservation, accuracy, and firepower. The USMC has retired the M16A2 in favor of the newer M16A4; a few M16A2s remain in service with the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard.
The M16A3 is a modified version of the M16A2 adopted in small numbers by the U.S. Navy SEAL, Seabee, and Security units. It features the M16A1 trigger group providing "safe", "semi-automatic" and "fully automatic" modes instead of the A2's "safe", "semi-automatic", and "burst" modes. Otherwise it is externally identical to the M16A2.
The M16A4 is the fourth generation of the M16 series. It is equipped with a removable carrying handle and a full length quad Picatinny rail for mounting optics and other ancillary devices. The FN M16A4, using safe/semi/burst selective fire, became standard issue for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Military issue rifles are also equipped with a Knight's Armament Company M5 RAS hand guard, allowing vertical grips, lasers, tactical lights, and other accessories to be attached, coining the designation M16A4 MWS (or Modular Weapon System) in U.S. Army field manuals.
Colt also produces M16A4 models for international purchases:
A study of significant changes to Marine M16A4 rifles released in February 2015 outlined several new features that could be added from inexpensive and available components. Those features included: a muzzle compensator in place of the flash suppressor to manage recoil and allow for faster follow-on shots, though at the cost of noise and flash signature and potential overpressure in close quarters; a heavier and/or free-floating barrel to increase accuracy from 4.5 MOA (Minute(s) Of Angle) to potentially 2 MOA; changing the reticle on the Rifle Combat Optic from chevron-shaped to the semi-circle with a dot at the center used in the M27 IAR's Squad Day Optic so as not to obscure the target at long distance; using a trigger group with a more consistent pull force, even a reconsideration of the burst capability; and the addition of ambidextrous charging handles and bolt catch releases for easier use with left-handed shooters.
In 2014, Marine units were provided with a limited number of adjustable stocks in place of the traditional fixed stock for their M16A4s to issue to smaller Marines who would have trouble comfortably reaching the trigger when wearing body armor. The adjustable stocks were added as a standard authorized accessory, meaning units can use operations and maintenance funds to purchase more if needed.
The Marine Corps had long maintained the full-length M16 as their standard infantry rifle, but in October 2015 the switch to the M4 carbine was approved as the standard-issue weapon, giving Marine infantrymen a smaller and more compact weapon. Enough M4s are already in the inventory to re-equip all necessary units by September 2016, and M16A4s will be moved to support and non-infantry Marines.
In the 1970s, Singapore was looking for an assault rifle for the Singapore Armed Forces and chose both the M16 and ArmaLite AR-15. Since importing M16s from the US would be difficult, they made their own copies of the M16, designated M16S1; "S" stood for Singapore. It was replaced by the SAR 21, which was introduced during 1999 and 2000, but is still kept for reserve forces.
In Vietnam, some soldiers were issued a carbine version of the M16 named XM177. The XM177 had a shorter barrel and a telescoping stock, which made it substantially more compact. It also possessed a combination flash hider/sound moderator to reduce problems with muzzle flash and loud report. The Air Force's GAU-5/A (XM177) and the Army's XM177E1 variants differed over the latter's inclusion of a forward assist, although some GAU-5s do have the forward assist. The final Air Force GAU-5/A and Army XM177E2 had an barrel with a longer flash/sound suppressor. The lengthening of the barrel was to support the attachment of Colt's own XM148 40 mm grenade launcher. These versions were also known as the Colt Commando model commonly referenced and marketed as the CAR-15. The variants were issued in limited numbers to special forces, helicopter crews, Air Force pilots, Air Force Security Police Military Working Dog (MWD) handlers, officers, radio operators, artillerymen, and troops other than front line riflemen. Some USAF GAU-5A/As were later equipped with even longer 1/12 rifled barrels as the two shorter versions were worn out. The barrel allowed the use of MILES gear and for bayonets to be used with the sub-machine guns (as the Air Force described them). By 1989, the Air Force started to replace the earlier barrels with 1/7 rifled models for use with the M855-round. The weapons were given the redesignation of GUU-5/P.
These were effectively used by the British Special Air Service during the Falklands War.
The M4 carbine was developed from various outgrowths of these designs, including a number of -barreled A1 style carbines. The XM4 (Colt Model 720) started its trials in 1984, with a barrel of . The weapon became the M4 in 1991. Officially adopted as a replacement for the M3 "Grease Gun" (and the Beretta M9 and M16A2 for select troops) in 1994, it was used with great success in the Balkans and in more recent conflicts, including the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters. The M4 carbine has a three-round burst firing mode, while the M4A1 carbine has a fully automatic firing mode. Both have a Picatinny rail on the upper receiver, allowing the carry handle/rear sight assembly to be replaced with other sighting devices.
Colt also returned to the original "Commando" idea, with its Model 733, essentially a modernized XM177E2 with many of the features introduced on the M16A2.
The Diemaco C7 and C8 are updated variants of the M16 developed and used by the Canadian Forces and are now manufactured by Colt Canada. The C7 is a further development of the experimental M16A1E1. Like earlier M16s, it can be fired in either semi-automatic or automatic mode, instead of the burst function selected for the M16A2. The C7 also features the structural strengthening, improved handguards, and longer stock developed for the M16A2. Diemaco changed the trapdoor in the buttstock to make it easier to access and a spacer of is available to adjust stock length to user preference. The most easily noticeable external difference between American M16A2s and Diemaco C7s is the retention of the A1 style rear sights. Not easily apparent is Diemaco's use of hammer-forged barrels. The Canadians originally desired to use a heavy barrel profile instead.
The C7 has been developed to the C7A1, with a Weaver rail on the upper receiver for a C79 optical sight, and to the C7A2, with different furniture and internal improvements. The Diemaco produced Weaver rail on the original C7A1 variants does not meet the M1913 "Picatinny" standard, leading to some problems with mounting commercial sights. This is easily remedied with minor modification to the upper receiver or the sight itself. Since Diemaco's acquisition by Colt to form Colt Canada, all Canadian produced flattop upper receivers are machined to the M1913 standard.
The C8 is the carbine version of the C7. The C7 and C8 are also used by "Hærens Jegerkommando", "Marinejegerkommandoen" and FSK (Norway), Military of Denmark (all branches), the Royal Netherlands Army and Netherlands Marine Corps as its main infantry weapon. Following trials, variants became the weapon of choice of the British SAS.
The Heckler & Koch HK416 is an assault rifle designed and manufactured by Heckler & Koch. It is based on the M16, and was originally conceived as an improvement based on the Colt M4 carbine family issued to the U.S. military, with the notable inclusion of an HK-proprietary short-stroke gas piston system derived from the Heckler & Koch G36. The HK416 was used by U.S. Navy SEALs to kill Osama bin Laden.
The Mk 4 Mod 0 was a variant of the M16A1 produced for the U.S. Navy SEALs during the Vietnam War and adopted in April 1970. It differed from the basic M16A1 primarily in being optimized for maritime operations and coming equipped with a sound suppressor. Most of the operating parts of the rifle were coated in Kal-Guard, a hole of was drilled through the stock and buffer tube for drainage, and an O-ring was added to the end of the buffer assembly. The weapon could reportedly be carried to the depth of 200 feet (60 m) in water without damage. The initial Mk 2 Mod 0 Blast Suppressor was based on the U.S. Army's Human Engineering Lab's (HEL) M4 noise suppressor. The HEL M4 vented gas directly from the action, requiring a modified bolt carrier. A gas deflector was added to the charging handle to prevent gas from contacting the user. Thus, the HEL M4 suppressor was permanently mounted though it allowed normal semi-automatic and automatic operation. If the HEL M4 suppressor were removed, the weapon would have to be manually loaded after each single shot. On the other hand, the Mk 2 Mod 0 blast suppressor was considered an integral part of the Mk 4 Mod 0 rifle, but it would function normally if the suppressor were removed. The Mk 2 Mod 0 blast suppressor also drained water much more quickly and did not require any modification to the bolt carrier or to the charging handle. In the late 1970s, the Mk 2 Mod 0 blast suppressor was replaced by the Mk 2 blast suppressor made by Knight's Armament Company (KAC). The KAC suppressor can be fully submerged and water will drain out in less than eight seconds. It will operate without degradation even if the rifle is fired at the maximum rate of fire. The U.S. Army replaced the HEL M4 with the much simpler Studies in Operational Negation of Insurgency and Counter-Subversion (SIONICS) MAW-A1 noise and flash suppressor.
Developed to increase the effective range of soldiers in the designated marksman role, the U.S. Navy developed the Mark 12 Special Purpose Rifle (SPR). Configurations in service vary, but the core of the Mark 12 SPR is an 18" heavy barrel with muzzle brake and free float tube. This tube relieves pressure on the barrel caused by standard handguards and greatly increases the potential accuracy of the system. Also common are higher magnification optics ranging from the 6× power Trijicon ACOG to the Leupold Mark 4 Tactical rifle scopes. Firing Mark 262 Mod 0 ammunition with a 77gr Open tip Match bullet, the system has an official effective range of 600+ meters. However published reports of confirmed kills beyond 800 m from Iraq and Afghanistan are not uncommon.
The M231 Firing Port Weapon (FPW) is an adapted version of the M16 assault rifle for firing from ports on the M2 Bradley. The infantry's normal M16s are too long for use in a "buttoned up" fighting vehicle, so the FPW was developed to provide a suitable weapon for this role.
With the expanding Vietnam War, Colt developed two rifles of the M16 pattern for evaluation as possible light sniper or designated marksman rifles. The Colt Model 655 M16A1 Special High Profile was essentially a standard A1 rifle with a heavier barrel and a scope bracket that attached to the rifle's carry handle. The Colt Model 656 M16A1 Special Low Profile had a special upper receiver with no carrying handle. Instead, it had a low-profile iron sight adjustable for windage and a Weaver base for mounting a scope, a precursor to the Colt and Picatinny rails. It also had a hooded front iron sight in addition to the heavy barrel. Both rifles came standard with either a Leatherwood/Realist scope 3–9× Adjustable Ranging Telescope. Some of them were fitted with a Sionics noise and flash suppressor. Neither of these rifles were ever standardized.
These weapons can be seen in many ways to be predecessors of the U.S. Army's SDM-R and the USMC's SAM-R weapons.
As of November 2019, no weapon manufactured as described in the above lines, has been produced.
The M16 is the most commonly manufactured 5.56×45mm rifle in the world. Currently, the M16 is in use by 15 NATO countries and more than 80 countries worldwide. Together, numerous companies in the United States, Canada, and China have produced more than 8,000,000 rifles of all variants. Approximately 90% are still in operation. The M16 replaced both the M14 rifle and M2 carbine as standard infantry rifle of the U.S. armed forces. Although, the M14 continues to see limited service, mostly in sniper, designated marksman, and ceremonial roles. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19901 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.