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Pope John XXI
Pope John XXI (; – 20 May 1277), born Peter Juliani (; ), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 September 1276 to his death. Apart from Damasus I (from Roman Lusitania), he has been the only Portuguese pope. He is sometimes identified with the logician and herbalist Peter of Spain (; ), which would make him the only pope to have been a physician.
Pedro Julião was born in Lisbon between 1210 and 1220. He started his studies at the episcopal school of Lisbon Cathedral and later joined the University of Paris, although some historians claim that he was educated at Montpellier. Wherever he studied, he concentrated on medicine, theology, logic, physics, metaphysics, and Aristotle's dialectic. He is traditionally and usually identified with the medical author Peter of Spain, an important figure in the development of logic and pharmacology. Peter of Spain taught at the University of Siena in the 1240s and his "" was used as a university textbook on Aristotelian logic for the next three centuries. At the court in Lisbon, he was the councilor and spokesman for King Afonso III in church matters. Later, he became prior of Guimarães.
He was Archdeacon of Vermoim (Vermuy) in the Archdiocese of Braga. He tried to become bishop of Lisbon but was defeated. Instead, he became the Master of the school of Lisbon. Peter became the physician of Pope Gregory X (1271–76) early in his reign. In March 1273 he was elected Archbishop of Braga, but did not assume that post; instead, on 3 June 1273, Pope Gregory X created him Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum (Frascati).
After the death of Pope Adrian V on 18 August 1276, Peter was elected Pope on 8 September. He was crowned a week later on 20 September. One of John XXI's few acts during his brief reign was the reversal of a decree recently passed at the Second Council of Lyon (1274); the decree had not only confined cardinals in solitude until they elected a successor Pope, but also progressively restricted their supplies of food and wine if their deliberations took too long. Though much of John XXI's brief papacy was dominated by the powerful Cardinal Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, who succeeded him as Pope Nicholas III, John attempted to launch a crusade for the Holy Land, pushed for a union with the Eastern church, and did what he could to maintain peace between the Christian nations. He also launched a mission to convert the Tatars, but he died before it could start. To secure the necessary quiet for his medical studies, he had an apartment added to the papal palace at Viterbo, to which he could retire when he wished to work undisturbed. On 14 May 1277, while the pope was alone in this apartment, it collapsed; John was buried under the ruins and died on 20 May in consequence of the serious injuries he had received. He was buried in the Duomo di Viterbo, where his tomb can still be seen.
After his death, it was rumored that John XXI had actually been a necromancer, a suspicion frequently directed towards the few scholars among medieval popes (see, e.g., Sylvester II). It was also said that his death had been an act of God, stopping him from completing a heretical treatise. Since the works of "Peter of Spain" continued to be studied and appreciated, however, Dante Alighieri placed "Pietro Spano" in his "Paradiso's" with the spirits of other great religious scholars. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23830 |
Pope Adrian VI
Pope Adrian VI (; ), born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens (2 March 1459 – 14 September 1523), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his death on 14 September 1523. The only Dutchman so far to become pope, he was the last non-Italian pope until John Paul II, 455 years later.
Born in the Episcopal principality of Utrecht, Adrian studied at the University of Leuven in the Low Countries, where he rose to the position of professor of theology, also serving as rector (the equivalent of vice-chancellor). In 1507, he became the tutor of the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who later trusted him as both his emissary and his regent.
In 1516, Adrian was appointed by Charles, now King of Castile and Aragon, bishop of Tortosa, Spain, and soon thereafter Grand Inquisitor of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile. He was created cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1517 and elected pope in 1522 as a compromise candidate after Leo's death.
Adrian came to the papacy in the midst of one of its greatest crises, threatened not only by Lutheranism to the north but also by the advance of the Ottoman Turks to the east. He refused to compromise with Lutheranism theologically, demanding Luther's condemnation as a heretic. However, he is noted for having attempted to reform the Catholic Church administratively in response to the Protestant Reformation. Adrian's remarkable admission that the turmoil of the Church was the fault of the Roman Curia itself was read at the 1522–1523 Diet of Nuremberg.
His efforts at reform, however, proved fruitless, as they were resisted by most of his Renaissance ecclesiastical contemporaries, and he did not live long enough to see his efforts through to their conclusion. He was succeeded by the second Medici pope, Clement VII.
Adrian VI and Marcellus II are the only popes of the modern era to retain their baptismal names after their election.
Adriaan Florensz was born on 2 March 1459 in the city of Utrecht, which was then the capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht, a part of the Burgundian Netherlands in the Holy Roman Empire. He was born into modest circumstances as the son of Florens Boeyensz, also born in Utrecht, and his wife Geertruid. He had three older brothers, Jan, Cornelius, and Claes. Adrian consistently signed with "Adrianus Florentii" or "Adrianus de Traiecto" ("Adrian of Utrecht") in later life, suggesting that his family did not yet have a surname but used patronymics only.
Adrian was probably raised in a house on the corner of the Brandsteeg and Oude Gracht that was owned by his grandfather Boudewijn (Boeyen, for short). His father, a carpenter and likely shipwright, died when Adrian was 10 years or younger. Adrian studied from a very young age under the Brethren of the Common Life, either at Zwolle or Deventer and was also a student of the Latin school (now "Gymnasium Celeanum") in Zwolle.
In June 1476, he started his studies at the University of Leuven, where he pursued philosophy, theology and Canon Law, thanks to a scholarship granted by Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy. In 1478 he had the title of "Primus Philosophiae", as well as that of "Magister Artium" (that is, he took his undergraduate degree). In 1488 he was chosen by the Faculty of Arts to be their representative on the Council of the University.
On 30 June 1490, Adrian was ordained a priest.
After the regular 12 years of study, Adrian became a Doctor of Theology in 1491. He had been a teacher at the University since 1490, was chosen vice-chancellor of the university in 1493, and Dean of St. Peter's in 1498. In the latter function he was permanent vice-chancellor of the University and de facto in charge of hiring. His lectures were published, as recreated from his students' notes; among those who attended was the young Erasmus. Adrian offered him a professorate in 1502, but Erasmus refused.
In November 1506 Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy, became Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands and chose Adrian as her advisor. The next year Emperor Maximilian I appointed him also tutor to his seven-year-old grandson, and Margaret's nephew, who in 1519 became Emperor Charles V. By 1512 Adrian was Charles's advisor, and his court obligations were so time-consuming that he quit his positions at the university.
In 1515, Charles sent Adrian to Spain to convince his maternal grandfather, Ferdinand II of Aragon, that the Spanish lands should come under his rule, and not Charles's Spanish-born younger brother Ferdinand, whom his grandfather had in mind. Adrian succeeded in that just before Ferdinand's death in January 1516. Ferdinand of Aragon, and subsequently Charles V, appointed Adrian Bishop of Tortosa, which was approved by Pope Leo X on 18 August 1516. He was consecrated by Bishop Diego Ribera de Toledo.
On 14 November 1516 the King commissioned him Inquisitor General of Aragon.
In his fifth Consistory for the creation of cardinals, on 1 July 1517, Pope Leo X (1513–21) named thirty-one cardinals among whom was Adrianus de Traiecto, naming him Cardinal Priest of the Basilica of Saints John and Paul on the Coelian Hill.
During the minority of Charles V, Adrian was named to serve with Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros as co-regent of Spain. After the death of Jimenez, Adrian was appointed (14 March 1518) General of the Reunited Inquisitions of Castile and Aragon, in which capacity he acted until his departure for Rome. When Charles V left Spain for the Netherlands in 1520, he appointed Cardinal Adrian Regent of Spain, during which time he had to deal with the Revolt of the Comuneros.
In the conclave after the death of the Medici Pope Leo X, Leo's cousin, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, was the leading figure. With Spanish and French cardinals in a deadlock, the absent Adrian was proposed as a compromise and on 9 January 1522 he was elected by an almost unanimous vote. Charles V was delighted upon hearing that his tutor had been elected to the papacy but soon realised that Adrian VI was determined to reign impartially. Francis I of France, who feared that Adrian would become a tool of the Emperor, and had uttered threats of a schism, later relented and sent an embassy to present his homage.
Fears of a Spanish Avignon based on the strength of his relationship with the Emperor as his former tutor and regent proved baseless, and Adrian, having notified the College of Cardinals of his acceptance, left for Italy after six months of preparations and trying to decide which route to take, making his solemn entry into Rome on 29 August. He had forbidden elaborate decorations, and many people stayed away for fear of the plague that was raging. Pope Adrian was crowned at St. Peter's Basilica on 31 August 1522, at the age of 63.
He immediately entered upon the path of the reformer. The 1908 edition of the "Catholic Encyclopedia" characterised the task that faced him:
His plan was to attack notorious abuses one by one; however, in his attempt to improve the system of indulgences he was hampered by his cardinals. He found reduction of the number of matrimonial dispensations to be impossible, as the income had been farmed out for years in advance by Pope Leo X.
Adrian VI was not successful as a peacemaker among Christian princes, whom he hoped to unite in a war against the Turks. In August 1523 he was forced into an alliance with the Empire, England, and Venice against France; meanwhile, in 1522 Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–66) had conquered Rhodes.
In his reaction to the early stages of the Lutheran revolt, Adrian VI did not completely understand the gravity of the situation. At the Diet of Nuremberg, which opened in December 1522, he was represented by Francesco Chieregati, whose private instructions contain the frank admission that the disorder of the Church was perhaps the fault of the Roman Curia itself, and that it should be reformed. However, the former professor and Inquisitor General was strongly opposed to any change in doctrine and demanded that Martin Luther be punished for teaching heresy.
He made only one cardinal in the course of his pontificate, Willem van Enckevoirt, made a cardinal-priest in a consistory held on September 10, 1523.
Adrian VI held no beatifications in his pontificate but canonized Saints Antoninus of Florence and Benno of Meissen on 31 May 1523.
Charles V's ambassador in Rome, Juan Manuel, lord of Belmonte, wrote that he was worried that Charles's influence over Adrian waned after Adrian's election, writing " The Pope is "deadly afraid" of the College of Cardinals. He does whatever two or three cardinals write to him in the name of the college."
Adrian VI died in Rome on 14 September 1523, after one year, eight months and six days as pope. Most of his official papers were lost after his death. He published "Quaestiones in quartum sententiarum praesertim circa sacramenta" (Paris, 1512, 1516, 1518, 1537; Rome, 1522), and "Quaestiones quodlibeticae XII." (1st ed., Leuven, 1515). He is buried in the Santa Maria dell'Anima church in Rome.
He bequeathed property in the Low Countries for the foundation of a college at the University of Leuven that became known as Pope's College.
The pope was mocked by the people of Rome on the Pasquino, and the Romans, who had never taken a liking to a man they saw as a "barbarian", rejoiced at his death.
The first series of engravings used to educate Dutch school children at the turn of the 18th century includes Adrian VI in its woodcut on 'Famous Dutch Men and Women' with the following poem:
Pope Adrian VI was a character in Christopher Marlowe's theatre play "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" (published 1604).
Italian writer Luigi Malerba used the confusion among the leaders of the Catholic Church, which was created by Adrian's unexpected election, as a backdrop for his 1995 novel, "Le maschere" (The Masks), about the struggle between two Roman cardinals for a well-endowed church office. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23831 |
List of Pokémon
The "Pokémon" franchise revolves around 896 fictional species of collectible monsters, each having unique designs and skills. Conceived by Satoshi Tajiri in early 1989, Pokémon are creatures that inhabit the fictional Pokémon World. The designs for the multitude of species can draw inspiration from anything such as animals, plants, mythological creatures and even inanimate objects. Many Pokémon are capable of evolving into more powerful species, while others can undergo form changes and achieve similar results. There are even some of them that cannot evolve. Originally, only a handful of artists led by Ken Sugimori designed Pokémon. However, by 2013 a team of 20 artists worked together to create new species designs. Sugimori and Hironobu Yoshida lead the team and determine the final designs. Each iteration of the series has brought about praise and criticism over the numerous creatures.
The vast array of creatures is commonly divided into "Generations", with each division primarily encompassing new titles in the main video game series and often a change of handheld platform. Generation I refers to "Red", "Green", "Blue", and "Yellow"; Generation II refers to "Gold", "Silver", and "Crystal"; Generation III refers to "Ruby", "Sapphire", "FireRed", "LeafGreen", and "Emerald"; Generation IV refers to "Diamond", "Pearl", "Platinum", "HeartGold", and "SoulSilver"; Generation V refers to "Black", "White", "Black 2", and "White 2"; Generation VI refers to "X", "Y", "Omega Ruby", and "Alpha Sapphire"; Generation VII refers to "Sun", "Moon", "Ultra Sun", "Ultra Moon", ; and Generation VIII refers to "Sword" and "Shield". Each Generation is also marked by the addition of new Pokémon: 151 in Generation I in the Kanto region, 100 in Generation II in the Johto region, 135 in Generation III in the Hoenn region, 107 in Generation IV in the Sinnoh region, 156 in Generation V in the Unova region, 72 in Generation VI in the Kalos region, 88 in Generation VII in the Alola and Kanto regions, and 87 in Generation VIII in the Galar region.
Due to the large number of Pokémon, listing of each species is divided into articles by generation. The 896 Pokémon are organized by their number in the National Pokédex—an in-game electronic encyclopedia that provides various information on Pokémon. The National Pokédex is subdivided into regional Pokédex series, each revolving around species introduced at the time of their respective generations along with older generations. For example, the Johto Pokédex, Generation II, covers the 100 species introduced in "Gold" and "Silver" in addition to the original 151 species. The encyclopedias follow a general ordering: starter Pokémon are listed first, followed by species obtainable early in the respective games, and are concluded with Legendary and Mythical Pokémon. Generation V is a notable exception, as Victini is the first Pokémon in the Unova Pokédex and is also uniquely numbered as number 000.
The premise of "Pokémon" in general was conceived by Satoshi Tajiri—who later founded Game Freak—in 1989, when the Game Boy was released. The creatures that inhabit the world of "Pokémon" are also called Pokémon. The word "Pokémon" is a romanized contraction of the Japanese brand . The concept of the Pokémon universe, in both the video games and the general fictional world of Pokémon, stems most notably from Tajiri's childhood hobby of insect collecting. Other influences on the concept include Ultraman, anime, and playing video games in general. Throughout his early life, Tajiri saw his rural, nature-filled hometown (Machida, Tokyo) transform into an urban center. The urbanization of his town drove away wildlife and he and others living in the area were eventually unable to collect insects. Through Pokémon, Tajiri sought to bring back this outdoor pastime and share it with the world. The first games in the franchise, "Red" and Green", were released on 27 February 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy; the games saw an international release as "Red" and "Blue" in September 1998. The ability to capture, battle, trade, and care for numerous creatures catapulted Pokémon to international popularity and it has become a multibillion-dollar franchise and the second-best selling video game series, only behind the "Mario" franchise.
At the start of a main series "Pokémon" game, the player character receives one of three "starter" Pokémon, with which they can battle and catch other Pokémon. Each Pokémon has one or two "types", such as Fire, Water, or Grass. In battle, certain types are strong against other types. For example, a fire-type attack will do more damage to a grass-type Pokémon than a water-type attack. This form of gameplay is frequently compared to that of rock-paper-scissors, though players have to strategize which Pokémon and which of their attacks to use against various opponents.
Many species of Pokémon are capable of evolving into a larger and more powerful creature. The change is accompanied by stat changes, generally a modest increase, and access to a wider variety of attacks. There are multiple ways to trigger an evolution including reaching a particular level, using a special stone, or learning a specific attack. For example, at level 16 Bulbasaur is capable of evolving into Ivysaur. Most notably, the Normal-type Eevee is capable of evolving into eight different Pokémon: Jolteon (Electric), Flareon (Fire), Vaporeon (Water), Umbreon (Dark), Espeon (Psychic), Leafeon (Grass), Glaceon (Ice), and Sylveon (Fairy). In Generation VI, a new mechanic called Mega Evolution—as well as a subset of Mega Evolution called Primal Reversion—was introduced into the game. Unlike normal evolution, Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion last only for the duration of a battle, with the Pokémon reverting to its normal form at the end. Forty-eight Pokémon are capable of undergoing Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion as of the release of "Sun" and "Moon". In contrast, some species such as Castform, Rotom, Unown, and Lycanroc undergo form changes that may provide stat buffs or changes and type alterations but are not considered new species. Some Pokémon have differences in appearance due to gender. Pokémon can be male or female, male-only, female-only, or genderless.
Though the "Pokémon" franchise is primarily intended for younger players, each Pokémon has various complex attributes such as natures, characteristic traits, Individual Values (IVs), and Effort Values (EVs). These, according to Game Freak Board Director Junichi Masuda, are intended for people "who enjoy battling and want to go more in depth". These individual statistics were also included because the basic concept of the franchise is to train one's Pokémon. Designer Takeshi Kawachimaru stated that IVs and EVs "help to make each Pokemon in the game individual", as it adds unique aspects to them. Each "Pokémon" game introduces a few "Legendary" and "Mythical" Pokémon that are powerful, rare, and hard to catch. "Pokémon Sun" and "Moon" introduced "Ultra Beasts", which are described as "beings from another dimension" that appeared in the Alola region and are similarly powerful and rare.
Throughout development of "Red" and "Green", all Pokémon were designed by Ken Sugimori, a long-time friend of Tajiri, and a team of fewer than ten people, including Atsuko Nishida who is credited as the designer of Pikachu. By 2013 a team of 20 artists worked together to create new species designs. A committee of five people determine which designs are incorporated into the games, with Sugimori and Hironobu Yoshida finalizing the look of each creature. Furthermore, Sugimori is responsible for the boxart legendary Pokémon and all of the official artwork for the games. According to Yoshida, the number of rejected Pokémon designs is five to ten times more than the number that are finalized in each game. In rare cases, rejected designs are brought back and released in a later generation. Shigeru Ohmori, director of "Sun" and "Moon", admitted that creating new Pokémon has become a difficult task with the sheer number of creatures designed over the franchise's 20-year history. Each iteration of the series has brought about praise and criticism over the numerous creatures.
The designs for Pokémon are often highly analogous to real-life creatures, but also encompass inanimate objects. Director Junichi Masuda and graphic designer Takao Unno have stated that inspiration for Pokémon designs can come from anything. The variety of animals and culture across the world provide the basis for countless ideas to be incorporated into the franchise. The environment a Pokémon would live in is taken into account when they are designed. The lei-like Comfey fits appropriately in the Hawaii-inspired Alola region of "Sun" and "Moon". Masuda has stated that each element of a design has a functioning reason. In some cases, the design team creates a footprint that a Pokémon could make and designs a creature around that. Some designers look to game mechanics for inspiration, seeing where particular typing combinations could be interesting. Typing assignment varies during the design process, sometimes a Pokémon receives a type after it is created and other times they are designed around a particular type. Each Pokémon has a specific height and weight.
The simpler roots of designs in Generation I prompted greater complexity in later games. Designs, in general, have become increasingly complex and thematic in newer games. Sneasel, for example, draws inspiration from the Japanese yōkai kamaitachi, mythical creatures with fast, razor-sharp claws that hunt in packs. These elements are all found in Sneasel's design and characteristics. New Pokémon introduced in Generation VI, for example, are heavily influenced by the culture and fauna of Europe (namely France). However, by the release of "X" and "Y" in 2013, Sugimori stated he wishes for Pokémon design to return to the simpler roots of the franchise.
Masuda considers the starter Pokémon to be among the most important in the franchise; Yoshida goes further and calls them "the face of that generation" and says that "they're the ones that should be on the packaging". The three starter Pokémon of each generation are always Grass-, Water-, and Fire-types, a trio that Masuda considers to be the easiest to understand for new players. Their designs are based on recognizable animals and made to stand out from pre-existing Pokémon. Furthermore, each are given distinct personalities to further define them. In an interview with "GamesRadar" in 2009, Masuda stated that simple Pokémon take around six months to design and develop, whereas Pokémon that play a more important part in the games (such as starter Pokémon) may take over a year. Masuda added, "We also want the designer to have as much freedom as possible, we don't want to narrow down their imagination by saying 'We want this kind of Pokemon.' When we talk to the designer we always stress that they shouldn't think of Pokemon necessarily, but should instead just be as creative as they can." After the Pokémon is designed it is sent to the "Battle Producer", who decides which moves and stats the Pokémon should have.
In the Game Boy "Pokémon" games, "Pokémon Red, Green, Blue", and "Yellow", players were able to access a set of 105 glitch Pokémon. These species were not designed by the games' designers, but could be encountered in a small area of the game. Among these species is a glitch dubbed MissingNo., which became highly notorious. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23840 |
Planets beyond Neptune
Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's quest for Planet X. Lowell proposed the Planet X hypothesis to explain apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the giant planets, particularly Uranus and Neptune, speculating that the gravity of a large unseen ninth planet could have perturbed Uranus enough to account for the irregularities.
Clyde Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto in 1930 appeared to validate Lowell's hypothesis, and Pluto was officially named the ninth planet. In 1978, Pluto was conclusively determined to be too small for its gravity to affect the giant planets, resulting in a brief search for a tenth planet. The search was largely abandoned in the early 1990s, when a study of measurements made by the "Voyager 2" spacecraft found that the irregularities observed in Uranus's orbit were due to a slight overestimation of Neptune's mass. After 1992, the discovery of numerous small icy objects with similar or even wider orbits than Pluto led to a debate over whether Pluto should remain a planet, or whether it and its neighbours should, like the asteroids, be given their own separate classification. Although a number of the larger members of this group were initially described as planets, in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto and its largest neighbours as dwarf planets, leaving Neptune the farthest known planet in the Solar System.
While the astronomical community widely agrees that Planet X, as originally envisioned, does not exist, the concept of an as-yet-unobserved planet has been revived by a number of astronomers to explain other anomalies observed in the outer Solar System. As of March 2014, observations with the WISE telescope have ruled out the possibility of a Saturn-sized object (95 Earth masses) out to 10,000 AU, and a Jupiter-sized (≈318 Earth masses) or larger object out to 26,000 AU.
In 2014, based on similarities of the orbits of a group of recently discovered extreme trans-Neptunian objects, astronomers hypothesized the existence of a super-Earth planet, 2 to 15 times the mass of the Earth and beyond 200 AU with possibly a high inclined orbit at some 1,500 AU. In 2016, further work showed this unknown distant planet is likely on an inclined, eccentric orbit that goes no closer than about 200 AU and no farther than about 1,200 AU from the Sun. The orbit is predicted to be anti-aligned to the clustered extreme trans-Neptunian objects. Because Pluto is no longer considered a planet by the IAU, this new hypothetical object has become known as Planet Nine.
In the 1840s, the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier used Newtonian mechanics to analyse perturbations in the orbit of Uranus, and hypothesised that they were caused by the gravitational pull of a yet-undiscovered planet. Le Verrier predicted the position of this new planet and sent his calculations to German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle. On 23 September 1846, the night following his receipt of the letter, Galle and his student Heinrich d'Arrest discovered Neptune, exactly where Le Verrier had predicted. There remained some slight discrepancies in the giant planets' orbits. These were taken to indicate the existence of yet another planet orbiting beyond Neptune.
Even before Neptune's discovery, some speculated that one planet alone was not enough to explain the discrepancy. On 17 November 1834, the British amateur astronomer the Reverend Thomas John Hussey reported a conversation he had had with French astronomer Alexis Bouvard to George Biddell Airy, the British Astronomer Royal. Hussey reported that when he suggested to Bouvard that the unusual motion of Uranus might be due to the gravitational influence of an undiscovered planet, Bouvard replied that the idea had occurred to him, and that he had corresponded with Peter Andreas Hansen, director of the Seeberg Observatory in Gotha, about the subject. Hansen's opinion was that a single body could not adequately explain the motion of Uranus, and postulated that two planets lay beyond Uranus.
In 1848, Jacques Babinet raised an objection to Le Verrier's calculations, claiming that Neptune's observed mass was smaller and its orbit larger than Le Verrier had initially predicted. He postulated, based largely on simple subtraction from Le Verrier's calculations, that another planet of roughly 12 Earth masses, which he named "Hyperion", must exist beyond Neptune. Le Verrier denounced Babinet's hypothesis, saying, "[There is] absolutely nothing by which one could determine the position of another planet, barring hypotheses in which imagination played too large a part."
In 1850 James Ferguson, Assistant Astronomer at the United States Naval Observatory, noted that he had "lost" a star he had observed, GR1719k, which Lt. Matthew Maury, the superintendent of the Observatory, claimed was evidence that it must be a new planet. Subsequent searches failed to recover the "planet" in a different position, and in 1878, CHF Peters, director of the Hamilton College Observatory in New York, showed that the star had not in fact vanished, and that the previous results had been due to human error.
In 1879, Camille Flammarion noted that the comets 1862 III and 1889 III had aphelia of 47 and 49 AU, respectively, suggesting that they might mark the orbital radius of an unknown planet that had dragged them into an elliptical orbit. Astronomer George Forbes concluded on the basis of this evidence that two planets must exist beyond Neptune. He calculated, based on the fact that four comets possessed aphelia at around 100 AU and a further six with aphelia clustered at around 300 AU, the orbital elements of a pair of hypothetical trans-Neptunian planets. These elements concorded suggestively with those made independently by another astronomer named David Peck Todd, suggesting to many that they might be valid. However, sceptics argued that the orbits of the comets involved were still too uncertain to produce meaningful results. Some have considered Forbes's hypothesis a precursor to Planet Nine.
In 1900 and 1901, Harvard College Observatory director William Henry Pickering led two searches for trans-Neptunian planets. The first was begun by Danish astronomer Hans Emil Lau who, after studying the data on the orbit of Uranus from 1690 to 1895, concluded that one trans-Neptunian planet alone could not account for the discrepancies in its orbit, and postulated the position of two planets he believed were responsible. The second was launched when Gabriel Dallet suggested that a single trans-Neptunian planet lying at 47 AU could account for the motion of Uranus. Pickering agreed to examine plates for any suspected planets. In neither case were any found.
In 1902, after observing the orbits of comets with aphelia beyond Neptune, Dr. Theodor Grigull of Münster, Germany proclaimed the existence of a Uranus-sized planet at 50 AU with a 360-year period, which he named Hades, cross-checking with the deviations in the orbit of Uranus. In 1921, Grigull revised his orbital period to 310-330 years, to better fit the observed deviations.
In 1909, Thomas Jefferson Jackson See, an astronomer with a reputation as an egocentric contrarian, opined "that there is certainly one, most likely two and possibly three planets beyond Neptune". Tentatively naming the first planet "Oceanus", he placed their respective distances at 42, 56 and 72 AU from the Sun. He gave no indication as to how he determined their existence, and no known searches were mounted to locate them.
In 1911, Indian astronomer Venkatesh P. Ketakar suggested the existence of two trans-Neptunian planets, which he named Brahma and Vishnu, by reworking the patterns observed by Pierre-Simon Laplace in the planetary satellites of Jupiter and applying them to the outer planets. The three inner Galilean moons of Jupiter, Io, Europa and Ganymede, are locked in a complicated 1:2:4 resonance called a Laplace resonance. Ketakar suggested that Uranus, Neptune and his hypothetical trans-Neptunian planets were locked in Laplace-like resonances. His calculations predicted a mean distance for Brahma of 38.95 AU and an orbital period of 242.28 Earth years (3:4 resonance with Neptune). When Pluto was discovered 19 years later, its mean distance of 39.48 AU and orbital period of 248 Earth years were close to Ketakar's prediction (Pluto in fact has a 2:3 resonance with Neptune). Ketakar made no predictions for the orbital elements other than mean distance and period. It is not clear how Ketakar arrived at these figures, and his second planet, Vishnu, was never located.
In 1894, with the help of William Pickering, Percival Lowell (a wealthy Bostonian) founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. In 1906, convinced he could resolve the conundrum of Uranus's orbit, he began an extensive project to search for a trans-Neptunian planet, which he named "Planet X", a name previously used by Gabriel Dallet. The "X" in the name represents an unknown and is pronounced as the letter, as opposed to the Roman numeral for 10 (at the time, Planet X would have been the ninth planet). Lowell's hope in tracking down Planet X was to establish his scientific credibility, which had eluded him due to his widely derided belief that channel-like features visible on the surface of Mars were canals constructed by an intelligent civilization.
Lowell's first search focused on the ecliptic, the plane encompassed by the zodiac where the other planets in the Solar System lie. Using a 5-inch photographic camera, he manually examined over 200 three-hour exposures with a magnifying glass, and found no planets. At that time Pluto was too far above the ecliptic to be imaged by the survey. After revising his predicted possible locations, Lowell conducted a second search from 1914 to 1916. In 1915, he published his "Memoir of a Trans-Neptunian Planet", in which he concluded that Planet X had a mass roughly seven times that of Earth—about half that of Neptune—and a mean distance from the Sun of 43 AU. He assumed Planet X would be a large, low-density object with a high albedo, like the giant planets. As a result, it would show a disc with diameter of about one arcsecond and an apparent magnitude between 12 and 13—bright enough to be spotted.
Separately, in 1908, Pickering announced that, by analysing irregularities in Uranus's orbit, he had found evidence for a ninth planet. His hypothetical planet, which he termed "Planet O" (because it came after "N", i.e. Neptune), possessed a mean orbital radius of 51.9 AU and an orbital period of 373.5 years. Plates taken at his observatory in Arequipa, Peru, showed no evidence for the predicted planet, and British astronomer P. H. Cowell showed that the irregularities observed in Uranus's orbit virtually disappeared once the planet's displacement of longitude was taken into account. Lowell himself, despite his close association with Pickering, dismissed Planet O out of hand, saying, "This planet is very properly designated "O", [for it] is nothing at all." Unbeknownst to Pickering, four of the photographic plates taken in the search for "Planet O" by astronomers at the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1919 captured images of Pluto, though this was only recognised years later. Pickering went on to suggest many other possible trans-Neptunian planets up to the year 1932, which he named "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T", and "U"; none were ever detected.
Lowell's sudden death in 1916 temporarily halted the search for Planet X. Failing to find the planet, according to one friend, "virtually killed him". Lowell's widow, Constance, engaged in a legal battle with the observatory over Lowell's legacy which halted the search for Planet X for several years. In 1925, the observatory obtained glass discs for a new wide-field telescope to continue the search, constructed with funds from Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Percival's brother. In 1929 the observatory's director, Vesto Melvin Slipher, summarily handed the job of locating the planet to Clyde Tombaugh, a 22-year-old Kansas farm boy who had only just arrived at the Lowell Observatory after Slipher had been impressed by a sample of his astronomical drawings.
Tombaugh's task was to systematically capture sections of the night sky in pairs of images. Each image in a pair was taken two weeks apart. He then placed both images of each section in a machine called a blink comparator, which by exchanging images quickly created a time lapse illusion of the movement of any planetary body. To reduce the chances that a faster-moving (and thus closer) object be mistaken for the new planet, Tombaugh imaged each region near its opposition point, 180 degrees from the Sun, where the apparent retrograde motion for objects beyond Earth's orbit is at its strongest. He also took a third image as a control to eliminate any false results caused by defects in an individual plate. Tombaugh decided to image the entire zodiac, rather than focus on those regions suggested by Lowell.
By the beginning of 1930, Tombaugh's search had reached the constellation of Gemini. On 18 February 1930, after searching for nearly a year and examining nearly 2 million stars, Tombaugh discovered a moving object on photographic plates taken on 23 January and 29 January of that year. A lesser-quality photograph taken on January 21 confirmed the movement. Upon confirmation, Tombaugh walked into Slipher's office and declared, "Doctor Slipher, I have found your Planet X." The object lay just six degrees from one of two locations for Planet X Lowell had suggested; thus it seemed he had at last been vindicated. After the observatory obtained further confirmatory photographs, news of the discovery was telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory on March 13, 1930. The new object was later precovered on photographs dating back to 19 March 1915. The decision to name the object "Pluto" was intended in part to honour Percival Lowell, as his initials made up the word's first two letters. After discovering Pluto, Tombaugh continued to search the ecliptic for other distant objects. He found hundreds of variable stars and asteroids, as well as two comets, but no further planets.
To the observatory's disappointment and surprise, Pluto showed no visible disc; it appeared as a point, no different from a star, and, at only 15th magnitude, was six times dimmer than Lowell had predicted, which meant it was either very small, or very dark. Because Lowell astronomers thought Pluto was massive enough to perturb planets, they assumed that its albedo could be no less than 0.07 (meaning that it reflected only 7% of the light that hit it); about as dark as asphalt and similar to that of Mercury, the least reflective planet known. This would give Pluto an estimated mass of no more than 70% that of Earth. Observations also revealed that Pluto's orbit was very elliptical, far more than that of any other planet.
Almost immediately, some astronomers questioned Pluto's status as a planet. Barely a month after its discovery was announced, on April 14, 1930, in an article in "The New York Times", Armin O. Leuschner suggested that Pluto's dimness and high orbital eccentricity made it more similar to an asteroid or comet: "The Lowell result confirms the possible high eccentricity announced by us on April 5. Among the possibilities are a large asteroid greatly disturbed in its orbit by close approach to a major planet such as Jupiter, or it may be one of many long-period planetary objects yet to be discovered, or a bright cometary object." In that same article, Harvard Observatory director Harlow Shapley wrote that Pluto was a "member of the Solar System not comparable with known asteroids and comets, and perhaps of greater importance to cosmogony than would be another major planet beyond Neptune." In 1931, using a mathematical formula, Ernest W. Brown asserted (in agreement with E. C. Bower) that the presumed irregularities in the orbit of Uranus could not be due to the gravitational effect of a more distant planet, and thus that Lowell's supposed prediction was "purely accidental".
Throughout the mid-20th century, estimates of Pluto's mass were revised downward. In 1931, Nicholson and Mayall calculated its mass, based on its supposed effect on the giant planets, as roughly that of Earth; a value somewhat in accord with the 0.91 Earth mass calculated in 1942 by Lloyd R. Wylie at the US Naval Observatory, using the same assumptions. In 1949, Gerard Kuiper's measurements of Pluto's diameter with the 200-inch telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory led him to the conclusion that it was midway in size between Mercury and Mars and that its mass was most probably about 0.1 Earth mass.
In 1973, based on the similarities in the periodicity and amplitude of brightness variation with Triton, Dennis Rawlins conjectured Pluto's mass must be similar to Triton's. In retrospect, the conjecture turns out to have been correct; it had been argued by astronomers Walter Baade and E.C. Bower as early as 1934. However, because Triton's mass was then believed to be roughly 2.5% of the Earth–Moon system (more than ten times its actual value), Rawlins's determination for Pluto's mass was similarly incorrect. It was nonetheless a meagre enough value for him to conclude Pluto was not Planet X. In 1976, Dale Cruikshank, Carl Pilcher, and David Morrison of the University of Hawaii analysed spectra from Pluto's surface and determined that it must contain methane ice, which is highly reflective. This meant that Pluto, far from being dark, was in fact exceptionally bright, and thus was probably no more than Earth mass.
Pluto's size was finally determined conclusively in 1978, when American astronomer James W. Christy discovered its moon Charon. This enabled him, together with Robert Sutton Harrington of the U.S. Naval Observatory, to measure the mass of the Pluto–Charon system directly by observing the moon's orbital motion around Pluto. They determined Pluto's mass to be 1.31×1022 kg; roughly one five-hundredth that of Earth or one-sixth that of the Moon, and far too small to account for the observed discrepancies in the orbits of the outer planets. Lowell's "prediction" had been a coincidence: If there was a Planet X, it was not Pluto.
After 1978, a number of astronomers kept up the search for Lowell's Planet X, convinced that, because Pluto was no longer a viable candidate, an unseen tenth planet must have been perturbing the outer planets.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Robert Harrington led a search to determine the real cause of the apparent irregularities. He calculated that any Planet X would be at roughly three times the distance of Neptune from the Sun; its orbit would be highly eccentric, and strongly inclined to the ecliptic—the planet's orbit would be at roughly a 32-degree angle from the orbital plane of the other known planets. This hypothesis was met with a mixed reception. Noted Planet X sceptic Brian G. Marsden of the Minor Planet Center pointed out that these discrepancies were a hundredth the size of those noticed by Le Verrier, and could easily be due to observational error.
In 1972, Joseph Brady of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory studied irregularities in the motion of Halley's Comet. Brady claimed that they could have been caused by a Jupiter-sized planet beyond Neptune at 59 AU that is in a retrograde orbit around the Sun. However, both Marsden and Planet X proponent P. Kenneth Seidelmann attacked the hypothesis, showing that Halley's Comet randomly and irregularly ejects jets of material, causing changes to its own orbital trajectory, and that such a massive object as Brady's Planet X would have severely affected the orbits of known outer planets.
Although its mission did not involve a search for Planet X, the IRAS space observatory made headlines briefly in 1983 due to an "unknown object" that was at first described as "possibly as large as the giant planet Jupiter and possibly so close to Earth that it would be part of this Solar System". Further analysis revealed that of several unidentified objects, nine were distant galaxies and the tenth was "interstellar cirrus"; none were found to be Solar System bodies.
In 1988, A. A. Jackson and R. M. Killen studied the stability of Pluto's resonance with Neptune by placing test "Planet X-es" with various masses and at various distances from Pluto. Pluto and Neptune's orbits are in a 3:2 resonance, which prevents their collision or even any close approaches, regardless of their separation in the z axis. It was found that the hypothetical object's mass had to exceed 5 Earth masses to break the resonance, and the parameter space is quite large and a large variety of objects could have existed beyond Pluto without disturbing the resonance. Four test orbits of a trans-Plutonian planet have been integrated forward for four million years in order to determine the effects of such a body on the stability of the Neptune–Pluto 3:2 resonance. Planets beyond Pluto with masses of 0.1 and 1.0 Earth masses in orbits at 48.3 and 75.5 AU, respectively, do not disturb the 3:2 resonance. Test planets of 5 Earth masses with semi-major axes of 52.5 and 62.5 AU disrupt the four-million-year libration of Pluto's argument of perihelion.
Harrington died in January 1993, without having found Planet X. Six months before, E. Myles Standish had used data from "Voyager 2"'s 1989 flyby of Neptune, which had revised the planet's total mass downward by 0.5%—an amount comparable to the mass of Mars—to recalculate its gravitational effect on Uranus. When Neptune's newly determined mass was used in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Developmental Ephemeris (JPL DE), the supposed discrepancies in the Uranian orbit, and with them the need for a Planet X, vanished. There are no discrepancies in the trajectories of any space probes such as "Pioneer 10", "Pioneer 11", "Voyager 1", and "Voyager 2" that can be attributed to the gravitational pull of a large undiscovered object in the outer Solar System. Today, most astronomers agree that Planet X, as Lowell defined it, does not exist.
After the discovery of Pluto and Charon, no more trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) were found until 15760 Albion in 1992. Since then, thousands of such objects have been discovered. Most are now recognized as part of the Kuiper belt, a swarm of icy bodies left over from the Solar System's formation that orbit near the ecliptic plane just beyond Neptune. Though none were as large as Pluto, some of these distant trans-Neptunian objects, such as Sedna, were initially described in the media as "new planets".
In 2005, astronomer Mike Brown and his team announced the discovery of (later named after the Greek goddess of discord and strife), a trans-Neptunian object then thought to be just barely larger than Pluto. Soon afterwards, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory press release described the object as the "tenth planet".
Eris was never officially classified as a planet, and the 2006 definition of planet defined both Eris and Pluto not as planets but as dwarf planets because they have not cleared their neighbourhoods. They do not orbit the Sun alone, but as part of a population of similarly sized objects. Pluto itself is now recognized as being a member of the Kuiper belt and the largest dwarf planet, larger than the more-massive Eris.
A number of astronomers, most notably Alan Stern, the head of NASA's "New Horizons" mission to Pluto, contend that the IAU's definition is flawed, and that Pluto and Eris, and all large trans-Neptunian objects, such as , , , and , should be considered planets in their own right. However, the discovery of Eris did not rehabilitate the Planet X theory because it is far too small to have significant effects on the outer planets' orbits.
Although most astronomers accept that Lowell's Planet X does not exist, a number have revived the idea that a large unseen planet could create observable gravitational effects in the outer Solar System. These hypothetical objects are often referred to as "Planet X", although the conception of these objects may differ considerably from that proposed by Lowell.
When Sedna was discovered, its extreme orbit raised questions about its origin. Its perihelion is so distant (approximately 76 AU) that no currently observed mechanism can explain Sedna's eccentric distant orbit. It is too far from the planets to have been affected by the gravity of Neptune or the other giant planets and too bound to the Sun to be affected by outside forces such as the galactic tides. Hypotheses to explain its orbit include that it was affected by a passing star, that it was captured from another planetary system, or that it was tugged into its current position by a trans-Neptunian planet. The most obvious solution to determining Sedna's peculiar orbit would be to locate a number of objects in a similar region, whose various orbital configurations would provide an indication as to their history. If Sedna had been pulled into its orbit by a trans-Neptunian planet, any other objects found in its region would have a similar perihelion to Sedna (around 80 AU).
In 2008 Tadashi Mukai and Patryk Sofia Lykawka suggested a distant Mars- or Earth-sized planet, currently in a highly eccentric orbit between 100 and and orbital period of 1000 years with an inclination of 20° to 40°, was responsible for the structure of the Kuiper belt. They proposed that the perturbations of this planet excited the eccentricities and inclinations of the trans-Neptunian objects, truncated the planetesimal disk at 48 AU, and detached the orbits of objects like Sedna from Neptune. During Neptune's migration this planet is posited to have been captured in an outer resonance of Neptune and to have evolved into a higher perihelion orbit due to the Kozai mechanism leaving the remaining trans-Neptunian objects on stable orbits.
In 2012, Rodney Gomes modelled the orbits of 92 Kuiper belt objects and found that six of those orbits were far more elongated than the model predicted. He concluded that the simplest explanation was the gravitational pull of a distant planetary companion, such as a Neptune-sized object at 1,500 AU. This Neptune-sized object would cause the perihelia of objects with semi-major axes greater than 300 AU to oscillate, delivering them into planet-crossing orbits like those of and or detached orbits like Sedna's.
In 2014, astronomers announced the discovery of , a large object with a Sedna-like 4,200-year orbit and a perihelion of roughly 80 AU, which led them to suggest that it offered evidence of a potential trans-Neptunian planet. Trujillo and Sheppard argued that the orbital clustering of arguments of perihelia for VP113 and other extremely distant TNOs suggests the existence of a "super-Earth" of between 2 and 15 Earth masses beyond 200 AU and possibly on an inclined orbit at 1500 AU.
In 2014 astronomers at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid suggested that the available data actually indicate more than one trans-Neptunian planet; subsequent work further suggests that the evidence is robust enough.
On January 20, 2016, Brown and Konstantin Batygin published an article corroborating Trujillo and Sheppard's initial findings; proposing a super-Earth (dubbed Planet Nine) based on a statistical clustering of the arguments of perihelia (noted before) near zero and also ascending nodes near 113° of six distant trans-Neptunian objects. They estimated it to be ten times the mass of Earth (about 60% the mass of Neptune) with a semimajor axis of approximately 400–1500 AU.
Even without gravitational evidence, Mike Brown, the discoverer of Sedna, has argued that Sedna's 12,000-year orbit means that probability alone suggests that an Earth-sized object exists beyond Neptune. Sedna's orbit is so eccentric that it spends only a small fraction of its orbital period near the Sun, where it can be easily observed. This means that unless its discovery was a freak accident, there is probably a substantial population of objects roughly Sedna's diameter yet to be observed in its orbital region. Mike Brown noted that "Sedna is about three-quarters the size of Pluto. If there are sixty objects three-quarters the size of Pluto [out there] then there are probably forty objects the size of Pluto ... If there are forty objects the size of Pluto, then there are probably ten that are twice the size of Pluto. There are probably three or four that are three times the size of Pluto, and the biggest of these objects ... is probably the size of Mars or the size of the Earth." However, he notes that, should such an object be found, even though it might approach Earth in size, it would still be a dwarf planet by the current definition, because it would not have cleared its neighbourhood sufficiently.
Additionally, speculation of a possible trans-Neptunian planet has revolved around the so-called "Kuiper cliff". The Kuiper belt terminates suddenly at a distance of 48 AU from the Sun. Brunini and Melita have speculated that this sudden drop-off may be attributed to the presence of an object with a mass between those of Mars and Earth located beyond 48 AU. The presence of an object with a mass similar to that of Mars in a circular orbit at 60 AU leads to a trans-Neptunian object population incompatible with observations. For instance, it would severely deplete the plutino population. Astronomers have not excluded the possibility of an object with a mass similar to that of Earth located farther than 100 AU with an eccentric and inclined orbit. Computer simulations by Patryk Lykawka of Kobe University have suggested that an object with a mass between 0.3 and 0.7 Earth masses, ejected outward by Neptune early in the Solar System's formation and currently in an elongated orbit between 101 and 200 AU from the Sun, could explain the Kuiper cliff and the peculiar detached objects such as Sedna and . Although some astronomers, such as Renu Malhotra and David Jewitt, have cautiously supported these claims, others, such as Alessandro Morbidelli, have dismissed them as "contrived". In 2017, Malhotra and Kat Volk argued that an unexpected variance in inclination for KBOs farther than the cliff at 50 AU provided evidence of a possible Mars-sized planet, possibly up to , residing at the edge of the Solar System, which many news sources referred to as "Planet Ten". Shortly after it was theorized, Lorenzo Iorio showed that the conjectured planet's existance is not ruled out by Cassini ranging data.
Tyche was a hypothetical gas giant proposed to be located in the Solar System's Oort cloud. It was first proposed in 1999 by astrophysicists John Matese, Patrick Whitman and Daniel Whitmire of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. They argued that evidence of Tyche's existence could be seen in a supposed bias in the points of origin for long-period comets. In 2013, Matese and Whitmire re-evaluated the comet data and noted that Tyche, if it existed, would be detectable in the archive of data that was collected by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. In 2014, NASA announced that the WISE survey had ruled out any object with Tyche's characteristics, indicating that Tyche as hypothesized by Matese, Whitman, and Whitmire does not exist.
The oligarch theory of planet formation states that there were hundreds of planet-sized objects, known as oligarchs, in the early stages of the Solar System's evolution. In 2005, astronomer Eugene Chiang speculated that although some of these oligarchs became the planets we know today, most would have been flung outward by gravitational interactions. Some may have escaped the Solar System altogether to become free-floating planets, whereas others would be orbiting in a halo around the Solar System, with orbital periods of millions of years. This halo would lie at between 1,000 and 10,000 AU from the Sun, or between a third and a thirtieth the distance to the Oort cloud.
In December 2015, astronomers at the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) detected a brief series of 350 GHz pulses that they concluded must either be a series of independent sources, or a single, fast moving source. Deciding that the latter was the most likely, they calculated based on its speed that, were it bound to the Sun, the object, which they named "Gna" after a fast-moving messenger goddess in Norse mythology, would be about 12–25 AU distant and have a dwarf planet-sized diameter of 220 to 880 km. However, if it were a rogue planet not gravitationally bound to the Sun, and as far away as 4000 AU, it could be much larger. The paper was never formally accepted, and has been withdrawn until the detection is confirmed. Scientists' reactions to the notice were largely sceptical; Mike Brown commented that, "If it is true that ALMA accidentally discovered a massive outer Solar System object in its tiny, tiny, tiny, field of view, that would suggest that there are something like 200,000 Earth-sized planets in the outer Solar System ... Even better, I just realized that this many Earth-sized planets existing would destabilize the entire Solar System and we would all die."
As of 2016 the following observations severely constrain the mass and distance of any possible additional Solar System planet: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23842 |
Plutino
In astronomy, the plutinos are a dynamical group of trans-Neptunian objects that orbit in 2:3 mean-motion resonance with Neptune. This means that for every two orbits a plutino makes, Neptune orbits three times. The dwarf planet Pluto is the largest member as well as the namesake of this group. Plutinos are named after mythological creatures associated with the underworld.
Plutinos form the inner part of the Kuiper belt and represent about a quarter of the known Kuiper belt objects. They are also the most populous known class of resonant trans-Neptunian objects "(also see adjunct box with hierarchical listing)". Aside from Pluto itself, the first plutino, (385185) 1993 RO, was discovered on September 16, 1993.
It is thought that the objects that are currently in mean orbital resonances with Neptune initially followed a variety of independent heliocentric paths. As Neptune migrated outward early in the Solar System's history (see origins of the Kuiper belt), the bodies it approached would have been scattered; during this process, some of them would have been captured into resonances. The 3:2 resonance is a low-order resonance and is thus the strongest and most stable among all resonances. This is the primary reason it has a larger population than the other Neptunian resonances encountered in the Kuiper Belt. The cloud of low-inclination bodies beyond 40 AU is the cubewano family, while bodies with higher eccentricities (0.05 to 0.34) and semimajor axes close to the 3:2 Neptune resonance are primarily plutinos.
While the majority of plutinos have relatively low orbital inclinations, a significant fraction of these objects follow orbits similar to that of Pluto, with inclinations in the 10–25° range and eccentricities around 0.2–0.25; such orbits result in many of these objects having perihelia close to or even inside Neptune's orbit, while simultaneously having aphelia that bring them close to the main Kuiper belt's outer edge (where objects in a 1:2 resonance with Neptune, the Twotinos, are found).
The orbital periods of plutinos cluster around 247.3 years (1.5 × Neptune's orbital period), varying by at most a few years from this value.
Unusual plutinos include:
See also the comparison with the distribution of the cubewanos.
Pluto's influence on the other plutinos has historically been neglected due to its relatively small mass. However, the resonance width (the range of semi-axes compatible with the resonance) is very narrow and only a few times larger than Pluto's Hill sphere (gravitational influence). Consequently, depending on the original eccentricity, some plutinos will eventually be driven out of the resonance by interactions with Pluto. Numerical simulations suggest that the orbits of plutinos with an eccentricity 10%–30% smaller or larger than that of Pluto are not stable over Ga timescales.
The plutinos brighter than HV=6 include: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23843 |
Prague
Prague (; , , ) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, the 13th largest city in the European Union and the historical capital of Bohemia. Situated on the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 2.7 million. The city has a temperate oceanic climate, with relatively warm summers and chilly winters.
Prague is a political, cultural and economic centre of central Europe complete with a rich history. Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque eras, Prague was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the main residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably of Charles IV (r. 1346–1378).
It was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city played major roles in the Bohemian and Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years' War and in 20th-century history as the capital of Czechoslovakia between the World Wars and the post-war Communist era.
Prague is home to a number of well-known cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter, Petřín hill and Vyšehrad. Since 1992, the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
The city has more than ten major museums, along with numerous theatres, galleries, cinemas and other historical exhibits. An extensive modern public transportation system connects the city. It is home to a wide range of public and private schools, including Charles University in Prague, the oldest university in Central Europe.
Prague is classified as an "Alpha" − global city according to GaWC studies and ranked sixth in the Tripadvisor world list of best destinations in 2016. In 2019, the city was ranked as 69th most liveable city in the world by Mercer. In the same year, the PISCA Index ranked the city as 13th most liveable city in the world. Its rich history makes it a popular tourist destination and as of 2017, the city receives more than 8.5 million international visitors annually. In 2017 Prague was listed as the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Rome and Istanbul.
During the thousand years of its existence, Prague grew from a settlement stretching from Prague Castle in the north to the fort of Vyšehrad in the south, to become the capital of a modern European country.
The region was settled as early as the Paleolithic age. Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the city was founded as Boihaem in c. 1306 BC by an ancient king, Boyya.
Around the fifth and fourth century BC, a Celtic tribe appeared in the area, later establishing settlements including an oppidum in Závist, a present-day suburb of Prague, and naming the region of Bohemia, which means "home of the Boii people". In the last century BC, the Celts were slowly driven away by Germanic tribes (Marcomanni, Quadi, Lombards and possibly the Suebi), leading some to place the seat of the Marcomanni king, Maroboduus, in southern Prague in the suburb now called Závist. Around the area where present-day Prague stands, the 2nd century map drawn by Ptolemaios mentioned a Germanic city called "Casurgis".
In the late 5th century AD, during the great Migration Period following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes living in Bohemia moved westwards and, probably in the 6th century, the Slavic tribes (Venedi) settled the Central Bohemian Region. In the following three centuries, the Czech tribes built several fortified settlements in the area, most notably in the Šárka valley, Butovice and Levý Hradec.
The construction of what came to be known as Prague Castle began near the end of the 9th century, expanding a fortified settlement that had existed on the site since the year 800. The first masonry under Prague Castle dates from the year 885 at the latest. The other prominent Prague fort, the Přemyslid fort Vyšehrad, was founded in the 10th century, some 70 years later than Prague Castle. Prague Castle is dominated by the cathedral, which began construction in 1344, but wasn't completed until the 20th century.
The legendary origins of Prague attribute its foundation to the 8th-century Czech duchess and prophetess Libuše and her husband, Přemysl, founder of the Přemyslid dynasty. Legend says that Libuše came out on a rocky cliff high above the Vltava and prophesied: "I see a great city whose glory will touch the stars." She ordered a castle and a town called Praha to be built on the site.
The region became the seat of the dukes, and later kings of Bohemia. Under Holy Roman Emperor Otto II the area became a bishopric in 973. Until Prague was elevated to archbishopric in 1344, it was under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Mainz.
Prague was an important seat for trading where merchants from across Europe settled, including many Jews, as recalled in 965 by the Hispano-Jewish merchant and traveller Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub. The Old New Synagogue of 1270 still stands in the city. Prague was also once home to an important slave market.
At the site of the ford in the Vltava river, King Vladislaus I had the first bridge built in 1170, the Judith Bridge (Juditin most), named in honour of his wife Judith of Thuringia. This bridge was destroyed by a flood in 1342, but some of the original foundation stones of that bridge remain in the river. It was rebuilt and named the Charles Bridge.
In 1257, under King Ottokar II, Malá Strana ("Lesser Quarter") was founded in Prague on the site of an older village in what would become the Hradčany (Prague Castle) area. This was the district of the German people, who had the right to administer the law autonomously, pursuant to Magdeburg rights. The new district was on the bank opposite of the Staré Město ("Old Town"), which had borough status and was bordered by a line of walls and fortifications.
Prague flourished during the 14th-century reign (1346–1378) of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and the king of Bohemia of the new Luxembourg dynasty. As King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, he transformed Prague into an imperial capital and it was at that time by the area the third-largest city in Europe (after Rome and Constantinople).
Charles IV ordered the building of the New Town (Nové Město) adjacent to the Old Town and laid out the design himself. The Charles Bridge, replacing the Judith Bridge destroyed in the flood just prior to his reign, was erected to connect the east bank districts to the Malá Strana and castle area. On 9 July 1357 at 5:31 am, Charles IV personally laid the first foundation stone for the Charles Bridge. The exact time of laying the first foundation stone is known because the palindromic number 135797531 was carved into the Old Town bridge tower having been chosen by the royal astrologists and numerologists as the best time for starting the bridge construction. In 1347, he founded Charles University, which remains the oldest university in Central Europe.
He began construction of the Gothic Saint Vitus Cathedral, within the largest of the Prague Castle courtyards, on the site of the Romanesque rotunda there. Prague was elevated to an archbishopric in 1344, the year the cathedral was begun.
The city had a mint and was a centre of trade for German and Italian bankers and merchants. The social order, however, became more turbulent due to the rising power of the craftsmen's guilds (themselves often torn by internal fights), and the increasing number of poor.
The Hunger Wall, a substantial fortification wall south of Malá Strana and the Castle area, was built during a famine in the 1360s. The work is reputed to have been ordered by Charles IV as a means of providing employment and food to the workers and their families.
Charles IV died in 1378. During the reign of his son, King Wenceslaus IV (1378–1419), a period of intense turmoil ensued. During Easter 1389, members of the Prague clergy announced that Jews had desecrated the host (Eucharistic wafer) and the clergy encouraged mobs to pillage, ransack and burn the Jewish quarter. Nearly the entire Jewish population of Prague (3,000 people) was murdered.
Jan Hus, a theologian and rector at the Charles University, preached in Prague. In 1402, he began giving sermons in the Bethlehem Chapel. Inspired by John Wycliffe, these sermons focused on what were seen as radical reforms of a corrupt Church. Having become too dangerous for the political and religious establishment, Hus was summoned to the Council of Constance, put on trial for heresy, and burned at the stake in Constanz in 1415.
Four years later Prague experienced its first defenestration, when the people rebelled under the command of the Prague priest Jan Želivský. Hus' death, coupled with Czech proto-nationalism and proto-Protestantism, had spurred the Hussite Wars. Peasant rebels, led by the general Jan Žižka, along with Hussite troops from Prague, defeated Emperor Sigismund, in the Battle of Vítkov Hill in 1420.
During the Hussite Wars when the City of Prague was attacked by "Crusader" and mercenary forces, the city militia fought bravely under the Prague Banner. This swallow-tailed banner is approximately , with a red field sprinkled with small white fleurs-de-lis, and a silver old Town Coat-of-Arms in the centre. The words "PÁN BŮH POMOC NAŠE" (The Lord is our Relief) appeared above the coat-of-arms, with a Hussite chalice centred on the top. Near the swallow-tails is a crescent-shaped golden sun with rays protruding.
One of these banners was captured by Swedish troops in Battle of Prague (1648), when they captured the western bank of the Vltava river and were repulsed from the eastern bank, they placed it in the Royal Military Museum in Stockholm; although this flag still exists, it is in very poor condition. They also took the Codex Gigas and the Codex Argenteus. The earliest evidence indicates that a gonfalon with a municipal charge painted on it was used for Old Town as early as 1419. Since this city militia flag was in use before 1477 and during the Hussite Wars, it is the oldest still preserved municipal flag of Bohemia.
In the following two centuries, Prague strengthened its role as a merchant city. Many noteworthy Gothic buildings were erected and Vladislav Hall of the Prague Castle was added.
In 1526, the Bohemian estates elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg. The fervent Catholicism of its members brought them into conflict in Bohemia, and then in Prague, where Protestant ideas were gaining popularity. These problems were not pre-eminent under Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, elected King of Bohemia in 1576, who chose Prague as his home. He lived in the Prague Castle, where his court welcomed not only astrologers and magicians but also scientists, musicians, and artists. Rudolf was an art lover too, and Prague became the capital of European culture. This was a prosperous period for the city: famous people living there in that age include the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, the painter Arcimboldo, the alchemists Edward Kelley and John Dee, the poet Elizabeth Jane Weston, and others.
In 1618, the famous second defenestration of Prague provoked the Thirty Years' War, a particularly harsh period for Prague and Bohemia. Ferdinand II of Habsburg was deposed, and his place as King of Bohemia taken by Frederick V, Elector Palatine; however his army was crushed in the Battle of White Mountain (1620) not far from the city. Following this in 1621 was an execution of 27 Czech Protestant leaders (involved in the uprising) in Old Town Square and the exiling of many others. Prague was forcibly converted back to Roman Catholicism followed by the rest of Czech lands. The city suffered subsequently during the war under an attack by Electoral Saxony (1631) and during the Battle of Prague (1648). Prague began a steady decline which reduced the population from the 60,000 it had had in the years before the war to 20,000. In the second half of the 17th century, Prague's population began to grow again. Jews had been in Prague since the end of the 10th century and, by 1708, they accounted for about a quarter of Prague's population.
In 1689, a great fire devastated Prague, but this spurred a renovation and a rebuilding of the city. In 1713–14, a major outbreak of plague hit Prague one last time, killing 12,000 to 13,000 people.
In 1744, Frederick the Great of Prussia invaded Bohemia. He took Prague after a severe and prolonged siege in the course of which a large part of the town was destroyed. In 1757 the Prussian bombardment destroyed more than one quarter of the city and heavily damaged St. Vitus Cathedral. However a month later, Frederick the Great was defeated and forced to retreat from Bohemia.
The economy of Prague continued to improve during the 18th century. The population increased to 80,000 inhabitants by 1771. Many rich merchants and nobles enhanced the city with a host of palaces, churches and gardens full of art and music, creating a Baroque city renowned throughout the world to this day.
In 1784, under Joseph II, the four municipalities of Malá Strana, Nové Město, Staré Město, and Hradčany were merged into a single entity. The Jewish district, called Josefov, was included only in 1850. The Industrial Revolution had a strong effect in Prague, as factories could take advantage of the coal mines and ironworks of the nearby region. A first suburb, Karlín, was created in 1817, and twenty years later the population exceeded 100,000.
The revolutions in Europe in 1848 also touched Prague, but they were fiercely suppressed. In the following years, the Czech National Revival began its rise, until it gained the majority in the town council in 1861. Prague had a German-speaking majority in 1848, but by 1880 the number of German speakers had decreased to 14% (42,000), and by 1910 to 6.7% (37,000), due to a massive increase of the city's overall population caused by the influx of Czechs from the rest of Bohemia and Moravia and also due to return of social status importance of the Czech language.
World War I ended with the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the creation of Czechoslovakia. Prague was chosen as its capital and Prague Castle as the seat of president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. At this time Prague was a true European capital with highly developed industry. By 1930, the population had risen to 850,000.
Hitler ordered the German Army to enter Prague on 15 March 1939, and from Prague Castle proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate. For most of its history, Prague had been a multi-ethnic city with important Czech, German and (mostly native German-speaking) Jewish populations. From 1939, when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany, and during the Second World War, most Jews were deported and killed by the Germans. In 1942, Prague was witness to the assassination of one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany—Reinhard Heydrich—during Operation Anthropoid, accomplished by Czechoslovak national heroes Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš. Hitler ordered bloody reprisals.
In February 1945, Prague suffered several bombing raids by the US Army Air Forces. 701 people were killed, more than 1,000 people were injured and some buildings, factories and historical landmarks (Emmaus Monastery, Faust House, Vinohrady Synagogue) were destroyed. Many historic structures in Prague, however, escaped the destruction of the war and the damage was small compared to the total destruction of many other cities in that time. According to American pilots, it was the result of a navigational mistake. In March, a deliberate raid targeted military factories in Prague, killing about 370 people.
On 5 May 1945, two days before Germany capitulated, an uprising against Germany occurred. Several thousand Czechs were killed in four days of bloody street fighting, with many atrocities committed by both sides. At daybreak on 9 May, the 3rd Shock Army of the Red Army took the city almost unopposed. The majority (about 50,000 people) of the German population of Prague either fled or were expelled by the Beneš decrees in the aftermath of the war.
Prague was a city in the territory of military and political control of the Soviet Union (see Iron Curtain). The largest Stalin Monument was unveiled on Letná hill in 1955 and destroyed in 1962. The 4th Czechoslovak Writers' Congress held in the city in June 1967 took a strong position against the regime. On 31 October 1967 students demonstrated at Strahov. This spurred the new secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, Alexander Dubček, to proclaim a new deal in his city's and country's life, starting the short-lived season of the "socialism with a human face". It was the Prague Spring, which aimed at the renovation of institutions in a democratic way. The other Warsaw Pact member countries, except Romania and Albania, reacted with the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the capital on 21 August 1968 by tanks, suppressing any attempt at reform.
Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc committed suicide by self-immolation in January and February 1969 to protest against the "normalization" of the country.
In 1989, after the riot police beat back a peaceful student demonstration, the Velvet Revolution crowded the streets of Prague, and the capital of Czechoslovakia benefited greatly from the new mood. In 1993, after the Velvet Divorce, Prague became the capital city of the new Czech Republic. From 1995 high-rise buildings began to be built in Prague in large quantities. In the late 1990s, Prague again became an important cultural centre of Europe and was notably influenced by globalisation. In 2000, IMF and World Bank summit took place in Prague and anti-globalization riots took place here. In 2002, Prague suffered from widespread floods that damaged buildings and its underground transport system.
Prague launched a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but failed to make the candidate city shortlist. In June 2009, as the result of financial pressures from the global recession, Prague's officials also chose to cancel the city's planned bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
The Czech name Praha is derived from an old Slavic word, "práh", which means "ford" or "rapid", referring to the city's origin at a crossing point of the Vltava river. The same etymology is associated with the Praga district of Warsaw.
Another view to the origin of name is also related to the Czech word "práh" (in the mean of a threshold) and a legendary etymology connects the name of the city with princess Libuše, prophetess and a wife of mythical founder of the Přemyslid dynasty. She is said to have ordered the city "to be built where a man hews a threshold of his house". The Czech "práh" might thus be understood to refer to rapids or fords in the river, the edge of which could have acted as a means of fording the river – thus providing a "threshold" to the castle.
Another derivation of the name "Praha" is suggested from "na prazě", the original term for the shale hillside rock upon which the original castle was built. At that time, the castle was surrounded by forests, covering the nine hills of the future city – the Old Town on the opposite side of the river, as well as the Lesser Town beneath the existing castle, appeared only later.
The English spelling of the city's name is borrowed from French. It is written in a verse of The Beleaguered City by Longfellow (1839) and also in the limerick There was an Old Lady of Prague by Edward Lear (1846) and in the 19th and early 20th centuries it was pronounced in English with the same pronunciation, for example by Lady Diana Cooper (born 1892) on Desert Island Discs in 1969.
Prague is also called the ""City of a Hundred Spires"", based on a count by 19th century mathematician Bernard Bolzano; today's count is estimated by the Prague Information Service at 500. Nicknames for Prague have also included: the Golden City, the Mother of Cities and the Heart of Europe.
Prague is situated on the Vltava river, at . in the centre of the Bohemian Basin. Prague is approximately at the same latitude as Frankfurt, Germany; Paris, France; and Vancouver, Canada.
Prague has an oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb") with humid continental ("Dfb") influences, defined as such by the isotherm. The winters are relatively cold with average temperatures at about freezing point, and with very little sunshine. Snow cover can be common between mid-November and late March although snow accumulations of more than are infrequent. There are also a few periods of mild temperatures in winter. Summers usually bring plenty of sunshine and the average high temperature of . Nights can be quite cool even in summer, though. Precipitation in Prague (and most of the Bohemian lowland) is rather low (just over per year) since it is located in the rain shadow of the Sudetes and other mountain ranges. The driest season is usually winter while late spring and summer can bring quite heavy rain, especially in form of thundershowers. Temperature inversions are relatively common between mid-October and mid-March bringing foggy, cold days and sometimes moderate air pollution. Prague is also a windy city with common sustained western winds and an average wind speed of that often help break temperature inversions and clear the air in cold months.
Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic and as such is the regular seat of its central authorities. Since 24 November 1990, it is de facto again a statutory town, but has a specific status of the municipality and the region at the same time. Prague also houses the administrative institutions of the Central Bohemia Region.
Until 1949, all administrative districts of Prague were formed by the whole one or more cadastral unit, municipality or town. Since 1949, there has been a fundamental change in the administrative division. Since then, the boundaries of many urban districts, administrative districts and city districts are independent of the boundaries of cadastral territories and some cadastral territories are thus divided into administrative and self-governing parts of the city. Cadastral area (for example, Vinohrady, Smíchov) are still relevant especially for the registration of land and real estate and house numbering.
Prague is divided into 10 municipal districts (1-10), 22 administrative districts (1-22), 57 municipal parts, or 112 cadastral areas.
Prague is automously administered by the Prague City Assembly, which is elected through municipal elections and consists of 55 to 70 members. Executive body of Prague, elected by the Assembly is a Prague City Council. The municipal office of Prague is called Prague City Hall. It has 11 members including the mayor and it prepares proposals for the Assembly meetings and ensures that adopted resolutions are fulfilled. The current Mayor of Prague is Czech Pirate Party member Zdeněk Hřib.
According to the 2011 census, about 14% of the city inhabitants were born outside the Czech Republic. That is the highest proportion in the country. However, in 2011, 64.8 per cent of the city's population self-identified themselves as Czechs, which is higher than the national average. Even though official population of Prague hovers around 1.3–1.4 million, the real population is much higher due to only 65% of its residents being marked as permanently living in the city, these data were taken from mobile phone movements around the city, and bring total population of Prague to about 1.9–2 million, and with additional 300,000 to 400,000 people coming to the city for work, education or shopping, on weekdays there are more than 2 million people in the city.
Development of the Prague population since 1378:
The city is traditionally one of the cultural centres of Europe, hosting many cultural events. Some of the significant cultural institutions include the National Theatre ("Národní Divadlo") and the Estates Theatre ("Stavovské or Tylovo" or "Nosticovo divadlo"), where the premières of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and "La clemenza di Tito" were held. Other major cultural institutions are the Rudolfinum which is home to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Municipal House which is home to the Prague Symphony Orchestra. The Prague State Opera (Státní opera) performs at the Smetana Theatre.
The city has many world-class museums, including the National Museum (Národní muzeum), the Museum of the Capital City of Prague, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Alfons Mucha Museum, the African-Prague Museum, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, the Náprstek Museum (Náprstkovo Muzeum), the Josef Sudek Gallery and The Josef Sudek Studio, the National Library and the National Gallery, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic.
There are hundreds of concert halls, galleries, cinemas and music clubs in the city. It hosts music festivals including the Prague Spring International Music Festival, the Prague Autumn International Music Festival, the Prague International Organ Festival and the Prague International Jazz Festival. Film festivals include the Febiofest, the One World Film Festival and Echoes of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The city also hosts the Prague Writers' Festival, the Prague Folklore Days, Prague Advent Choral Meeting the Summer Shakespeare Festival, the Prague Fringe Festival, the World Roma Festival, as well as the hundreds of Vernissages and fashion shows.
Many films have been made at Barrandov Studios and at Prague Studios. Hollywood films set in Prague include ", xXx, Blade II, Children of Dune, Alien vs. Predator, Doom, Chronicles of Narnia, Hellboy, EuroTrip, Van Helsing, Red Tails," and "". Other Czech films shot in Prague include "Empties", "Amadeus" and "The Fifth Horseman is Fear". Also, the romantic music video "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" by Kanye West was shot in the city, and features shots of the Charles Bridge and the Astronomical Clock, among other landmarks. Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music" video was filmed at Prague's Radost FX Club. The city was also the setting for the film "Dungeons and Dragons" in 2000. The music video "Silver and Cold" by AFI, an American rock band, was also filmed in Prague. Many Indian films have also been filmed in the city including "Yuvraaj", "Drona" and "Rockstar". Early 2000s europop hit "Something" by "Lasgo" was filmed at the central train station in Prague.
Video games set in Prague include ", Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, , , , Still Life, " and "".
With the growth of low-cost airlines in Europe, Prague has become a weekend city destination allowing tourists to visit its museums and cultural sites as well as try its Czech beers and cuisine.
The city has many buildings by renowned architects, including Adolf Loos (Villa Müller), Frank O. Gehry (Dancing House) and Jean Nouvel (Golden Angel).
Recent major events held in Prague:
In 2008 the Allegro restaurant received the first Michelin star in the whole of the post-Communist part of Central Europe. It retained its star until 2011. there are two Michelin-starred restaurants in Prague: La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise and Field. Another six have been awarded Michelin's Bib Gourmand: Bistrøt 104, Divinis, Eska, Maso a Kobliha, Na Kopci and Sansho.
In Malá Strana, Staré Město, Žižkov and Nusle there are hundreds of restaurants, bars and pubs, especially with Czech beer. Prague also hosts the Czech Beer Festival (Český pivní festival), which is the largest beer festival in the Czech Republic held for 17 days every year in May. At the festival, more than 70 brands of Czech beer can be tasted. There are several microbrewery festivals throughout the year as well.
Czech beer has a long history, with brewing taking place in Břevnov Monastery in 993. Prague is home to historical breweries Staropramen (Praha 5), U Fleků, U Medvídků, U Tří růží, Strahov Monastery Brewery (Praha 1) and Břevnov Monastery Brewery (Praha 6). Among many microbreweries are: Novoměstský, Pražský most u Valšů, Národní, Boršov, Loď pivovar, U Dobřenských, U Dvou koček, U Supa (Praha 1), Pivovarský dům (Praha 2), Sousedský pivovar Bašta (Praha 4), Suchdolský Jeník, Libocký pivovar (Praha 6), Marina (Praha 7), U Bulovky (Praha 8), Beznoska, Kolčavka (Praha 9), Vinohradský pivovar, Zubatý pes, Malešický mikropivovar (Praha 10), Jihoměstský pivovar (Praha 11), Lužiny (Praha 13), Počernický pivovar (Praha 14) and Hostivar (Praha 15).
Prague's economy accounts for 25% of the Czech GDP making it the highest performing regional economy of the country. As of 2017 its GDP per capita in purchasing power standard is €56,200, making it the sixth best performing region in the EU at 182.4 per cent of the EU-28 average in 2016.
Prague employs almost a fifth of the entire Czech workforce, and its wages are significantly above average (≈+25%). In 2Q/2019, average salaries available in Prague reached CZK 42.297 (≈€1,650) per month, an annual increase of 6.3%, which was nevertheless lower than national increase of 7.2% both in nominal and real terms. (Inflation in Prague was 2.8% in 2Q/2019 as well as with 2.8% nationally.) Since 1990, the city's economic structure has shifted from industrial to service-oriented. Industry is present in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, printing, food processing, manufacture of transport equipment, computer technology and electrical engineering. In the service sector, financial and commercial services, trade, restaurants, hospitality and public administration are the most significant. Services account for around 80 per cent of employment. There are 800,000 employees in Prague, including 120,000 commuters. The number of (legally registered) foreign residents in Prague has been increasing in spite of the country's economic downturn. As of March 2010, 148,035 foreign workers were reported to be living in the city making up about 18 per cent of the workforce, up from 131,132 in 2008. Approximately one-fifth of all investment in the Czech Republic takes place in the city.
Almost one-half of the national income from tourism is spent in Prague. The city offers approximately 73,000 beds in accommodation facilities, most of which were built after 1990, including almost 51,000 beds in hotels and boarding houses.
From the late 1990s to late 2000s, the city was a common filming location for international productions such as Hollywood and Bollywood motion pictures. A combination of architecture, low costs and the existing motion picture infrastructure have proven attractive to international film production companies.
The modern economy of Prague is largely service and export-based and, in a 2010 survey, the city was named the best city in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for business.
In 2005, Prague was deemed among the three best cities in Central and Eastern Europe according to "The Economist"'s livability rankings. The city was named as a top-tier nexus city for innovation across multiple sectors of the global innovation economy, placing 29th globally out of 289 cities, ahead of Brussels and Helsinki for innovation in 2010 in 2thinknow annual analysts Innovation Cities Index.
Na příkopě is the most expensive street among all the states of the V4. In 2017, with the amount of rent €2,640 (CZK 67,480) per square meter per year, ranked on 22nd place among the most expensive streets in the world. The second most expensive is Pařížská street.
In the Eurostat research, Prague ranked fifth among Europe's 271 regions in terms of gross domestic product per inhabitant, achieving 172 per cent of the EU average. It ranked just above Paris and well above the country as a whole, which achieved 80 per cent of the EU average.
Companies with highest turnover in the region in 2014:
Prague is also the site of some of the most important offices and institutions of the Czech Republic
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Prague has become one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. Prague suffered considerably less damage during World War II than some other major cities in the region, allowing most of its historic architecture to stay true to form. It contains one of the world's most pristine and varied collections of architecture, from Romanesque, to Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Gothic, Art Nouveau, Cubist, Neo-Classical and ultra-modern.
Prague is classified as an "Alpha-" global city according to GaWC studies, comparable to Vienna, Manila and Washington, D.C. Prague ranked sixth in the Tripadvisor world list of best destinations in 2016. Its rich history makes it a popular tourist destination, and the city receives more than 8.4 million international visitors annually, .
Nine public universities and thirty six private universities are located in the city, including:
The region city of Prague is an important centre of research. It is the seat of 39 out of 54 institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences, including the largest ones, the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Microbiology and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry. It is also a seat of 10 public research institutes, four business incubators and large hospitals performing research and development activities such as the Motol University Hospital or Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, which was the largest transplant center in Europe as of 2019. Universities seated in Prague (see section "Colleges and Universities") also represent important centres of science and research activities.
, there were 13,000 researchers (out of 30,000 in the country, counted in full-time equivalents), representing a 3% share of Prague's economically active population. Gross expenditure on research and development accounted for €901.3 million (41.5% of country's total).
Some well-known multinational companies have established research and development facilities in Prague, among them Siemens, Honeywell, Oracle, Microsoft and Broadcom.
Prague was selected to host administration of the EU satellite navigation system Galileo. It started to provide its first services in December 2016 and full completion is expected by 2020.
As of 2017, Prague had current transport modal share: 52% of all trips are done in public transport, 24,5% in car, 22,4% on foot, 0,4% on bike and 0,5% by airplane.
The public transport infrastructure consists of a heavily used Prague Integrated Transport (PID, "Pražská integrovaná doprava") of Prague Metro (lines A, B, and C – its length is with 61 stations in total), Prague tram system, Prague buses, commuter S-trains, funiculars, and six ferries. Prague has one of the highest rates of public transport usage in the world, with 1.2 billion passenger journeys per year. Prague has about 300 bus lines (numbers 100–960) and 34 tram lines (numbers 1–26 without 19 and 91–99 ). There are also three funiculars, one on Petřín Hill, one on Mrázovka Hill and a third at the Zoo in Troja.
The Prague tram system now operates various types of trams, including the Tatra T3, newer Tatra KT8D5, T6A5, Škoda 14 T (designed by Porsche), newer modern Škoda 15 T and nostalgic tram lines 23 and 41. Around 400 vehicles are the modernized T3 class, which are typically operated coupled together in pairs.
The Prague tram system is the twelfth longest in the world (142 km) and its rolling stock consists of 857 individual cars, which is the third largest in the world behind Moscow and Budapest. The system carries more than 360 million passengers annually, the highest tram patronage in the world after Budapest, on a per capita basis, Prague has the second highest tram patronage after Zürich.
All services (metro, tramways, city buses, funiculars and ferries) have a common ticketing system that operates on a proof-of-payment system. Basic transfer ticket can be bought for a 30/90-minute ride, short-term tourist passes are available for periods of 24 hours or 3 days, longer-term tickets can be bought on the smart ticketing system Lítačka card, for periods of one month, three months or one year.
Services are run by the Prague Public Transport Company (Dopravní podnik hl. m. Prahy, a. s.) and several other companies. Recently, the "Regional Organiser of Prague Integrated Transport (ROPID)" has franchised operation of ferries on the Vltava river, which are also a part of the public transport system with common fares. Taxi services make pick-ups on the streets or operate from regulated taxi stands.
The Metro has three major lines extending throughout the city: A (green), B (yellow) and C (red). A fourth Metro line D is planned, which would connect the city centre to southern parts of the city. The Prague Metro system served 589.2 million passengers in 2012, making it the fifth busiest metro system in Europe and the most-patronised in the world on a per capita basis. The first section of the Prague metro was put into operation in 1974. It was the stretch between stations Kačerov and Florenc on the current line C. The first part of Line A was opened in 1978 (Dejvická – Náměstí Míru), the first part of line B in 1985 (Anděl – Florenc).
In April 2015, construction finished to extend the green line A further into the northwest corner of Prague closer to the airport. A new interchange station for the bus in the direction of the airport is the station Nádraží Veleslavín. The final station of the green line is Nemocnice Motol (Motol Hospital), giving people direct public transportation access to the largest medical facility in the Czech Republic and one of the largest in Europe. A railway connection to the airport is planned.
In operation there are currently two kinds of units: "81-71M" which is modernized variant of the Soviet Metrovagonmash 81-71 (completely modernized between 1995 and 2003) and new "Metro M1" trains (since 2000), manufactured by consortium consisting of Siemens, ČKD Praha and ADtranz. The minimum interval between two trains is 90 seconds.
The original Soviet vehicles "Ečs" were excluded in 1997, but one vehicle is placed in public transport museum in depot Střešovice. The Náměstí Míru metro station is the deepest station and is equipped with the longest escalator in European Union. The Prague metro is generally considered very safe.
The main flow of traffic leads through the centre of the city and through inner and outer ring roads (partially in operation).
The city forms the hub of the Czech railway system, with services to all parts of the country and abroad. The railway system links Prague with major European cities (which can be reached without transfers), including Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Nurenberg and Dresden (Germany); Vienna, Graz and Linz (Austria); Warsaw and Cracow (Poland); Bratislava and Košice (Slovakia); Budapest (Hungary); Zürich (Switzerland); Split (Croatia, seasonal); Belgrade (Serbia, seasonal) and Moscow (Russia). Travel times range between 2 hours to Dresden and 28 hours to Moscow.
Prague's main international railway station is Hlavní nádraží, rail services are also available from other main stations: Masarykovo nádraží, Holešovice and Smíchov, in addition to suburban stations. Commuter rail services operate under the name Esko Praha, which is part of PID (Prague Integrated Transport).
Prague is served by Václav Havel Airport Prague, the largest airport in the Czech Republic and one of the largest and busiest airports in central and eastern Europe. The airport is the hub of carriers Smartwings and Czech Airlines operating throughout Europe. Other airports in Prague include the city's original airport in the north-eastern district of Kbely, which is serviced by the Czech Air Force, also internationally. It also houses the Prague Aviation Museum. The nearby Letňany airport is mainly used for private aviation and aeroclub aviation. Another airport in the proximity is Aero Vodochody aircraft factory to the north, used for testing purposes, as well as for aeroclub aviation. There are a few aeroclubs around Prague, such as the Točná airfield.
In 2018, 2% of people commute by bike in Prague, cycling is very common as a sport or recreation. As of 2017, there were 178 km (111 mi) of protected cycle paths and routes. Also, there were 48 km (30 mi) of bike lanes and 24 km (15 mi) of specially marked bus lanes that are free to be used by cyclists. Bike sharing is offered by four different companies, three of them are Czech. The first one is Rekola operating in Prague since 2013, which has 900 free flowing bikes around Prague as of 2019. The second one is called Freebike and it is operated by Homeport, it is operating 450 electric bikes in Prague as of 2019. The third one is Velonet, operating less than 50 bikes in Prague 4. Since 2018, scooter sharing is offered by American transportation company Lime which operates more than 1000 electric scooters in Prague as of 2019.
Prague is the site of many sports events, national stadiums and teams.
The city of Prague maintains its own EU delegation in Brussels called Prague House.
Prague was the location of U.S. President Barack Obama's speech on 5 April 2009, which led to the New START treaty with Russia, signed in Prague on 8 April 2010.
The annual conference Forum 2000, which was founded by former Czech President Václav Havel, Japanese philanthropist Yōhei Sasakawa, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel in 1996, is held in Prague. Its main objective is "to identify the key issues facing civilization and to explore ways to prevent the escalation of conflicts that have religion, culture or ethnicity as their primary components", and also intends to promote democracy in non-democratic countries and to support civil society. Conferences have attracted a number of prominent thinkers, Nobel laureates, former and acting politicians, business leaders and other individuals like: Frederik Willem de Klerk, Bill Clinton, Nicholas Winton, Oscar Arias Sánchez, Dalai Lama, Hans Küng, Shimon Peres and Madeleine Albright.
Prague is twinned with:
A number of other settlements are derived or similar to the name of Prague. In many of these cases, Czech emigration has left a number of namesake cities scattered over the globe, with a notable concentration in the New World.
Additionally, Kłodzko is sometimes referred to as "Little Prague" (). Although now in Poland, it had been traditionally a part of Bohemia until 1763 when it became part of Silesia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23844 |
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia () was a series of peace treaties that were signed between May and October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They largely ended the European wars of religion, including the Thirty Years' War. They closed a calamitous period of European history that killed approximately eight million people. Scholars have identified Westphalia as the beginning of the modern international system, based on the concept of Westphalian sovereignty, though this interpretation has been challenged.
The negotiation process was lengthy and complex. Talks took place in two different cities, because each side wanted to meet on territory under its own control. A total of 109 delegations arrived to represent the belligerent states, but not all delegations were present at the same time. Three treaties were signed to end each of the overlapping wars: the Peace of Münster, the Treaty of Münster, and the Treaty of Osnabrück. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, with the Habsburgs (rulers of Austria and Spain) and their Catholic allies on one side, battling the Protestant powers (Sweden, Denmark, and certain Holy Roman principalities) allied with France (Catholic but anti-Habsburg). The treaties also ended the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch.
The Peace of Westphalia established the precedent of peace established by diplomatic congress. A new system of political order arose in central Europe, based upon peaceful coexistence among sovereign states. Inter-state aggression was held in check by a balance of power, and a norm was established against interference in another state's domestic affairs. As European influence spread across the globe, these Westphalian principles, especially the concept of sovereign states, became central to international law and the prevailing world order.
Peace negotiations between France and the Habsburgs began in Cologne in 1641. These negotiations were initially blocked by Cardinal Richelieu of France, who insisted on the inclusion of all his allies, whether fully sovereign countries or states within the Holy Roman Empire. In Hamburg and Lübeck, Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire negotiated the Treaty of Hamburg with the intervention of Richelieu. The Holy Roman Empire and Sweden declared that the preparations of Cologne and the Treaty of Hamburg were preliminaries of an overall peace agreement.
The main peace negotiations took place in Westphalia, in the neighboring cities of Münster and Osnabrück. Both cities were maintained as neutral and demilitarized zones for the negotiations.
In Münster, negotiations took place between the Holy Roman Empire and France, as well as between the Dutch Republic and Spain. Münster had been, since its re-Catholicisation in 1535, a strictly mono-denominational community. It housed the Chapter of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster. Only Roman Catholic worship was permitted, while Calvinism and Lutheranism were prohibited.
Sweden preferred to negotiate with the Holy Roman Empire in Osnabrück, controlled by the Protestant forces. Osnabrück was a bidenominational Lutheran and Catholic city, with two Lutheran churches and two Catholic churches. The city council was exclusively Lutheran, and the burghers mostly so, but the city also housed the Catholic Chapter of the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück and had many other Catholic inhabitants. Osnabrück had been subjugated by troops of the Catholic League from 1628 to 1633 and then taken by Lutheran Sweden.
The peace negotiations had no exact beginning and ending, because the 109 delegations never met in a plenary session. Instead, various delegations arrived between 1643 and 1646 and left between 1647 and 1649. The largest number of diplomats were present between January 1646 and July 1647.
Delegations had been sent by 16 European states, 66 Imperial States representing the interests of 140 Imperial States, and 27 interest groups representing 38 groups.
Three separate treaties constituted the peace settlement.
The power asserted by Ferdinand III was stripped from him and returned to the rulers of the Imperial States. The rulers of the Imperial States could henceforth choose their own official religions. Catholics and Protestants were redefined as equal before the law, and Calvinism was given legal recognition as an official religion. The independence of the Dutch Republic, which practiced religious toleration, also provided a safe haven for European Jews.
The Holy See was very displeased at the settlement, with Pope Innocent X calling it "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time" in the bull "Zelo Domus Dei".
The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were:
The treaties did not entirely end conflicts arising out of the Thirty Years' War. Fighting continued between France and Spain until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. The Dutch-Portuguese War had begun during the Iberian Union between Spain and Portugal, as part of the Eighty Years' War, and went on until 1663. Nevertheless, the Peace of Westphalia did settle many outstanding European issues of the time.
Scholars of international relations have identified the Peace of Westphalia as the origin of principles crucial to modern international relations, including the inviolability of borders and non-interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. This system became known in the literature as Westphalian sovereignty. Although scholars have challenged the association with the Peace of Westphalia, the debate is still structured around the concept of Westphalian sovereignty. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23850 |
Pope Damasus I
Pope Damasus I (; c. 305 – 11 December 384) was the bishop of Rome from October 366 to his death. He presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He spoke out against major heresies in the church (including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism) and encouraged production of the Vulgate Bible with his support for Jerome. He helped reconcile the relations between the Church of Rome and the Church of Antioch, and encouraged the veneration of martyrs.
As well as various prose letters and other pieces Damasus was the author of Latin verse. Alan Cameron describes his epitaph for a young girl called Projecta (of great interest to scholars as the Projecta Casket in the British Museum may have been made for her) as "a tissue of tags and clichés shakily strung together and barely squeezed into the meter".
Damasus has been described as "the first society Pope", and was possibly a member of a group of Spanish Christians, largely related to each other, who were close to the Spaniard Theodosius I.
A number of images of "DAMAS" in gold glass cups probably represent him and seem to be the first contemporary images of a pope to survive, though there is no real attempt at a likeness. "Damas" appears with other figures, including a Florus who may be Projecta's father. It has been suggested that Damasus or another of the group commissioned and distributed these to friends or supporters, as part of a programme "insistently inserting his episcopal presence in the Christian landscape".
He is recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church; his feast day is 11 December. In the Eastern Orthodox Church his feast day is 13 November.
His life coincided with the rise of Emperor Constantine I and the reunion and re-division of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, which is associated with the legitimization of Christianity and its later adoption as the official religion of the Roman state in 380.
The reign of Gratian, which coincided with Damasus' papacy, forms an important epoch in ecclesiastical history, since during that period (359–383), Catholic Christianity for the first time became dominant throughout the empire. Under the influence of Ambrose, Gratian refused to wear the insignia of the "pontifex maximus" as unbefitting a Christian, removed the Altar of Victory from the Senate at Rome, despite protests from the pagan members of the Senate. Emperor Gratian also forbade legacies of real property to the Vestals and abolished other privileges belonging to them and to the pontiffs.
Pope Damasus I was born in Rome around 305. Damasus' parents were Antonius, who became a priest at the Church of St. Lawrence (San Lorenzo) in Rome, and his wife Laurentia. Both parents originally come from the region of Lusitania. Damasus began his ecclesiastical career as a deacon in his father's church, where he went on to serve as a priest. This later became the basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls in Rome.
During Damasus' early years, Constantine I rose to rule the Western Roman Empire. As emperor, he issued the Edict of Milan (313), which granted religious freedom to Christians in all parts of the Roman Empire. A crisis precipitated by the rejection of religious freedom by Licinius, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, in favor of paganism resulted in a civil war in 324 that placed Constantine firmly in control of a reunited Empire. This led to the establishment of Christian religious supremacy in Constantinople and gradually led to a See in that city which sought to rival the authority of the Roman See. Damasus was most likely in his twenties at the time.
When Pope Liberius was banished by Emperor Constantius II to Berea in 354, Damasus was archdeacon of the Roman church and followed Liberius into exile, though he immediately returned to Rome. During the period before Liberius' return, Damasus had a great share in the government of the church.
In the early Church, bishops were customarily elected by the clergy and the people of the diocese. While this simple method worked well in a small community of Christians unified by persecution, as the congregation grew in size, the acclamation of a new bishop was fraught with division, and rival claimants and a certain class hostility between patrician and plebeian candidates unsettled some episcopal elections. At the same time, 4th-century emperors expected each new pope-elect to be presented to them for approval, which sometimes led to state domination of the Church's internal affairs.
Following the death of Pope Liberius on 24 September 366, Damasus succeeded to the Papacy amidst factional violence. The deacons and laity, supported Liberius' deacon Ursinus. The upper-class former partisans of Felix, who had ruled during Liberius' exile, supported the election of Damasus.
The two were elected simultaneously (Damasus' election was held in San Lorenzo in Lucina). J. N. D. Kelly states that Damasus hired a gang of thugs that stormed the Julian Basilica, carrying out a three-day massacre of the Ursinians. Thomas Shahan says details of this scandalous conflict are related in the highly prejudiced "Libellus Precum" (P.L., XIII, 83-107), a petition to the civil authority on the part of Faustinus and Marcellinus, two anti-Damasan presbyters. Such was the violence and bloodshed that the two prefects of the city were called in to restore order, and after a first setback, when they were driven to the suburbs and a massacre of 137 was perpetrated in the basilica of Sicininus (the modern Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore), the prefects banished Ursinus to Gaul. Both Cynthia White and Edward Gibbon have suggested a quid pro quo between the prefect Praetextatus and Damasus to secure his election and exile Urbanus, in return for Damasus's support of Praetextatus's power in Pagan circles. There was further violence when he returned, which continued after Ursinus was exiled again.
Another ancient narrative of events, the "Gesta" (dated to 368 A.D.), provides more detail. It describes Ursinus as being the valid successor to Liberius, and Damasus as following a heretical interloper, Felix. This account also records that an armed force instigated by Damasus broke into the Basilica of Julius and a three-day slaughtering of those assembled there took place. After gaining control of the Lateran basilica Damasus was then ordained as bishop in the cathedral of Rome. However, Damasus was accused of bribing the urban officials of Rome to have Ursinus and chief supporters exiled, including some presbyters. As a result of this attempt, some of (the apparently quite numerous) supporters of Ursinus interrupted this process and rescued the presbyters, taking them to the Basilica of Liberius (identified as the "basilica of Sicinnius"), the apparent headquarters of the Ursinian sect. Damasus then responded by ordering an attack against the Liberian basilica, resulting in another massacre: "They broke down the doors and set fire underneath it, then rushed in...and killed a hundred and sixty of the people inside, both men and women." Damasus next sent a final assault against some Ursinian supporters who had fled to the cemetery of Saint Agnes, slaying many.
Church historians such as Jerome and Rufinus, championed Damasus. At a synod in 378, Ursinus was condemned and Damasus exonerated and declared the true pope. The former antipope continued to intrigue against Damasus for the next few years and unsuccessfully attempted to revive his claim on Damasus's death. Ursinus was among the Arian party in Milan, according to Ambrose.
Damasus faced accusations of murder and adultery in his early years as pope. Edward Gibbon writes, "The enemies of Damasus styled him "Auriscalpius Matronarum," the ladies' ear-scratcher." The neutrality of these claims has come into question with some suggesting that the accusations were motivated by the schismatic conflict with the supporters of Arianism.
Damasus I was active in defending the Catholic Church against the threat of schisms. In two Roman synods (368 and 369) he condemned Apollinarianism and Macedonianism, and sent legates to the First Council of Constantinople that was convoked in 381 to address these heresies.
One of the important works of Pope Damasus was to preside in the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of Sacred Scripture. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, states:
A council probably held at Rome in 382 under Damasus gave a complete list of the canonical books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament (also known as the 'Gelasian Decree' because it was reproduced by Gelasius in 495), which is identical with the list given at Trent. American Catholic priest and historian William Jurgens stated: "The first part of this decree has long been known as the Decree of Damasus, and concerns the Holy Spirit and the seven-fold gifts. The second part of the decree is more familiarly known as the opening part of the Gelasian Decree, in regard to the canon of Scripture: De libris recipiendis vel non recipiendis. It is now commonly held that the part of the Gelasian Decree dealing with the accepted canon of Scripture is an authentic work of the Council of Rome of 382 A.D. and that Gelasius edited it again at the end of the fifth century, adding to it the catalog of the rejected books, the apocrypha. It is now almost universally accepted that these parts one and two of the Decree of Damasus are authentic parts of the Acts of the Council of Rome of 382 A.D." (Jurgens, Faith of the Early Fathers)
Pope Damasus appointed Jerome as his confidential secretary. Invited to Rome originally to a synod of 382 convened to end the schism of Antioch, he made himself indispensable to the pope, and took a prominent place in his councils. Jerome spent three years (382–385) in Rome in close intercourse with Pope Damasus and the leading Christians. Writing in 409, Jerome remarked, "A great many years ago when I was helping Damasus, bishop of Rome with his ecclesiastical correspondence, and writing his answers to the questions referred to him by the councils of the east and west..."
In order to put an end to the marked divergences in the western texts of that period, Damasus encouraged the highly respected scholar Jerome to revise the available Old Latin versions of the Bible into a more accurate Latin on the basis of the Greek New Testament and the Septuagint, resulting in the Vulgate. According to Protestant biblical scholar, F.F. Bruce, the commissioning of the Vulgate was a key moment in fixing the biblical canon in the West.
Jerome devoted a very brief notice to Damasus in his "De Viris Illustribus", written after Damasus' death: "he had a fine talent for making verses and published many brief works in heroic metre. He died in the reign of the emperor Theodosius at the age of almost eighty". Damasus may be the author of the anonymous "Carmen contra paganos" (song against the pagans).
The letters from Jerome to Damasus are examples of the primacy of the See of Peter:
The Eastern Church, in the person of Basil of Caesarea, earnestly sought the aid and encouragement of Damasus against an apparently triumphant Arianism. Damasus, however, harbored some degree of suspicion against the great Cappadocian Doctor of the Church. In the matter of the Meletian Schism at Antioch, Damasus — together with Athanasius of Alexandria, and his successor, Peter II of Alexandria — sympathized with the party of Paulinus as more sincerely representative of Nicene orthodoxy. On the death of Meletius he sought to secure the succession for Paulinus and to exclude Flavian. During his papacy, Peter II of Alexandria sought refuge in Rome from the persecuting Arians. He was received by Damasus, who supported him against the Arians.
Damasus supported the appeal of the Christian senators to Emperor Gratian for the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate House, and lived to welcome the famous edict of Theodosius I, "De fide Catholica" (27 February 380), which proclaimed as the religion of the Roman State that doctrine which Peter had preached to the Romans and of which Damasus was head.
Damasus also did much to encourage the veneration of the Christian martyrs, restoring and creating access to their tombs in the Catacombs of Rome and elsewhere, and setting up tablets with verse inscriptions composed by himself, several of which survive or are recorded in his "Epigrammata".
Damasus rebuilt or repaired his father's church named for Laurence, known as San Lorenzo fuori le Mura ("St Lawrence outside the walls"), which by the 7th century was a station on the itineraries of the graves of the Roman martyrs. Damasus' regard for the Roman martyr is attested also by the tradition according to which the Pope built a church devoted to Laurence in his own house, San Lorenzo in Damaso.
Damasus was pope for eighteen years and two months. His feast day is 11 December. He was buried beside his mother and sister in a "funerary basilica ... somewhere between the Via Appia and Via Ardeatina", the exact location of which is lost. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23851 |
Pope Honorius II
Pope Honorius II (9 February 1060 – 13 February 1130), born Lamberto Scannabecchi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 21 December 1124 to his death in 1130.
Although from a humble background, his obvious intellect and outstanding abilities saw him promoted up through the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Attached to the Frangipani family of Rome, his election as pope was contested by a rival candidate, Celestine II, and force was used to guarantee his election.
Honorius's pontificate was concerned with ensuring that the privileges the Roman Catholic Church had obtained through the Concordat of Worms were preserved and, if possible, extended. He was the first pope to confirm the election of the Holy Roman Emperor. Distrustful of the traditional Benedictine order, he favoured new monastic orders, such as the Augustinians and the Cistercians, and sought to exercise more control over the larger monastic centres of Monte Cassino and Cluny Abbey. He also approved the new military order of the Knights Templar in 1128.
Honorius II failed to prevent Roger II of Sicily from extending his power in southern Italy and was unable to stop Louis VI of France from interfering in the affairs of the French church. Like his predecessors, he managed the wide-ranging affairs of the church through Papal Legates. With his death in 1130, the Church was again thrown into confusion with the election of two rival popes, Innocent II and the antipope Anacletus II.
Lamberto was of simple rural origins, hailing from Fiagnano in the Casalfiumanese commune, near Imola in present-day Italy. Entering into an ecclesiastical career, he soon became archdeacon of Bologna, where his abilities eventually saw him attract the attention of Pope Urban II, who presumably appointed him cardinal priest of the "Titulus St. Praxedis" in 1099. His successor, Pope Paschal II, made Lamberto a Canon of the Lateran before elevating him to the position of cardinal bishop of Ostia in 1117. Lamberto was one of the cardinals who accompanied Pope Gelasius II into exile in 1118–19 and was at his bedside when Gelasius died.
With Gelasius's death at Cluny on 29 January 1119, Cardinal Lamberto and Cardinal Cono (Bishop of Palestrina) conducted the election of a new pope according to the canons. Cardinal Lamberto carried out the coronation of Guy de Bourgogne at Vienne on 9 February 1119, and became a close advisor of Pope Callixtus II. Accompanying Callixtus throughout France, he assisted Callixtus in his initial dealings with Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. As a well-known opponent of the emperor's right to select bishops in his territories (the Investiture Controversy), Lamberto was a natural choice for papal legate. He was sent in 1119 to deal with Henry V and delegated with powers to come to an understanding concerning the right of investiture.
Forceful and determined, he summoned the bishops of the Holy Roman Empire to attend an assembly at Mainz on 8 September 1122. He expected absolute obedience, so much so that it took the mediation of Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz to prevent the suspension of Saint Otto of Bamberg for non-attendance. The struggle came to a conclusion with the Concordat of Worms in 1122 and the ""Pactum Calixtinum"" that was almost entirely due to Lamberto's efforts was effected on 23 September 1123.
Pressures building within the Curia, together with ongoing conflicts among the Roman nobility, would erupt after the death of Callixtus II in 1124. The pontificates of Urban II and Paschal II saw an expansion in the College of Cardinals of Italian clerics that strengthened the local Roman influence. These cardinals were reluctant to meet with the batch of cardinals recently promoted by Callixtus II, who were mainly French or Burgundian. As far as the older cardinals were concerned, these newer cardinals were dangerous innovators, and they were determined to resist their increasing influence. The northern cardinals, led by Cardinal Aymeric de Bourgogne (the Papal Chancellor), were equally determined to ensure that the elected pope would be one of their candidates. Both groups looked towards the great Roman families for support.
By 1124, there were two great factions dominating local politics in Rome: the Frangipani family, which controlled the region around the fortified Colosseum and supported the northern cardinals, and the Pierleoni family, which controlled the Tiber Island and the fortress of the Theatre of Marcellus and supported the Italian cardinals. With Callixtus II's death on 13 December 1124, both families agreed that the election of the next pope should be in three days time, in accordance with the church canons. The Frangipani, led by Leo Frangipani, pushed for the delay in order that they could promote their preferred candidate, Lamberto, but the people were eager to see Saxo de Anagni, the Cardinal-Priest of San Stefano in Celiomonte elected as the next pope. Leo, eager to ensure a valid election, approached key members of every Cardinal's entourage, promising each one that he would support their master when the voting for the election was underway.
On 16 December, all the Cardinals, including Lamberto, assembled in the chapel of the monastery of St. Pancratius attached to the south of the Lateran basilica. There, at the suggestion of Jonathas, the Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Cosma e Damiano, who was a partisan of the Pierleoni family, the Cardinals unanimously elected as Pope the Cardinal-Priest of Sant'Anastasia, Theobaldo Boccapecci, who took the name Celestine II. He had only just put on the red mantle and the "Te Deum" was being sung when an armed party of Frangipani supporters (in a move pre-arranged with Cardinal Aymeric) burst in, attacked the newly enthroned Celestine, who was wounded, and acclaimed Lamberto as Pope. Since Celestine had not been formally consecrated pope, the wounded candidate declared himself willing to resign, but the Pierleoni family and their supporters refused to accept Lamberto, who in the confusion had been proclaimed Pope under the name Honorius II.
Rome descended into factional infighting, while Cardinal Aymeric and Leo Frangipani attempted to win over the resistance of Urban, the City Prefect, and the Pierleoni family with bribes and extravagant promises. Eventually, Celestine's supporters abandoned him, leaving Honorius the only contender for the papal throne. Honorius, unwilling to accept the throne in such a manner, resigned his position before all of the assembled Cardinals, but was immediately and unanimously re-elected and consecrated on 21 December 1124.
Honorius immediately came into conflict with Emperor Henry V over imperial claims in Italy. In 1116, Henry had crossed the Alps to lay claim to the Italian territories of Matilda of Tuscany, which she had supposedly left to the papacy on her death. Henry had immediately begun appointing imperial vicars throughout the newly acquired province over the objections of both the Tuscan cities and the papacy. To maintain papal claims to Tuscany, Honorius appointed Albert, a papal marquis, to rule in the pope's name in opposition to the imperial Margrave of Tuscany, Conrad von Scheiern. In addition, Henry V made very little effort to implement the terms of the Concordant of Worms, to Honorius II's irritation. Local churches were forced to appeal to Rome to obtain restitution from the imperial bishops who had taken advantage of the Investiture Controversy to obtain property for their own benefit, as the Emperor turned a blind eye.
The death of Emperor Henry V on 23 May 1125 put an end to these squabbles, but soon Honorius was involved in a new power struggle in the Holy Roman Empire. Henry died childless and had nominated his nephew Frederick Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia, to succeed him as King of the Romans and Holy Roman Emperor. Of the German princes, the ecclesiastical faction was against any expansion of Hohenstaufen power, and they were determined to ensure that Frederick would not succeed Henry. Led by Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz, the Archchancellor of the empire, and under the watchful gaze of two papal legates, Cardinals Gherardo and Romano, the clerical and lay nobles of the empire elected Lothair of Supplinburg, Duke of Saxony. At Lothair's request, Cardinal Gherardo and two bishops then sent word to Rome to obtain Honorius's confirmation of the election, which he granted. This was a coup for Honorius, as such a confirmation had never occurred before, and around July 1126 Honorius invited Emperor Lothair to Rome to obtain the imperial title. Lothair was keen to keep Honorius on his side, keeping to the terms of the Concordat of Worms by not attending episcopal elections, agreeing that the investiture should only occur after the bishop's consecration, and that the oath of homage be replaced with an oath of fidelity.
Lothair was unable to visit Rome immediately as Germany was rocked by the rebellion of the Hohenstaufen brothers, with Conrad Hohenstaufen elected anti-king in December 1127, followed by his descent into Italy and his crowning as King of Italy at Monza on 29 July 1128. The German bishops, again led by Adalbert of Mainz, excommunicated Conrad, an act that was confirmed by Honorius in a synod held in Rome at Easter (22 April 1128). Honorius also sent Cardinal John of Crema to Pisa to hold another synod that excommunicated Archbishop Anselm of Milan, who had crowned Conrad king. Conrad found little help in Italy and with Honorius's support, Lothair was able to keep his throne.
One of the key ecclesiastical advisors of Lothair III was Saint Norbert of Xanten, who travelled to Rome in early 1126 to seek the formal sanction from Honorius to establish a new monastic order, the Premonstratensian Order (also known as the Norbertines), which Honorius agreed to do.
One of Honorius's first tasks in southern Italy was to deal with the barons in the Campania who were molesting farmers and travellers at will with their armed bands. In 1125, papal force brought to heel the lords of Ceccano. Papal armies took possession of various towns, including Maenza, Roccasecca and Trevi nel Lazio. In 1128, Honorius's forces successfully captured the town of Segni, which was also held by a local baron who died during its capture. Honorius, however, was most concerned about the former papal stronghold at Fumone, which the nobles, who held it in the pope's name, had decided to keep possession of. The town fell in July 1125 after a siege of ten weeks. When Honorius took possession of Fumone, he returned it, after taking safeguards, to its rebellious custodians and ordered that the Antipope Gregory VIII be transferred there from his previous lodgings at Monte Cassino. With that, Honorius turned his attention to the powerful and independent-minded abbot of Monte Cassino, Oderisio di Sangro.
Honorius had a long-standing dislike of Oderisio going back to the time when Honorius was cardinal-bishop of Ostia. Honorius had asked for permission from the abbot to allow him and his entourage permission to stay in the church of Santa Maria in Pallara, which was a traditional privilege belonging to the bishops of Ostia. Oderisio refused, and Honorius never forgot the insult. These bad feelings were compounded in 1125, when Oderisio refused a request from Pope Honorius for some financial assistance after he had been enthroned. Oderisio also mocked Honorius's peasant background behind his back.
Using reports that the abbot had been lining his own pockets rather than spending it on his monastery, Honorius publicly denounced Oderisio, calling him a soldier and a thief, not a monk. When Atenulf, count of Aquino, brought accusations that Oderisio was aiming for the papacy, Honorius summoned Oderisio to Rome to answer the charges. Three times Oderisio refused to answer the summons and so during Lent of 1126, Honorius deposed the abbot. Oderisio refused to accept the deposition and continued to act as abbot, forcing Honorius to excommunicate him. Oderisio fortified the monastery, as the people of the town of Cassino forcibly entered the monastery, and after an armed struggle forced the monks to declare Oderisio deposed and to elect another abbot in his place. The monks elected Niccolo, the dean of the monastery.
Determined to bring the Benedictines to heel, Honorius insisted that the election of Niccolo was uncanonical, and demanded that Seniorectus, the provost of the monastery at Capua, be elected as abbot, to the fury of the Monte Cassino monks. In the meantime, open warfare was being waged between the supporters of Oderisio and Niccolo. Eventually, however, Honorius was able to secure not only the resignation of Oderisio, but he also excommunicated Niccolo for good measure. He reassured the monks of his intentions, and in September 1127, he personally installed Seniorectus as abbot. Honorius also insisted that the monks take an oath of fidelity to the papacy, but they strenuously objected.
Matters to the south of Monte Cassino soon occupied Honorius's attention. In July 1127, William II, Duke of Apulia, died childless, and almost immediately his cousin King Roger II of Sicily sailed to the mainland to occupy the duchies of Apulia and Calabria. Roger claimed that William had nominated him his heir, while Honorius stated that William had left his territory to the Holy See. Honorius had just suffered a defeat at the hands of a local baron at Arpino in 1127 when Honorius received word that Roger had landed in Italy. He rushed to Benevento to prevent the local Normans from reaching an agreement with Roger. Roger in the meantime had rapidly overrun the duchy of Apulia and had sent Honorius lavish gifts, asking the Pope to recognise him as the new duke and promising to hand over Troia and Montefusco in exchange. Honorius, fearing the expansion of Norman power to the south under one dominating ruler, threatened to excommunicate Roger if he persisted. In the meantime, many of the local Norman nobles, fearful of Roger's power, allied themselves with Honorius, as Honorius formally excommunicated Roger in November 1127. Roger left his armies threatening Benevento, while he returned to Sicily for reinforcements. Honorius in the meantime entered into an alliance with the new Prince of Capua, Robert II. On 30 December 1127, Honorius preached a crusade against Roger II after having anointed Robert as Prince of Capua.
Roger returned in May 1128 and continued to harass papal strongholds while avoiding any direct confrontation with Honorius's forces. In July 1128, the two armies came in contact with each other on the banks of the Bradano, but Roger refused to engage, believing that the papal armies would soon fall apart, and soon enough some of the Pope's allies began deserting to Roger. Trying to salvage something of the situation, Honorius sent his trusted advisor Cardinal Aymeric together with Cencio II Frangipane to negotiate with Roger secretly. Honorius agreed to invest Roger with the duchy of Apulia in exchange for an oath of faith and homage by Roger.
Honorius travelled to Benevento, and after safeguarding the interests of Robert of Capua, he met Roger on the Pons Major, the bridge which crosses the Sabbato river near Benevento, on 22 August 1128. There, he formally invested Roger with the duchy of Apulia and both agreed to a peace between the Kingdom of Sicily and the Papal States. Unfortunately, Honorius had just returned to Rome when he was informed that the nobles of Benevento had overthrown and killed the rector (or papal governor) of the city and established a Commune. Furious, he declared he would wreak a terrible vengeance on the city, whereupon the residents asked Honorius for forgiveness and to send another governor. Honorius sent Cardinal Gherardo as the new rector, and in 1129 visited the city again, asking that the city allow the return of those they had banished during the formation of the Commune. They refused, and Honorius asked Roger II of Sicily to punish the city in May 1130, but Honorius died before action was taken.
Aside from the Benedictines at Monte Cassino, Honorius was also determined to deal with the monks at Cluny Abbey under their ambitious and worldly abbot, Pons of Melgueil. He had just returned from the Levant after being forced out by his monks in 1122. In 1125, accompanied by an armed following, Pons took possession of Cluny Abbey, melted down the treasures stored in the monastery, and paid his followers, who continued to terrorise the monks and the villages dependent upon the abbey.
Honorius, on hearing news of the disorders at Cluny, sent a legate to investigate with orders to excommunicate and denounce Pons and order him to present himself before Honorius. Pons eventually obeyed the summons, and was deposed by Honorius in 1126 before being imprisoned in the Septizodium, where he soon died. Honorius personally reinvested Peter the Venerable as Abbot of Cluny.
Honorius soon became involved in the quarrel between King Louis VI of France and the French bishops. Stephen of Senlis, the Bishop of Paris, had been heavily influenced by the reforming zeal of Bernard of Clairvaux, and actively sought to remove royal influence in the French church. Louis confiscated Stephen's wealth and began harassing him so that he would cease his reforming activities. At the same time, Louis also had in his sights Henri Sanglier, the Archbishop of Sens, who had also joined the reformers. Charging Henri with simony, Louis attempted to remove another threat from within the French church. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote to Honorius asking him to intervene on behalf of both men and support church independence over the claims of royal jurisdiction and interference.
Royal pressure was also brought to bear on Hildebert of Lavardin, whom Honorius had transferred from the see of Le Mans to become the Archbishop of Tours in 1125. In 1126, Louis insisted on filling episcopal vacancies in the See of Tours with his own candidates over Hildebert's objections. Hildebert also complained to Honorius about the constant appeals to Rome whenever he made a ruling.
In response to the king's actions, the French bishops laid an interdict on the diocese of Paris, causing Louis to write to Honorius, who suspended the interdict in 1129. Although this incurred the wrath of Bernard of Clairvaux, who wrote to Honorius expressing his disgust, Honorius pressured Stephen of Senlis to become reconciled with King Louis in 1130. Henri Sanglier, on the other hand, continued in his role of archbishop without further interference from the king. By the end of his pontificate, Honorius had ended the conflict between Louis and his bishops.
In 1127, Honorius confirmed the acts of the Synod of Nantes, presided over by Archbishop Hildebert of Lavardin, which eradicated certain local abuses in Brittany. That same year, Honorius helped Conan III, Duke of Brittany, bring one of his rebellious vassals to heel. He also intervened on behalf of the monks of the Lérins Islands who were constantly harassed by Arab pirates, encouraging a crusade to help defend the monks.
Honorius was also called to intervene in the affairs of Normandy, as Fulk of Anjou and King Henry I of England battled for domination. Henry objected to the marriage of Fulk's daughter Sibylla of Anjou to William Clito, the son of the duke of Normandy, on the grounds that they were too closely related by blood, being sixth cousins. They refused to divorce, and Honorius was forced to excommunicate Fulk and his son-in-law and to impose an interdict upon their territories.
In England, the ongoing dispute between the Sees of Canterbury and York over primacy continued unabated. On 5 April 1125, Honorius wrote to Thurstan, Archbishop of York, advising him that Honorius planned to settle the issue personally. He sent a legate, Cardinal John of Crema, to deal with the question of primacy, as well as other jurisdictional issues between Canterbury and Wales, and between York, Scotland and Norway. Honorius wrote to the clergy and nobles of England, directing them to treat his legate as if he were Honorius himself.
In Honorius's name, John of Crema convened the Synod of Roxburgh in 1125. In a letter written to King David I of Scotland, the king was asked to send the bishops of Scotland to the Council, which discussed the claims of the Archbishop of York to have jurisdiction over the church in Scotland. Upholding the claims of York, Honorius was unsuccessful in forcing the Scottish bishops to obey Archbishop Thurstan.
Next, John convened the Synod of Westminster in September 1125, which was attended by both the archbishops of Canterbury and York, together with twenty bishops and forty abbots. Although the synod issued rulings on the forbidding of simony and of holding multiple sees at the same time, it did not touch on the vexed question of primacy between Canterbury and York. Instead, John summoned the two prelates to travel with him to Rome to discuss the matter in person before Honorius. They arrived in late 1125 and were greeted warmly by Honorius, and they remained in Rome until early 1126. While there, Honorius ruled that the Bishop of St Andrews was to be subject to the Archbishop of York and in the more contentious issue, he attempted to circumvent his way around the problem by declaring that Thurstan was subject to William de Corbeil, not in his role as Archbishop of Canterbury, but as papal legate for England and Scotland. To emphasise this, Honorius decreed that the Archbishop of Canterbury could not ask for any oath of obedience from the Archbishop of York, and in the matter of honorary distinction, it was the Archbishop of Canterbury in his role as Legate that was the most elevated ecclesiastic in the kingdom.
Urban of Llandaff also travelled to Rome on numerous occasions to meet with Honorius throughout 1128 and 1129, to plead his case that his diocese should not be subject to the see of Canterbury. Although he obtained numerous privileges for his see and Honorius always spoke encouragingly to him, Honorius avoided having to make a decision that might alienate the powerful archbishops of Canterbury.
In Spain, Honorius was deeply suspicious of the ambitions of Diego Gelmírez, the Archbishop of Compostela. Although Pope Callixtus II had made him Papal Legate of a number of Spanish provinces, Honorius informed Diego that he had been made aware of Diego's ambitions and subtly advised him to keep his ambition in check. Still hoping to be promoted to the office of Legate of Spain, Diego sent envoys to Rome, carrying with them 300 gold Almoravid coins, two hundred and twenty for Honorius and another eighty for the Curia. Honorius repeated that his hands were tied, as he had just appointed a cardinal for that post.
Nevertheless, Honorius was not prepared to completely alienate Diego, and when the Archbishop of Braga nominated a successor to the vacant See of Coimbra, Honorius reprimanded the archbishop for usurping the rights of Diego, who should have been the one to nominate a successor. Honorius also demanded that the Archbishop of Braga present himself before Honorius on the second Sunday after Easter in 1129 to answer for his actions. Honorius also ensured that Diego should play a leading role in the Synod of Carrión (February 1130), having his legate approach Diego and ask for his assistance during the synod.
Honorius also wished to promote the ongoing struggle against the Moors in Spain, and to that end he bestowed the city of Tarragona, which had been recently captured from the Moors, to Robert d'Aguiló. Robert travelled to Rome to receive the gift from Honorius in 1128.
In 1119, a new religious order had been established by some French noblemen. Called the Knights Templar, they were to protect Christian pilgrims entering the Holy Land and to defend the conquests of the Crusades. However, by the pontificate of Honorius II, they had not yet received any official sanction from the papacy. To rectify this situation, some members of the order appeared before the Council of Troyes in 1129, where the Council expressed its approval of the order and commissioned Bernard of Clairvaux to draw up the order's rules, which now included vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The order and the rules were subsequently approved by Honorius.
Honorius, as suzerain of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, re-confirmed the election of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and established him as the royal parton of the Templars. Honorius tried to manage as best he could the rivalries of the different princes and high-ranking ecclesiastics that were destabilising the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Long-standing arguments over areas of jurisdiction between the Latin Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem were a constant source of irritation to Honorius. Honorius supported the claims of William of Malines, the new Archbishop of Tyre who claimed jurisdiction over some of the sees that had traditionally belonged to Bernard of Valence, the Patriarch of Antioch. Bernard refused to give up his claims to the sees, and William travelled to Rome and presented his case before Honorius. The pope sent a legate back to Palestine with instructions that Bernard was to acquiesce and that the various bishops were to submit to William of Malines within forty days. Bernard managed to resist implementing Honorius's instructions, and soon Honorius was too ill to do anything about it.
After almost a year of suffering a painful illness, Honorius fell seriously ill in early 1130. Cardinal Aymeric and the Frangipani family began planning their next moves, and Honorius was taken to the San Gregorio Magno al Celio monastery, which was located in the territory controlled by the Frangipani. Supporters of the Pierleoni family, already preparing to back Pietro Pierleoni on a rumor that Honorius had died, stormed the monastery of the dying Honorius, hoping to force the election of Pietro. Only the sight of the still living Honorius in full pontifical robes forced them to disperse.
Nevertheless, Cardinal Aymeric's plans had not yet reached fruition when Honorius died on the evening of 13 February 1130. The cardinals supporting the Frangipani immediately closed the monastery gates and refused to allow anyone inside. The next day, and contrary to the usual customs, Honorius was quickly buried without any pomp or ceremony in the monastery, as the hand-picked cardinals got around to electing Gregorio Papareschi, who took the name Pope Innocent II. At the same time, the excluded cardinals, most of whom were supporters of the Pierleoni family, elected Pietro Pierleoni, who took the name Anacletus II, throwing the church once again into schism. Honorius eventually transferred from the monastery to the Lateran for reburial once Innocent II had been elected. He was buried in the south transept next to the body of Callixtus II.
The way in which Honorius was elected meant that he became a creature, not only of Cardinal Aymeric, but also of the Frangipani family. Aymeric expanded his powerbase further, with Honorius elevating mostly non-Roman candidates to the college of cardinals, while papal legates were now chosen solely within the papal circle. Honorius favoured the newer monastic orders, such as the Augustinians, a departure from the policies of the older Gregorian popes who favoured traditional orders such as the Benedictines.
At the same time, he found himself drawn into the continued chaos of local Roman politics, as the Frangipani enjoyed their influence at the papal court, while the Pierleoni family continually fought against them and against Honorius. Their ceaseless infighting, repressed during the pontificate of Calixtus II, broke out again, and Honorius found he did not have the resources to suppress the Pierleoni, nor the authority to rein in the Frangipani. Honorius was required to engage in a number of petty wars in Rome, which wasted his time and were in the long haul unsuccessful in restoring order in the streets. The continued chaos would be instrumental in the events that saw the resurrection of Republican sentiment in the city and the eventual establishment of the Commune of Rome in the following decade. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23853 |
Pope Honorius III
Pope Honorius III (1150 – 18 March 1227), born Cencio Savelli, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 18 July 1216 to his death. A canon at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, he came to hold a number of important administrative positions, including that of Camerlengo. In 1197, he became tutor to the young Frederick II. Elected to the papacy in July 1216, he took the name Honorius III. As pope, he worked to promote the Fifth Crusade, which had been planned under his predecessor. Honorius repeatedly exhorted King Andrew II of Hungary and Emperor Frederick II to fulfill their vows to participate. He also gave approval to the recently formed Dominican and Franciscan religious orders.
He was born in Rome as a son of Aimerico, a member of the Roman Savelli family.
For a time canon at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, he later became Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church in January 1188 and Cardinal Deacon of Santa Lucia in Silice on 20 February 1193. Under Pope Clement III and Pope Celestine III he was treasurer of the Roman Church, compiling the "Liber Censuum", and served as acting Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church from 1194 until 1198.
In 1197 he became the tutor to the Sicilian king Frederick, future emperor, who had been given as ward to Pope Innocent III by his mother, Constance of Sicily.
Innocent III raised him to the rank of a cardinal priest in 1200, by which he obtained the "Titulus" of "Ss. Ioannis et Pauli". He was dismissed as Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church in 1198, but about the same time he assumed the post of Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals.
Innocent III died on 16 July 1216. Two days later, seventeen cardinals present at his death assembled to elect a new pope. The troubled state of affairs in Italy, the threatening attitude of the Tatars, and the fear of a schism induced the cardinals to agree to an election by compromise. Cardinals Ugolino of Ostia (afterwards Pope Gregory IX) and Guido Papareschi were empowered to appoint the new pope. Their choice fell upon Cencio Savelli, who accepted the tiara with reluctance and took the name of Honorius III. He was consecrated at Perugia on 24 July and was crowned at Rome on 31 August. He took possession of the Lateran on 3 September 1216. The Roman people were greatly elated at the election, for Honorius III was himself a Roman and by his extreme kindness had endeared himself to the hearts of all.
Like his predecessor, Pope Innocent III, he set his mind on the achievement of two great goals: the recovery of the Holy Land in the Fifth Crusade and a spiritual reform of the entire Church.
The Fifth Crusade was endorsed by the Lateran Council of 1215, and Honorius started preparations for the crusade to begin in 1217. To procure the means necessary for this colossal undertaking, the Pope, and the cardinals were to contribute the tenth part of their income for three years. All other ecclesiastics were to contribute the twentieth part. Though the money thus collected was considerable, it was by no means sufficient for a general crusade as planned by Honorius III.
Far-reaching prospects seemed to open before him when Honorius crowned Peter II of Courtenay as Latin Emperor of Constantinople in April 1217, but the new Emperor was captured on his eastward journey by the despot of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos Doukas, and died in confinement.
In July 1216, Honorius once again called upon Andrew II of Hungary to fulfill his father's vow to lead a crusade. (Béla III willed property and money to Andrew, obliging him to lead a crusade to the Holy Land.) Like many other rulers, his former pupil, the Emperor Frederick II of Germany, had taken an oath to embark for the Holy Land in 1217. But Frederick II hung back, and Honorius III repeatedly put off the date for the beginning of the expedition. In spite of the insistence of Honorius III, Frederick II still delayed, and the Egyptian campaign failed miserably with the loss of Damietta on 8 September 1221.
Most rulers of Europe were engaged in wars of their own and could not leave their countries for any length of time. King Andrew II of Hungary and, somewhat later, a fleet of crusaders from the region along the Lower Rhine finally departed for the Holy Land. They took Damietta and a few other places in Egypt, but a lack of unity among the Christians and rivalry between their leaders and the papal legate Pelagius resulted in failure.
24 June 1225 was finally fixed as the date for the departure of Frederick II, and Honorius III brought about his marriage to Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem with a view to binding him closer to the plan. But the Treaty of San Germano in July 1225 permitted a further delay of two years.
Frederick II now made serious preparations for the crusade. In the midst of it, however, Pope Honorius III died in Rome on 18 March 1227 without seeing the achievement of his hopes. It was left to his successor, Pope Gregory IX, to insist upon their accomplishment.
Besides the liberation of the Holy Land, Honorius III felt bound to forward the repression of Cathar heresy in the south of France, the war for the faith in the Spanish peninsula, the planting of Christianity in the lands along the Baltic Sea, and the maintenance of the impossible Latin empire in Constantinople.
Of these projects, the rooting out of heresy lay nearest to Honorius III's heart. In the south of France, he carried on Innocent III's work, confirming Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester in the possession of the lands of Raymond VI of Toulouse and succeeding, as Innocent III had not, in drawing the royal house of France into the conflict.
The most widely important event of this period was the siege and capture of Avignon. Both Honorius III and King Louis VIII of France turned a deaf ear to Frederick II's assertion of the claims of the Empire to that town.
Pope Honorius III approved the Dominican Order in 1216, the Franciscan Order in 1223, and the Carmelite Order's Rule of St. Albert of Jerusalem in 1226.
In 1219 Honorius III invited Saint Dominic and his companions to take up residence at the ancient Roman basilica of Santa Sabina, which they did by early 1220. Before that time the friars had only a temporary residence in Rome at the convent of San Sisto Vecchio, which Honorius had given to St. Dominic c. 1218, intending it to become a convent for a reformation of nuns in Rome under Dominic's guidance. The "studium conventuale" at Santa Sabina was the forerunner of the Dominican "studium generale" at Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
In 1217 Honorius III gave the title of King of Serbia to Stefan the First-Crowned.
During his pontificate, many of the tertiary orders came into existence. He approved the Franciscan Brothers and Sisters of Penance Rule in 1221 with the bull "Memoriale propositi". He also approved the religious congregation "Val des Ecoliers" (Valley of scholars), which had been founded by four pious professors of theology at the University of Paris, France.
Being a man of learning, Honorius insisted that the clergy receive a thorough education, especially in theology. In the case of a certain Hugh whom the chapter of Chartres had elected bishop, he withheld his approbation because the bishop-elect did not possess sufficient knowledge, "quum pateretur in litteratura defectum", as the Pope stated in a letter dated 8 January 1219. He even deprived another bishop of his office on account of illiteracy. Honorius bestowed various privileges upon the University of Paris and University of Bologna, the two greatest seats of learning during those times. In order to facilitate the study of theology in dioceses that were distant from the great centers of learning, he ordered in the bull "Super specula Domini" that some talented young men should be sent to a recognized theological school to study theology with the purpose of teaching it afterwards in their dioceses.
Honorius III acquired some fame as an author. The most important of his writings is the "Liber censuum Romanae ecclesiae", which is the most valuable source for the medieval position of the Church in regard to property and also serves in part as a continuation of the "Liber Pontificalis". It comprises a list of the revenues of the Apostolic See, a record of donations received, privileges granted, and contracts made with cities and rulers. It was begun under Pope Clement III and completed in 1192 under Pope Celestine III. The original manuscript of the "Liber Censuum" is still in existence ("Vaticanus latinus" 8486).
Honorius III also wrote a biography of Celestine III; a biography of Gregory VII; an "Ordo Romanus", which is a sort of ceremonial containing the rites of the Church for various occasions; and thirty-four sermons.
Honorius is also purported to be the author of a grimoire. "In this text called The Grimoire of Pope Honorius, he supposedly discusses the value of occult knowledge in the Church, and how by summoning or raising demonic entities, one could learn to control them. The supposed author uses his faith in God and mixes with it the teachings of King Solomon; it contains invocations of demonic entities for every day of the week. He talked about the priest needing to fast for a certain amount of time and the sacrifice of animals in order to help with the binding of evil spirits." All this would be in contrast, however, with the pope's insistence on bishops knowing Catholic theology and as being contrary to the Catholic teaching on witchcraft or sorcery as also seen in both the Old and New Testaments and early Church councils (Catholic Encyclopedia, article "Witchcraft"). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23854 |
Pope Honorius IV
Pope Honorius IV (c. 1210 – 3 April 1287), born Giacomo Savelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 April 1285 to his death in 1287. During his pontificate he largely continued to pursue the pro-French political policy of his predecessor, Martin IV.
Giacomo Savelli was born in Rome into the rich and influential family of the Savelli. His father was Luca Savelli, who died as Senator of Rome in 1266. His mother Joanna belonged to the Aldobrandeschi family. He studied at the University of Paris, and held a prebend and a canonry at the cathedral of Châlons-sur-Marne. Later he obtained the benefice of rector at the church of Berton in the Diocese of Norwich in England, a nation he never visited.
In 1261 he was created Cardinal Deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin by Pope Urban IV, who also appointed him papal prefect in Tuscany and captain of the papal army. Cardinal Savelli pursued a diplomatic career. Pope Clement IV sent him and three other cardinals to invest Charles of Anjou as King of Sicily at Rome on 28 July 1265. After the long deadlocked vacancy in the papal see after the death of Clement IV, when the see of Rome was vacant for three years, he was one of the six cardinals who finally elected Pope Gregory X "by compromise" (a technical procedure) on 1 September 1271 in a conclave held at Viterbo because conditions in Rome were too turbulent.
In 1274 he accompanied Gregory X to the Council of Lyon, where it was established that only four mendicant orders were to be tolerated: Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians and Carmelites. In July 1276, he was one of the three cardinals whom Pope Adrian V sent to Viterbo with instructions to treat with the German King, Rudolf I of Habsburg, concerning his imperial coronation at Rome and his future relations towards Charles of Anjou, whom papal policy supported. The death of Adrian V in the following month rendered the negotiations with Rudolf fruitless.
Savelli became Protodeacon of the Sacred College in November 1277 and as such, he crowned Popes Nicholas III on 26 December 1277 and Martin IV on 23 March 1281.
According to John Julius Norwich, he was the last pope to be married before ordination.
When Martin IV died on 28 March 1285, at Perugia, Cardinal Savelli was unanimously elected Pope on 2 April, on the first ballot, and took the name of Honorius IV. He remained at Perugia throughout April, but, once negotiations were completed, he travelled to Rome and took up residence in the family palace next to Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill. He was ordained a priest by Cardinal Latino Malabranca Orsini on May 19, and was consecrated a bishop and crowned pope on Trinity Sunday, 20 May in St. Peter's Basilica. Honorius IV was already advanced in age and so severely affected with gout (or arthritis) that he could neither stand nor walk. When saying Mass he was obliged to sit in a specially constructed chair, and at the elevation of the host his hands had to be raised by a mechanical contrivance.
Sicilian affairs required immediate attention from the new pope. Previously, under Martin IV, the Sicilians had rejected the rule of Charles of Anjou, taking Peter III of Aragon as their king without the consent and approval of the Pope.
The massacre of 31 March 1282 known as the Sicilian Vespers had precluded any reconciliation. Martin IV put Sicily and Peter III under an interdict, deprived Peter III of the Crown of Aragon, and gave it to Charles of Valois, the younger of the sons of King Philip III of France, whom he assisted in his attempts to recover Sicily by force of arms. The Sicilians not only repulsed the attacks of the combined French and Papal forces, but also captured the Angevin heir, Charles of Salerno. On 6 January 1285, Charles of Anjou died, leaving his captive son Charles as his natural successor. Honorius IV, more peaceably inclined than Martin IV, did not renounce the Church's support of the House of Anjou, nor did he set aside the severe ecclesiastical punishments imposed upon Sicily.
Honorius did not approve of the tyrannical government the Sicilians had been subject to under Charles of Anjou. This is evident from legislation embodied in his constitution of 17 September 1285 ("Constitutio super ordinatione regni Siciliae"), in which he stated that no government can prosper that is not founded on justice and peace. He passed forty-five ordinances intended chiefly to protect the people of Sicily against their king and his officials.
The death of Peter III on 11 November 1285 changed the Sicilian situation in that his kingdoms were divided between his two oldest sons: Alfonso III of Aragon, who received the crown of Aragon, and James II of Aragon, who succeeded as King of Sicily. Honorius IV acknowledged neither the one nor the other: on 11 April 1286, he solemnly excommunicated King James II of Sicily and the bishops who had taken part in his coronation at Palermo on 2 February. Neither the king nor the bishops concerned themselves about the excommunication. The king even sent a hostile fleet to the Roman coast and destroyed the city of Astura by fire.
Charles of Salerno, the Angevin pretender, who was still held captive by the Sicilians, finally grew tired of his long captivity and signed a contract on 27 February 1287 in which he renounced his claims to the kingdom of Sicily in favour of James II of Aragon and his heirs. Honorius IV, however, declared the contract invalid and forbade all similar agreements for the future.
While Honorius IV was inexorable in the stand he had taken towards Sicily, his relations towards Alfonso III of Aragon became less hostile. Through the efforts of King Edward I of England, negotiations for peace were begun by Honorius IV and King Alfonso III. The Pope, however, did not live long enough to complete these negotiations, which finally resulted in a peaceful settlement of the Aragonese as well as the Sicilian question in 1302 under Pope Boniface VIII.
Rome and the Papal States enjoyed a period of tranquillity during the reign of Honorius IV, the like of which they had not enjoyed for many years. He had the satisfaction of reducing the most powerful and obstinate enemy of papal authority, Count Guy of Montefeltro, who for many years had successfully resisted the papal troops. The authority of the pope was now recognized throughout the Papal States, which then comprised the Ravenna, the March of Ancona, the Duchy of Spoleto, the County of Bertinoro, the Mathildian lands, and the Pentapolis, i.e., the cities of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia, and Ancona. Honorius IV was the first pope to employ the great family banking houses of central and northern Italy for the collection of papal dues.
The Romans were greatly elated at the election of Honorius IV, for he was a citizen of Rome and a brother of Pandulf, a senator of Rome. The continuous disturbances in Rome during the pontificate of Martin IV had not allowed that pope to live in Rome, but now the Romans cordially invited Honorius IV to make Rome his permanent residence. During the first few months of his pontificate he lived in the Vatican, but in the autumn of 1285 he removed to the magnificent palace he had just erected on the Aventine.
In his relations with the Holy Roman Empire, where no more danger was to be apprehended since the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, Martin followed the moderate course taken by Gregory X. Rudolf I of Germany sent Bishop Henry of Basel to Rome to request coronation. Honorius IV appointed the envoy Archbishop of Mainz, fixed a date for the coronation, and sent Cardinal John of Tusculum to Germany to assist Rudolf I's cause. But general opposition showed itself to the papal interference; a council at Würzburg (16–18 March 1287) protested energetically, and Rudolf I had to protect the legate from personal violence, so that both his plans and the Pope's failed.
Honorius IV inherited plans for another crusade, but confined himself to collecting the tithes imposed by the Council of Lyon, arranging with the great banking houses of Florence, Siena, and Pistoia to act as his agents.
The two largest religious orders received many new privileges from Honorius IV, documented in his "Regesta". He often appointed them to special missions and to bishoprics, and gave them exclusive charge of the Inquisition.
He also approved the privileges of the Carmelites and the Augustinian hermits and permitted the former to exchange their striped habit for a white one. He was especially devoted to the order founded by William X of Aquitaine and added numerous privileges to those they had already received from Alexander IV and Urban IV. Besides turning over to them some deserted Benedictine monasteries, he presented them with the monastery of St. Paul at Albano, which he himself had founded and richly endowed when he was still cardinal.
Salimbene, the chronicler of Parma, asserted that Honorius IV was a foe to the religious orders. This may reflect the fact that he opposed the Apostolic Brethren, an order embracing evangelical poverty that had been started by Gerard Segarelli at Parma in 1260. On 11 March 1286 he issued a bull condemning them as heretics.
At the University of Paris he advocated the establishment of chairs for Eastern languages to teach these languages to those who would labour for the conversion of the Muslims and the reunion of the schismatic churches in the East.
He raised only one man to be cardinal, his cousin Giovanni Boccamazza, archbishop of Monreale, on 22 December 1285.
The tomb of Pope Honorius IV is in the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome.
The Mongol ruler Arghun sent an embassy and a letter to Pope Honorius IV in 1285, a Latin translation of which is preserved in the Vatican. It mentions the links to Christianity of Arghun's family, and proposes a combined military conquest of Muslim lands:
Honorius IV was hardly capable of acting on this invasion and could not muster the military support necessary to achieve this plan. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23855 |
Paulinus of Nola
Paulinus of Nola (; ; , ; also Anglicized as Pauline of Nola; – June 22, 431), born Pontius Meropius Anicius Paulinus, was a Roman poet, writer, and senator who attained the ranks of suffect consul () and governor of Campania (–1) but—following the assassination of the emperor Gratian and under the influence of his Spanish wife Therasia of Nola — abandoned his career, was baptized as a Christian, and probably after Therasia's death became bishop of Nola in Campania. While there, he wrote poems in honor of his predecessor St Felix and corresponded with other Christian leaders throughout the empire. He is traditionally credited with the introduction of bells to Christian worship and helped resolve the disputed election of Pope Boniface I.
His renunciation of his wealth and station in favor of an ascetic and philanthropic life was held up as an example by many of his contemporaries—including Augustine, Jerome, Martin, and Ambrose—and he was subsequently venerated as a saint. His relics became a focus of pilgrimage, but were removed from Nola between the 11th and 20th centuries. His feast day is observed on June 22 in both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. In Nola, the entire week around his feast day is celebrated as the Festival of the Lilies.
Pontius Meropius Paulinus was born at Bordeaux, in southwestern France. He was from a notable senatorial family with estates in the Aquitaine province of France, northern Iberia, and southern Italy. Paulinus was a kinsman of Melania the Elder. He was educated in Bordeaux, where his teacher, the poet Ausonius, also became his friend. At some time during his boyhood he made a visit to the shrine of St Felix at Nola near Naples.
His normal career as a young member of the senatorial class did not last long. In 375, the Emperor Gratian succeeded his father Valentinian. Gratian made Paulinus suffect consul at Rome , and appointed him governor of the southern Italian province of Campania . Paulinus noted the Campanians' devotion to Saint Felix of Nola and built a road for pilgrims, as well as a hospice for the poor near the local shrine.
In 383 Gratian was assassinated at Lyon, France, and Paulinus went to Milan to attend the school of Ambrose. Around 384 he returned to Bordeaux. There he married Therasia, a Christian noblewoman from Barcelona. Paulinus was threatened with the charge of having murdered his brother. It is possible that an attempt was made to accuse him in order to confiscate his property. He was baptized by Bishop Delphinus of Bordeaux. He and his wife traveled to Iberia about 390. When they lost their only child eight days after birth they decided to withdraw from the world, and live a secluded religious life. Paulinus was close to both Pelagius and to the Pelagian writer Julian of Eclanum.
In 393 or 394, after some resistance from Paulinus, he was ordained a presbyter on Christmas Day by Lampius, Bishop of Barcelona. (This was similar to what had happened with St. Augustine of Hippo, who had been ordained against his protestations in the year 391 at the behest of a crowd cooperating with Bishop Valerius in the north African city of Hippo Regius.) However, there is some debate as to whether the ordination was canonical, since Paulinus received ordination "at a leap" ("per saltum"), without receiving minor orders first.
Paulinus refused to remain in Barcelona, and in late spring of 395 he and his wife moved from Iberia to Nola in Campania where he remained until his death. Paulinus credited his conversion to St. Felix, who was buried in Nola, and each year would write a poem in honor of the saint. He and Therasia also rebuilt a church commemorating St. Felix.
During these years Paulinus engaged in considerable epistolary dialogue with St. Jerome among others about monastic topics. "Paulinus decided to invest his money for the poor and the church rather than rejecting it completely, which stands in contrast to other more severe contemporary views such as Jerome’s"
Therasia died some time between 408 and 410, and shortly afterwards Paulinus received episcopal ordination. Around 410, Paulinus was chosen Bishop of Nola, where he served for twenty years. Like a growing number of aristocrats in the late 4th and early 5th centuries who were entering the clergy rather than taking up the more usual administrative careers in the imperial service, Paulinus spent a great deal of his money on his chosen church, city and ritual.
Paulinus died at Nola on 22 June 431. The following year the presbyter Uranus wrote his "On the Death of Paulinus" ("), an account of the death and character of the saint.
As bishop of Nola, Paulinus is traditionally credited with the introduction of the use of bells in church services. One form of medieval handbell was known as the " and medieval steeple bells were known as "s" from this supposed origin. However, Dr. Adolf Buse, professor at the Seminary of Cologne, showed that the use of bells in churches, an invention credited to Paulinus by tradition, is not due to him, nor even to the town of Nola.
Already during his governorship Paulinus had developed a fondness for the 3rd-century martyr, St. Felix of Nola. Felix was a minor saint of local importance and patronage whose tomb had been built within the local necropolis at Cimitile, just outside the town of Nola. As governor, Paulinus had widened the road to Cimitile and built a residence for travelers; it was at this site that Paulinus and Therasia took up residence. Nearby were a number of small chapels and at least one old basilica. Paulinus rebuilt the complex, constructing a brand new basilica to Felix and gathering to him a small monastic community. Paulinus wrote an annual hymn ("natalicium") in honor of St. Felix for the feast day when processions of pilgrims were at their peak. In these hymns we can understand the personal relationship Paulinus felt between himself and Felix, his advocate in heaven. His poetry shares with much of the work of the early 5th century an ornateness of style that classicists of the 18th and 19th centuries found cloying and dismissed as decadent, though Paulinus' poems were highly regarded at the time and used as educational models.
Many of Paulinus's letters to his contemporaries, including Ausonius and Sulpicius Severus in southern Gaul, Victricius of Rouen in northern Gaul, and Augustine in Africa, are preserved. Four letters from Paulinus to Augustine survive, and eight from Augustine to Paulinus. In one, Augustine invites Paulinus to visit Africa. As a publishing technique at that time, Augustine often sent copies of his works to Paulinus, to be copied and circulated in Italy.
Paulinus may have been indirectly responsible for Augustine's "Confessions": Paulinus wrote to Alypius, Bishop of Thagaste and a close friend of St. Augustine, asking about his conversion and taking up of the ascetic life. Alypius's autobiographical response does not survive; St. Augustine's ostensible answer to that query is the ""Confessions.""
"Paulinus’ surviving letters and poems, many devoted to the feast day of Felix, reveal his attitudes and values, illuminate his social and spiritual relationships, preserve vivid traces of the literary and aesthetic evolution of Latin literature under the influence of Christian ideas, and document the emergence of the late antique cult of the saints."
We know about his buildings in honor of St. Felix from literary and archaeological evidence, especially from his long letter to Sulpicius Severus describing the arrangement of the building and its decoration. He includes a detailed description of the apse mosaic over the main altar and gives the text for a long inscription he had written to be put on the wall under the image. By explaining how he intended the visitors to understand the image over the altar, Paulinus provided rare insight into the intentions of a patron of art in the later Empire. He explained his project in a Poem dedicated to another great catechist, St Nicetas of Remesiana, as he accompanied him on a visit to his basilicas: "I now want you to contemplate the paintings that unfold in a long series on the walls of the painted porticos... It seemed to us useful to portray sacred themes in painting throughout the house of Felix, in the hope that when the peasants see the painted figure, these images will awaken interest in their astonished minds."
In later life Paulinus, by then a highly respected church authority, participated in multiple church synods investigating various ecclesiastical controversies of the time, including Pelagianism.
Gregory the Great recounts a popular story that alleges that when the Vandals raided Campania, a poor widow came to Paulinus for help when her only son had been carried off by the son-in-law of the Vandal king. Having exhausted his resources in ransoming other captives, Paulinus said, "Such as I have I give thee", and went to Africa to exchange places with the widow's son. There Paulinus was accepted in place of the widow's son, and employed as gardener. After a time the king found out that his son-in-law's slave was the great Bishop of Nola. He at once set him free, granting him also the freedom of all the captive townsmen of Nola. According to Pope Benedict XVI, "...the historical truth of this episode is disputed, but the figure of a Bishop with a great heart who knew how to make himself close to his people in the sorrowful trials of the barbarian invasions lives on."
About 800 Prince Grimoald III of Benevento removed Paulinus's bones as relics.
From the 11th century they rested at the church of Saint Adalbert, now Saint Bartholomew, on the island in the Tiber in Rome. In 1908 Pope Pius X permitted them to be translated to the new cathedral at Nola, where they were reinterred on May 15, 1909.
The bones are now found in the small Sicilian city of Sutera, where they dedicate a feast day, and conduct a procession for the saint at Easter each year.
The people of modern-day Nola and the surrounding regions remain devoted to St. Paulinus. His feast day is celebrated annually in Nola during ""La Festa dei Gigli"" (the Feast of the Lilies), in which Gigli and several large statues in honor of the saint, placed on towers, are carried upon the shoulders of the faithful around the city. In the United States the descendants of Italian immigrants from Nola and Brusciano continue the tradition in Brooklyn.
Saint Paulinus is also venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, his feast day commemorated on January 23. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23856 |
Plymouth Argyle F.C.
Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2020–21 season, the team will compete in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, known as the "Theatre of Greens", since 1901. Argyle are one of two Devon clubs who compete in the Football League, the other being Exeter City, Argyle's local rivals.
The club takes its nickname, "The Pilgrims", from an English religious group that left Plymouth for the New World in 1620. The club crest features the "Mayflower", the ship that carried the pilgrims to Massachusetts. The club has predominantly played in green and white throughout their history, with a few exceptions in the late 1960s and early 1970s when white was the colour of choice. A darker shade of green, described (by some) as 'Argyle green', was adopted in the 2001–02 season, and has been used ever since. The city of Plymouth is the largest in England never to have hosted top-flight football. They are the most southerly and westerly League club in England and the only professional club named Argyle.
Originally founded simply as Argyle in 1886, the club turned professional and entered both the Southern League and Western League as Plymouth Argyle in 1903. They won the Western League title in 1904–05 and the Southern League title in 1912–13, before winning election into the Football League Third Division in 1920. Finishing as runners-up on six consecutive occasions, they eventually won promotion as Third Division South champions under the long-serving management of Bob Jack in 1929–30. A 20-year stay in the Second Division ended in 1950, though they returned again as Third Division South champions in 1951–52. After another relegation in 1956 they again proved too strong for the third tier, winning the Third Division title not long after in 1958–59.
Argyle were relegated out of the Second Division in 1968, 1977 and 1992, having won promotion out of the Third Division as runners-up in 1974–75 and 1985–86. They were relegated into the fourth tier for the first time in 1995, and though they would win immediate promotion in 1995–96, they were relegated again in 1998. Promoted as champions under Paul Sturrock with 102 points in 2001–02, they secured a record fifth third tier league title in 2003–04, and would remain in the Championship for six seasons until administration and two successive relegations left them in League Two by 2011. In 2016–17 Argyle won promotion to League One, and again in 2019–20 following relegation the previous season.
Much speculation surrounds the origin of the name "Argyle". One explanation is that the club was named after the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, an army regiment with a strong football side of its own. Another theory is given by the local geography–suggesting the name comes either from the nearby public house, "The Argyle Tavern", where the founder members may have met, or from a local street "Argyle Terrace".
The club adopted its current name when it became fully professional in 1903.
The club was founded in 1886 as Argyle Football Club, the first match taking place on 16 October 1886.
The club was disbanded 1894, before being resurrected in 1897 as one part of a general sports club, the Argyle Athletic Club. The club joined the Southern League, effectively the English 3rd tier, in 1903 becoming professional in the process. Argyle won the Southern League in 1912–13, then in 1920–21 entered the Football League Third Division as a founder member, along with most of the Southern League, where they finished 11th in their first season.
Between 1921–22 and 1926–27, Argyle finished second in the new Third Division South six seasons in a row, thereby missing promotion. Argyle eventually won promotion to Football League Division Two in 1929–30, when they topped the Third Division South, with attendances that season regularly reaching 20,000. Manager Bob Jack resigned in 1937, having spent a grand total of 27 years in charge of the Pilgrims.
Argyle's 20-year stay in Division Two came to an end in 1949–50 after finishing 21st – two points short of survival. They were back in Division Two before long, after winning the Third Division South in 1951–52. The closest they ever came to playing in the Football League First Division (top tier) was in 1952–53, when they reached fourth place in the Football League Second Division, their highest finish to date. They were relegated again in 1955–56, just 3 points behind Notts County. The Pilgrim's reputation as a 'yo-yo club' continued after they won Division Three – by then a national league – in 1958–59. Argyle returned to Division Three after relegation in 1967–68.
After spending six years in Division Three, Argyle finally returned to Division Two in 1974–75, but they were back down again in 1976–77.
Since then, the team has wavered between the 2nd and 3rd tier, before being double relegated in 2010–11. That was directly due to the club having been declared insolvent, following which they were deducted the 10 points they needed for survival. The club returned to the 3rd tier after finishing second in 2016–17.
On 14 August 2018, it was announced that shareholder Simon Hallett had purchased part of James Brent's stake in the club, and had become the new majority shareholder and owner, and that former director, David Felwick, would return to the club as chairman when Brent stepped down on 31 October 2018. However, on 10 October 2018, it was reported that David Felwick was unable to take over as chairman, citing personal reasons, so on 1 November 2018, Hallett became both majority owner and chair of Plymouth Argyle.
The original ground of the professional club at Home Park was destroyed by German bombers during the Blitz on Plymouth in World War II. Having been rebuilt after the war, Home Park was largely demolished as part of an extensive process of renovation, and the first phase of a new stadium built by Barrs plc was completed in May 2002. The new Devonport End was opened for the 2001 Boxing Day fixture with Torquay United. The other end, the Barn Park End, opened on the same day. The Lyndhurst stand reopened on 26 January 2002 for the game against Oxford United. Plans are currently under discussion regarding the completion of the refurbishment of the ground with the replacement of the Mayflower stand. The ground is situated in Central Park, very near to the residential area of Peverell. Towards the end of the 2005–06 Championship season, the club decided to buy the stadium for £2.7 million from Plymouth City Council, releasing the ground from a 125-year lease. This purchase was concluded in December 2006.
In the summer of 2007, the club, having failed to persuade the UK authorities of the case for retaining a standing terrace, decided to add 3,500 temporary seats to the Mayflower enclosure, dropping the capacity to 19,888 from 20,922. In December 2009 it was announced that the stadium was to be one of 12 chosen to host matches during the World Cup 2018, should England's bid be successful. The then Argyle chairman Paul Stapleton stated that work on a new South Stand at Home Park would start in 2010. However, England failed to be chosen for the 2018 tournament, and Plymouth Argyle entered administration in March 2011. After selling the stadium back to the council on 14 October 2011 for £1.6 million, this project was in serious doubt.
The club was then taken over by local business owner James Brent, who submitted fresh plans to build a new Mayflower Grandstand with a 5,000 seating capacity, and an associated leisure complex. The plans include an ice rink with 1,500 spectator seats, a 10 screen cinema complex with an iMax screen, a 120 bedroom hotel and 4,200m sq retail units. Planning permission for the project was granted on 15 August 2013. The development was due to commence in September 2013, with the demolition of the old stand planned for late October 2013 after the Portsmouth home match. As of June 2015, the plans have been withdrawn, though planning permission still remains.
The family section of the stadium was moved from block 1 of the Devonport End to the 'Zoo corner' between the Lyndhurst Stand and the Barn Park End, with a kids activities zone in the concourse.
In January 2017, director Simon Hallett invested £5,000,000 into the club, along with all other directors exchanging previous loans into equity, with the intention on using the money for renovating the Mayflower Grandstand. No immediate timeframe was put on the renovations, but chairman James Brent indicated work is planned to start in 2018, finishing in 2020 ahead of the Plymouth 2020 Mayflower celebrations.
Later that month, temporary seating was once again put in place on the Grandstand, this time as a one-off for an FA Cup 3rd round replay vs Liverpool. The seating was kept in place for the next home match, a League 2 game vs Devon rivals Exeter City, but tickets were not on sale to the general public. Shortly after this game, the seating was removed.
The club's traditional rivals are fellow Devon sides Exeter City and Torquay United; other rivalries exist with Portsmouth, Bristol City and Bristol Rovers. The rivalry with Portsmouth was heightened in May 2016, when the two teams met in the League 2 playoff semi-final and Argyle prevailed. The playoffs have also engendered a mutual dislike of Wycombe Wanderers, after Argyle's loss in the 2014–15 playoff.
Although the rivalry with Exeter City has been blunted for a while due to a difference in divisions, Argyle's relegation into League One, coupled with Exeter City's survival, reignited the tensions. A distinct rivalry arose between Argyle and Luton Town after inflammatory comments made by Joe Kinnear, who was the manager of the Hatters during the 2001–02 promotion season, although that mutual antipathy has now somewhat abated. Similarly, after the departure of Ian Holloway to Leicester City in November 2007, a noticeable mutual dislike arose, culminating in Argyle's 0–1 victory at the Walkers Stadium in early February 2008. Although that antipathy has somewhat subsided, some fans remain feeling betrayed and angry at the manner of his leaving.
In the 1990s, Argyle had a rivalry with Burnley, because the Clarets beat them in a Division Two (now League One) play-off semi-final in 1994. There was also a defeat by Burnley on the last day of the season four years later, which led to Argyle's relegation. However, the rivalry has subsided over the past few years, especially due to Burnley's promotion to the Premier League in 2014.
Through the 1960s and 70s, Argyle's Reserve team played in the Plymouth & Devon Combination League, with their home games at Cottage Field, next to Home Park. Argyle later entered into The Football Combination, before withdrawing from the Combination in mid-season in 1981–82, for financial reasons. In 1982 the side entered the Western Football League, leaving at the end of the 1992–93 season.
The club had also entered a team in the South Western League, but withdrew from that competition after one season in 2007. The club's reserve team, up to the end of the 2010–11 season, played in The Football Combination, and confirmed their withdrawal from it on 27 June 2011, alongside 18 other Football League clubs.
The reserves' honours include the Southern League Championship in 1922, 1926, 1929, 1934 and its League Cup in 1933, 1934 and 1936; 1934 was the first Southern League Double.
For the 2015–16 season, Argyle entered a team into the South West Peninsula League Division One West, with home matches originally planned to be played at Bickleigh Barracks, before a change of plan saw them played at Seale-Hayne, dubbed 'Hodges Park' after club legend Kevin Hodges, outside Newton Abbot. After applying for promotion and finishing 2nd behind Mousehole, the reserves side were promoted to the Premier Division for the 2016–17 season. The team again moved grounds, playing their games at the home of the Devon FA, Coach Road, in Newton Abbot and finished 6th in 2016–17.
In April 2019 it was announced that Argyle Reserves were pulling out of the South West Peninsula League at the end of the season. A new development team, run by the Argyle Community Trust would enter the new Devon Football League for the 2019–20 season.
"For details on former players who have a Wikipedia article, see: ."
For the centenary celebrations, an all-time best team of Plymouth Argyle players was chosen by fans of the club.
Manager: Paul Sturrock
The following players were chosen to represent their country at the FIFA World Cup while contracted to Plymouth Argyle.
First Team
Youth Team/Academy
Plymouth Argyle's list of honours include the following.
The club's current sportswear manufacturer is Puma. The club's main sponsor is Ginsters. Shirt sponsorship was not introduced by the club until 1983. Beacon Electrical was the first company to have its name on the shirt of Plymouth Argyle, but it lasted just one season. Ivor Jones Insurance was the next sponsor and their agreement with the club lasted for two seasons. National & Provincial (now merged with Abbey National) were sponsors for the 1986–87 season before the club signed an agreement with the Sunday Independent which would last for five seasons. Rotolok Holdings plc became the club's major sponsor in 1992, which was owned by then Pilgrims chairman Dan McCauley. This lasted for six seasons before the club linked up with local newspaper the Evening Herald. Between 2002 and 2011 the club was sponsored by Cornish pasty-makers Ginsters.
In 2011 with the club still in administration, local timber merchant WH Bond Timber sponsored Argyle's kits at first for the 2011–12 season and until the end of the 2013–14 season. Local construction access company LTC Group87 then sponsored Argyle from the start of the 2014–15 season, having their LTC Powered Access branch's logo on the shirts. Cornwall-based company Ginsters then came back for a second spell as main sponsor in the 2016–17 season. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23857 |
Mutley Plain
Mutley Plain is a street in Plymouth, Devon, England. Although Mutley Plain is the main street of the dense suburb called Mutley, the term is often applied to the whole area. The road is a busy dual-carriageway, the B3250, with eight sets of traffic lights/pelican crossings. It was built as a smart tree-lined avenue in late Victorian times and improved over the next half century as a local shopping place for its neighbourhood and the affluent area to the north.
Mutley Plain lies on the route of an ancient road linking Bilburgh, a Bronze Age settlement on the coast at Sutton Pool which later formed the nucleus of the city of Plymouth, to the north. Mutley was originally the name of two parishes to the west of this road in the valley of the Houndiscombe Brook, the land to the east being part of the parish of Lipson.
Before the Norman invasion in 1066, the parish of Higher Mutley was owned by a man Alwin of Tamerton, and Lower Mutley by another man called Goodwin, but at the time of the Domesday Book (1086) both were owned by Odo, whose feudal overlord was Juhel of Totnes. In the Domesday Book the two parishes were said to be worth five shillings each. Lower Mutley had two farms while Higher Mutley consisted of ten sheep, one farm and two smallholdings.
A tunnel was driven beneath Mutley Plain by the South Devon Railway Company and was opened to traffic on 2 April 1849. Formerly this was the site of Mutley Station, opened 1 August 1871 and known as the 'Station of the Gentry'. It was closed 2 March 1939. The Plymouth-bound platform can still be just made out to the south of Apsley Road. The cutting to the east of the station has been covered over by a car park. Plymouth Railway Station is on the boundary between Mutley Plain and Plymouth City Centre.
Due to its proximity to the expanding Plymouth University and the city centre, large numbers of students now live in the area. There are many bars, takeaways and cafes as well as three small supermarkets. There are also more than half a dozen barbers and beauty salons along with a good few estate agents.
Mutley Baptist Church is a notable architectural feature. The area is mostly built up except for a small park on Moor View Terrace however Central Park and Ford Park Cemetery are nearby.
Davies,Sian (2013-05-23) Supermarket planned for Mutley | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23858 |
Python (programming language)
Python is an interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python's design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace. Its language constructs and object-oriented approach aim to help programmers write clear, logical code for small and large-scale projects.
Python is dynamically typed and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including structured (particularly, procedural), object-oriented, and functional programming. Python is often described as a "batteries included" language due to its comprehensive standard library.
Python was conceived in the late 1980s as a successor to the ABC language. Python 2.0, released in 2000, introduced features like list comprehensions and a garbage collection system with reference counting.
Python 3.0, released in 2008, was a major revision of the language that is not completely backward-compatible, and much Python 2 code does not run unmodified on Python 3.
The Python 2 language was officially discontinued in 2020 (first planned for 2015), and "Python 2.7.18 is the last Python 2.7 release and therefore the last Python 2 release." No more security patches or other improvements will be released for it. With Python 2's end-of-life, only Python 3.5.x and later are supported.
Python interpreters are available for many operating systems. A global community of programmers develops and maintains CPython, an open source reference implementation. A non-profit organization, the Python Software Foundation, manages and directs resources for Python and CPython development.
Python was conceived in the late 1980s by Guido van Rossum at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands as a successor to the ABC language (itself inspired by SETL), capable of exception handling and interfacing with the Amoeba operating system. Its implementation began in December 1989. Van Rossum shouldered sole responsibility for the project, as the lead developer, until 12 July 2018, when he announced his "permanent vacation" from his responsibilities as Python's "Benevolent Dictator For Life", a title the Python community bestowed upon him to reflect his long-term commitment as the project's chief decision-maker. He now shares his leadership as a member of a five-person steering council. In January 2019, active Python core developers elected Brett Cannon, Nick Coghlan, Barry Warsaw, Carol Willing and Van Rossum to a five-member "Steering Council" to lead the project.
Python 2.0 was released on 16 October 2000 with many major new features, including a cycle-detecting garbage collector and support for Unicode.
Python 3.0 was released on 3 December 2008. It was a major revision of the language that is not completely backward-compatible. Many of its major features were backported to Python 2.6.x and 2.7.x version series. Releases of Python 3 include the codice_1 utility, which automates (at least partially) the translation of Python 2 code to Python 3.
Python 2.7's end-of-life date was initially set at 2015 then postponed to 2020 out of concern that a large body of existing code could not easily be forward-ported to Python 3.
Python is a multi-paradigm programming language. Object-oriented programming and structured programming are fully supported, and many of its features support functional programming and aspect-oriented programming (including by metaprogramming and metaobjects (magic methods)). Many other paradigms are supported via extensions, including design by contract and logic programming.
Python uses dynamic typing and a combination of reference counting and a cycle-detecting garbage collector for memory management. It also features dynamic name resolution (late binding), which binds method and variable names during program execution.
Python's design offers some support for functional programming in the Lisp tradition. It has codice_2, codice_3, and codice_4 functions; list comprehensions, dictionaries, sets, and generator expressions. The standard library has two modules (itertools and functools) that implement functional tools borrowed from Haskell and Standard ML.
The language's core philosophy is summarized in the document "The Zen of Python" ("PEP 20"), which includes aphorisms such as:
Rather than having all of its functionality built into its core, Python was designed to be highly extensible. This compact modularity has made it particularly popular as a means of adding programmable interfaces to existing applications. Van Rossum's vision of a small core language with a large standard library and easily extensible interpreter stemmed from his frustrations with ABC, which espoused the opposite approach.
Python strives for a simpler, less-cluttered syntax and grammar while giving developers a choice in their coding methodology. In contrast to Perl's "there is more than one way to do it" motto, Python embraces a "there should be one—and preferably only one—obvious way to do it" design philosophy. Alex Martelli, a Fellow at the Python Software Foundation and Python book author, writes that "To describe something as 'clever' is "not" considered a compliment in the Python culture."
Python's developers strive to avoid premature optimization, and reject patches to non-critical parts of the CPython reference implementation that would offer marginal increases in speed at the cost of clarity. When speed is important, a Python programmer can move time-critical functions to extension modules written in languages such as C, or use PyPy, a just-in-time compiler. Cython is also available, which translates a Python script into C and makes direct C-level API calls into the Python interpreter.
An important goal of Python's developers is keeping it fun to use. This is reflected in the language's name—a tribute to the British comedy group Monty Python—and in occasionally playful approaches to tutorials and reference materials, such as examples that refer to spam and eggs (from a famous Monty Python sketch) instead of the standard foo and bar.
A common neologism in the Python community is "pythonic", which can have a wide range of meanings related to program style. To say that code is pythonic is to say that it uses Python idioms well, that it is natural or shows fluency in the language, that it conforms with Python's minimalist philosophy and emphasis on readability. In contrast, code that is difficult to understand or reads like a rough transcription from another programming language is called "unpythonic".
Users and admirers of Python, especially those considered knowledgeable or experienced, are often referred to as "Pythonistas".
Python is meant to be an easily readable language. Its formatting is visually uncluttered, and it often uses English keywords where other languages use punctuation. Unlike many other languages, it does not use curly brackets to delimit blocks, and semicolons after statements are optional. It has fewer syntactic exceptions and special cases than C or Pascal.
Python uses whitespace indentation, rather than curly brackets or keywords, to delimit blocks. An increase in indentation comes after certain statements; a decrease in indentation signifies the end of the current block. Thus, the program's visual structure accurately represents the program's semantic structure. This feature is sometimes termed the off-side rule, which some other languages share, but in most languages indentation doesn't have any semantic meaning.
Python's statements include (among others):
Python does not support tail call optimization or first-class continuations, and, according to Guido van Rossum, it never will. However, better support for coroutine-like functionality is provided in 2.5, by extending Python's generators. Before 2.5, generators were lazy iterators; information was passed unidirectionally out of the generator. From Python 2.5, it is possible to pass information back into a generator function, and from Python 3.3, the information can be passed through multiple stack levels.
Some Python expressions are similar to languages such as C and Java, while some are not:
In Python, a distinction between expressions and statements is rigidly enforced, in contrast to languages such as Common Lisp, Scheme, or Ruby. This leads to duplicating some functionality. For example:
Statements cannot be a part of an expression, so list and other comprehensions or lambda expressions, all being expressions, cannot contain statements. A particular case of this is that an assignment statement such as codice_81 cannot form part of the conditional expression of a conditional statement. This has the advantage of avoiding a classic C error of mistaking an assignment operator codice_82 for an equality operator codice_39 in conditions: codice_84 is syntactically valid (but probably unintended) C code but codice_85 causes a syntax error in Python.
Methods on objects are functions attached to the object's class; the syntax codice_86 is, for normal methods and functions, syntactic sugar for codice_87. Python methods have an explicit codice_88 parameter to access instance data, in contrast to the implicit codice_88 (or codice_90) in some other object-oriented programming languages (e.g., C++, Java, Objective-C, or Ruby).
Python uses duck typing and has typed objects but untyped variable names. Type constraints are not checked at compile time; rather, operations on an object may fail, signifying that the given object is not of a suitable type. Despite being dynamically typed, Python is strongly typed, forbidding operations that are not well-defined (for example, adding a number to a string) rather than silently attempting to make sense of them.
Python allows programmers to define their own types using classes, which are most often used for object-oriented programming. New instances of classes are constructed by calling the class (for example, codice_91 or codice_92), and the classes are instances of the metaclass codice_93 (itself an instance of itself), allowing metaprogramming and reflection.
Before version 3.0, Python had two kinds of classes: "old-style" and "new-style". The syntax of both styles is the same, the difference being whether the class codice_94 is inherited from, directly or indirectly (all new-style classes inherit from codice_94 and are instances of codice_93). In versions of Python 2 from Python 2.2 onwards, both kinds of classes can be used. Old-style classes were eliminated in Python 3.0.
The long term plan is to support gradual typing and from Python 3.5, the syntax of the language allows specifying static types but they are not checked in the default implementation, CPython. An experimental optional static type checker named "mypy" supports compile-time type checking.
Python has the usual symbols for arithmetic operators (codice_53, codice_98, codice_99, codice_35), the floor division operator codice_34 and the remainder operator codice_61 (where the remainder can be negative, e.g. codice_103). It also has codice_36 for exponentiation, e.g. codice_105 and codice_106, and a matrix multiply operator codice_37 . These operators work like in traditional math; with the same precedence rules, the operators infix ( codice_53 and codice_98 can also be unary to represent positive and negative numbers respectively).
Division between integers produces floating point results. The behavior of division has changed significantly over time:
In Python terms, codice_35 is "true division" (or simply "division"), and codice_34 is "floor division." codice_35 before version 3.0 is "classic division".
Rounding towards negative infinity, though different from most languages, adds consistency. For instance, it means that the equation codice_123 is always true. It also means that the equation codice_124 is valid for both positive and negative values of codice_125. However, maintaining the validity of this equation means that while the result of codice_126 is, as expected, in the half-open interval [0, "b"), where codice_127 is a positive integer, it has to lie in the interval ("b", 0] when codice_127 is negative.
Python provides a codice_129 function for rounding a float to the nearest integer. For tie-breaking, Python 3 uses round to even: codice_130 and codice_131 both produce codice_132. Versions before 3 used round-away-from-zero: codice_133 is codice_134, codice_135 is codice_136.
Python allows boolean expressions with multiple equality relations in a manner that is consistent with general use in mathematics. For example, the expression codice_137 tests whether codice_125 is less than codice_127 and codice_127 is less than codice_141. C-derived languages interpret this expression differently: in C, the expression would first evaluate codice_142, resulting in 0 or 1, and that result would then be compared with codice_141.
Python uses arbitrary-precision arithmetic for all integer operations. The codice_144 type/class in the codice_145 module provides decimal floating point numbers to a pre-defined arbitrary precision and several rounding modes. The codice_146 class in the codice_147 module provides arbitrary precision for rational numbers.
Due to Python's extensive mathematics library, and the third-party library NumPy that further extends the native capabilities, it is frequently used as a scientific scripting language to aid in problems such as numerical data processing and manipulation.
Hello world program:
print('Hello, world!')
Program to calculate the square of a non-zero integer:
n = int(input('Type a number, and its square will be printed: '))
n *= n
print(n)
Program to calculate the factorial of a positive integer:
n = int(input('Type a number, and its factorial will be printed: '))
if n < 0:
fact = 1
i = 2
while i <= n:
print(fact)
Program to wait a specified number of seconds:
import time
s = int(input('Type a number of seconds to wait: '))
if s < 1:
time.sleep(s)
Python's large standard library, commonly cited as one of its greatest strengths, provides tools suited to many tasks. For Internet-facing applications, many standard formats and protocols such as MIME and HTTP are supported. It includes modules for creating graphical user interfaces, connecting to relational databases, generating pseudorandom numbers, arithmetic with arbitrary-precision decimals, manipulating regular expressions, and unit testing.
Some parts of the standard library are covered by specifications (for example, the Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI) implementation codice_148 follows PEP 333), but most modules are not. They are specified by their code, internal documentation, and test suites. However, because most of the standard library is cross-platform Python code, only a few modules need altering or rewriting for variant implementations.
Most Python implementations (including CPython) include a read–eval–print loop (REPL), permitting them to function as a command line interpreter for which the user enters statements sequentially and receives results immediately.
Other shells, including IDLE and IPython, add further abilities such as improved auto-completion, session state retention and syntax highlighting.
As well as standard desktop integrated development environments, there are Web browser-based IDEs; SageMath (intended for developing science and math-related Python programs); PythonAnywhere, a browser-based IDE and hosting environment; and Canopy IDE, a commercial Python IDE emphasizing scientific computing.
CPython is the reference implementation of Python. It is written in C, meeting the C89 standard with several select C99 features. It compiles Python programs into an intermediate bytecode which is then executed by its virtual machine. CPython is distributed with a large standard library written in a mixture of C and native Python. It is available for many platforms, including Windows (Vista and later; supported Windows XP and older, with by now unsupported Python 2.7) and most modern Unix-like systems. Platform portability was one of its earliest priorities, in Python 1 and 2 time-frame, even supporting VMS and OS/2, while since support has been dropped for a lot of platforms.
PyPy is a fast, compliant interpreter of Python 2.7 and 3.6. Its just-in-time compiler brings a significant speed improvement over CPython but several libraries written in C cannot be used with it.
Stackless Python is a significant fork of CPython that implements microthreads; it does not use the C memory stack, thus allowing massively concurrent programs. PyPy also has a stackless version.
MicroPython and CircuitPython are Python 3 variants optimized for microcontrollers. This includes Lego Mindstorms EV3.
Other just-in-time Python compilers have been developed, but are now unsupported:
In 2005, Nokia released a Python interpreter for the Series 60 mobile phones named PyS60. It includes many of the modules from the CPython implementations and some additional modules to integrate with the Symbian operating system. The project has been kept up-to-date to run on all variants of the S60 platform, and several third-party modules are available. The Nokia N900 also supports Python with GTK widget libraries, enabling programs to be written and run on the target device.
There are several compilers to high-level object languages, with either unrestricted Python, a restricted subset of Python, or a language similar to Python as the source language:
A performance comparison of various Python implementations on a non-numerical (combinatorial) workload was presented at EuroSciPy '13. Python's performance compared to other programming languages has also been benchmarked by The Computer Language Benchmarks Game.
Python's development is conducted largely through the "Python Enhancement Proposal" (PEP) process, the primary mechanism for proposing major new features, collecting community input on issues and documenting Python design decisions. Python coding style is covered in PEP 8. Outstanding PEPs are reviewed and commented on by the Python community and the steering council.
Enhancement of the language corresponds with development of the CPython reference implementation. The mailing list python-dev is the primary forum for the language's development. Specific issues are discussed in the Roundup bug tracker hosted at bugs.python.org. Development originally took place on a self-hosted source-code repository running Mercurial, until Python moved to GitHub in January 2017.
CPython's public releases come in three types, distinguished by which part of the version number is incremented:
Python 3.9 alpha1 was announced in November 2019 and with the adoption of a new yearly release cadence, the first release of 3.9 is slated for November 2020.
Many alpha, beta, and release-candidates are also released as previews and for testing before final releases. Although there is a rough schedule for each release, they are often delayed if the code is not ready. Python's development team monitors the state of the code by running the large unit test suite during development, and using the BuildBot continuous integration system.
The major academic conference on Python is PyCon. There are also special Python mentoring programmes, such as Pyladies.
Python's name is derived from the British comedy group Monty Python, whom Python creator Guido van Rossum enjoyed while developing the language. Monty Python references appear frequently in Python code and culture; for example, the metasyntactic variables often used in Python literature are "spam" and "eggs" instead of the traditional "foo" and "bar". The official Python documentation also contains various references to Monty Python routines.
The prefix "Py-" is used to show that something is related to Python. Examples of the use of this prefix in names of Python applications or libraries include Pygame, a binding of SDL to Python (commonly used to create games); PyQt and PyGTK, which bind Qt and GTK to Python respectively; and PyPy, a Python implementation originally written in Python.
Python API documentation generators include:
Since 2003, Python has consistently ranked in the top ten most popular programming languages in the TIOBE Programming Community Index where, , it is the third most popular language (behind Java, and C). It was selected Programming Language of the Year in 2007, 2010, and 2018.
An empirical study found that scripting languages, such as Python, are more productive than conventional languages, such as C and Java, for programming problems involving string manipulation and search in a dictionary, and determined that memory consumption was often "better than Java and not much worse than C or C++".
Large organizations that use Python include Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo!, CERN, NASA, Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, Spotify and some smaller entities like ILM and ITA. The social news networking site Reddit is written entirely in Python.
Python can serve as a scripting language for web applications, e.g., via mod wsgi for the Apache web server. With Web Server Gateway Interface, a standard API has evolved to facilitate these applications. Web frameworks like Django, Pylons, Pyramid, TurboGears, web2py, Tornado, Flask, Bottle and Zope support developers in the design and maintenance of complex applications. Pyjs and IronPython can be used to develop the client-side of Ajax-based applications. SQLAlchemy can be used as data mapper to a relational database. Twisted is a framework to program communications between computers, and is used (for example) by Dropbox.
Libraries such as NumPy, SciPy and Matplotlib allow the effective use of Python in scientific computing, with specialized libraries such as Biopython and Astropy providing domain-specific functionality. SageMath is a mathematical software with a notebook interface programmable in Python: its library covers many aspects of mathematics, including algebra, combinatorics, numerical mathematics, number theory, and calculus.
Python has been successfully embedded in many software products as a scripting language, including in finite element method software such as Abaqus, 3D parametric modeler like FreeCAD, 3D animation packages such as 3ds Max, Blender, Cinema 4D, Lightwave, Houdini, Maya, modo, MotionBuilder, Softimage, the visual effects compositor Nuke, 2D imaging programs like GIMP, Inkscape, Scribus and Paint Shop Pro, and musical notation programs like scorewriter and capella. GNU Debugger uses Python as a pretty printer to show complex structures such as C++ containers. Esri promotes Python as the best choice for writing scripts in ArcGIS. It has also been used in several video games, and has been adopted as first of the three available programming languages in Google App Engine, the other two being Java and Go.
Python is commonly used in artificial intelligence projects and machine learning projects with the help of libraries like TensorFlow, Keras, Pytorch and Scikit-learn. As a scripting language with modular architecture, simple syntax and rich text processing tools, Python is often used for natural language processing.
Many operating systems include Python as a standard component. It ships with most Linux distributions, AmigaOS 4 (using Python 2.7), FreeBSD (as a package), NetBSD, OpenBSD (as a package) and macOS and can be used from the command line (terminal). Many Linux distributions use installers written in Python: Ubuntu uses the Ubiquity installer, while Red Hat Linux and Fedora use the Anaconda installer. Gentoo Linux uses Python in its package management system, Portage.
Python is used extensively in the information security industry, including in exploit development.
Most of the Sugar software for the One Laptop per Child XO, now developed at Sugar Labs, is written in Python. The Raspberry Pi single-board computer project has adopted Python as its main user-programming language.
LibreOffice includes Python, and intends to replace Java with Python. Its Python Scripting Provider is a core feature since Version 4.0 from 7 February 2013.
Python's design and philosophy have influenced many other programming languages:
Python's development practices have also been emulated by other languages. For example, the practice of requiring a document describing the rationale for, and issues surrounding, a change to the language (in Python, a PEP) is also used in Tcl, Erlang, and Swift. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23862 |
Pyridine
Pyridine is a basic heterocyclic organic compound with the chemical formula C5H5N. It is structurally related to benzene, with one methine group (=CH−) replaced by a nitrogen atom. It is a highly flammable, weakly alkaline, water-miscible liquid with a distinctive, unpleasant fish-like smell. Pyridine is colorless, but older or impure samples can appear yellow. The pyridine ring occurs in many important compounds, including agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and vitamins. Historically, pyridine was produced from coal tar. Today it is synthesized on the scale of about 20,000 tonnes per year worldwide.
The molecular electric dipole moment is 2.2 debyes. Pyridine is diamagnetic and has a diamagnetic susceptibility of −48.7 × 10−6 cm3·mol−1. The standard enthalpy of formation is 100.2 kJ·mol−1 in the liquid phase and 140.4 kJ·mol−1 in the gas phase. At 25 °C pyridine has a viscosity of 0.88 mPa/s and thermal conductivity of 0.166 W·m−1·K−1. The enthalpy of vaporization is 35.09 kJ·mol−1 at the boiling point and normal pressure. The enthalpy of fusion is 8.28 kJ·mol−1 at the melting point.
The critical parameters of pyridine are pressure 6.70 MPa, temperature 620 K and volume 229 cm3·mol−1. In the temperature range 340–426 °C its vapor pressure "p" can be described with the Antoine equation
where "T" is temperature, "A" = 4.16272, "B" = 1371.358 K and "C" = −58.496 K.
Akin to benzene, pyridine ring forms a C5N hexagon. Electron localization in pyridine is reflected in the shorter C–N ring bond (137 pm for the C–N bond in pyridine vs. 139 pm for C–C bond in benzene), whereas the carbon–carbon bonds in the pyridine ring have the same 139 pm length as in benzene. These bond lengths lie between the values for the single and double bonds and are typical of aromatic compounds.
Pyridine crystallizes in an orthorhombic crystal system with space group "Pna21" and lattice parameters "a" = 1752 pm, "b" = 897 pm, "c" = 1135 pm, and 16 formula units per unit cell (measured at 153 K). For comparison, crystalline benzene is also orthorhombic, with space group "Pbca", "a" = 729.2 pm, "b" = 947.1 pm, "c" = 674.2 pm (at 78 K), but the number of molecules per cell is only 4. This difference is partly related to the lower symmetry of the individual pyridine molecule (C2v vs D6h for benzene). A trihydrate (pyridine·3H2O) is known; it also crystallizes in an orthorhombic system in the space group "Pbca", lattice parameters "a" = 1244 pm, "b" = 1783 pm, "c" = 679 pm and eight formula units per unit cell (measured at 223 K).
The optical absorption spectrum of pyridine in hexane contains three bands at the wavelengths of 195 nm (π → π* transition, molar absorptivity "ε" = 7500 L·mol−1·cm−1), 251 nm (π → π* transition, "ε" = 2000 L·mol−1·cm−1) and 270 nm (n → π* transition, "ε" = 450 L·mol−1·cm−1). The 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum of pyridine contains three signals with the integral intensity ratio of 2:1:2 that correspond to the three chemically different protons in the molecule. These signals originate from the α-protons (positions 2 and 6, chemical shift 8.5 ppm), γ-proton (position 4, 7.5 ppm) and β-protons (positions 3 and 5, 7.1 ppm). The carbon analog of pyridine, benzene, has only one proton signal at 7.27 ppm. The larger chemical shifts of the α- and γ-protons in comparison to benzene result from the lower electron density in the α- and γ-positions, which can be derived from the resonance structures. The situation is rather similar for the 13C NMR spectra of pyridine and benzene: pyridine shows a triplet at "δ"(α-C) = 150 ppm, δ(β-C) = 124 ppm and δ(γ-C) = 136 ppm, whereas benzene has a single line at 129 ppm. All shifts are quoted for the solvent-free substances. Pyridine is conventionally detected by the gas chromatography and mass spectrometry methods.
Because of the electronegative nitrogen in the pyridine ring , the molecule is relatively electron deficient. It, therefore, enters less readily into electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions than benzene derivatives. Correspondingly pyridine is more prone to nucleophilic substitution, as evidenced by the ease of metalation by strong organometallic bases. The reactivity of pyridine can be distinguished for three chemical groups. With electrophiles, electrophilic substitution takes place where pyridine expresses aromatic properties. With nucleophiles, pyridine reacts at positions 2 and 4 and thus behaves similar to imines and carbonyls. The reaction with many Lewis acids results in the addition to the nitrogen atom of pyridine, which is similar to the reactivity of tertiary amines. The ability of pyridine and its derivatives to oxidize, forming amine oxides ("N"-oxides), is also a feature of tertiary amines.
The nitrogen center of pyridine features a basic lone pair of electrons. This lone pair does not overlap with the aromatic π-system ring, consequently pyridine is basic, having chemical properties similar to those of tertiary amines. Protonation gives pyridinium, C5H5NH+.The p"K"a of the conjugate acid (the pyridinium cation) is 5.25. The structures of pyridine and pyridinium are almost identical. The pyridinium cation is isoelectronic with benzene. Pyridinium "p"-toluenesulfonate (PPTS) is an illustrative pyridinium salt; it is produced by treating pyridine with "p"-toluenesulfonic acid. In addition to protonation, pyridine undergoes N-centered alkylation, acylation, and "N"-oxidation.
Pyridine has a conjugated system of six π electrons that are delocalized over the ring. The molecule is planar and, thus, follows the Hückel criteria for aromatic systems. In contrast to benzene, the electron density is not evenly distributed over the ring, reflecting the negative inductive effect of the nitrogen atom. For this reason, pyridine has a dipole moment and a weaker resonant stabilization than benzene (resonance energy 117 kJ·mol−1 in pyridine vs. 150 kJ·mol−1 in benzene).
The ring atoms in the pyridine molecule are sp2-hybridized. The nitrogen is involved in the π-bonding aromatic system using its unhybridized p orbital. The lone pair is in an sp2 orbital, projecting outward from the ring in the same plane as the σ bonds. As a result, the lone pair does not contribute to the aromatic system but importantly influences the chemical properties of pyridine, as it easily supports bond formation via an electrophilic attack. However, because of the separation of the lone pair from the aromatic ring system, the nitrogen atom cannot exhibit a positive mesomeric effect.
Many analogues of pyridine are known where N is replaced by other heteroatoms (see figure below). Substitution of one C–H in pyridine with a second N gives rise to the diazine heterocycles (C4H4N2), with the names pyridazine, pyrimidine, and pyrazine.
Impure pyridine was undoubtedly prepared by early alchemists by heating animal bones and other organic matter, but the earliest documented reference is attributed to the Scottish scientist Thomas Anderson. In 1849, Anderson examined the contents of the oil obtained through high-temperature heating of animal bones. Among other substances, he separated from the oil a colorless liquid with unpleasant odor, from which he isolated pure pyridine two years later. He described it as highly soluble in water, readily soluble in concentrated acids and salts upon heating, and only slightly soluble in oils.
Owing to its flammability, Anderson named the new substance "pyridine", after (pyr) meaning "fire". The suffix "idine" was added in compliance with the chemical nomenclature, as in "toluidine", to indicate a cyclic compound containing a nitrogen atom.
The chemical structure of pyridine was determined decades after its discovery. Wilhelm Körner (1869) and James Dewar (1871) suggested that, in analogy between quinoline and naphthalene, the structure of pyridine is derived from benzene by substituting one C–H unit with a nitrogen atom. The suggestion by Körner and Dewar was later confirmed in an experiment where pyridine was reduced to piperidine with sodium in ethanol. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23863 |
Production car racing
Production car racing, showroom stock racing, street Stock, pure stock, and U-car racing are all categories of auto racing where unmodified (or very lightly modified) production cars race each other, outright and also in classes.
Cars usually have a protective roll cage and run race tires (either slicks or radials). Some freedoms are allowed, like gearbox coolers, giving the cars increased performance and components longevity. Production car racing, known in the US as "showroom stock", is an economical and rules restricted version of touring car racing.
Many production racing categories are based on particular makes of cars. There are many Porsche and Audi racing series around the world. These are also called "one make series". Some series use a handicapped start, where the smaller cars are released up to 45 seconds ahead of the larger cars, and are slowly caught, the idea being that all the cars are together at the finish of the race. Many series follow the group N regulation with a few exceptions. There are several different series that have run all over the world, most notably, Japan's Super Taikyu and IMSA's Firehawk Series which ran between the 1980s to 1990s all over the United States.
Major races include the Bathurst 6 Hour, Bahrain 24 Hour, Dubai 24 Hour and Malaysian 12 Hour and sanctioned by organisations such as the FIA and SCCA. Normally using an entry level formula, it has grown into a stand-alone series, with national, state and club events and championships. The first NASCAR "strictly stock" race was held at Charlotte Speedway, on June 19, 1949. Where a racing class requires that the cars raced be production vehicles only slightly adapted for racing, manufacturers typically produce a limited run of such vehicles for public sale so that they can legitimately race them in the class. These cars are commonly called "homologation specials".
In British oval racing, the term "production car racing" has been used as an alternative for hot rods, as run in the West Country during the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, and a production car world championship race was held twice in the 1970s, won by Spence Morgan in 1974 and Ralph Sanders in 1975, both driving Ford Anglias. The West Country production cars were later reclassified as hot rods to come in line with the country's other promoters although this causes some confusion with the history of the West country racing as there was another class called hot rods that ran on those tracks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23864 |
Phenols
In organic chemistry, phenols, sometimes called phenolics, are a class of chemical compounds consisting of one or more hydroxyl groups (—OH) bonded directly to an aromatic hydrocarbon group. The simplest is phenol, . Phenolic compounds are classified as simple phenols or polyphenols based on the number of phenol units in the molecule.
Phenols are both synthesized industrially and produced by plants and microorganisms.
Phenols are more acidic than typical alchols. The acidity of the hydroxyl group in phenols is commonly intermediate between that of aliphatic alcohols and carboxylic acids (their pKa is usually between 10 and 12). Deprotonation of a phenol forms a corresponding negative phenolate ion or phenoxide ion, and the corresponding salts are called phenolates or phenoxides (aryloxides according to the IUPAC Gold Book).
Phenols are susceptible to Electrophilic aromatic substitutions. Condensation with formaldehyde gives resinous materials, famously Bakelite.
Another industrial-scale electrophilic aromatic substitution is the production of bisphenol A, which is produced by the condensation with acetone.
Phenol is readily alkylated at the ortho positions using alkenes in the presence of a Lewis acid such as aluminium phenoxide:
More than 100,000 tons of tert-butyl phenols are produced annually (year: 2000) in this way, using isobutylene (CH2=CMe2) as the alkylating agent. Especially important is 2,6-ditert-butylphenol, a versatile antioxidant.
Phenols undergo esterfication. Phenol esters are active esters, being prone to hydrolysis. Phenols are reactive species toward oxidation. Oxidative cleavage, for instance cleavage of 1,2-dihydroxybenzene to the monomethylester of 2,4 hexadienedioic acid with oxygen, copper chloride in pyridine Oxidative de-aromatization to quinones also known as the Teuber reaction. and oxone. In reaction depicted below 3,4,5-trimethylphenol reacts with singlet oxygen generated from oxone/sodium carbonate in an acetonitrile/water mixture to a para-peroxyquinole. This hydroperoxide is reduced to the quinole with sodium thiosulfate.
Phenols are oxidized to hydroquinones in the Elbs persulfate oxidation.
Reaction of naphtols and hydrazines and sodium bisulfite in the Bucherer carbazole synthesis
Many phenols of commercial interest are prepared by elaboration of phenol or cresols. They are typically produced by the alkylation of benzene/toluene with propylene to form cumene then is added with to form phenol (Hock process). In addition to the reactions above, many other more specialized reactions produce phenols:
There are various classification schemes. A commonly used scheme is based on the number of carbons and was devised by Jeffrey Harborne and Simmonds in 1964 and published in 1980: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23865 |
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), translated as Gnaeus Pompey the Great (), was a leading Roman general and statesman, whose career was significant in Rome's transformation from a republic to empire. He was for a time a political ally and later enemy of Julius Caesar. A member of the senatorial nobility, Pompey entered a military career while still young and rose to prominence serving the later dictator Sulla as a commander in Sulla's civil war, his success at which earned him the cognomen "Magnus" – "the Great" – after Pompey's boyhood hero Alexander the Great. His adversaries also gave him the nickname "adulescentulus carnifex" ("teenage butcher") for his ruthlessness. Pompey's success as a general while still young enabled him to advance directly to his first consulship without meeting the normal "cursus honorum" (requirements for office). He was consul three times and celebrated three Roman triumphs.
In 60 BC, Pompey joined Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gaius Julius Caesar in the unofficial military-political alliance known as the First Triumvirate, which Pompey's marriage to Caesar's daughter Julia helped secure. After Crassus and Julia's deaths, Pompey sided with the "Optimates", the conservative faction of the Roman Senate. Pompey and Caesar then contended for the leadership of the Roman state, leading to a civil war. When in that war Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus, in 48 BC, he sought refuge in Egypt, where he was assassinated.
Pompey was born in Picenum (modern Marche and the northern part of Abruzzo) to a local noble family. Pompey's father, Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, was first of his branch of the gens Pompeia to achieve senatorial status in Rome, despite his provincial origins. The Romans referred to Strabo as a "novus homo" (new man). Pompeius Strabo ascended the traditional cursus honorum, becoming quaestor in 104 BC, praetor in 92 BC and consul in 89 BC. He acquired a reputation for greed, political double-dealing, and military ruthlessness. He fought the Social War against Rome's Italian allies. He supported Sulla, who belonged to the Optimates, the pro-aristocracy faction, against Marius, who belonged to the Populares (in favour of the people), in Sulla's first civil war (88–87 BC). Strabo died during the siege of Rome by the Marians, in 87 BC—either as a casualty of an epidemic, or by having been struck by lightning. His twenty-year-old son Pompey inherited his estates, and the loyalty of his legions.
Pompey served under his father's command during the final years of the Social War. When his father died, Pompey was put on trial due to accusations that his father stole public property. As his father's heir, Pompey could be held to account. He discovered that the theft was committed by one of his father's freedmen. Following his preliminary bouts with his accuser, the judge took a liking to Pompey and offered his daughter Antistia in marriage. Pompey was acquitted.
Another civil war broke out between the Marians and Sulla in 84–82 BC. The Marians had previously taken over Rome while Sulla was fighting the First Mithridatic War (89–85 BC) against Mithridates VI of Pontus in Greece. In 84 BC, Sulla returned from that war, landing in Brundisium (Brindisi) in southern Italy. Pompey raised three legions from his father's veterans and his own clients in Picenum to support Sulla's march on Rome against the Marian regime of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and Gaius Marius the Younger. Cassius Dio described Pompey's troop levy as a "small band".
Sulla defeated the Marians and was appointed as Dictator. He admired Pompey's qualities and thought that he was useful for the administration of his affairs. He and his wife, Metella, persuaded Pompey to divorce Antistia and marry Sulla's stepdaughter Aemilia Scaura. Plutarch commented that the marriage was "characteristic of a tyranny, and benefitted the needs of Sulla rather than the nature and habits of Pompey, Aemilia being given to him in marriage when she was with child by another man". Antistia had recently lost both her parents. Pompey accepted, but "Aemilia had scarcely entered Pompey's house before she succumbed to the pangs of childbirth." Pompey later married Mucia Tertia. We have no record of when this took place. The sources only mentioned Pompey divorcing her. Plutarch wrote that Pompey dismissed with contempt a report that she had had an affair while he was fighting in the Third Mithridatic War between 66 BC and 63 BC. However, on his journey back to Rome, he examined the evidence more carefully and filed for divorce. Cicero wrote that the divorce was strongly approved. Cassius Dio wrote that she was the sister of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer and that Metellus Celer was angry because he had divorced her despite having had children by her. Pompey and Mucia had three children: The eldest, Gnaeus Pompey (Pompey the Younger), Pompeia Magna, a daughter, and Sextus Pompey, the younger son. Cassius Dio wrote that Marcus Scaurus was Sextus’ half-brother on his mother's side. He was condemned to death, but later released for the sake of his mother Mucia.
The survivors of the Marians, those who were exiled after they lost Rome and those who escaped Sulla's persecution of his opponents, were given refuge on Sicily by Marcus Perpenna Vento. Papirius Carbo had a fleet there, and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus had forced entry into the Roman province of Africa. Sulla sent Pompey to Sicily with a large force. According to Plutarch, Perpenna fled and left Sicily to Pompey. The Sicilian cities had been treated harshly by Perpenna, Pompey treated them with kindness. Pompey "treated Carbo in his misfortunes with an unnatural insolence", taking Carbo in fetters to a tribunal he presided over, examining him closely "to the distress and vexation of the audience", and finally, sentencing him to death. Pompey also treated Quintus Valerius "with unnatural cruelty". His opponents dubbed him "adulescentulus carnifex" (adolescent butcher). While Pompey was still in Sicily, Sulla ordered him to the province of Africa to fight Gnaeus Domitius who had assembled a large force there. Pompey left his brother-in-law, Gaius Memmius, in control of Sicily and sailed his army to Africa. When he got there, 7,000 of the enemy forces went over to him. Domitius was subsequently defeated at the battle of Utica and died when Pompey attacked his camp. Some cities surrendered, some were taken by storm. King Hiarbas of Numidia, who was an ally of Domitius, was captured and executed. Pompey invaded Numidia and subdued it in forty days; He restored Hiempsal II to the throne. When he returned to the Roman province of Africa, Sulla ordered him to send back the rest of his troops and remain there with one legion to wait for his successor. This turned the soldiers who had to stay behind against Sulla. Pompey said that he would rather kill himself than go against Sulla. When Pompey returned to Rome everyone welcomed him. To outdo them, Sulla saluted him as "Magnus" (the Great), after Pompey's boyhood hero Alexander the Great, and ordered the others to give him this cognomen.
Pompey asked for a triumph, but Sulla refused because the law allowed only a consul or a praetor to celebrate a triumph, and said that if Pompey—who was too young even to be a senator—were to do so, he would make both Sulla's regime and his honour odious. Plutarch commented that Pompey "had scarcely grown a beard as yet". However, Sulla added that he would not oppose him if he refused to listen to him. Pompey replied that more people worshiped the rising than the setting sun, implying that his power was on the increase, while Sulla's was on the wane. Sulla said twice: "Let him triumph!" Pompey tried to enter the city on a chariot drawn by four of the many elephants he had captured in Africa, but the city gate was too narrow and he changed over to his horses. His soldiers, who had not received as much of a share of the war booty as they expected threatened a mutiny, but Pompey said that he did not care and that he would rather give up his triumph. Pompey went ahead with his extra-legal triumph. Sulla was annoyed, but did not want to hinder his career and kept quiet. However, in 79 BC, when Pompey canvassed for Lepidus and succeeded in making him a consul against Sulla's wishes, Sulla warned Pompey to watch out because he had made an adversary stronger than him. He omitted Pompey from his will.
After Sulla's death (78 BC) Marcus Aemilius Lepidus tried to revive the fortunes of the populares. He became the new leader of the reform movement silenced by Sulla. He tried to prevent Sulla from receiving a state funeral and from having his body buried in the Campus Martius. Pompey opposed this and ensured Sulla's burial with honours. In 77 BC, when Lepidus had left for his proconsular command (he was allocated the provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul), his political opponents moved against him. He was recalled from his proconsular command. When he refused to return they declared him an enemy of the state. When Lepidus did move back to Rome he did so at the head of an army.
The Senate passed a Consultum Ultimum (the Ultimate Decree) which called on the interrex Appius Claudius and the proconsul Quintus Lutatius Catulus to take necessary measures to preserve public safety. Catulus and Claudius persuaded Pompey, who had several legions' worth of veterans in Picenum (in the north-east of Italy) ready to take up arms at his command, to join their cause. Pompey, invested as a legate with propraetorial powers, quickly recruited an army from among his veterans and threatened Lepidus, who had marched his army to Rome, from the rear. Pompey penned up Marcus Junius Brutus, one of Lepidus's lieutenants, in Mutina.
After a lengthy siege Brutus surrendered. Plutarch wrote that it was not known whether Brutus had betrayed his army or whether his army had betrayed him. Brutus was given an escort and retired to a town by the River Po, but the next day he was apparently assassinated on Pompey's orders. Pompey was blamed for this, because he had written that Brutus had surrendered of his own accord, and then wrote a second letter denouncing him after he had him murdered.
Catulus, who had recruited an army at Rome, now took on Lepidus directly defeating him in a battle just to the north of Rome. After having dealt with Brutus, Pompey marched against Lepidus' rear catching him near Cosa. Although Pompey defeated him Lepidus was still able to embark part of his army and retreat to Sardinia. Lepidus fell ill while on Sardinia and died, allegedly because he found out that his wife had had an affair.
Quintus Sertorius, the last survivor of the Cinna-Marian faction (Sulla's main opponents during the civil wars of 88-80 BC), waged an effective guerrilla war against the officials of the Sullan regime in Hispania. He was able to rally the local tribes, particularly the Lusitanians and the Celtiberians, in what came to be called the Sertorian War (80-72 BC). Sertorius's guerrilla tactics wore down the Sullans in Hispania; he even drove the proconsul Metellus Pius from his province of Hispania Ulterior. Pompey, who had just successfully assisted the consul Catulus in putting down the rebellion of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, asked to be sent to reinforce Metellus. He had not disbanded his legions after squashing the rebels and remained under arms near the city with various excuses until he was ordered to Hispania by the senate on a motion of Lucius Philippus. A senator asked Philippus if he "thought it necessary to send Pompey out as proconsul. 'No indeed!' said Philippus, 'but as proconsuls,' implying that both the consuls of that year were good for nothing." Pompey's proconsular mandate was extra-legal, as a proconsulship was the extension of the military command (but not the public office) of a consul. Pompey, however, was not a consul and had never held public office. His career seems to have been driven by desire for military glory and disregard for traditional political constraints.
Pompey recruited an army of 30,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, its size evidence of the seriousness of the threat possed by Sertorius. On Pompey's staff were his old lieutenant Afranius, D. Laelius, Petreius, C. Cornelius, probably Gabinius and Varro. Gaius Memmius, his brother-in-law, who was already serving in Spain under Metellus, was transferred to his command and served him as a quaestor. On his way to Hispania, he opened a new route through the Alps and subdued tribes that had rebelled in Gallia Narbonensis. Cicero later describes Pompey leading his legions to Spain through a welter of carnage in a transalpine war during the autumn of 77 BC. After a hard and bloody campaign Pompey wintered his army near the Roman colony of Narbo Martius. In the spring of 76 BC he marched on and entered the Iberian peninsula through the Col de Petrus. He would remain in Hispania from 76 BC to 71 BC. Pompey's arrival gave the men of Metellus Pius new hope and led to some local tribes, which were not tightly associated with Sertorius, to change sides. According to Appian, as soon as Pompey arrived, he marched to lift the siege of Lauron, here he suffered a substantial defeat at the hands of Sertorius himself. It was a serious blow to Pompey's prestige. Pompey spent the rest of 76 BC recovering from the defeat and preparing for the coming campaign.
In 75 BC, Sertorius decided to take on Metellus while he left the battered Pompey to two of his legates (Perpenna and Herennius). In a battle near Valentia Pompey defeated Perpenna and Herennius and regained some of his prestige. Sertorius hearing of the defeat left Metellus to his second-in-command, Hirtuleius, and took over the command against Pompey. Metellus then promptly defeated Hirtuleius at the Battle of Italica and marched after Sertorius. Pompey and Sertorius, both not wanting to wait for the arrival of Metellus (Pompey wanted the glory of finishing of Sertorius for himself and Sertorius did not relish fighting two armies at once), hastily engaged in the indecisive Battle of Sucro. On Metellus’ approach Sertorius marched inland. Pompey and Metellus pursued him to a settlement called "Seguntia" (certainly not the more know Saguntum settlement on the coast, but one of the many celtiberians towns called Seguntia, since Sertorius had withdrawn inland), where they fought an inconclusive battle. Pompey lost nearly 6,000 men and Sertorius half of that. Memmius, Pompey's brother-in-law and the most capable of his commanders, also fell. Metellus defeated Perpenna, who lost 5,000 men. According to Appian the next day Sertorius attacked Metellus' camp unexpectedly, but he had to withdraw because Pompey was approaching. Sertorius withdrew to Clunia, a mountain stronghold in present-day Burgos, and repaired its walls to lure the Romans into a siege and sent officers to collect troops from other towns. He then made a sortie, passed through the enemy lines and joined his new force. He resumed his guerrilla tactics and cut off the enemy's supplies with widespread raids. Pirate tactics at sea disrupted maritime supplies. This forced the two Roman commanders to separate. Metellus went to Gaul. Pompey wintered among the Vaccaei and suffered shortages of supplies. When Pompey spent most of his private resources on the war he asked the senate for money, threatening to go back to Italy with his army if this was refused. The consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus, canvassing for the command of the Third Mithridatic War, believing that it would bring glory with little difficulty, fearing that Pompey would leave the Sertorian War to take on the Mithridatic one, ensured that the money was sent to keep Pompey. Pompey got his money and was stuck in Hispania until he could convincingly beat Sertorius. The "retreat" of Metellus made it seem like victory was further away then ever and led to the joke that Sertorius would be back in Rome before Pompey.
In 73 BC, Rome sent two more legions to Metellus. He and Pompey then descended from the Pyrenees to the River Ebro. Sertorius and Perpenna advanced from Lusitania again. According to Plutarch many of the senators and other high ranking men who had joined Sertorius were jealous of their leader. This was encouraged by Perpenna who aspired to the chief command. They secretly sabotaged him and meted out severe punishments on the Hispanic allies, pretending that this was ordered by Sertorius. Revolts in the towns were further stirred up by these men. Sertorius killed some allies and sold others into slavery. Appian wrote that many of Sertorius' Roman soldiers defected to Metellus. Sertorius reacted with severe punishments and started using a bodyguard of Celtiberians instead of Romans. Moreover, he reproached his Roman soldiers for treachery. This aggrieved the soldiers because they felt that they were blamed for the desertion of other soldiers and because this was happening while they were serving under an enemy of the regime in Rome and therefore in a sense they were betraying their country through him. Moreover, the Celtiberians treated them with contempt as men under suspicion. These facts made Sertorius unpopular; only his skill at command kept his troops from deserting en masse. Metellus took advantage of his enemy's poor morale, bringing many towns allied to Sertorius under subjection. Pompey besieged Palantia until Sertorius showed up to relieve the city. Pompey set fire to the city walls and retreated to Metellus. Sertorius rebuilt the wall and then attacked his enemies who were encamped around the castle of Calagurris. They lost 3000 men. In 72 BC, there were only skirmishes. However, Metellus and Pompey advanced on several towns. Some of them defected and some were attacked. Appian wrote that Sertorius fell unto ‘habits of luxury,’ drinking and consorting with women. He was defeated continually. He became hot-tempered, suspicious and cruel in punishment. Perpenna began to fear for his safety and conspired to murder Sertorius. Plutarch, instead, thought that Perpenna was motivated by ambition. He had gone to Hispania with the remnants of the army of Lepidus in Sardinia and had wanted to fight this war independently to gain glory. He had joined Sertorius reluctantly because his troops wanted to do so when they heard that Pompey was coming to Hispania. He wanted to take over the supreme command.
When Sertorius was murdered the formerly disaffected soldiers grieved for the loss of their commander whose bravery had been their salvation and were angry with Perpenna. The native troops, especially the Lusitanians, who had given Sertorius the greatest support, were angry, too. Perpenna responded with the carrot and the stick: he gave gifts, made promises and released some of the men Sertorius had imprisoned, while threatening others and killing some men to strike terror. He secured the obedience of his troops, but not their true loyalty. Metellus left the fight against Perpenna to Pompey. The two skirmished for nine days. Then, as Perpenna did not think that his men would remain loyal for long, he marched into battle but Pompey ambushed and defeated him. Frontinus wrote about the battle in his stratagems:
Pompey won against a poor commander and a disaffected army. Perpenna hid in a thicket, fearing his troops more than the enemy, and was eventually captured. Perpenna offered to produce letters to Sertorius from leading men in Rome who had invited Sertorius to Italy for seditious purposes. Pompey, fearing that this might lead to an even greater war, had Perpenna executed and burned the letters without even reading them. Pompey remained in Hispania to quell the last disorders and settle affairs. He showed a talent for efficient organisation and fair administration in the conquered province. This extended his patronage throughout Hispania and into southern Gaul. His departure from Hispania was marked by the erection of a Triumphal monument at the summit off the pass over the Pyrenees. On it he recorded that from the Alps to the limits of Further Spain he had brought 876 towns under Roman sway.
While Pompey was in Hispania the rebellion of the slaves led by Spartacus (the Third Servile War, 73–71 BC) broke out. Crassus was given eight legions and led the final phase of the war. He asked the senate to summon Lucullus and Pompey back from the Third Mithridatic War and Hispania respectively to provide reinforcements, "but he was sorry now that he had done so, and was eager to bring the war to an end before those generals came. He knew that the success would be ascribed to the one who came up with assistance, and not to himself." The senate decided to send Pompey who had just returned from Hispania. On hearing this, Crassus hurried to engage in the decisive battle, and routed the rebels. On his arrival, Pompey cut to pieces 6,000 fugitives from the battle. Pompey wrote to the senate that Crassus had conquered the rebels in a pitched battle, but that he himself had extirpated the war entirely.
Pompey was granted a second triumph for his victory in Hispania, which, again, was extra-legal. He was asked to stand for the consulship, even though he was only 35 and thus below the age of eligibility to the consulship, and had not held any public office, much less climbed the cursus honorum (the progression from lower to higher offices). Livy noted that Pompey was made consul after a special senatorial decree, because he had not occupied the quaestorship and was an equestrian and did not have senatorial rank. Plutarch wrote that "Crassus, the richest statesman of his time, the ablest speaker, and the greatest man, who looked down on Pompey and everybody else, had not the courage to sue for the consulship until he had asked the support of Pompey." Pompey accepted gladly. In the Life of Pompey Plutarch wrote that Pompey "had long wanted an opportunity of doing him some service and kindness ..." In the Life of Crassus he wrote that Pompey "was desirous of having Crassus, in some way or other, always in debt to him for some favour". Pompey promoted his candidature and said in a speech that "he should be no less grateful to them for the colleague than for the office which he desired."
Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls for the year 70 BC. Plutarch wrote that in Rome Pompey was looked upon with both fear and great expectation. About half of the people feared that he would not disband his army and that he would seize absolute power by arms and hand power to the Sullans. Pompey, instead, declared that he would disband his army after his triumph and then "there remained but one accusation for envious tongues to make, namely, that he devoted himself more to the people than to the senate..." When Pompey and Crassus assumed office they did not remain friendly. In the Life of Crassus, Plutarch wrote that the two men differed on almost every measure, and by their contentiousness rendered their consulship "barren politically and without achievement, except that Crassus made a great sacrifice in honour of Hercules and gave the people a great feast and an allowance of grain for three months". Towards the end of their term of office, when the differences between the two men were increasing, a man declared that Jupiter told him, to "declare in public that you should not suffer your consuls to lay down their office until they become friends". The people called for a reconciliation. Pompey did not react, but Crassus "clasped him by the hand" and said that it was not humiliating for him to take the first step of goodwill.
Neither Plutarch nor Suetonius wrote that the acrimony between Pompey and Crassus stemmed from Pompey's claim about the defeat of Spartacus. Plutarch wrote that "Crassus, for all his self-approval, did not venture to ask for the major triumph, and it was thought ignoble and mean in him to celebrate even the minor triumph on foot, called the ovation (a minor victory celebration), for a servile war." According to Appian, however, there was a contention for honours between the two men—a reference to the fact that Pompey claimed that he had ended the slave rebellion led by Spartacus, whereas in actual fact Crassus had done so. In Appian's account there was no disbanding of armies. The two commanders refused to disband their armies and kept them stationed near the city, as neither wanted to be the first to do so. Pompey said that he was waiting the return of Metellus for his Spanish triumph; Crassus said that Pompey ought to dismiss his army first. Initially, pleas from the people were of no avail, but eventually Crassus yielded and offered Pompey the handshake.
Plutarch's reference to Pompey's "devot[ing] himself more to the people than to the senate" was related to a measure regarding the plebeian tribunes, the representatives of the plebeians. As part of the constitutional reforms Sulla carried out after his second civil war, he revoked the power of the tribunes to veto the senatus consulta (the written advice of the senate on bills, which was usually followed to the letter), and prohibited ex-tribunes from ever holding any other office. Ambitious young plebeians had sought election to this tribunate as a stepping stone for election to other offices and to climb up the cursus honorum. Therefore, the plebeian tribunate became a dead end for one's political career. He also limited the ability of the plebeian council (the assembly of the plebeians) to enact bills by reintroducing the senatus auctoritas, a pronouncement of the senate on bills that, if negative, could invalidate them. The reforms reflected Sulla's view of the hated plebeian tribunate as a source of subversion that roused the "rabble" (the plebeians) against the aristocracy. Naturally, these measures were unpopular among the plebeians, the majority of the population. Plutarch wrote that Pompey "had determined to restore the authority of the tribunate, which Sulla had overthrown, and to court the favour of the many" and commented that, "There was nothing on which the Roman people had more frantically set their affections, or for which they had a greater yearning, than to behold that office again." Through the repeal of Sulla's measures against the plebeian tribunate Pompey gained the favour of the people.
In 'The Life of Crassus', Plutarch did not mention this repeal and, as mentioned above, he only wrote that Pompey and Crassus disagreed on everything and that as a result their consulship did not achieve anything. Yet, the restoration of tribunician powers was a highly significant measure and a turning point in the politics of the late Republic. This measure must have been opposed by the aristocracy and it would have been unlikely that it would have been passed if the two consuls had opposed each other. Crassus does not feature much in the writings of the ancient sources. Unfortunately, the books of Livy, otherwise the most detailed of the sources, which cover this period have been lost. However, the Periochae, a short summary of Livy's work, records that "Marcus Crassus and Gnaeus Pompey were made consuls ... and reconstituted the tribunician powers." Suetonius wrote that when Julius Caesar was a military tribune "he ardently supported the leaders in the attempt to re-establish the authority of the tribunes of the commons [the plebeians], the extent of which Sulla had curtailed." The two leaders must obviously have been the two consuls, Crassus and Pompey.
Piracy in the Mediterranean became a large-scale problem. A large network of pirates coordinated operations over wide areas with large fleets. According to Cassius Dio, many years of war contributed to this. Many war fugitives joined them. Pirates were more difficult to catch or break up than bandits. The pirates pillaged coastal fields and towns. Rome was affected through shortages of imports and the supply of grains, but the Romans did not pay proper attention to the problem. They sent out fleets when ‘they were stirred by individual reports’ and these did not achieve anything. Cassius Dio wrote that these operations caused greater distress for Rome's allies. It was thought that a war against the pirates would be big and expensive and that it was impossible to attack all the pirates at once or to drive them back everywhere. As not much was done against them, some towns were turned into pirate winter quarters and raids further inland were carried out. Many pirates settled on land in various places and relied on an informal network of mutual assistance. Towns in Italy were also attacked, including Ostia, the port of Rome: ships were burnt and there was pillaging. The pirates seized important Romans and demanded large ransoms.
Cilicia had been a haven for pirates for a long time. It was divided into two parts, Cilicia Trachaea (Rugged Cilicia), a mountain area in the west, and Cilicia Pedias (flat Cilicia, in the east) by the Limonlu River. The first Roman campaign against the pirates was led by Marcus Antonius Orator in 102 BC. Parts of Cilicia Pedias became Roman territory. Only a small part of that area became a Roman province. Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus was given the command of fighting piracy in Cilicia in 78–74 BC. He won several naval victories off Cilicia and occupied the coasts of nearby Lycia and Pamphylia. He received his agnomen of Isaurus because he defeated the Isauri who lived in the core of the Taurus Mountains, which bordered on Cilicia. He incorporated Isauria into the province of Cilicia Pedias. However, much of Cilicia Paedia belonged to the kingdom of Armenia. Cilicia Trachea was still under the control of the pirates.
In 67 BC, three years after Pompey's consulship, the plebeian tribune Aulus Gabinius proposed a law (Lex Gabinia) for choosing "...from among the ex-consuls a commander with full power against all the pirates". He was to have dominion over the waters of the entire Mediterranean and up to fifty miles inland for three years. He was to be empowered to pick fifteen lieutenants from the senate and assign specific areas to them. He was allowed to have 200 ships, levy as many soldiers and oarsmen as he needed and collect as much money from the tax collectors and the public treasuries as he wished. The use of treasury in the plural might suggest power to raise funds from treasures of the allied Mediterranean states as well. Such sweeping powers were not a problem because comparable extraordinary powers given to Marcus Antonius Creticus to fight piracy in Crete in 74 BC provided a precedent. The optimates in the Senate remained suspicious of Pompey—this seemed yet another extraordinary appointment. Cassius Dio claimed that Gabinius "had either been prompted by Pompey or wished in any case to do him a favour … and … He did not directly utter Pompey's name, but it was easy to see that if once the populace should hear of any such proposition, they would choose him." Plutarch described Gabinius as one of Pompey's intimates and claimed that he "drew up a law which gave him, not an admiralty, but an out-and‑out monarchy and irresponsible power over all men". Cassius Dio wrote that Gabinius’ bill was supported by everybody except the senate, which preferred the ravages of pirates rather than giving Pompey such great powers. The senators nearly killed Pompey. This outraged the people, who set upon the senators. They all ran away, except for the consul Gaius Piso, who was arrested. Gabinius had him freed. The optimates tried to persuade the other nine plebeian tribunes to oppose the bill. Only two, Trebellius and Roscius, agreed, but they were unable to do so. Pompey tried to appear as if he was forced to accept the command because of the jealousy that would be caused if he would lay claim to the post and the glory that came with it. Cassius Dio commented that Pompey was "always in the habit of pretending as far as possible not to desire the things he really wished". Trebellius tried to speak against the bill, but was not allowed to speak. Gabinius postponed the vote and introduced a motion to remove him from the tribunate, which passed. Roscius did not dare to speak, but suggested with a gesture that two commanders should be chosen. The people booed him loudly. The law was passed and the senate ratified it reluctantly.
Plutarch did not mention Pompey being nearly killed. He gave details of the acrimony of the speeches against Pompey. One of the senators proposed that Pompey should be given a colleague. Only Caesar supported the law and in Plutarch's view he did so "not because he cared in the least for Pompey, but because from the outset he sought to ingratiate himself with the people and win their support". In his account the people did not attack the senators. Instead they shouted loudly. The assembly was dissolved. On the day of the vote Pompey withdrew to the countryside. The Lex Gabinia was passed. Pompey extracted further concessions and received 500 ships, 120,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and twenty-four lieutenants. With the prospect of a campaign against the pirates the prices of provisions fell. Pompey divided the sea and the coast into thirteen districts, each with a commander with his own forces.
Appian gave the same number of infantry and cavalry, but the number of ships was 270. The lieutenants were twenty-five. He listed them and their areas of command as follows: Tiberius Nero and Manlius Torquatus: in command of Hispania and the Straits of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar); Marcus Pomponius: Gaul and Liguria; Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus and Publius Atilius: Africa, Sardinia, Corsica; Lucius Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus: Italy; Plotius Varus and Terentius Varro: Sicily and the Adriatic Sea as far as Acarnania; Lucius Sisenna: the Peloponnese, Attica, Euboea, Thessaly, Macedon, and Boeotia (mainland Greece); Lucius Lollius: the Greek islands, the Aegean sea, and the Hellespont; Publius Piso: Bithynia (the west of the northern coast of modern Turkey), Thrace (eastern Bulgaria), the Propontis (the Sea of Marmara) and the mouth of the Euxine (the Black Sea); Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos Iunior: Lycia, Pamphylia (both on the south coast of modern Turkey), Cyprus, and Phoenicia (Lebanon). Pompey made a tour of the whole. He cleared the western Mediterranean in forty days, proceeded to Brundisium (Brindisi) and cleared the eastern Mediterranean in the same amount of time.
In Plutarch's account, Pompey's scattered forces encompassed every pirate fleet they came across and brought them to port. The pirates escaped to Cilicia. Pompey attacked Cilicia with his sixty best ships; after that he cleared the Tyrrhenian Sea, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and the Libyan Sea in forty days with the help of his lieutenants. Meanwhile, the consul Piso sabotaged Pompey's equipment and discharged his crews. Pompey went to Rome. The markets in Rome now were well stocked with provisions again and the people acclaimed Pompey. Piso was nearly stripped of his consulship, but Pompey prevented Aulus Gabinius from proposing a bill to this effect. He set sail again and reached Athens. He then defeated the Cilician pirates off the promontory of Coracesium. He then besieged them and they surrendered together with the islands and towns they controlled. The latter were fortified and difficult to take by storm. Pompey seized many ships. He spared the lives of 20,000 pirates. He resettled some of them in the city of Soli, which had recently been devastated by Tigranes the Great, the king of Armenia. Most were resettled in Dyme in Achaea, Greece, which was underpopulated and had plenty of good land. Some pirates were received by the half-deserted cities of Cilicia. Pompey thought that they would abandon their old ways and be softened by a change of place, new customs and a gentler way of life.
In Appian's account, Pompey went to Cilicia expecting to have to undertake sieges of rock-bound citadels. However, he did not have to. His reputation and the magnitude of his preparations provoked panic and the pirates surrendered, hoping to be treated leniently because of this. They gave up large quantities of weapons, ships and ship building materials. Pompey destroyed the material, took away the ships and sent some of the captured pirates back to their countries. He recognised that they had undertaken piracy due to the poverty caused by the mentioned war and settled many of them in Mallus, Adana Epiphania or any other uninhabited or thinly peopled town in Cilicia. He sent some to Dyme in Achaea. According to Appian, the war against the pirates lasted only a few days. Pompey captured 71 ships and 306 ships were surrendered. He seized 120 towns and fortresses and killed about 10,000 pirates in battles.
In Cassius Dio's brief account Pompey and his lieutenants patrolled ‘the whole stretch of sea that the pirates were troubling’, his fleet and his troops were irresistible both on sea and land. The leniency with which he treated the pirates who surrendered was 'equally great' and won over many pirates who went over to his side. Pompey 'took care of them' and gave them land which was empty or settled them in underpopulated towns so that they would not resort to crime due to poverty. Soli was among these cities. It was on the Cilician coast and had been sacked by Tigranes the Great. Pompey renamed it Pompeiopolis.
Metellus, a relative of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, with whom Pompey had fought in Hispania, had been sent to Crete, which was the second source of piracy before Pompey assumed command. He hemmed in and killed many pirates and besieged the remnants. The Cretans called on Pompey to come to Crete claiming that it was under his jurisdiction. Pompey wrote to Metellus to urge him to stop the war and sent one of his lieutenants, Lucius Octavius. The latter entered the besieged strongholds and fought with the pirates. Metellus persisted, captured and punished the pirates, and sent Octavius away after insulting him in front of the army.
Lucius Licinius Lucullus was conducting the Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC) against Mithridates VI the king of Pontus and Tigranes the Great, the king of Armenia. He was successful in battle; however, the war was dragging on and he opened a new front (Armenia). In Rome he was accused of protracting the war for ‘the love of power and wealth’ and of plundering royal palaces as if he had been sent, 'not to subdue the kings, but to strip them.’ Some of the soldiers were disgruntled and were incited by Publius Clodius Pulcher not to follow their commander. Commissioners were sent to investigate and the soldiers mocked Lucullus in front of the commission. In 68 BC the province of Cilicia was taken from Lucullus and assigned to Quintus Marcius Rex. He refused a request for aid from Lucullus because his soldiers refused to follow him to the front. According to Cassius Dio this was a pretext. One of the consuls for 67 BC, Manius Acilius Glabrio, was appointed to succeed Lucullus. However, when Mithridates won back almost all of Pontus and caused havoc in Cappadocia, which was allied with Rome, Glabrio did not go to the front, but delayed in Bithynia.
Another plebeian tribune, Gaius Manilius, proposed the lex Manilia. It gave Pompey command of the forces and the areas of operation of Lucullus and in addition to this, Bithynia, which was held by Acilius Glabrio. It commissioned him to wage war on Mithridates and Tigranes. It allowed him to retain his naval force and his dominion over the sea granted by the lex Gabinia. Therefore, Phrygia, Lycaonia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Upper Colchis, Pontus and Armenia as well as the forces of Lucullus were added to his command. Plutarch noted that this meant the placing of Roman supremacy entirely in the hands of one man. The optimates were unhappy about so much power being given to Pompey and saw this as the establishment of a tyranny. They agreed to oppose the law, but they were fearful of the mood of the people. Only Catulus spoke up. The law was passed. The law was supported by Julius Caesar and justified by Cicero in his extant speech "Pro Lege Manilia". Former consuls also supported the law. Cicero mentioned Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus (consul in 72 BC), Gaius Cassius Longinus Varus (73 BC), Gaius Scribonius Curio (76 BC) and Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus (79 BC). According to Cassius Dio, while this was happening, Pompey was preparing to sail to Crete to face Metellus Creticus (see campaign against the pirates). Lucullus was incensed at the prospect of his replacement by Pompey. The outgoing commander and his replacement traded insults. Lucullus called Pompey a "vulture" who fed from the work of others. Lucullus was referring not merely to Pompey's new command against Mithridates, but also his claim to have finished the war against Spartacus.
According to Cassius Dio, Pompey made friendly proposals to Mithridates to test his disposition. Mithridates tried to establish friendly relations with Phraates III, the king of Parthia. Pompey foresaw this, established a friendship with Phraates and persuaded him to invade the part of Armenia under Tigranes. Mithridates sent envoys to conclude a truce, but Pompey demanded that he lay down his arms and hand over the deserters. There was unrest among the scared deserters. They were joined by some of Mithridates' men who feared having to fight without them. The king held them in check with difficulty and had to pretend that he was testing Pompey. Pompey, who was in Galatia, prepared for war. Lucullus met him and claimed that the war was over and that there was no need for an expedition. He failed to dissuade Pompey and verbally abused him. Pompey ignored him, forbade the soldiers to obey Lucullus and marched to the front. In Appian's account when the deserters heard about the demand to hand them back, Mithridates swore that he would not make peace with the Romans and that he would not give them up.
Cassius Dio wrote that Mithridates kept withdrawing because his forces were inferior. Pompey entered Lesser Armenia, which was not under Tigranes' rule. Mithridates did the same and encamped on a mountain that was difficult to attack. He sent the cavalry down for skirmishes, which caused a large number of desertions. Pompey moved his camp to a wooded area for protection. He set up a successful ambush. When Pompey was joined by more Roman forces Mithridates fled to the 'Armenia of Tigranes.' In Plutarch's version the location of the mountain is unspecified and Mithridates abandoned it because he thought that it had no water. Pompey took the mountain and had wells sunk. He then besieged Mithridates' camp for 45 days. However, Mithridates managed to escape with his best men. Pompey caught up with him by the River Euphrates, lined up for battle to prevent him from crossing the river and advanced at midnight. He wanted to just surround the enemy camp to prevent an escape in the darkness, but his officers convinced him to charge. The Romans attacked with the moon at their back, confusing the enemy who, because of the shadows, thought that they were nearer. The enemy fled in panic and was cut down.
In Cassius Dio this battle occurred when Mithridates entered a defile. The Romans hurled stones, arrows and javelins on the enemy, which was not in battle formation, from a height. When they ran out of missiles they charged those on the outside and those in the centre were crushed together. Most were horsemen and archers and they could not respond in the darkness. When the moon rose it was behind the Romans and this created shadows, causing confusion for the enemy. Many were killed, but many, including Mithridates, fled. He tried to go to Tigranes. Plutarch wrote that Tigranes forbade him from coming and put a reward on him. Cassius Dio did not mention a reward. He wrote that Tigranes arrested his envoys because he thought that Mithridates was responsible for a rebellion by his son. In both Plutarch and Cassius Dio Mithridates went to Colchis (on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea). Cassius Dio added that Pompey had sent a detachment to pursue him, but he outstripped them by crossing the River Phasis. He reached the Maeotis (the Sea of Azov which is connected to the north shore of the Black Sea) and stayed in the Cimmerian Bosporus. He had his son Machares, who ruled it and had gone over to the Romans, killed and recovered that country. Meanwhile, Pompey set up a colony (settlement) for his soldiers at Nicopolitans in Cappadocia.
In Appian's account, Mithridates wintered at Dioscurias in Colchis, (in 66/65 BC). He intended to travel around the Black Sea, reach the strait of the Bosporus and attack the Romans from the European side while they were in Asia Minor. He also wanted to seize the kingdom of Machares, ruled by his son who had gone over to the Romans. He crossed the territory of the Scythians (partly by permission, partly by force) and the Heniochi, who welcomed him. He reached the Sea of Azov country, where he made alliances with its many princes. He contemplated marching through Thrace, Macedonia and Pannonia and crossing the Alps into Italy. He gave some of his daughters in marriage to the more powerful Scythian princes. Machares sent envoys to say he had made terms with the Romans out of necessity. He then he fled to the Pontic Chersonesus, burning the ships to prevent Mithridates from pursuing him. However, his father found other ships and sent them after him. Machares killed himself.
In Appian, at this stage Pompey pursued Mithridates as far as Colchis and then marched against Armenia. In the accounts of Plutarch and Cassius Dio, instead, he went to Armenia first and to Colchis later. In Appian, Pompey thought that his enemy would never reach the sea of Azov or do much if he escaped. His advance was more of an exploration of that country, which was the place of the legends of the Argonauts, Heracles, and Prometheus. He was accompanied by the neighbouring tribes. Only Oroeses, the king of the Caucasian Albanians, and Artoces, the king of the Caucasian Iberians, resisted him. Learning of an ambush planned by Oroeses, Pompey defeated him at the Battle of the Abas, driving the enemy into a forest and setting it on fire. He then pursued the fugitives who ran out until they surrendered and brought him hostages. He then marched against Armenia.
In Plutarch's account Pompey was invited to invade Armenia by Tigranes’ son (also named Tigranes), who rebelled against his father. The two men received the submission of several towns. When they got close to Artaxata (the royal residence) Tigranes, knowing Pompey's leniency, surrendered and allowed a Roman garrison in his palace. He went to Pompey's camp, where Pompey offered the restitution of the Armenian territories in Syria, Phoenicia, Cilicia, Galatia, and Sophene, which Lucullus had taken. He demanded an indemnity and ruled that the son should be king of Sophene. Tigranes accepted. His son was not happy with the deal and remonstrated. He was put in chains and reserved for Pompey's triumph. Soon after this Phraates III, the king of Parthia asked to be given the son in exchange for an agreement to set the River Euphrates as the boundary between Parthia and Rome. Pompey refused. In the version of Cassius Dio the son of Tigranes fled to Phraates. He persuaded the latter, who had a treaty with Pompey to invade Armenia and fight his father. The two reached Artaxata, causing Tigranes to flee to the mountains. Phraates then went back to his land, and Tigranes counterattacked, defeating his son. The younger Tigranes fled and at first wanted to go to Mithridates. However, since Mithridates had been defeated, he went over to the Romans and Pompey used him as a guide to advance into Armenia. When they reached Artaxata, the elder Tigranes surrendered the city and went voluntarily to Pompey's camp. The next day Pompey heard the claims of father and son. He restored the hereditary domains of the father, but took the land he had invaded later (parts of Cappadocia, and Syria, as well as Phoenicia and Sophene) and demanded an indemnity. He assigned Sophene to the son. This was the area where the treasures were, and the son began a dispute over them. He did not obtain satisfaction and planned to escape. Pompey put him in chains. The treasures went to the old king, who received far more money than had been agreed.
Appian gave an explanation for the young Tigranes turning against his father. Tigranes killed two of his three sons. He killed one in battle when he was fighting him. He killed another while hunting because instead of helping him when he was thrown off his horse, he put a diadem on his head. Following this incident, he gave the crown to the third son, Tigranes. However, the latter was distressed about the incident and waged war against his father. He was defeated and fled to Phraates. Because of all this, Tigranes did not want to fight any more when Pompey got near Artaxata. The young Tigranes took refuge with Pompey as a suppliant with the approval of Phraates, who wanted Pompey's friendship. The elder Tigranes submitted his affairs to Pompey's decision and made complaint against his son. Pompey called him for a meeting. He gave 6,000 talents for Pompey, 10,000 drachmas for each tribune, 1,000 for each centurion, and fifty for each soldier. Pompey pardoned him and reconciled him with his son. In Appian's account, Pompey gave the latter both Sophene and Gordyene. The father was left with the rest of Armenia and was ordered to give up the territory he has seized in the war: Syria west of the River Euphrates and part of Cilicia. Armenian deserters persuaded the younger Tigranes to make an attempt on his father. Pompey arrested and chained him. He then founded a city in Lesser Armenia where he had defeated Mithridates. He called it Nicopolis (City of Victory).
In Appian's account, after Armenia Pompey (still in 64 BC) turned west, crossed Mount Taurus and fought Antiochus I Theos,the king of Commagene until he made an alliance with him. He then fought Darius the Mede and put him to flight. This was because he had 'helped Antiochus, or Tigranes before him'. According to Plutarch and Cassius Dio, instead, it was at this point that Pompey turned north. The two writers provided different accounts of Pompey's operations in the territories on the Caucasus Mountains and Colchis (on the southern shore of the Black Sea). He fought in Caucasian Iberia (inland and to the south of Colchis) and Caucasian Albania (or Arran, roughly corresponding with modern Azerbaijan) (see Pompey's Georgian campaign).
In Plutarch the Albanians at first granted Pompey free passage, but in the winter they advanced on the Romans who were celebrating the festival of the Saturnalia with 40,000 men. Pompey let them cross the river Cyrnus and then attacked them and routed them. Their king begged for mercy and Pompey pardoned him. He then marched on the Iberians, who were allies of Mithridates. He routed them, killing 9,000 of them and taking 10,000 prisoners. Then he invaded Colchis and reached Phasis on the Black Sea, where he was met by Servilius, the admiral of his Euxine (Black Sea) fleet. However, he encountered difficulties there and the Albanians revolted again. Pompey turned back. He had to cross a river whose banks had been fenced off, made a long march through a waterless area and defeated a force of 60,000 badly-armed infantry and 12,000 cavalry led by the king's brother. He pushed north again, but turned back south because he encountered a great number of snakes.
In Cassius Dio, Pompey wintered near the River Cyrnus. Oroeses, the king of the Albanians, who lived beyond this river, attacked the Romans during the winter, partly to favour the younger Tigranes, who was a friend, and partly because he feared an invasion. He was defeated and Pompey agreed to his request for a truce even though he wanted to invade their country. He wanted to postpone the war until after the winter. In 65 BC, Artoces, the king of the Iberians, who also feared an invasion, prepared to attack the Romans. Pompey learnt of this and invaded his territory, catching him unawares. He seized an impregnable frontier pass and got close to a fortress in the narrowest point of the River Cyrnus. Artoces had no chance to array his forces. He withdrew, crossed the river and burned the bridge. The fortress surrendered. When Pompey was about to cross the river Artoces sued for peace. However, he then fled to the river. Pompey pursued him, routed his forces and hunted down the fugitives. Artoces fled across the River Pelorus and made overtures, but Pompey would agree to terms only if he sent his children as hostages. Artoces delayed, but when the Romans crossed the Pelorus in the summer he handed over his children and concluded a treaty. Pompey moved on to Colchis and wanted to march to the Cimmerian Bosporus against Mithridates. However, he realised that he would have to confront unknown hostile tribes and that a sea journey would be difficult because of a lack of harbours. Therefore, he ordered his fleet to blockade Mithridates and turned on the Albanians. He went to Armenia first to catch them off guard and then crossed the River Cyrnus. He heard that Oroeses was coming close and wanted to lead him into a conflict. At the Battle of the Abas, he hid his infantry and got the cavalry to go ahead. When the cavalry was attacked by Oroeses it withdrew towards the infantry, which then engaged. It let the cavalry through its ranks. Some of the enemy forces, which were in hot pursuit, also ended up through their ranks and were killed. The rest were surrounded and routed. Pompey then overran the country. He then granted peace to the Albanians and concluded truces with other tribes on the northern side of the Caucasus.
Pompey withdrew to Lesser Armenia. He sent a force under Afrianius against Phraates, who was plundering the subjects of Tigranes in Gordyene. Afrianius drove him out and pursued him as far as the area of Arbela, in northern Mesopotamia. Cassius Dio gave more details. Phraates renewed the treaty with Pompey because of his success and because of the progress of his lieutenants. They were subduing Armenia and the adjacent part of Pontus and in the south Afrianius was advancing to the River Tigris; that is, towards Parthia. Pompey demanded the cession of Corduene, which Phraates was disputing with Tigranes and sent Afrianius there, who occupied it unopposed and handed it to Tigranes before receiving a reply from Phraates. Afrianius also returned to Syria through Mesopotamia (a Parthian area) contrary to the Roman-Parthian agreements. Pompey treated Phraates with contempt. Phraates sent envoys to complain about the suffered wrongs. In 64 BC, when he did not receive a conciliatory reply, Phraates attacked Tigranes, accompanied by the son of the latter. He lost a first battle, but won another. Tigranes asked Pompey for help. Phraates brought many charges against Tigranes and many insinuations against the Romans. Pompey did not help Tigranes, stopped being hostile to Phraates and sent three envoys to arbitrate the border dispute. Tigranes, angry about not receiving help, reconciled with Phraates in order not to strengthen the position of the Romans.
Stratonice, the fourth wife of Mithridates, surrendered Caenum, one of the most important fortresses of the king. Pompey also received gifts from the king of the Iberians. He then moved from Caenum to Amisus (modern Samsun, on the north coast of Anatolia). Pompey then decided to move south because it was too difficult to try to reach Mithridates in the Cimmerian Bosporus and thus he did not want to ‘wear out his own strength in a vain pursuit.’ He was content with preventing merchant ships reaching the Cimmerian Bosporus through his blockade and preferred other pursuits. He sent Afrianius to subdue the Arabs around the Amanus Mountains (in what was then on the coast of northern Syria). He went to Syria with his army. He annexed Syria because it had no legitimate kings. He spent most of his time settling disputes between cities and kings or sending envoys to do so. He gained prestige as much for his clemency as for his power. By being helpful to those who had dealings with him, he made them willing to put up with the rapacity of his friends and was thus able to hide this. The king of the Arabians at Petra (Aretas III of Nabataea) wanted to become a friend of Rome. Pompey marched towards Petra to confirm him. Pompey was criticised because this was seen as an evasion of the pursuit of Mithridates and was urged to turn against him. There were reports that Mithridates was preparing to march on Italy via the River Danube. Pompey was lucky because while he was encamped near Petra a messenger brought the news that Mithridates was dead. Pompey left Arabia and went to Amisus (Samsun), on the north coast of Anatolia. Cassius Dio wrote that 'Pompey arbitrated disputes and managed other business for kings and potentates who came to him. He confirmed some in possession of their kingdoms, added to the principalities of others, and curtailed and humbled the excessive powers of a few.' He united Coele-Syria and Phoenicia (Lebanon), which had been ravaged by the Arabians and Tigranes. Antiochus XIII Philadelphus (one of the last rulers of Syria) asked for them back to no avail. Pompey put them under Roman jurisdiction.
Cassius Dio also mentioned that Mithridates planned to reach the River Danube and invade Italy. However, he was ageing and becoming weaker. As his position became weaker and that of the Romans stronger some of his associates became estranged. A massive earthquake destroyed many towns. There was a mutiny by the soldiers. Some of his sons were kidnapped and taken to Pompey. He became unpopular. Mithridates was mistrustful and had his wives and some of his remaining children killed. One of them, Pharnaces II, plotted against him. He won over both the men who were sent to arrest him and then the soldiers who were sent against him. in 64 BC, he obtained the voluntary submission of Panticapaeum, the city where Mithridates was staying. Mithridates tried to poison himself, but failed because he was immune due to taking ‘precautionary antidotes in large doses every day.’ He was killed by the rebels. Pharnaces embalmed his body and sent it to Pompey as proof of his surrender. He was granted the kingdom of Bosporus and listed as an ally.
Syria had once been the heart of the vast Seleucid Empire, after the death of Antiochus IV in 164 BC, it had become increasingly unstable. Continuous civil wars had weakened central authority. By 163 BC, the Maccabean Revolt established the independence of Judea. The Parthians gained control of the Iranian Plateau. In 139 BC, they defeated the Seleucid king Demetrius II, and took Babylon from the Seleucids. The following year they captured the king. His brother Antiochus VII gained the support of the Maccabees, regained the submission of the once vassal kingdoms of Cappadocia and Armenia, drove back the Parthians and retook Mesopotamia, Babylon, and Media. However, he was killed in battle and the Seleucids lost all of their gains. By 100 BC, the Seleucid Empire was reduced to a few cities in western Syria. It still had to put up with countless civil wars. It survived only because none of its neighbours took it over. In 83 BC, invited by a faction in one of the civil wars, Tigranes II of Armenia invaded Syria and virtually ended Seleucid rule. When Lucius Licinius Lucullus defeated Tigranes in the Third Mithridatic War in 69 BC, a rump Seleucid kingdom was restored. However, the civil wars continued.
Pompey was concerned about the political instability to the southeast of Rome's new provinces in Asia Minor. Both Syria and Judea were lacking stability. In Syria, the Seleucid state was disintegrating, in Judea there was a civil war. We know about Pompey's actions in Syria and Judea through the work of Josephus, the ancient Jewish-Roman historian. In 65 BC, Pompey sent two of his lieutenants, Metellus and Lollius, to Syria to take possession of Damascus. During the winter of 64/63 BC Pompey had wintered his army at Antioch, Seleucid Syria's capital, here he received many envoys and had to arbitrate in countless disputes. At the beginning of the campaigning season of 63 BC Pompey left Antioch and marched south. He took and destroyed two strongholds being used by brigands; Lysias, ruled over by a Jewish brigand names Silas, and Syria's old military capital, Apameia. He then took on the robber gangs of the Libanus range and the coast north of Sidon. He executed a brigand chief named Dionysius of Tripolis, and took over the country of Ptolemy of Calchis. Ptolemy was hated in Syria, Phoenicia and Judea; Pompey, however, let him escape punishment in exchange for a 1,000 talents (24,000,000 sesterces). This vast sum was used by Pompey to pay his soldiers and vividly illustrates the attractions of piracy and brigandage in this poorly controlled country. He also took Heliopolis. The Pompeian army then crossed the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, took Pella and reached Damascus, where he was met by ambassadors from all over Syria, Egypt and Judea. This completed the takeover of Syria. From this time onward Syria was to be a Roman province.
A conflict between the brothers Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II over the succession to the Hasmonean throne began in Judea in 69 BC. Aristobulus deposed Hyrcanus. Then Antipater the Idumaean became the adviser of weak-willed Hyrcanus and persuaded him to contend for the throne. He advised him to escape to Aretas III, the king of the Arabian Nabataean Kingdom. Hyrcanus promised Aretas that if he restored him to the throne he would give him back twelve cities his father had taken from him. Aretas besieged Aristobulus in the Temple in Jerusalem for eight months (66–65 BC). The people supported Hyrcanus and only the priests supported Aristobulus. Meanwhile, Pompey, who was fighting Tigranes the Great in Armenia, sent Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (who was a quaestor) to Syria. Since two of Pompey's lieutenants, Metellus and Lollius, had already taken Damascus, Scaurus proceeded to Judea. The ambassadors of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus asked for his help. Both offered Scaurus bribes and promises. He sided with Aristobulus because he was rich and because it was easier to expel the Nabateans, who were not very warlike, than to capture Jerusalem. He ordered Aretas to leave and said that if he did not he would be an enemy of Rome. Aretas withdrew. Aristobulus gathered an army, pursued him and defeated him. Scaurus returned to Syria.
When Pompey went to Syria he was visited by ambassadors from Syria and Egypt. Aristobulus sent him a very expensive golden vine. A little later, ambassadors from Hyrcanus and Aristobulus went to see him. The former claimed that first Aulus Gabinius and then Scaurus had taken bribes. Pompey decided to arbitrate the dispute later, at the beginning of spring, and marched to Damascus. There he heard the cases of Hyrcanus, Aristobulus and those who did not want a monarchy and wanted to return to the tradition of being under the high priest. Hyrcanus claimed that he was the rightful king as the elder brother and that he had been usurped. He accused Aristobulus of making incursions in nearby countries and being responsible for piracy at sea and that this caused a revolt. Aristobulus claimed that Hyrcanus's indolence had caused him to be deposed, and that he took power lest others seize it. Pompey reproached Aristobulus for his violence, and told the men to wait for him. He would settle the matter after dealing with the Nabataeans. However, Aristobulus went to Judea. This angered Pompey who marched on Judea and went to the fortress of Alexandreium, where Aristobulus fled to.
Aristobulus went to talk to Pompey and returned to the fortress three times to pretend he was complying with him. He intended to wear him down and prepare for war should he rule against him. When Pompey ordered him to surrender the fortress, Aristobulus did give it up, but he withdrew to Jerusalem and prepared for war. While Pompey was marching on Jerusalem he was informed about the death of Mithridates. Pompey encamped at Jericho. Aristobulus went to see him, promised to give him money and received him into Jerusalem. Pompey forgave him and sent Aulus Gabinius with soldiers to receive the money and the city. The soldiers of Aristobulus did not let them in. Pompey arrested Aristobulus and entered Jerusalem. The pro-Aristobulus faction went to the Temple and prepared for a siege. The rest of the inhabitants opened the city gates. Pompey sent in an army led by Piso and placed garrisons in the city and at the palace. The enemy refused to negotiate. Pompey built a wall around the area of the Temple and encamped inside this wall. However, the temple was well fortified and there was a deep valley around it. The Romans built a ramp and brought siege engines and battering rams from Tyre.
Pompey took advantage of the enemy celebrating the Sabbath to deploy his battering rams. Jewish law did not allow the Jews to meddle with the enemy if they were not attacking them on the day of the Sabbath. Therefore, the defenders of the Temple did not counter the deployment of the battering rams by the Romans, which on the other days of the week they had successfully prevented. The next day the wall of the Temple was broken through and the soldiers went on the rampage. According to Josephus 12,000 Jews fell. Josephus wrote, "No small enormities were committed about the temple itself, which, in former ages, had been inaccessible, and seen by none; for Pompey went into it, and not a few of those that were with him also, and saw all that which it was unlawful for any other men to see but only for the high priests. There were in that temple the golden table, the holy candlestick, and the pouring vessels, and a great quantity of spices; and besides these there were among the treasures two thousand talents of sacred money: yet did Pompey touch nothing of all this, on account of his regard to religion; and in this point also he acted in a manner that was worthy of his virtue." The next day he ordered the men in charge of the Temple to purify it and to bring offerings to God as Jewish law required. Pompey restored Hyrcanus to the high priesthood "both because he had been useful to him in other respects, and because he hindered the Jews in the country from giving Aristobulus any assistance in his war against him".
Pompey returned the Syrian cities the Jews had conquered to Syrian rule, thus bringing Judea back to its original territory. He rebuilt the city of Garara and restored seven inland cities and four coastal ones to its inhabitants. He made Jerusalem a tributary of Rome and made Judea a satellite of Syria. He put Marcus Aemilius Scaurus in charge of Syria "as far as the river Euphrates and Egypt" with two Roman legions. According to Josephus Pompey then went to Cilicia, taking Aristobulus and his children with him, and after this he returned to Rome. This contrasts with the account of Plutarch. The latter did not mention any action in Judea. He wrote that Pompey marched on Petra (the capital of the Kingdom of Nabataea) to confirm Aretas, who wanted to become a friend of Rome. It was while he was encamped near Petra that he was told that Mithridates was dead. He then left Arabia and went to Amisus (Samsun), in Pontus, on the north coast of Anatolia (see above). Josephus did write that Pompey marched on Nabataea, but did not mention the reason for this. However, he also marched to Judea to deal with Aristobulus. He did not mention whether he actually reached Petra before turning to Judea. He learned of the death of Mithridates when he was marching towards Jerusalem. When he completed matters in Judea he went to Cilicia instead of Amisus. Cassius Dio gave a brief account of Pompey's campaign in Judea and wrote that after this he went to Pontus, which fits with Plutarch writing that he went to Amisus.
Strabo in his Geographica gives a short account of Pompey's siege of the temple, in line with the account of Josephus.
Josephus wrote that after his siege of the Temple in Jerusalem, Pompey gave the governorship of Syria (for 62 BC) as far as the River Euphrates and Egypt to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, giving him two legions. Scaurus made an expedition against Petra, in Arabian Nabataea. He burned the settlements around it because it was difficult to gain access to it. His army suffered hunger. Hyrcanus ordered Antipater to supply grain and other provisions from Judea. Josephus did not give an explanation of the actions of Scaurus. It probably had to do with the security of the Decapolis (see below). Josephus also wrote:
"Now the occasions of this misery which came upon Jerusalem were Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, by raising a sedition one against the other; for now we lost our liberty, and became subject to the Romans, and were deprived of that country which we had gained by our arms from the Syrians, and were compelled to restore it to the Syrians. Moreover, the Romans exacted of us, in a little time, above ten thousand talents; and the royal authority, which was a dignity formerly bestowed on those that were high priests, by the right of their family, became the property of private men." (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 14.4.77-78)
Pompey set out to liberate a number of Hellenised towns from their rulers. He joined seven towns east of the River Jordan that had been under the Hasmoneans of Judea, plus Damascus, into a league. Philadelphia (today's Amman), which had been under Nabataea, also joined the league, which was called the Decapolis (Ten Cities). They were mostly in Transjordan (now part of Jordan) and around the east of the Sea of Galilee, part of which extended into Syria. It seems that Pompey organized the league as a means of preserving the sovereignty of the city-states. Although he put them under the protection of the Roman province of Syria, each city-state was autonomous. It is thought that it was not organised as a political unit and that the cities cooperated on economic and security matters. Josephus mentioned five of these cities as being taken away from the Hasmoneans and restored to their inhabitants (i.e., they were given self-government). He also mentioned cities in Judea and Samaria, Azotus (Ashdod), Jamneia (Yavne), Joppa (Jaffa), Dora (Tel Dor, now an archaeological site), Marissa (or Tel Maresha) and Samaria (now an archaeological site). He also mentioned Strato's Tower (later called Caesarea Maritima), Arethusa (now replaced by Al-Rastan) in Syria, and the city of Gaza as being restored to their peoples. Two other towns near Gaza, Anthedon (now an archaeological site) and Raphia (Rafah) and another inland town Adora (Dura, near Hebron) were also restored.
The liberation of the cities was symbolised by the adoption of the Pompeian era, which made it comparable to a new foundation. This calendar counted the years from 63 BC, the year when self-government started. Damascus continued to use the Seleucid era. A number of the cities in Judea and Galilee also adopted the Pompeian era. Several of the towns had been damaged during Hasmonean rule, but the damage was not extensive and reconstruction was completed by the time of the governorship in Syria of Aulus Gabinius in 57 BC. Gaza and Raphia adopted the Pompeian era when reconstruction was completed, in 61 BC and in 57 BC respectively. The town of Samaria adopted the appellation of Gabinian, presumably because reconstruction there was finished under the governorship of Gabinius. The towns also experienced repopulation. Some of the exiles returned home and probably new settlers for the nearby areas and Hellenized Syrians were sometimes brought in. A distinction between citizens of the polis and natives was restored. Jews were not counted as citizens because of religion, and were probably deported or saw their property confiscated in revenge, with some probably becoming tenants of Hellenized landowners. Such developments increased the long-standing hostility between Jews and Hellenized people.
Besides annexing Syria and turning Judea into a client kingdom and a satellite of Syria, Pompey annexed the coastal strip in the western part of the Kingdom of Pontus and merged it with Bithynia, turning both into the Roman province of Bithynia et Pontus. The kingdom of Bithynia had been bequeathed to Rome by its last king, Nicomedes IV, in 74 BC, triggering the Third Mithridatic War. During this war it was not formally annexed. The territories Mithridates had conquered, apart for Lesser Armenia, became client states. The eastern coast and the interior of Pontus plus the Bosporan Kingdom became client kingdoms under Pharnaces II of Pontus, the son of Mithridates who had rebelled against his father and gone over to the Romans. Pompey installed Aristarchus as a client ruler in Colchis. He gave Lesser Armenia to Galatia under the Roman client king Deiotarus as a reward for his loyalty to Rome.
Pompey greatly expanded the province of Cilicia along the coast (adding Pamphylia to its west) and inland. He reorganized it into six parts: Cilicia Aspera, Cilicia Campestris, Pamphylia, Pisidia (north of Pamphylia), Isauria (east of Pisidia), Lycaonia (north of Cilicia Trachea) and the greater part of Phrygia (north of Pisidia and Isauria). He left Tarcondimotus I in control of Anazarbos and Mount Amanus, to the east of Cilicia Campestris. Tarcondimotus and his son and successor (Tarcondimotus II) were loyal allies of Rome.
As noted above, ancient Cilicia was divided into Cilicia Trachea (Rugged Cilicia, a rugged mountainous area along the Taurus Mountains in the west) and Cilicia Pedias (Flat Cilicia, in the east) by the River Limonlu. Cilicia had been made the military operational area of Marcus Antonius Orator for his 102 BC campaign against the pirates. A small part of Cilicia Pedias became Roman territory. It was made the military operational area for the 78–74 BC campaign of Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus. However, Cilicia was not actually part of this, and he campaigned in eastern Lycia and Pamphylia. He incorporated the territories he subdued in those two areas in the province of Cilicia. However, Cilicia Trachea was still held by the pirates, and most of Cilicia Pedias belonged to Tigranes the Great of Armenia. This area of Anatolia came truly under Roman control after Pompey's victories.
In 66 BC, following Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus' campaigns there (69–67 BC), Crete was annexed as a Roman province. Livy wrote: "Having subdued the Cretans, Quintus Metellus gave laws to their island, which had until then been independent."
Overview:
Pompey went back to Amisus (Samsun). Here he found many gifts from Pharnaces and many dead bodies of the royal family, including that of Mithridates. Pompey could not look at Mithridates' body and sent it to Sinope. Before he departed for Rome Pompey paid his army, the sum distributed amounted, we are told, to 16,000 talents (384,000,000 sesterces). He then travelled in greater pomp. On his way to Italy he went to Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. He decided to build a theatre in Rome modelled on that of this city. In Rhodes he listened to the sophist philosophers and gave them money. He also gave rewards to philosophers in Athens and gave the city money towards its restoration (it had been damaged by Lucius Cornelius Sulla during the First Mithridatic War). In Rome there were rumours that Pompey would march his army against the city and establish a monarchy. Crassus secretly left with his children and money. Plutarch thought that it was more likely he did this because he wanted to give credibility to the rumours rather than through genuine fear. However, Pompey disbanded his army when he landed in Italy. He was cheered by the inhabitants of the cities he passed on his way to Rome and many people joined him. Plutarch remarked that he arrived in Rome with such a large crowd that he would not have needed an army for a revolution.
In the Senate Pompey was probably equally admired and feared. On the streets he was as popular as ever. His eastern victories earned him his third triumph, which he celebrated on his 45th birthday in 61 BC, seven months after his return to Italy. Plutarch wrote that it surpassed all previous triumphs. It took place over an unprecedented two days. Much of what had been prepared would not find a place and would have been enough for another procession. Inscriptions carried in front of the procession indicated the nations he defeated (the Kingdom of Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Media, Colchis, Caucasian Iberia, Caucasian Albania, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Judaea and Nabataea) and claimed that 900 cities, 1,000 strongholds. 800 pirate ships and 1,000 pirates were captured and that 39 cities were founded. Some also claimed that his conquests were adding 85 million drachmas to the 30 million drachmas of the public revenues from taxes and that he brought 20,000 drachmas in silver and gold. The captives led in the triumph were the leaders of the pirates, the son of Tigranes the Great with his wife and daughter, a wife of Tigranes the Great, a sister and five children of Mithridates VI, Aristobulus II, the king of the Jews, and hostages from the Caucasian Albanians, the Caucasian Iberians and the king of Commagene.
Appian gave the names of the paraded children of Mithridates VI. They were the sons Artaphernes, Cyrus, Oxathres, Darius, and Xerxes, and the daughters Orsabaris and Eupatra. He specified that there were three Iberian chiefs and two Albanian ones. Olthaces, the chief of the Colchians, the tyrants of the Cilicians, the female rulers of the Scythians and Menander the Laodicean, the commander of Mithridates' cavalry, were also paraded . In total, 324 people were paraded. The procession included images of Tigranes and Mithridates, who were not present, and the sons and daughters of Mithridates who had died. The image of Mithridates was made of gold and was four metre high. There was a tablet with the inscription "Ships with brazen beaks captured, 800; cities founded in Cappadocia, 8; in Cilicia and Coele Syria, 20; in Palestine the one which is now Seleucis. Kings conquered: Tigranes the Armenian, Artoces the Iberian, Oroezes the Albanian, Darius the Mede, Aretas the Nabataean, Antiochus of Commagene." There were two-horse carriages and litters laden with gold or ornaments, including the couch of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the throne and scepter of Mithridates. There were 75,100,000 drachmas of silver coin and 700 ships were brought to the port. Appian also related that "Pompey himself was borne in a chariot studded with gems, wearing, it is said, the cloak of Alexander the Great, if anyone can believe that. It seems to have been found among the possessions of Mithridates that the inhabitants of Kos had received from Cleopatra VII of Egypt."
Pliny the Elder wrote that Pompey displayed "a chess-board made of two precious stones, three feet in width by two in length ... and remarked that his displays were ... more the triumph of luxury than the triumph of conquest". Plutarch wrote, "That which most enhanced his glory and had never been the lot of any Roman before, was that he celebrated his third triumph over the third continent." His triumphs were for victories in Africa, Hispania and Asia. Only Scipio Aemilianus had celebrated triumphs for victories in two continents (in Africa and Hispania). Cassius Dio wrote that Pompey displayed his "trophies beautifully decked out to represent each of his achievements, even the smallest; and after them all came one huge one, decked out in costly fashion and bearing an inscription stating that it was a trophy of the inhabited world". He also noted that he did not add any title to his name as he was happy with his appellation as Magnus (The Great) and that he did not contrive to receive any other honour.
Pompey increased the state income by 70 percent (200 million sesterces to 340 million sesterces per annum), and the value of the booty handed over to the treasury was a further 480 million sesterces. Pompey never gave an insight into his own personal fortune, but it must have been vast. Many speculated that Pompey had surpassed Crassus in wealth.
When Pompey returned to Rome from the Third Mithridatic War, he asked the Roman senate to ratify the acts of his settlements with the cities, kings and princes in the east. This was opposed by the senators, particularly the optimates, who were suspicious of the power Pompey had acquired with the lex Gabinia and the lex Manilia and the popularity he gained with his military successes. They saw him as a threat to their supremacy and as a potential tyrant. In 60 BC, the optimates also defeated a bill that would have distributed farm land to Pompey's veterans, and to some of the landless urban poor of Rome, who relied on a grain dole distributed by the state to survive. The consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer opposed the bill very effectively. The other consul, Afrianius, whose election had been sponsored by Pompey, was of no assistance. According to Cassius Dio he "understood how to dance better than to transact any business". In the end, lacking support, Pompey let the matter drop. The Pompeian camp proved to be inadequate to respond the obstructionism of the optimates.
Midsummer of 60 BC saw the return to Rome of Julius Caesar, flushed with success from his campaign in Hispania and determined to win the consulship. Caesar was a skilled and energetic politician and exactly the man Pompey was looking for. Caesar also enjoyed the support of Marcus Licinius Crassus, allegedly Rome's wealthiest man and a political force on his own. Crassus had also seen his agenda blocked by the Optimates. Caesar won the election for one of the two consulships for 59 BC, and could provide the kind of support needed for Pompey's and Crassus's bills to be passed. Caesar also pursued a policy of conciliating Crassus and Pompey, who had become rivals over the last decade.
Thus, Caesar brought into being this alliance between these three men, which historians call the First Triumvirate. Together these three men could break the resistance of the Optimates. Pompey's political clout was based on his popularity as a military commander and on the political patronage and purchase of votes for his supporters and himself that his wealth could afford. He also had the support of his war veterans: "Prestige, wealth, clients, and loyal, grateful veterans who could be readily mobilised—these were the "opes" which could guarantee [Pompey's] brand of [power]." Crassus was a property speculator and the richest man in Rome. He had extensive patronage networks.
Caesar was elected, and proposed an agrarian bill to the plebeian council, which Pompey and Crassus publicly supported. The bill passed over the opposition of his colleague as consul, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, whose election had been funded by the optimates due to his opposition to Caesar and his bill. Calpurnius Bibulus subsequently retired from politics and Caesar had the acts of Pompey's settlements in the east passed. A law that made Caesar governor of Gallia Cisalpina and Illyricum also passed. When the governor of Gallia Transalpina died, Caesar was given that province as well. Caesar tied Pompey to himself by marrying him to his daughter Julia even though she was betrothed to another man. He then left Rome to take on these governorships and got involved in his Gallic Wars, which lasted from 58 BC to 50 BC. Pompey and Caesar set Publius Clodius Pulcher against Marcus Tullius Cicero, who was an opponent of the triumvirate. Clodius managed to have Cicero exiled, but soon Pompey decided to have Cicero recalled to Rome because Clodius turned against him. A grateful Cicero stopped opposing Pompey.
In 58 BC, food shortages in Rome caused popular unrest. Cicero persuaded the people to appoint Pompey as praefectus annonae (prefect of the provisions) in Italy and beyond for five years. This post was instituted at times of severe grain shortages to supervise the grain supply. Clodius alleged that the scarcity of grain had been engineered to support a law that boosted Pompey's power, which had been decreasing. Both Plutarch and Cassius Dio thought that the law made Pompey ‘the master of all the land and sea under Roman possession’. Pompey sent agents and friends to various places and sailed to Sardinia, Sicily and the Roman province of Africa (the breadbaskets of the Roman empire) to collect grain. He collected it in such abundance that the markets were filled and there was also enough to supply foreign peoples. Appian wrote that this success gave Pompey great reputation and power. Cassius Dio also wrote that Pompey faced some delays in the distribution of grain because many slaves had been freed prior to the distribution and Pompey wanted to take a census to ensure they received it in an orderly way.
In 56 BC, Caesar, who was fighting the Gallic Wars, crossed the Alps into Italy and wintered in Luca (Lucca, Tuscany). In the Life of Crassus, Plutarch wrote that Caesar met Pompey and Crassus and agreed that the two of them would stand for the consulship and that he would support them by sending soldiers to Rome to vote for them. They were then to secure the command of provinces and armies for themselves and confirm his provinces for a further five years. In the Life of Pompey, Plutarch added that Caesar also wrote letters to his friends and that the three men were aiming at making themselves the masters of the state. Cassius Dio, who wrote the most detailed account of the period, did not mention the Luca conference. In his version, instead, Pompey and Crassus agreed to stand for the consulship between themselves as a counterpoise to Caesar. Pompey was annoyed about the increasing admiration of Caesar due to his success in the Gallic Wars, which, he felt, overshadowed his own exploits. He tried to persuade the consuls not to read Caesar's reports from Gaul and to send someone to relieve his command. He was unable to achieve anything through the consuls, and felt that Caesar's increasing independence made his own position precarious. He began to arm himself against Caesar and got closer to Crassus because he thought he could not challenge Caesar on his own. The two men decided to stand for the consulship so that they could be more than a match for Caesar. Once elected, Pompey and Crassus got Gaius Trebonius, a plebeian tribune, to propose a measure that gave the province of Syria and the nearby lands to one of the consuls and the provinces of Hispania Citerior, and Hispania Ulterior to the other. They would hold the command there for five years. They could levy as many troops as they wanted and ‘make peace and war with whomsoever they pleased’. The supporters of Caesar were unhappy and therefore Crassus and Pompey extended Caesar's command in Gaul. According to Cassius Dio, this was for three years, not five. In The Life of Pompey, Plutarch wrote the laws proposed by Trebonius were in accordance with the agreement made at Luca. They gave Caesar's command a second five-year term, assigned the Roman province of Syria and an expedition against Parthia to Crassus and gave Pompey the two provinces in Hispania (where there had recently been disturbances), the whole of Africa (presumably Plutarch meant Cyrenaica as well as the Roman province of Africa) and four legions. Pompey lent two of these legions to Caesar for his wars in Gaul at his request. According to Appian Pompey lent Caesar only one legion. This was when two of Caesar's lieutenants were defeated in Gaul by Ambiorix in 54 BC.
In 54 BC, Pompey was the only member of the triumvirate who was in Rome. Caesar continued his campaigns in Gaul and Crassus undertook his campaign against the Parthians. In September 54 BC, Julia, the daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, died while giving birth to a girl, who also died a few days later. Plutarch wrote that Caesar felt that this was the end of his good relationship with Pompey. The news created factional discord and unrest in Rome as it was thought that the death brought the end of the ties between Caesar and Pompey. The campaign of Crassus against Parthia was disastrous. Shortly after the death of Julia, Crassus died at the Battle of Carrhae (May 53 BC). This brought the first triumvirate to an end. Plutarch thought that fear of Crassus had led Pompey and Caesar to be decent to each other and his death paved the way for the subsequent friction between these two men and the events that eventually led to civil war. Florus wrote: "Caesar's power now inspired the envy of Pompey, while Pompey's eminence was offensive to Caesar; Pompey could not brook an equal or Caesar a superior." Seneca wrote that with regard to Caesar, Pompey "would ill endure that anyone besides himself should become a great power in the state, and one who was likely to place a check upon his advancement, which he had regarded as onerous even when each gained by the other's rise: yet within three days' time he resumed his duties as general, and conquered his grief [for the death of his wife] as quickly as he was wont to conquer everything else".
In the Life of Pompey Plutarch wrote that the plebeian tribune Lucilius proposed to elect Pompey dictator. Cato the Younger, who had been the fiercest opponent of the triumvirate, opposed this. Lucilius came close to losing his tribunate. Despite all this, two consuls for the next year (53 BC) were elected as usual. In 53 BC, three candidates stood for the consulship for 52 BC. Besides resorting to bribery, they promoted factional violence, which Plutarch saw as a civil war. There were renewed and stronger calls for a dictator. However, in the Life of Cato, Plutarch did not mention any calls for a dictator and instead he wrote that there were calls for Pompey to preside over the elections. Cato the Younger opposed this. In both versions the violence among the three factions continued and the elections could not be held. The optimates favoured entrusting Pompey with restoring order. Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, the former enemy of the triumvirate, proposed in the senate that Pompey should be elected as sole consul. Cato changed his mind and supported this on the ground that any government was better than no government. Pompey asked him to become his adviser and associate in governance. Cato replied that he would do so in a private capacity.
Pompey married Cornelia, a daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica. Some people disliked this because Cornelia was much younger and she would have been a better match for his sons. There were also people who thought that Pompey gave priority to his wedding over dealing with the crisis in the city. Pompey was also seen as being partial in the conduct of some trials. He succeeded in restoring order and chose his father-in‑law as his colleague for the last five months of the year. Pompey was granted an extension of his command in his provinces in Hispania and was given an annual sum for the maintenance of his troops. Cato warned Pompey about Caesar's manoeuvres to increase his power by using the money he made from the spoils of war to extend his patronage in Rome and urged him to counter Caesar. Pompey hesitated, and Cato stood for the consulship in order to deprive Caesar of his military command and have him tried, but he was not elected. The supporters of Caesar argued that Caesar deserved an extension of his command so that the fruit of his success would not be lost, which triggered a debate. Pompey showed goodwill towards Caesar, claiming that he had letters from Caesar in which he said he wanted to be relieved of his command, but Pompey opined that he should be allowed to stand for the consulship in absentia. Cato opposed this and said that if Caesar wanted this he had to lay down his arms and become a private citizen. Pompey did not contest Cato's view, which gave rise to suspicions about his real feelings towards Caesar.
Pompey was moving towards a power struggle with Caesar and reliance on the support of the senate and the optimates. The bone of contention between the two men was the troops they both commanded. According to Plutarch the rift between Pompey and Cato became exacerbated when Pompey fell seriously ill in Naples in 50 BC. Upon his recovery, the people of Naples offered thanksgiving sacrifices, and the resulting celebration spread throughout Italy. He was feted in towns he travelled to on his way back to Rome. Plutarch wrote that this was said ‘to have done more than anything else to bring about [the subsequent civil] war. For while the public rejoicing was great, a spirit of arrogance came upon Pompey, which went beyond the calculations based upon facts, and, throwing to the winds [ ] caution ... he indulged himself in unlimited confidence and contempt for Caesar's power, feeling that he would need neither an armed force to oppose him nor any irksome labour of preparation, but that he would pull him down much more easily than he had raised him up". This assessment is a bit exaggerated, especially with regard to the feeling of not needing an army. However, it is likely that the display of popular support made Pompey overconfident.
In 51 BC, the consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus proposed to send a successor to take command of Caesar's provinces before his term of office had expired. Pompey said that Caesar's command should come to an end on its expiration. In Appian's opinion this was a pretence of fairness and good-will. Two bitter enemies of Caesar, Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paulus and Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor (a cousin of the previous consul) were chosen as consuls for 50 BC. Gaius Scribonius Curio, who was also opposed to Caesar, became one of the new plebeian tribunes. Caesar obtained the neutrality of Aemilius Paulus with a large sum of money and the help of Curio by paying off his debts. Claudius Marcellus Minor proposed sending someone to assume command of Caesar's army. Paulus remained silent. Curio seconded the motion, but added that Pompey should also give up his provinces and armies to remove fear of conflict, which encountered opposition. Curio maintained his stance that both men should lay down their command because they were suspicious of each other and there would not be peace. The people praised him as the only politician who was willing to incur the enmity of both men for the good of Rome. Pompey promised to give up his governorship and armies and claimed that Caesar would do the same. According to Appian, the aim of this was to create prejudice against Caesar, who did not seem likely to give up his command, and to have a successor for Caesar's command appointed immediately, thus forcing Caesar to disband his armies, while Pompey retained his with impunity. Curio exposed this and said that promises were not enough and that Pompey should lay down his command immediately and that Caesar should disarm after this because if Caesar would do so first, Pompey, aiming at supreme power, would have no incentive to disarm. He also proposed that unless both obeyed, both should be declared public enemies and troops should be levied against them. The senate was suspicious of both men, but deemed Pompey to be less of a threat and hated Caesar because he had disregarded the senate when he was consul. Some senators proposed that Caesar should disarm first. Curio maintained that Caesar was a counterbalance to Pompey's power and that either Pompey should disarm first or both should do so simultaneously. The senate disagreed and he dismissed the motion without coming to a resolution.
Despite this impasse, the senate did pass a decree that Caesar and Pompey should send a legion to Syria to defend it against the Parthians who had defeated Crassus. Pompey took advantage of this to recall the soldiers he had lent Caesar. Caesar gave them 250 drachmas and sent them to Rome, together with a legion of his own. According to Appian, Pompey had lent him one legion; according to Caesar, it was two legions. However, the Parthian threat to Syria did not materialise and the legions were sent to Capua. Pompey's soldiers said that Caesar's troops were worn out, longed to return home, and would defect to Pompey as soon as they had crossed the Alps. Whether through ignorance or corruption, this information was wrong; Caesar's soldiers were very loyal to him. Pompey believed the reports and did not levy troops to counter Caesar's forces.
Caesar crossed the Alps with a legion and arrived at Ravenna, close to the border with Italy. Curio advised him to assemble his whole army and march on Rome, but Caesar decided to negotiate. He proposed to give up his governorships and troops, but retain two legions and the provinces of Illyricum and Gallia Cisalpina until he should be elected consul. Pompey agreed, but the consuls refused. Curio went to Rome with a letter Caesar wrote to the senate and gave it to the two newly elected consuls, Gaius Claudius Marcellus Maior and Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus. Caesar proposed that both he and Pompey lay down their arms at the same time and said that if Pompey retained his he would not expose himself to his enemies. Claudius Marcellus put forward the questions of sending a successor to Caesar and disarming Pompey separately. No senator voted for Pompey to give up his arms because his troops were in the suburbs. All but two voted for Caesar to disband his army. There was a false rumour that Caesar was marching on Rome. Claudius proposed that Caesar be declared public enemy and that the army at Capua be sent against him. Curio opposed this on the ground that it was a false rumour. Two of the new plebeian tribunes, Mark Antony and Quintus Cassius Longinus, did not allow the motions to be ratified. The angered senators who debated a punishment for them. The consul Cornelius Lentulus advised them to leave the senate for their safety. There were detachments of Pompey standing around the senate house. They and Curio secretly went to Caesar. In Plutarch's version Curio's demands were very popular. Pompey should be required to give up his troops, and if not, Caesar should retain his. In the latter case the two men would remain a match for each other and would not cause trouble. However, weakening one of them would double the power of the other. Claudius Marcellus called Caesar a robber and urged for him to be voted a public enemy unless he should lay down his arms. Curio, helped by Antony and Piso, prevailed. He then moved for a vote about Caesar laying down his arms and Pompey retaining his command, which passed. Then he moved for a vote on both men laying down their arms and relinquishing their command. Only twenty-two favoured Pompey. Curio felt that he had won the day and rushed before the people. He was applauded and 'pelted him with garlands and flowers'. However, Claudius Marcellus declared that "since he saw ten legions already looming up in their march over the Alps, he himself also would send forth a man who would oppose them in defence of his country".
According to Cassius Dio the senators went to Pompey and gave him both funds and troops. According to Appian, Lucius Domitius was appointed as Caesar's successor and he took to the field with 4,000 men from the active list. The senate thought that the arrival of Caesar's army from Gaul would take time and that he would not rush with a small force. It directed Pompey to levy 130,000 Italian soldiers mainly from the veterans and to recruit as many men as possible from the neighbouring provinces. All the money from the public treasury and, if needed, from the private wealth of the senators was to be used to pay for the soldiers. Contributions were also to be levied from the allied cities as quickly as possible. Caesar, accustomed to celerity and audacity, decided to advance with just the one legion, anticipating his enemy and seizing strategic positions in Italy.
Caesar sent a detachment to Ariminum (Rimini), the first town in Italy, and took it by surprise. He then advanced towards Rome, having crossed the River Rubicon at the boundary of Italy. On hearing of this, the consuls directed Pompey to quickly recruit more troops. The Senate, still unprepared, was panicked at Caesar's unexpected speed. Cicero proposed sending messengers to Caesar to negotiate their safety, but the frantic consuls rejected this path. Therefore, Caesar marched on to Rome, winning over all the cities on the way without a fight, either because their garrisons were too weak or they preferred his cause. Pompey, after learning of this from a defector and having had no time to prepare a large enough force, sent Roman envoys to Caesar to request negotiations.
Caesar agreed to negotiate. He promised the envoys that no one would suffer harm at his hands and that he would call for the immediate disbandment of the troops. However, the people of Rome feared war and were already calling for both men to disarm at the same time.
Pompey knew that any negotiations would soon leave him inferior to Caesar rather than an equal partner. Therefore, before his envoys could return, Pompey planned his flight to Campania to pursue the war from there. He ordered the senators and officials to go with him, and to seize the public treasury to pay for the troops they needed to recruit. However, after hearing exaggerated reports about Caesar's not being conciliatory, the senators disobeyed and hurriedly left Rome to their own estates without touching the money. The flight from Rome was disorderly. As Pompey rushed away, he hastily levied troops from the Italian cities on the road, setting up garrisons as he went.
Caesar stopped his march on Rome and claimed that he was fighting against his opponents and in defence of Rome. He sent letters throughout Italy that challenged Pompey, who responded with a letter campaign himself and tried to make Caesar look as if he had turned down reasonable terms.
In response, Caesar ordered his lieutenants to advance; Picenum, Etruria, and Umbria were taken. Caesar was joined by his Twelfth legion, which increased his numbers in Italy to two legions. Pompey did not want to send his newly-recruited green forces against Caesar's battle-hardened veterans, so he decided to abandon Italy and called on all loyalist commanders to retreat south.
Meanwhile, Caesar had set out against Corfinium, in central Italy, which was occupied by Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. Domitius had thirty-one cohorts at Corfunium and decided to make a stand. Caesar quickly took the neighbouring town of Sulmo garrisoned by seven cohorts; Caesar's Eighth legion had arrived, increasing the number of his veteran legions to three, and Curio had brought up twenty-two cohorts of recruits. Caesar now outnumbered Domitius 5:3 and started building siege-works all around the city. Realising that escape for the whole army was impossible and that no relief was on its way, Domitius apparently decided to attempt to save himself and tried to escape the siege. His troops, however, found out his plans, seized Domitius as he was trying to escape, and took him to Caesar who let Domitius go and even let him take his money with him. Domitius's soldiers, however, were made to swear a new oath of loyalty (to Caesar) and were added to Caesar's army. They were eventually sent to Sicily under the command of Asinius Pollio and helped him take the island from Marcus Porcius Cato.
Pompey hastened to Nuceria and then to Brundisium, the main port for crossing to Greece. He had finally decided to abandon Italy and to complete his war preparations in Greece. He wrote to the governors of the provinces, and also to the kings and cities he had won over in the Third Mithridatic War asking them to send aid. Pompey knew he could not reach his troops in Hispania because Caesar controlled Gaul and therefore blocked the land route into the Iberian peninsula. He believed Caesar would be unable to pursue him to Greece because there were too few ships, and the winter, which made the Mediterranean difficult to sail, was approaching. Possibly because of the change of plan there were only enough transports for thirty out of his fifty cohorts. Pompey decided he should let the consuls and their new recruits cross over to Dyrrachium first, they left by 8 March. On 9 March, after sixteen days of hard marching, Caesar's army arrived at Brundisium and proceeded to set up camp outside the town walls. The city was difficult to seize, and Caesar tried to negotiate peace and resume his friendship with Pompey. Pompey merely said that he would relay that to the consuls. Caesar besieged and attacked the city. Pompey repelled him until the ships returned and set sail at night. After this, Caesar seized the city and captured two ships full of men.
From Dyrrachium Pompey marched to Macedonia, where he set up a training area and a camp at Beroea, a town in the lower Haliacmon valley sixty kilometers west of Thessalonica. Pompey rapidly proceeded to build his new army. He had already with him the five legions he brought from Italy, and to these were added four more; the veteran settlers in Macedonia and Crete provided one, the remains of the two legions which formed the permanent garrison of Cilicia provided one, and the consul Lentulus, now governor of Asia, recruited two more. Furthermore, Metellus Scipio, the governor of Syria, was ordered to bring his two legions to Greece, but he had some difficulty bringing them across the Amanus range and got no further than Pergamum before deciding to put his men into winter quarters. Pompey also sent instructions to all the client rulers of the East to provide troops. Galatia, Cappadocia, Lesser Armenia, Lycia, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Paphlagonia, Pontus, Greater Armenia, Commagene and Egypt all sent contingents. The infantry was distributed among the legions; there were also 3,000 archers, 1,200 slingers, and, the pride of the army 7,000 cavalry.
Pompey also gathered a fleet, estimated by Plutarch at 500 fighting ships with many more transports and other craft, but probably nearer 300 fighting ships. They were under the supreme command of Marcus Bibulus and divided into five flotillas commanded by Gnaeus Pompey (60 ships from Egypt), Laelius and Triarius (the Asiatic fleet), Gaius Casius Longinus (70 ships from Syria), Marcellus and Coponius (20 from Rhodos), and Marcus Octavius and Scribonius Libo (the fleets from Achaea and Liburnia). The task of the grand fleet was to maintain a patrol along the whole of the eastern coast of the Adriatic, to prevent corn from reaching the Italian ports and to safeguard the transport of essentials to the Pompeian forces and their supply bases. They were also to keep Caesar from crossing over. Sixteen ships were sent to assist Massilia which was under siege by Caesar's forces.
Caesar went to Rome, after which he embarked on an astonishing 27-day forced march to Hispania and defeated the troops Pompey had there. Caesar then returned to Italy, crossed the Adriatic Sea and landed in what is now southern Albania, even though the Pompeian fleet controlled this sea.
There, he advanced on Oricum, which the commander of the garrison handed to him. Two lieutenants of Pompey's who were guarding merchant ships loaded with wheat for Pompey's troops sank them with their warships to prevent them from falling into Caesar's hands.
Caesar marched on Apollonia, and the inhabitants handed him the city. Straberius, the commander of the garrison, abandoned the city.
Caesar then headed for Dyrrachium (Durrës, Albania), where Pompey had an arsenal. Pompey hurried to defend Dyrrachium and arrived there first. The opposing forces fought the Battle of Dyrrhachium (48 BC). Pompey's troops heavily outnumbered the enemy. He built a fortified camp south of the city, so Caesar started to build a circumvallation to besiege it. At the same time, Pompey extended his own fortifications to force Caesar to stretch out his. Six attempts to break through by Pompey were repulsed. Caesar's troops suffered food shortages, while Pompey's was supplied by ships as his camp was near the sea. However, Pompey held a limited amount of land, which created shortages of fodder for his animals. Water was also scarce, because Caesar had cut off the local streams. When harvest time came close Caesar's troops were going to have plenty of grain.
Pompey needed to break the siege. Two deserters from Caesar's camp told him about a gap in Caesar's fortifications where two palisades near the sea had not been joined together. Pompey's troops attacked it and broke through. However, Mark Antony and Caesar brought in reinforcements and pushed them back.
Pompey entrenched a camp near this spot to gain land for fodder. He also occupied a small camp Caesar had abandoned and added an entrenchment so that the two camps were joined, and gained access to a stream.
Caesar attacked these new fortifications. However, he was outnumbered, and Pompey sent a large cavalry force to outflank Caesar's troops. Caesar withdrew and gave up the siege. Pompey could have destroyed Caesar's retreating army by pursuing it but did not. Caesar thought that victory was unexpected for Pompey, because a little earlier his troops were fleeing from their camp, and Caesar thought Pompey suspected an ambush. Moreover, Pompey's cavalry was hindered by the narrow passages of the fortifications, many of which were occupied by Caesar's troops. Plutarch wrote that Caesar said to his friends: "Today victory would have been with the enemy if they had had a victor in command."
Caesar went to Apollonia to leave his wounded men there, pay his army, encourage his allies, and leave garrisons in the towns. He sent off the baggage-train at night, and during the day he left for Asparagum (also in Illyria). Pompey pursued him and encamped nearby. The next day Caesar marched on, sending the baggage-train off at night again and then eluding Pompey. After four days Pompey gave up this fruitless pursuit.
Caesar marched speedily. He was in a hurry to join his lieutenant, Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, to prevent his being blindsided by Pompey's arrival. Caesar considered three contingencies:
Caesar informed Gnaeus Domitius about his plans, left garrisons at Apollonia, Lissus, and Oricum, and began a march through Epirus and Athamania. Pompey decided to hurry to Metellus Scipio to back him up or, should Caesar decide not to leave the coast, to attack Gnaeus Domitius himself.
Both men marched quickly with light equipment. Pompey was marching towards Candavia, a mountain district in Illyria.
Gnaeus Domitius and Metellus Scipio had been encamped close to each other. The former left to forage and moved towards Candavia, thus exposing himself to an attack by Pompey. Caesar was not aware of this. However, some Gallic scouts who had defected from Caesar to Pompey spotted some Gallic scouts of Domitius' and informed them about the situation after Dyrrachium. Domitius, who was only a four-hour march away, avoided the danger and joined Caesar who was on his way to Aeginium, a town just past the border of Thessaly. Domitius arrived at Gomphi, the first town in Thessaly, from which envoys had offered their resources to Caesar and asked him for a garrison.
However, Pompey had spread exaggerated rumours about Caesar's defeat, and the governor of Thessaly cast his lot with Pompey. He ordered the gates of the city to be closed and asked Pompey to come help because the town could not withstand a long siege. However, although Metellus Scipio had already brought his troops to Larissa, the capital of Thessaly, Pompey had not yet arrived.
Caesar besieged Gomphi to gain its resources and to frighten the neighbouring areas. He took it by storm in one day and quickly went to Metropolis. This town also closed its gates but surrendered when they heard about the fall of Gomphi. All Thessaly towns not held by Metellus Scipio's troops submitted to Caesar.
The two forces fought the Battle of Pharsalus. They were encamped near each other. With the joining of Pompey and Metellus Scipio's large armies Pompey's supporters were confident of victory.
Caesar lined up his men close to Pompey's camp to test him. In the next few days he pushed his lines closer to the hill where Pompey's camp was. He got lightly armed young foot soldiers to intermix with the cavalry to get used to this kind of fighting and to prepare for confronting a cavalry force seven times larger.
Pompey always lined up on the lower spurs of the hill, on uneven ground that was unfavourable to Caesar. He would not be drawn into battle. Caesar kept moving his camp and was always on the march so that he could get supplies from various places and wear out Pompey's army. One day Pompey drew up his men further from the rampart of his camp. Caesar thought this looked like a chance to fight on more advantageous ground, and he prepared for battle.
Pompey deployed 45,000 troops and Caesar 25,000. Pompey was going to have his superior cavalry outflank Caesar's left wing and rout his army. However, Caesar placed six select cohorts at the rear to stop this cavalry. It worked, and Caesar's men defeated the enemy.
Pompey left the field and went to his camp. When his men were driven within the rampart Caesar attacked the camp. The camp guards fought hard, but the men who had fled from the battlefield without arms were more keen on escaping than fighting. The men posted on the rampart could not withstand the shower of javelins and left their positions.
Pompey rode away from the camp and went to Larissa. From there, he reached the coast with a retinue of 30 cavalry and boarded a grain cargo ship.
Caesar pursued Pompey to prevent him from gathering other forces to renew the war. Pompey had stopped at Amphipolis, where he held a meeting with friends to collect money. An edict was issued in his name that all the youth of the province of Macedonia (i.e., Greece), whether Greeks or Romans, were to take an oath. It was not clear whether Pompey wanted new levies to fight or whether this was concealment of a planned escape.
When he heard that Caesar was approaching, Pompey left and went to Mitylene, on the island of Lesbos, to take on board his wife Cornelia and his son. Pompey then set sail and stopped over only when he needed to get food or water. He reached Attaleia (Antalya) in Pamphylia, where some warships from Cilicia had been assembled for him.
There, Pompey heard that Cato the Younger was sailing to Africa. Pompey blamed himself for not having used his superior navy and not having stationed at a place where he could have had naval back up if he had been defeated on land instead of fighting far from the coast. He asked the cities in the area for money to man his ships and looked for a temporary refuge in case the enemy caught up with him.
According to Plutarch, Pompey considered going to Parthia, but was advised Parthia's king, Arsaces, was untrustworthy and the place unsafe for Pompey's wife. This last point put Pompey off. He was advised to go, instead, to Egypt, which was only three days' sail away, and whose king, Ptolemy XIII (who was only a boy), was indebted by the friendship and the help Pompey had given to his father.
According to Caesar, Pompey went from Mitylene to Cilicia and Cyprus. There he learned that the inhabitants of Antioch and the Romans resident there had taken up arms to prevent him from going there. The same action had been taken in Rhodes against Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, the consul of the previous year, and Publius Lentulus, an ex-consul, who were also escaping.
They reached the island and were barred from the port. The islanders had been informed that Caesar was approaching. Pompey gave up on going to Syria. He took funds from the tax collectors, borrowed money to hire soldiers, and armed 2,000 men. He boarded a ship with many bronze coins.
Pompey set sail from Cyprus with warships and merchant ships. He heard that Ptolemy was in Pelusium with an army and that he was at war with his sister Cleopatra VII, whom he had deposed. The camps of the opposing forces were close. Pompey sent a messenger to announce his arrival to Ptolemy and to request his aid.
Potheinus the eunuch, who was the boy king's regent, held a council with Theodotus of Chios, the king's tutor, Achillas, the head of the army, and others. According to Plutarch, some advised driving Pompey away, and others welcoming him. Theodotus argued that neither option was safe: if welcomed, Pompey would become a master and Caesar an enemy, while if turned away, Pompey would blame the Egyptians for rejecting him and Caesar for making him continue his pursuit. Instead, assassinating Pompey would eliminate fear of him and gratify Caesar.
Caesar thought this was decided because Ptolemy's forces included many of Pompey's soldiers who had been taken to Alexandria from Syria by Aulus Gabinius to restore Ptolemy XII, the king's father, who had been deposed. The soldiers had remained with Ptolemy XII. The king's advisors decided to murder Pompey in case he would manipulate the Romans in the Egyptian forces to seize power.
On September 28, Achillas went to Pompey's ship on a fishing boat together with Lucius Septimius, who had once been one of Pompey's officers, and a third assassin, Savius. Pompey's associates saw this lack of pomp with suspicion and advised Pompey to put his ship back in open sea out of reach of the Egyptian's missiles. Achillas claimed that the sea's sandy bottom and shallows had not allowed him to approach with a ship. However, the royal ships were seen taking crews on board, and there were soldiers on the shore.
Cornelia thought Pompey was going to be killed, but he boarded the boat. The lack of friendliness on the boat prompted Pompey to tell Septimius that he was an old comrade. The latter merely nodded. He thrust a sword into Pompey, and then Achillas and Savius stabbed him with daggers. The people on Pompey's ship could see this and, horrified, fled. Because the wind was favourable, the Egyptians did not pursue them.
Pompey's head was severed, and his unclothed body was thrown in the sea. Philip, one of Pompey's freedmen who had boarded the boat, wrapped it with his tunic and made a funeral pyre on the shore. Pompey died the day before his 58th birthday.
When Caesar arrived in Egypt a few days later, he was appalled. He turned away loathing the man who brought Pompey's head. When Caesar was given Pompey's seal-ring, he cried.
Theodotus left Egypt and escaped Caesar's revenge. Pompey's remains were taken to Cornelia, who gave them burial at his Alban villa.
Pompey's military glory was second to none for two decades. Yet, his skills were occasionally criticized by some of his contemporaries. Sertorius or Lucullus, for instance, were especially critical. Pompey's tactics were usually efficient, albeit not particularly innovative or imaginative. They could prove insufficient against greater tacticians. However, Pharsalus was his only decisive defeat. At times, he was reluctant to risk an open battle. While not extremely charismatic, Pompey could display tremendous bravery and fighting skills on the battlefield, which inspired his men. While being a superb commander, Pompey also earned a reputation for stealing other generals' victories.
On the other hand, Pompey is usually considered an outstanding strategist and organizer, who could win campaigns without displaying genius on the battlefield, but simply by constantly outmaneuvering his opponents and gradually pushing them into a desperate situation. Pompey was a great forward planner, and had tremendous organizational skill, which allowed him to devise grand strategies and operate effectively with large armies. During his campaigns in the east, he relentlessly pursued his enemies, choosing the ground for his battles.
Above all, he was often able to adapt to his enemies. On many occasions, he acted very swiftly and decisively, as he did during his campaigns in Sicily and Africa, or against the Cilician pirates. During the Sertorian war, on the other hand, Pompey was beaten several times by Sertorius. Therefore, he decided to resort to a war of attrition, in which he would avoid open battles against his chief opponent but instead try to gradually regain the strategic advantage by capturing his fortresses and cities and defeating his junior officers. In some instances, Sertorius showed up and forced Pompey to abandon a siege, only to see him strike somewhere else. This strategy was not spectacular but it led to constant territorial gains and did much to demoralize the Sertorian forces. By 72 BC, the year of his assassination, Sertorius was already in a desperate situation and his troops were deserting. Against Perpenna, a tactician far inferior to his former commander in chief, Pompey decided to revert to a more aggressive strategy and he scored a decisive victory that effectively ended the war.
Against Caesar too, his strategy was sound. During the campaign in Greece, he managed to regain the initiative, join his forces to that of Metellus Scipio (something that Caesar wanted to avoid) and trap his enemy. His strategic position was hence much better than that of Caesar and he could have starved Caesar's army to death. However, he was finally compelled to fight an open battle by his allies, and his conventional tactics proved no match to those of Caesar (who also commanded the more experienced troops).
For the historians of his own and later Roman periods, Pompey fit the trope of the great man who achieved extraordinary triumphs through his own efforts, yet fell from power and was, in the end, murdered through treachery.
He was a hero of the Republic, who seemed once to hold the Roman world in his palm, only to be brought low by Caesar. Pompey was idealized as a tragic hero almost immediately after Pharsalus' and his murder.
Plutarch portrayed Pompey as a Roman Alexander the Great, pure of heart and mind, destroyed by the cynical ambitions of those around him. This portrayal of him survived into the Renaissance and Baroque periods, for example in Pierre Corneille's play, "The Death of Pompey" (1642).
Despite his war against Caesar, Pompey was still widely celebrated during the imperial period, as the conqueror of the Orient. For example, pictures of Pompey were carried at Augustus' funeral procession. And as a triumphator, he had numerous statues in Rome, one of which was on the forum of Augustus. Although the imperial power did not honor Pompey as much as his archenemy, who was considered a god, his reputation among many aristocrats and historians was equal or even superior to Caesar's.
Pompey has appeared as a character in multiple modern works.
After returning from his campaigns in the East Pompey spent a large part of his new wealth on building projects. The grandest of these was a great stone theatre complex on the Campus Martius and the lower slopest of the Pincian Hill in northern Rome. Based, so it was said, on that of Mityline it was Rome's first stone theatre and a landmark in the history of Roman architecture.
Pompey commissioned and collected hundreds of paintings and statues to decorate the theatre. Pliny records the names of several 'old masters' whose works were acquired, and there is evidence that Pompey patronised at least two contemporary Italian sculptors, Pasiteles and Coponius.
On the twelfth of August of 55 BC the Pompey's Theatre was dedicated. Containing seats for an estimated 10,000 spectators it had a temple of Venus (Pompey's patron goddess) constructed at the back of the Cavea or auditorium in such a way that the tiers of the seats formed the steps leading up to the front of the temple. Attached to the southeast side of the theatre was a great porticus or rectangular garden, some 180 metres by 135 metres with covered colonnades running round the sides, which provides shelter for the spectators in the event of rain and a very popular place of recreation for citizens at all times. The walls of the colonnades were decorated with paintings gathered from the art collections of the Roman world. Either in the porticus or the theatre itself were numerous statues, the arrangement of which was entrusted to Cicero's good friend Atticus. They included fourteen statues representing the nations which Pompey had conquered, and one of Pompey himself was placed in a large hall attached to the porticus, where meetings of the Senate could be held.
Plutarch tells us that Pompey built himself a house in the vicinity of the Theatre, 'like a dinghy behind a yacht', more splendid than his old house on the Carinae but not extravagant enough to excite envy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23867 |
Nazareth
Nazareth (; , "an-Nāṣira"; , "Natzrat"; , "Naṣrath") is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In its population was . The inhabitants are predominantly Arab citizens of Israel, of whom 69% are Muslim and 30.9% Christian. Nof HaGalil (formerly Nazareth Illit (lit. "Upper Nazareth"), declared a separate city in June 1974, is built alongside old Nazareth, and had a Jewish population of 40,312 in 2014.
In the New Testament, the town is described as the childhood home of Jesus, and as such is a center of Christian pilgrimage, with many shrines commemorating biblical events.
One view holds that "Nazareth" is derived from one of the Hebrew words for 'branch', namely , , and alludes to the prophetic, messianic words in Book of Isaiah 11:1, 'from (Jesse's) roots a Branch () will bear fruit'. One view suggests this toponym might be an example of a tribal name used by resettling groups on their return from exile. Alternatively, the name may derive from the verb , , "watch, guard, keep," and understood either in the sense of "watchtower" or "guard place", implying the early town was perched on or near the brow of the hill, or, in the passive sense as 'preserved, protected' in reference to its secluded position. The negative references to Nazareth in the Gospel of John suggest that ancient Jews did not connect the town's name to prophecy.
Another theory holds that the Greek form (), used in Matthew and Luke, may derive from an earlier Aramaic form of the name, or from another Semitic language form. If there were a "tsade" (צ) in the original Semitic form, as in the later Hebrew forms, it would normally have been transcribed in Greek with a "sigma" (σ) instead of a "zeta" (ζ). This has led some scholars to question whether "Nazareth" and its cognates in the New Testament actually refer to the settlement known traditionally as Nazareth in Lower Galilee. Such linguistic discrepancies may be explained, however, by "a peculiarity of the 'Palestinian' Aramaic dialect wherein a sade (ṣ) between two voiced (sonant) consonants tended to be partially assimilated by taking on a zayin (z) sound".
The Arabic name for Nazareth is "an-Nāṣira", and Jesus (, "Yasū`") is also called "an-Nāṣirī", reflecting the Arab tradition of according people an attribution, a name denoting whence a person comes in either geographical or tribal terms. In the Qur'an, Christians are referred to as "naṣārā", meaning "followers of an-Nāṣirī", or "those who follow Jesus of Nazareth".
In Luke's Gospel, Nazareth is first described as 'a town of Galilee' and home of Mary (). Following the birth and early epiphanial events of chapter 2 of Luke's Gospel, Mary, Joseph and Jesus "returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth".
In English translations of the New Testament, the phrase "Jesus of Nazareth" appears seventeen times whereas the Greek has the form "Jesus the "Nazarēnos"" or "Jesus the "Nazōraios"." One plausible view is that "Nazōraean" (Ναζωραῖος) is a normal Greek adaptation of a reconstructed, hypothetical term in Jewish Aramaic for the word later used in Rabbinical sources to refer to Jesus. "Nazaréth" is named twelve times in surviving Greek manuscript versions of the New Testament, 10 times as "Nazaréth" or "Nazarét," and twice as "Nazará." The former two may retain the 'feminine' endings common in Galilean toponyms. The minor variants, "Nazarat" and "Nazarath" are also attested. "Nazara" (Ναζαρά) might be the earliest form of the name in Greek, going back to the putative Q document. It is found in and . However, the Textus Receptus clearly translates all passages as "Nazara" leaving little room for debate there.
Many scholars have questioned a link between "Nazareth" and the terms "Nazarene" and "Nazoraean" on linguistic grounds, while some affirm the possibility of etymological relation "given the idiosyncrasies of Galilean Aramaic."
The form "Nazara" is also found in the earliest non-scriptural reference to the town, a citation by Sextus Julius Africanus dated about 221 AD (see "Middle Roman to Byzantine Periods" below). The Church Father Origen (c. 185 to 254 AD) knows the forms "Nazará" and "Nazarét". Later, Eusebius in his "Onomasticon" (translated by St. Jerome) also refers to the settlement as "Nazara". The "nașirutha" of the scriptures of the Mandeans refers to "priestly craft", not to Nazareth, which they identified with Qom.
The first non-Christian reference to Nazareth is an inscription on a marble fragment from a synagogue found in Caesarea Maritima in 1962. This fragment gives the town's name in Hebrew as נצרת (n-ṣ-r-t). The inscription dates to c. AD 300 and chronicles the assignment of priests that took place at some time after the Bar Kokhba revolt, AD 132–35. (See "Middle Roman to Byzantine Periods" below.) An 8th-century AD Hebrew inscription, which was the earliest known Hebrew reference to Nazareth prior to the discovery of the inscription above, uses the same form.
Around 331, Eusebius records that from the name Nazareth Christ was called a Nazoraean, and that in earlier centuries Christians, were once called Nazarenes. Tertullian (Against Marcion 4:8) records that "for this reason the Jews call us 'Nazarenes'." In the New Testament Christians are called "Christians" three times by Paul in Romans, and "Nazarenes" once by Tertullus, a Jewish lawyer. The Rabbinic and modern Hebrew name for Christians, "notzrim," is also thought to derive from Nazareth, and be connected with Tertullus' charge against Paul of being a member of the sect of the Nazarenes, "Nazoraioi", "men of Nazareth" in Acts. Against this some medieval Jewish polemical texts connect "notzrim" with the "netsarim" "watchmen" of Ephraim in Jeremiah 31:6. In Syriac Aramaic "Nasrath" (ܢܨܪܬ) is used for Nazareth, while "Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5) and "of Nazareth" are both "Nasrani" or "Nasraya" (ܕܢܨܪܝܐ) an adjectival form. "Nasrani" is used in the Quran for Christians, and in Modern Standard Arabic may refer more widely to Western people. Saint Thomas Christians, an ancient community of Jewish Christians in India who trace their origins to evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century, are sometimes known by the name "Nasrani" even today.
Archaeological researchers have revealed that a funerary and cult center at Kfar HaHoresh, about two miles () from current Nazareth, dates back roughly 9000 years to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B era. The remains of some 65 individuals were found, buried under huge horizontal headstone structures, some of which consisted of up to 3 tons of locally produced white plaster. Decorated human skulls uncovered there have led archaeologists to identify Kfar HaHoresh as a major cult centre in that era.
The Franciscan priest Bellarmino Bagatti, "Director of Christian Archaeology", carried out extensive excavation of this "Venerated Area" from 1955 to 1965. Fr. Bagatti uncovered pottery dating from the Middle Bronze Age (2200 to 1500 BC) and ceramics, silos and grinding mills from the Iron Age (1500 to 586 BC) which indicated substantial settlement in the Nazareth basin at that time.
Archaeological evidence shows the Nazareth was occupied during the late Hellenistic period, through the Roman period and into the Byzantine period.
According to the Gospel of Luke, Nazareth was the home village of Mary as well as the site of the Annunciation (when the angel Gabriel informed Mary that she would give birth to Jesus). According to the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph and Mary resettled in Nazareth after returning from the flight from Bethlehem to Egypt. According to the Bible, Jesus grew up in Nazareth from some point in his childhood. However, some modern scholars also regard Nazareth as the birthplace of Jesus.
A Hebrew inscription found in Caesarea dating to the late 3rd or early 4th century mentions Nazareth as the home of the priestly Hapizzez/Hafizaz family after the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 AD). From the three fragments that have been found, the inscription seems to be a list of the twenty-four priestly courses (cf. Books of Chronicles - and Book of Nehemiah - ), with each course (or family) assigned its proper order and the name of each town or village in Galilee where it settled. Nazareth is not spelled with the "z" sound but with the Hebrew tsade (thus "Nasareth" or "Natsareth"). Eleazar Kalir (a Hebrew Galilean poet variously dated from the 6th to 10th century) mentions a locality clearly in the Nazareth region bearing the name Nazareth נצרת (in this case vocalized "Nitzrat"), which was home to the descendants of the 18th Kohen family Happitzetz (הפצץ), for at least several centuries after the Bar Kochva revolt.
Although it is mentioned in the New Testament gospels, there are no extant non-biblical references to Nazareth until around 200 CE, when Sextus Julius Africanus, cited by Eusebius ("Church History" 1.7.14), speaks of Nazara as a village in Judea and locates it near an as-yet unidentified "Cochaba". In the same passage Africanus writes of "desposunoi" – relatives of Jesus – who he claims "kept the records of their descent with great care". Ken Dark describes the view that Nazareth did not exist in Jesus's time as "archaeologically unsupportable".
James F. Strange, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Southern Florida, notes: "Nazareth is not mentioned in ancient Jewish sources earlier than the third century CE. This likely reflects its lack of prominence both in Galilee and in Judaea." Strange originally calculated the population of Nazareth at the time of Christ as "roughly 1,600 to 2,000 people" but, in a subsequent publication that followed more than a decade of additional research, revised this figure down to "a maximum of about 480." In 2009, Israeli archaeologist Yardenna Alexandre excavated archaeological remains in Nazareth that date to the time of Jesus in the early Roman period. Alexandre told reporters, "The discovery is of the utmost importance since it reveals for the very first time a house from the Jewish village of Nazareth."
Other sources state that during Jesus' time, Nazareth had a population of 400 and one public bath, which was important for civic and religious purposes, as a "mikva".
A tablet at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, dating to 50 CE, was sent from Nazareth to Paris in 1878. It contains an inscription known as the "Ordinance of Caesar" that outlines the penalty of death for those who violate tombs or graves. However, it is suspected that this inscription came to Nazareth from somewhere else (possibly Sepphoris). Bagatti writes: "we are not certain that it was found in Nazareth, even though it came from Nazareth to Paris. At Nazareth there lived various vendors of antiquities who got ancient material from several places." C. Kopp is more definite: "It must be accepted with certainty that [the Ordinance of Caesar]… was brought to the Nazareth market by outside merchants." Princeton University archaeologist Jack Finnegan describes additional archaeological evidence related to settlement in the Nazareth basin during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and states that "Nazareth was a strongly Jewish settlement in the Roman period."
Epiphanius in his "Panarion" (c. 375 CE) numbers Nazareth among the cities devoid of a non-Jewish population. Epiphanius, writing of Joseph of Tiberias, a wealthy Roman Jew who converted to Christianity in the time of Constantine, says he claimed to have received an imperial rescript to build Christian churches in Jewish towns and villages where no gentiles or Samaritans dwell, naming Tiberias, Diocaesarea, Sepphoris, Nazareth and Capernaum. From this scarce notice, it has been concluded that a small church which encompassed a cave complex might have been located in Nazareth in the early 4th century," although the town was Jewish until the 7th century CE.
The Christian monk and Bible translator Jerome, writing at the beginning of the 5th century, says Nazareth was a "viculus" or mere village.
In the 6th century, religious narrations from local Christians about the Virgin Mary began to spark interest in the site among pilgrims, who founded the first church at the location of the current Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation at the site of a freshwater spring, today known as Mary's Well. Around 570, the Anonymous of Piacenza reports travelling from Sepphoris to Nazareth. There he records seeing in the Jewish synagogue the books from which Jesus learnt his letters, and a bench where he sat. According to him, Christians could lift it, but Jews could not, since it disallowed them from dragging it outside. Writing of the beauty of the Hebrew women there, he records them saying St. Mary was a relative of theirs, and notes that, "The house of St. Mary is a basilica." Constantine the Great that churches be built in Jewish cities, and Nazareth was one of the places designated for this purpose, although construction of churches apparently only started decades after Constantine's death, i.e. after 352.
Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that previous to the erection of the Byzantine-period church at the site of Mary's house in the mid-5th century, Judeo-Christians had built there a synagogue-church, leaving behind Judeo-Christian symbols. Until being expelled in c. 630, Jews probably kept on using their older synagogue, while the Judeo-Christian needed to build their own, probably at the site of Mary's house.
The Jewish town profited from the Christian pilgrim trade which began in the 4th century, but latent anti-Christian hostility broke out in 614 AD when the Persians invaded Palestine. The Christian Byzantine author Eutychius claimed that Jewish people of Nazareth helped the Persians carry out their slaughter of the Christians. When the Byzantine or Eastern Roman emperor Heraclius ejected the Persians in 629-630 AD, he expelled the Jews from the village, turning it all-Christian.
The Arab Muslim invasion of 638 had no immediate impact on the Christians of Nazareth and their churches, since Bishop Arculf remembered seeing there around 670 CE two churches, one at the house of Joseph where Jesus had lived as a child, and one at the house of Mary where she received the Annunciation - but no synagogue, which had possibly been transformed into a mosque. The 721 iconoclastic edict of Caliph Yazid II apparently led to the destruction of the former church, so that Willibald found during his pilgrimage in 724-26 only one church there, the one dedicated to St. Mary, which Christians had to save through repeated payments from destruction by the "pagan Saracens" (Muslim Arabs). The ruins of St. Joseph's remained untouched for a very long time, while the Church St. Mary is repeatedly mentioned throughout the following centuries, including by an Arab geographer in 943.
In 1099, the Crusader Tancred captured Galilee and established his capital in Nazareth. He was the ruler of the Principality of Galilee, which was established, at least in name, in 1099, as a vassal of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Later, in 1115, Nazareth was created as a seigneury within the principality. A Martin of Nazareth, who probably acted as viscount of Nazareth, is documented in 1115 and in 1130/1131. Nazareth was the original site of the Latin Patriarch, also established by Tancred. The ancient diocese of Scythopolis was relocated under the Archbishop of Nazareth, as one of the four archdioceses in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. When the town returned to Muslim control in 1187 following the victory of Saladin in the Battle of Hattin, the remaining Crusaders and European clergy were forced to leave town. Frederick II managed to negotiate safe passage for pilgrims from Acre in 1229, and in 1251, Louis IX, the king of France, attended mass in the grotto, accompanied by his wife.
In 1263, Baybars, the Mamluk Sultan, destroyed the Christian buildings in Nazareth and declared the site off-limits to Latin clergy, as part of his bid to drive out the remaining Crusaders from Palestine. While Arab Christian families continued to live in Nazareth, its status was reduced to that of a poor village. Pilgrims who visited the site in 1294 reported only a small church protecting the grotto. In the 14th century, Franciscan monks were permitted to return and live within the ruins of the basilica.
In 1584 the Franciscan monks were evicted again from the site of the ruined basilica. In 1620, Fakhr-al-Din II, a Druze emir who controlled this part of Ottoman Syria, permitted them to build a small church at the Grotto of the Annunciation. Pilgrimage tours to surrounding sacred sites were organised by the Franciscans, but the monks suffered harassment from surrounding Bedouin tribes who often kidnapped them for ransom.
Stability returned with the rule of Zahir al-Umar, a powerful Arab sheikh who ruled the Galilee, and later much of the Levantine coast and Palestine. He transformed Nazareth from a minor village into a large town by encouraging immigration to it. Nazareth played a strategic role in Zahir's sheikhdom because it allowed him to wield control over the agricultural areas of central Galilee. He ensured Nazareth's security for other reasons as well, among them strengthening ties with France by protecting the Christian community and protecting one of his wives who resided in Nazareth.
Zahir authorized the Franciscans to build a church in 1730. That structure stood until 1955, when it was demolished to make way for a larger building completed in 1967. He also permitted the Franciscans to purchase the Synagogue Church in 1741 and authorized the Greek Orthodox community to build St. Gabriel's Church in 1767. Zahir commissioned the construction of a government house known as the Seraya, which served as the city's municipal headquarters until 1991. His descendants—known as the "Dhawahri"—along with the Zu'bi, Fahum, and 'Onassah families later constituted Nazareth's traditional Muslim elite.
Nazareth's Christian community did not fare well under Zahir's Ottoman successor, Jazzar Pasha (r. 1776–1804), and friction increased between its Christians and Muslim peasants from the surrounding villages. Nazareth was temporarily captured by the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, during his Syrian campaign. Napoleon visited the holy sites and considered appointing his general Jean-Andoche Junot as the duke of Nazareth. During the rule of Governor Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt (1830–1840) over much of Ottoman Syria, Nazareth was opened to European missionaries and traders. After the Ottomans regained control, European money continued to flow into Nazareth and new institutions were established. The Christians of Nazareth were protected during the massacres of 1860 by Aqil Agha, the Bedouin leader who exercised control over the Galilee between 1845 and 1870.
Kaloost Vartan, an Armenian from Istanbul, arrived in 1864 and established the first medical mission in Nazareth, the Scottish "hospital on the hill", or the Nazareth Hospital as it is known today, with sponsorship from the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. The Ottoman Sultan, who favored the French, allowed them to establish an orphanage, the Society of Saint Francis de Sale. By the late 19th century, Nazareth was a town with a strong Arab Christian presence and a growing European community, where a number of communal projects were undertaken and new religious buildings were erected. In 1871 Christ Church, the city's only Anglican church, was completed under the leadership of the Rev John Zeller and consecrated by Bishop Samuel Gobat.
In the late 19th century and the first years of the 20th century, Nazareth prospered as it served the role of a market center for the dozens of rural Arab villages located within its vicinity. Local peasants would purchase supplies from Nazareth's many "souks" (open-air markets), which included separate "souks" for agricultural produce, metalwork, jewelry and leathers. In 1914, Nazareth consisted of eight quarters: 'Araq, Farah, Jami', Khanuq, Maidan, Mazazwa, Sharqiya and Shufani. There were nine churches, two monasteries, four convents, two mosques, four hospitals, four private schools, a public school, a police station, three orphanages, a hotel, three inns, a flour mill and eight "souks". The Ottomans lost control of Palestine, including Nazareth, to the Allied Powers during World War I. By then, Nazareth's importance declined significantly as most of the Arab villages in the Jezreel Valley had been replaced by newly established Jewish communities.
The United Kingdom gained control of Palestine in 1917, the same year of the Balfour Declaration, which promised British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In the years preceding and following the declaration, Jewish immigration to Palestine had been increasing. Representatives of Nazareth opposed the Zionist movement, sending a delegation to the 1919 and issuing a letter of protest in 1920 that condemned the movement while also proclaiming solidarity with the Jews of Palestine. Politically, Nazareth was becoming further involved in the growing Palestinian nationalist movement. In 1922, a Muslim-Christian Association was established in the town, largely sponsored by the Muslim al-Zu'bi family. A consistent and effective united Palestinian Arab religious front proved difficult to establish and alternative organizations such as the Supreme Muslim Council's Organization of Muslim Youth and the National Muslim Association were established in Nazareth later in the 1920s. in 1922 there had been a small population of 58 Jews and Jewish families living in Nazareth.
Nazareth was relatively slow to modernize. While other towns already had wired electricity, Nazareth delayed its electrification until the 1930s and invested instead in improving its water supply system. This included adding two reservoirs at the northwestern hills and several new cisterns. By 1930, a church for the Baptist denomination, a municipal garden at Mary's Well and a police station based in Zahir al-Umar's Seraya had been established and the Muslim Sharqiya Quarter had expanded.
In the 1936–1939 Arab Revolt, Nazareth played a minor role, contributing two rebel commanders out of 281 rebel commanders active in the country. The two were Nazareth native and Christian Fu'ad Nassar and Nazareth resident and Indur native Tawfiq al-Ibrahim. The nearby villages of Saffuriya and al-Mujaydil played a more active military role, contributing nine commanders between them. The leaders of the revolt sought to use Nazareth as a staging ground to protest the British proposal to include the Galilee into a future Jewish state. On 26 September 1937, the British district commissioner of the Galilee, Lewis Yelland Andrews, was assassinated in Nazareth by local rebels.
By 1946, the municipal boundary of Nazareth had been enlarged and new neighborhoods, namely Maidan, Maslakh, Khanuq and Nimsawi, were established. New homes were established in existing quarters and the town still had an abundance of orchards and agricultural fields. Two cigarette factories, a tobacco store, two cinemas and a tile factory had been established, significantly boosting Nazareth's economy. A new police station was built on Nazareth's southernmost hill, while the police station in the Seray had been converted into Nazareth's municipal headquarters. Watchtowers were also erected on some of the hilltops around the town. Other new or expanded government offices included a headquarters for the district commissioner at the former Ottoman military barracks, and offices for the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Survey and Settlement.
Nazareth was in the territory allotted to the Arab state under the 1947 UN Partition Plan. In the months leading up to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the town became a refuge for Arab-Palestinians fleeing the urban centers of Tiberias, Haifa and Baysan before and during the Haganah's capture of those cities on 18 April, 22 April and 12 May 1948, respectively.
Nazareth itself was not a field of battle during the 1948 War, which began on 15 May, before the first truce on 11 June, although some of the villagers had joined the loosely organized peasant military and paramilitary forces, and troops from the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) had entered Nazareth on 9 July. The local defense of the town consisted of 200–300 militiamen distributed along the hills surrounding the town. The defense in the southern and western hills collapsed after Israeli shelling, while resistance in the northern hills had to contend with an incoming Israeli armored unit. Not long after the Israelis began shelling the local militiamen, Nazareth's police chief raised a white flag over the town's police station.
Most of the fighting around Nazareth occurred in its satellite villages, particularly in Saffuriya, whose residents put up resistance until largely dispersing following Israeli air raids on 15 July. During the ten days of fighting which occurred between the first and second truce, Nazareth capitulated to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel on 16 July, after little more than token resistance. By then, morale among local militiamen was low and most refused to fight alongside the ALA because of their perceived weakness in the face of Israel's perceived military superiority and the alleged maltreatment of Christian residents and clergy by ALA volunteers. The Muslim mayor of Nazareth, Yusef Fahum requested a halt to all resistance put up by Nazarenes to prevent the town's destruction.
The surrender of Nazareth was formalized in a written agreement, whereby the town's leaders agreed to cease hostilities in return for promises from the Israeli officers, including brigade commander Ben Dunkelman (the leader of the operation), that no harm would come to the civilians of the town. Soon after the signing of the agreement, Dunkelman received an order from the Israeli General Chaim Laskov to forcibly evacuate the city's Arabs. He refused, remarking that he was ‘shocked and horrified’ that he would be commanded to renege on the agreement he, and also Chaim Laskov, had just signed. Twelve hours after defying his superior, he was relieved of his post, but not before obtaining assurances that the security of Nazareth's population would be guaranteed. David Ben-Gurion backed his judgement up, fearing that expelling Christian Arabs might provoke an outcry throughout the Christian world. By the end of the war, Nazareth's population saw a large influx of refugees from major urban centers and rural villages in the Galilee.
In the first few years of its incorporation into Israel, Nazareth's affairs were dominated by the issues of land expropriation, internally displaced refugees and the hardships of martial law, which included curfews and travel restrictions. Efforts to resolve these issues were largely unsuccessful and led to frustration among the inhabitants, which in turn contributed to political agitation in the city. As the largest Arab town in Israel, Nazareth became a center of Arab and Palestinian nationalism, and because the Communist Party was the sole legal political group that took up many of the local Arab causes, it gained popularity in Nazareth. Arab political organization within Nazareth and Israel was largely stymied by the state until recent decades. Arab and Palestinian nationalist sentiment continue to influence Nazareth's political life.
In 1954, 1,200 dunams of Nazareth's land, which had been slated for future urban expansion by the municipality, was expropriated by state authorities for the construction of government offices and, in 1957, for the construction of the Jewish town of Nazareth Illit. The latter was built as a way for the state to counterbalance the Arab majority in the region. Knesset member Seif el-Din el-Zoubi, who represented Nazareth, actively opposed the Absentees' Property Law, which allowed state expropriation of land from Arab citizens who were not permitted to return to their original villages. Zoubi argued that the internally displaced refugees were not absentees as they were still living in the country as citizens and wanted to return to their homes. Israel offered compensation to these internal refugees, but most refused for fear of permanently relinquishing their right of return. Tensions between Nazareth's inhabitants and the state came to a head during a 1958 May Day rally where marchers demanded that refugees be allowed to return to their villages, an end to land expropriation, and self-determination for Palestinians. Several young protesters were arrested for throwing stones at security forces. Martial law ended in 1966.
On 5 January 1964, Pope Paul VI included Nazareth in the first ever papal visit to the Holy Land.
As of the early 1990s, no city plans drafted by Nazareth Municipality have been approved by the government (both the British Mandate and later Israel) since 1942. This has left many people in Nazareth who vote in the city's municipal elections and receive services from its municipality effectively outside of the city's jurisdiction. Such areas include the Sharqiya and Jabal el-Daula quarters which are in Nazareth Illit's jurisdiction and whose residents had to acquire building permits from the latter city. Similarly, the Bilal neighborhood of the Safafra Quarter is located within Reineh's jurisdiction. In 1993, the residents of Bilal became official residents of Reineh. Nazareth's municipal plans for expansion prior to the establishment of Nazareth Illit, were to the north and east, areas that the latter city now occupy. Arab satellite towns are closely located to the north, west and southwest. Thus, the remaining area within the city's municipal boundaries available for expansion were to the northwest and the south, where the topography restricted urban development. After lobbying the Knesset and the Interior Ministry, el-Zoubi was able to have areas to the northwest of the city annexed to the municipality.
In the 1980s, the government began attempts to merge the nearby village of Ilut with Nazareth, although this move was opposed by residents from both localities and the Nazareth Municipality. Ilut's residents were included as part of Nazareth's electorate in the 1983 and 1989 municipal elections, which Ilut's residents largely boycotted, and in the 1988 national elections. Ilut was designated by the Interior Ministry as a separate local council in 1991. The Israeli government has designated a Nazareth metropolitan area that includes the local councils of Yafa an-Naseriyye to the south, Reineh, Mashhad and Kafr Kanna to the north, Iksal and Nazareth Illit to the east and Migdal HaEmek to the west.
As the political center of Israel's Arab citizens, Nazareth is the scene of annual rallies held by the community including Land Day since March 1975 and May Day. There are also frequent demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause. During the First Intifada (1987–1993), May Day marchers vocally supported the Palestinian uprising. On 22 December 1987, riots broke out during a strike held in solidarity with the Intifada. On 24 January 1988, a mass demonstration attracted between 20,000–50,000 participants from Nazareth and other Arab towns. On 13 May, during a football match in Nahariya, a riot broke out between Arab and Jewish fans, resulting in a Jewish man being stabbed and 54 people, mostly Arabs, being arrested. A rally in Nazareth on 19 May followed, in which thousands of Arabs protested against "racist attacks" against the Arab fans and discriminatory policies against Arabs in general.
Preparations for the Pope's visit to Nazareth in 2000 triggered highly publicized tensions related to the Basilica of the Annunciation. In 1997, permission was granted to construct a paved plaza to handle the thousands of Christian pilgrims expected to arrive. A small group of Muslims protested and occupied the site, where a nephew of Saladin, named Shihab al-Din, is believed to be buried. A school, al-Harbyeh, had been built on the site by the Ottomans, and the Shihab-Eddin shrine, along with several shops owned by the waqf, were located there. Government approval of plans for a large mosque on the property triggered protests from Christian leaders. In 2002, a special government commission permanently halted construction of the mosque.
In March 2006, public protests followed the disruption of a prayer service by an Israeli Jew and his Christian wife and daughter, who detonated firecrackers inside the church. The family said it wanted to draw attention to their problems with the welfare authorities. In July 2006 a rocket fired by Hezbollah as part of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict killed two children in Nazareth.
In March 2010, the Israeli government approved a $3 million plan to develop Nazareth's tourism industry. New businesses receive start-up grants of up to 30 percent of their initial investment from the Ministry of Tourism.
Two locations for Nazareth are cited in ancient texts: the Galilean (northern) location in the Christian gospels and a southern (Judean) location mentioned in several early noncanonical texts.
Modern-day Nazareth is nestled in a natural bowl which reaches from 320 metres above sea level to the crest of the hills about 488 metres. Nazareth is about 25 kilometres from the Sea of Galilee and about 9 kilometres west from Mount Tabor. The major cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are situated approximately 146 kilometres and 108 kilometres respectively, away from Nazareth. The Nazareth Range, in which the town lies, is the southernmost of several parallel east–west hill ranges that characterize the elevated tableau of Lower Galilee.
Nazareth has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: "Csa").
Nazareth is the largest Arab city in Israel. In 2009, the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Nazareth's Arab population was 69% Muslim and 30.9% Christian. The greater Nazareth metropolitan area had a population of 210,000, including 125,000 Arabs (59%) and 85,000 Jews (41%). It is the only urban area with over 50,000 residents in Israel where the majority of the population is Arab. The greater Nazareth metropolitan area includes Nof HaGalil, Yafa an-Naseriyye, Reineh, Migdal HaEmek, Ein Mahil, Ilut, Kafr Kanna, Mashhad and Iksal.
During the late Ottoman era, the religious majority of the city fluctuated. In 1838, there were 325 Christian families (half of whom were Greek Orthodox, the remainder belonged to various Catholic churches) and 120 Muslim families. In 1856, the population was estimated to be 4,350, of which Muslims comprised 52%, while Christians from various denominations comprised 48%. In 1862, the population estimate was lower (3,120) and Christians formed a substantial majority of over 78%. The population grew to 5,660 in 1867 and Christians constituted roughly two-thirds and Muslims one-third of the inhabitants. These estimates during the late Ottoman era likely represented crude figures.
A population list from about 1887 showed that Nazareth had about 6,575 inhabitants; 1,620 Muslims, 2,485 Greek Catholics, 845 Catholics, 1,115 Latins, 220 Maronites and 290 Protestants.
For much of the British Mandatory period (1922–1948), Nazareth had a Christian majority (mostly Orthodox Christians) and a Muslim minority.
In 1918, Nazareth had an estimated population of 8,000, two-thirds Christian. In the 1922 British census, Nazareth's population was recorded as 7,424 residents, of which 66% were Christian, 33% were Muslim and roughly 1% were Jewish. In the 1931 census, the population grew to 8,756 and the ratio of Muslims increased to 37%. The largest Christian community were the Greek Orthodox denomination, followed by the Roman Catholics and the Melkites. Smaller communities of Anglicans, Maronites, Syriac Catholics, Protestants and Copts also existed.
In 1946, Nazareth had a population of 15,540, of whom roughly 60% were Christians and 40% were Muslims. The 1948 War led to an exodus of Palestinians and many expelled or fleeing Muslims from villages in the Galilee and the Haifa area found refuge in Nazareth. At one point, some 20,000 mostly Muslim internally displaced persons were present in the city. Following the war's conclusion, the internally displaced persons of Shefa-'Amr, Dabburiya, Ilut and Kafr Kanna returned to their homes. However, those Muslim and Christian internally displaced persons from the nearby destroyed villages of Ma'lul, al-Mujaydil, Saffuriya, the Haifa-area village of Balad al-Sheikh and the major cities of Acre, Haifa, Tiberias and Baysan remained as they were not able to return to their hometowns. During the war and in the following months, internally displaced persons from Saffuriya established the Safafra Quarter, named after their former village. Around 20% of Nazareth's native inhabitants left Palestine during the war. In an Israeli army census in July 1948, Nazareth had a total population of 17,118, which consisted of 12,640 Nazarenes and 4,478 internally displaced persons. In 1951, the population was recorded as 20,300, 25% of whom were internally displaced persons. The internally displaced persons came from over two dozen villages, but most were from al-Mujaydil, Saffuriya, Tiberias, Haifa, Ma'lul and Indur.
Today, Nazareth still has a significant Christian population, made up of various denominations. The Muslim population has grown due to a number of historical factors that include the city having served as administrative center under British rule, and the influx of internally displaced Palestinian Arabs absorbed into the city from neighboring towns during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
In 2011, Nazareth had over 20 Arab-owned high-tech companies, mostly in the field of software development. According to the "Haaretz" newspaper the city has been called the "Silicon Valley of the Arab community" in view of its potential in this sphere.
Israel Military Industries employs "some 300" people in Nazareth manufacturing munitions.
Nazareth is home to dozens of monasteries and churches, many of them in the Old City.
Muslim holy sites include
Muslim places of worship include
While excavations conducted prior to 1931 in the Franciscan "venerated area" (the side of the hill known as Jabal Nebi Sa'in, stretching north of the Basilica of the Annunciation) revealed no trace of a Greek or Roman settlement there, later digs under Fr. Bagatti, who acted as the principal archaeologist for the venerated sites in Nazareth, unearthed quantities of later Roman and Byzantine artifacts, attesting to unambiguous human presence there from the 2nd century AD onward. John Dominic Crossan, a noted New Testament scholar, remarked that Bagatti's archaeological drawings indicate just how small the village actually was, suggesting that it was little more than an insignificant hamlet.
Remains of a residential house dating to the Early Roman period were discovered in 2009 next to the Basilica of the Annunciation and are on display in the "International Marian Center of Nazareth". According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, "The artifacts recovered from inside the building were few and mostly included fragments of pottery vessels from the Early Roman period (the first and second centuries AD)... Another hewn pit, whose entrance was apparently camouflaged, was excavated and a few pottery sherds from the Early Roman period were found inside it." Archaeologist Yardenna Alexandre adds that "based on other excavations that I conducted in other villages in the region, this pit was probably hewn as part of the preparations by the Jews to protect themselves during the Great Revolt against the Romans in 67 AD".
Noteworthy is that all the post-Iron Age tombs in the Nazareth basin (approximately two dozen) are of the kokh (plural "kokhim") or later types; this type probably first appeared in Galilee in the middle of the 1st century AD. Kokh tombs in the Nazareth area have been excavated by B. Bagatti, N. Feig, Z. Yavor, and noted by Z. Gal.
In the mid-1990s, a shopkeeper discovered tunnels under his shop near Mary's Well in Nazareth. The tunnels were identified as the hypocaust of a bathhouse. Excavations in 1997–98 revealed remains dating from the Roman, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods.
The city's main football club, Ahi Nazareth, currently plays in Liga Leumit, the second tier of Israeli football. The club spent two seasons in the top division, in 2003–04 and again in 2009–10. They are based at the Ilut Stadium in nearby Ilut. Other local clubs are Al-Nahda Nazareth, currently plays in Liga Bet, Beitar al-Amal Nazareth, Hapoel Bnei Nazareth and Hapoel al-Ittihad Nazareth all play in Liga Gimel.
The city has three hospitals serving its districts:
Nazareth is twinned with: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21702 |
Noah
In Abrahamic religions, Noah ( ) was the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs. His story is contained in the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9 and in the Qur'an. The Genesis flood narrative is among the best-known stories of the Bible. Noah is also portrayed as "the first tiller of the soil" and the inventor of wine.
According to the Genesis account, Noah labored faithfully to build the Ark at God's command, ultimately saving not only his own family, but mankind itself and all land animals, from extinction during the Flood. Afterwards, God made a covenant with him and promised never again to destroy all the earth's creatures with a flood. The flood narrative is followed by the story of the Curse of Ham.
In addition to the Book of Genesis, Noah is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in the First Book of Chronicles, and the books of Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, Isaiah, Ezekiel, 2 Esdras, 4 Maccabees; in the New Testament, he is mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, and Luke, the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1st Peter and 2nd Peter. Noah was the subject of much elaboration in the literature of later Abrahamic religions, including the Quran (Surahs 71, 7, 1, and 21).
The primary account of Noah in the Bible is in the Book of Genesis.
Noah was the tenth of the Pre-Flood (Antediluvian) Patriarchs. His father was Lamech and his mother is not named in the biblical accounts. When Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth ().
The Genesis flood narrative is encompassed within chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis, in the Bible. The narrative, one of many flood myths found in human cultures, indicates that God intended to return the Earth to its pre-Creation state of watery chaos by flooding the Earth because of humanity's misdeeds and then remake it using the microcosm of Noah's ark. Thus, the flood was no ordinary overflow but a reversal of Creation. The narrative discusses the evil of mankind that moved God to destroy the world by the way of the flood, the preparation of the ark for certain animals, Noah, and his family, and God's guarantee (the Noahic Covenant) for the continued existence of life under the promise that he would never send another flood.
After the flood, Noah offered burnt offerings to God, who said: "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart "is" evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done" ().
"And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (). They were also told that all fowls, land animals, and fishes would be afraid of them. Furthermore, as well as green plants, every moving thing would be their food with the exception that the blood was not to be eaten. Man's life blood would be required from the beasts and from man. "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man" (9:6). A rainbow, called "my bow", was given as the sign of a covenant "between me and you and every living creature that "[is]" with you, for perpetual generations" (), called the Noahic covenant or the rainbow covenant.
Noah died 350 years after the flood, at the age of 950, the last of the extremely long-lived Antediluvian patriarchs. The maximum human lifespan, as depicted by the Bible, gradually diminishes thereafter, from almost 1,000 years to the 120 years of Moses.
After the flood, the Bible says that Noah became a husbandman and he planted a vineyard. He drank wine made from this vineyard, and got drunk; and lay "uncovered" within his tent. Noah's son Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his brothers, which led to Ham's son Canaan being cursed by Noah. As early as the Classical era, commentators on have excused Noah's excessive drinking because he was considered to be the first wine drinker; the first person to discover the effects of wine. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, and a Church Father, wrote in the 4th century that Noah's behavior is defensible: as the first human to taste wine, he would not know its effects: "Through ignorance and inexperience of the proper amount to drink, fell into a drunken stupor".
Philo, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, also excused Noah by noting that one can drink in two different manners: (1) to drink wine in excess, a peculiar sin to the vicious evil man or (2) to partake of wine as the wise man, Noah being the latter.
In Jewish tradition and rabbinic literature on Noah, rabbis blame Satan for the intoxicating properties of the wine.
In the field of psychological biblical criticism, J. H. Ellens and W. G. Rollins address the narrative of that narrates the unconventional behavior that occurs between Noah and Ham. Because of its brevity and textual inconsistencies, it has been suggested that this narrative is a "splinter from a more substantial tale". A fuller account would explain what exactly Ham had done to his father, or why Noah directed a curse at Canaan for Ham's misdeed, or how Noah came to know what occurred. The narrator relates two facts: (1) Noah became drunken and "he was uncovered within his tent", and (2) Ham "saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without". Thus, these passages revolve around sexuality and the exposure of genitalia as compared with other Hebrew Bible texts, such as and .
Other commentaries mention that seeing someone's nakedness could mean having sex with that person as quoted in and . From this interpretation, it can be deduced that Ham was guilty of engaging in incest and raping Noah.
sets forth the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from whom the nations branched out over the earth after the flood. Among Japheth’s descendants were the maritime nations. (10:2–5) Ham’s son Cush had a son named Nimrod, who became the first man of might on earth, a mighty hunter, king in Babylon and the land of Shinar. (10:6–10) From there Asshur went and built Nineveh. (10:11–12) Canaan’s descendants Sidon, Heth, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites spread out from Sidon as far as Gerar, near Gaza, and as far as Sodom and Gomorrah. (10:15–19) Among Shem’s descendants was Eber. (10:21)
These genealogies differ structurally from those set out in Genesis 5 and 11. It has a segmented or treelike structure, going from one father to many offspring. It is strange that the table, which assumes that the population is distributed about the Earth, precedes the account of the Tower of Babel, which says that all the population is in one place before it is dispersed.
According to the documentary hypothesis, the first five books of the Bible (Pentateuch/Torah), including Genesis, were collated during the 5th century BC from four main sources, which themselves date from no earlier than the 10th century BC. Two of these, the Jahwist, composed in the 10th century BC, and the Priestly source, from the late 7th century BC, make up the chapters of Genesis which concern Noah. The attempt by the 5th-century editor to accommodate two independent and sometimes conflicting sources accounts for the confusion over such matters as how many of each animal Noah took, and how long the flood lasted.
"The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible" notes that this story echoes parts of the Garden of Eden story: Noah is the first vintner, while Adam is the first farmer; both have problems with their produce; both stories involve nakedness; and both involve a division between brothers leading to a curse. However, after the flood, the stories differ. Noah plants the vineyard and utters the curse, not God, so "God is less involved".
Noah appears in several non-canonical books.
The Book of Jubilees refers to Noah and says that he was taught the arts of healing by an angel so that his children could overcome "the offspring of the Watchers".
In 10:1–3 of the Book of Enoch (which is part of the Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon), Uriel was dispatched by "the Most High" to inform Noah of the approaching "deluge".
There are 20 or so fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls that appear to refer to Noah. Lawrence Schiffman writes, "Among the Dead Sea Scrolls at least three different versions of this legend are preserved." In particular, "The Genesis Apocryphon devotes considerable space to Noah." However, "The material seems to have little in common with Genesis 5 which reports the birth of Noah." Also, Noah's father is reported as worrying that his son was actually fathered by one of the Watchers.
Indian and Greek flood-myths also exist, although there is little evidence that they were derived from the Mesopotamian flood-myth that underlies the biblical account.
The Noah story of the Pentateuch is almost identical to a flood story contained in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, composed about 2000 BC. In the Gilgamesh version, the Mesopotamian gods are enraged by the noise that man has raised from the earth. To quiet them they decide to send a great flood to silence mankind. Various correlations between the stories of Noah and Gilgamesh (the flood, the construction of the ark, the salvation of animals, and the release of birds following the flood) have led to this story being seen as the inspiration for the story of Noah. The few variations include the number of days of the deluge, the order of the birds, and the name of the mountain on which the ark rests. The flood story in Genesis 6–8 matches the Gilgamesh flood myth so closely that "few doubt that [it] derives from a Mesopotamian account." What is particularly noticeable is the way the Genesis flood story follows the Gilgamesh flood tale "point by point and in the same order", even when the story permits other alternatives.
The earliest written flood myth is found in the Mesopotamian Epic of Atrahasis and Epic of Gilgamesh texts. The "Encyclopædia Britannica" says "These mythologies are the source of such features of the biblical Flood story as the building and provisioning of the ark, its flotation, and the subsidence of the waters, as well as the part played by the human protagonist." The "Encyclopedia Judaica" adds that there is a strong suggestion that "an intermediate agent was active. The people most likely to have fulfilled this role are the Hurrians, whose territory included the city of Haran, where the Patriarch Abraham had his roots. The Hurrians inherited the Flood story from Babylonia".
The encyclopedia mentions another similarity between the stories: Noah is the tenth patriarch and Berossus notes that "the hero of the great flood was Babylonia’s tenth antediluvian king." However, there is a discrepancy in the ages of the heroes. For the Mesopotamian antecedents, "the reigns of the antediluvian kings range from 18,600 to nearly 65,000 years." In the Bible, the lifespans "fall far short of the briefest reign mentioned in the related Mesopotamian texts." Also, the name of the hero differs between the traditions: "The earliest Mesopotamian flood account, written in the Sumerian language, calls the deluge hero Ziusudra."
Gilgamesh’s historical reign is believed to have been approximately 2700 BC, shortly before the earliest known written stories. The discovery of artifacts associated with Aga and Enmebaragesi of Kish, two other kings named in the stories, has lent credibility to the historical existence of Gilgamesh.
The earliest Sumerian Gilgamesh poems date from as early as the Third dynasty of Ur (2100–2000 BC). One of these poems mentions Gilgamesh’s journey to meet the flood hero, as well as a short version of the flood story. The earliest Akkadian versions of the unified epic are dated to ca. 2000–1500 BC. Due to the fragmentary nature of these Old Babylonian versions, it is unclear whether they included an expanded account of the flood myth; although one fragment definitely includes the story of Gilgamesh’s journey to meet Utnapishtim. The "standard" Akkadian version included a long version of the flood story and was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 and 1000 BC.
Noah has often been compared to Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Pronoia in Greek mythology. Like Noah, Deucalion is warned of the flood (by Zeus and Poseidon); he builds an ark and staffs it with creatures – and when he completes his voyage, gives thanks and takes advice from the gods on how to repopulate the Earth. Deucalion also sends a pigeon to find out about the situation of the world and the bird returns with an olive branch. Deucalion, in some versions of the myth, also becomes the inventor of wine, like Noah. Philo and Justin equate Deucalion with Noah, and Josephus used the story of Deucalion as evidence that the flood actually occurred and that, therefore, Noah existed.
A story involving Lord Vishnu and King Manu is found in the Hindu chronicle Matsya Purana. Lord Vishnu in his 'matsya' (fish) avatar ordered the virtuous king Manu to construct a huge boat with animal and plant specimens of all forms, to escape the Great Deluge, and finally when the water receded, the great boat was found atop the Malaya Mountains. "Encyclopædia Britannica" notes that "Manu combines the characteristics of the Hebrew Bible figures of Noah, who preserved life from extinction in a great flood, and Adam, the first man", which view is reflected in several other works. Indologist David Dean Shulman writes that borrowing between the myths of Manu and Noah "cannot be ruled out".
For Krishna Mohan Banerjee, the names "Noah" and "Manu" "had the same etymological root: 'Manu' must have been the Indo-Aryan ideal of Noah." Philologist and founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, William Jones, "identifies Manu with Noah", along with whom, "the seven sages can be identified with the eight people aboard the Ark." Furthermore, researcher Klaus Klostermaier reports a Muslim writer who "identifies Brahma with Abraham ... and Manu with Noah." Others, however, would say that "the story is thoroughly Indian" and the "boat is not the equivalent of Noah's Ark, though it is still the symbol of salvation" According to Purana Manu's story occur before 28 chaturyuga in the present Manvantara which is the 7th Manvantara. This amounts to 120 million years ago.
The righteousness of Noah is the subject of much discussion among rabbis. The description of Noah as "righteous in his generation" implied to some that his perfection was only relative: In his generation of wicked people, he could be considered righteous, but in the generation of a "tzadik" like Abraham, he would not be considered so righteous. They point out that Noah did not pray to God on behalf of those about to be destroyed, as Abraham prayed for the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, Noah is never seen to speak; he simply listens to God and acts on his orders. This led some commentators to offer the figure of Noah as "the man in a fur coat," who ensured his own comfort while ignoring his neighbour. Others, such as the medieval commentator Rashi, held on the contrary that the building of the Ark was stretched over 120 years, deliberately in order to give sinners time to repent. Rashi interprets his father's statement of the naming of Noah (in Hebrew נֹחַ) "This one will comfort us (in Hebrew– yeNaHamainu יְנַחֲמֵנו) in our work and in the toil of our hands, which come from the ground that the Lord had cursed", by saying Noah heralded a new era of prosperity, when there was easing (in Hebrew – nahah – נחה) from the curse from the time of Adam when the Earth produced thorns and thistles even where men sowed wheat and that Noah then introduced the plow.
According to the "Jewish Encyclopedia", "The Book of Genesis contains two accounts of Noah." In the first, Noah is the hero of the flood, and in the second, he is the father of mankind and a husbandman who planted the first vineyard. "The disparity of character between these two narratives has caused some critics to insist that the subject of the latter account was not the same as the subject of the former." Perhaps the original name of the hero of the flood was actually "Enoch".
The Encyclopedia Judaica notes that Noah's drunkenness is not presented as reprehensible behavior. Rather, "It is clear that ... Noah’s venture into viticulture provides the setting for the castigation of Israel’s Canaanite neighbors." It was Ham who committed an offense when he viewed his father’s nakedness. Yet, "Noah’s curse, ... is strangely aimed at Canaan rather than the disrespectful Ham."
2 Peter 2:5 refers to Noah as a "preacher of righteousness". In the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, Jesus compares Noah's flood with the coming Day of Judgement: "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."
The First Epistle of Peter compares the power of baptism with the Ark saving those who were in it. In later Christian thought, the Ark came to be compared to the Church: salvation was to be found only within Christ and his Lordship, as in Noah's time it had been found only within the Ark. St Augustine of Hippo (354–430), demonstrated in "The City of God" that the dimensions of the Ark corresponded to the dimensions of the human body, which corresponds to the body of Christ; the equation of Ark and Church is still found in the Anglican rite of baptism, which asks God, "who of thy great mercy didst save Noah," to receive into the Church the infant about to be baptised.
In medieval Christianity, Noah's three sons were generally considered as the founders of the populations of the three known continents, Japheth/Europe, Shem/Asia, and Ham/Africa, although a rarer variation held that they represented the three classes of medieval society – the priests (Shem), the warriors (Japheth), and the peasants (Ham). In medieval Christian thought, Ham was considered to be the ancestor of the people of black Africa. So, in racialist arguments, the curse of Ham became a justification for the slavery of the black races.
Isaac Newton, in his religious works on the development of religion, wrote about Noah and his offspring. In Newton's view, while Noah was a monotheist, the gods of pagan antiquity are identified with Noah and his descendants.
In Mormon theology, Noah plays an important role, prior to his birth, as the angel Gabriel, and then lived in his mortal life as the patriarch-prophet Noah. Gabriel and Noah are regarded as the same individual under different names. Mormons also believe that Noah returned to earth as Gabriel after his earthly life and appeared to Daniel to teach him about the Second Coming; to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist; and to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Noah is considered the head of a dispensation along with Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Joseph Smith. A dispensation is a period of time in which the Lord has at least one authorized servant on earth who bears the keys of the holy priesthood. Noah became the means by which the gospel of Jesus Christ— the plan of salvation —is revealed anew, the means by which divine transforming powers, including saving covenants and ordinances, are extended to people during an age of time called a dispensation.
Noah is a highly important figure in Islam and he is seen as one of the most significant of all prophets. The Quran contains 43 references to Noah, or "Nuḥ", in 28 chapters, and the seventy-first chapter, "Sūrah Nūḥ" (), is named after him. His life is also spoken of in the commentaries and in Islamic legends.
Noah's narratives largely cover his preaching as well the story of the Deluge. Noah's narrative sets the prototype for many of the subsequent prophetic stories, which begin with the prophet warning his people and then the community rejecting the message and facing a punishment.
Noah has several titles in Islam, based primarily on praise for him in the Quran, including "True Messenger of God" (XXVI: 107) and "Grateful Servant of God" (XVII: 3).
The Quran focuses on several instances from Noah's life more than others, and one of the most significant events is the Flood. God makes a covenant with Noah just as he did with Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad later on (33:7). Noah is later reviled by his people and reproached by them for being a mere human messenger and not an angel (10:72–74). Moreover, the people mock Noah's words and call him a liar (7:62), and they even suggest that Noah is possessed by a devil when the prophet ceases to preach (54:9). Only the lowest in the community join Noah in believing in God's message (11:29), and Noah's narrative further describes him preaching both in private and public. Noah prays to God, "Lord, leave not one single family of Infidels from the land: / For if thou leave them they will beguile thy servants and will beget only sinners, infidels." The Quran narrates that Noah received a revelation to build an Ark, after his people refused to believe in his message and hear the warning. The narrative goes on to describe that waters poured forth from the Heavens, destroying all the sinners. Even one of his sons disbelieved him, stayed behind, and was drowned. After the Flood ended, the Ark rested atop Mount Judi ().
Also, Islamic beliefs deny the idea of Noah being the first person to drink wine and experience the aftereffects of doing so.
According to the Ahmadiyya understanding of the Quran, the period described in the Quran is the age of his dispensation, which extended until the time of Ibrahim (Abraham, 950 years). The first 50 years were the years of spiritual progress, which were followed by 900 years of spiritual deterioration of the people of Noah.
An important Gnostic text, the "Apocryphon of John", reports that the chief archon caused the flood because he desired to destroy the world he had made, but the First Thought informed Noah of the chief archon's plans, and Noah informed the remainder of humanity. Unlike the account of Genesis, not only are Noah's family saved, but many others also heed Noah's call. There is no ark in this account. According to Elaine Pagels, "Rather, they hid in a particular place, not only Noah, but also many other people from the unshakable race. They entered that place and hid in a bright cloud."
The Bahá'í Faith regards the Ark and the Flood as symbolic. In Bahá'í belief, only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the ark of his teachings, as others were spiritually dead. The Bahá'í scripture "Kitáb-i-Íqán" endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had a large number of companions, either 40 or 72, besides his family on the Ark, and that he taught for 950 (symbolic) years before the flood. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21703 |
Norwegian language
Norwegian () is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional varieties; some Norwegian and Swedish dialects, in particular, are very close. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as some extinct languages, constitute the North Germanic languages. Faroese and Icelandic are not mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them. While the two Germanic languages with the greatest numbers of speakers, English and German, have close similarities with Norwegian, neither is mutually intelligible with it. Norwegian is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era.
Today there are two official forms of Norwegian, "Bokmål" (literally "book tongue") and "Nynorsk" ("new Norwegian"), each with its own variants. "Bokmål" developed from the Dano-Norwegian "koiné" language that evolved under the union of Denmark-Norway in the 16th and 17th centuries, while "Nynorsk" was developed based upon a collective of spoken Norwegian dialects. Norwegian is one of the two official languages in Norway. The other is Sami, spoken by some members of the Sami people, mostly in the Northern part of Norway. Norwegian and Sami are not mutually intelligible, as Sami belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of languages. Sami is spoken by less than one percent of people in Norway.
Norwegian is one of the working languages of the Nordic Council. Under the Nordic Language Convention, citizens of the Nordic countries who speak Norwegian have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation or translation costs.
Like most of the languages in Europe, the Norwegian language descends from the Proto-Indo-European language. As early Indo-Europeans spread across Europe, they became isolated and new languages evolved. In the northwest of Europe, the West Germanic languages evolved, which would eventually become English, Dutch, German, and the North Germanic languages, of which Norwegian is one.
Proto-Norse is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic during the first centuries AD in what is today Southern Sweden. It is the earliest stage of a characteristically North Germanic language, and the language attested in the Elder Futhark inscriptions, the oldest form of the runic alphabets. A number of inscriptions are memorials to the dead, while others are magical in content. The oldest are carved on loose objects, while later ones are chiseled in runestones. They are the oldest written record of any Germanic language.
Around 800 AD, the script was simplified to the Younger Futhark, and inscriptions became more abundant. At the same time, the beginning of the Viking Age led to the spread of Old Norse to Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. Viking colonies also existed in parts of the British Isles, France (Normandy), North America, and Kievan Rus. In all of these places except Iceland and the Faroes, Old Norse speakers went extinct or were absorbed into the local population.
Around 1030, Christianity came to Scandinavia, bringing with it an influx of Latin borrowings and the Roman alphabet. These new words were related to church practices and ceremonies, although many other loanwords related to general culture also entered the language.
The Scandinavian languages at this time are not considered to be separate languages, although there were minor differences among what are customarily called Old Icelandic, Old Norwegian, Old Gutnish, Old Danish, and Old Swedish.
The economic and political dominance of the Hanseatic League between 1250 and 1450 in the main Scandinavian cities brought large Middle Low German-speaking populations to Norway. The influence of their language on Scandinavian is similar to that of French on English after the Norman conquest.
In the late Middle Ages, dialects began to develop in Scandinavia because the population was rural and little travel occurred. When the Reformation came from Germany, Martin Luther's High German translation of the Bible was quickly translated into Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic. Norway entered a union with Denmark in 1397 and Danish became the language of the elite, the church, literature, and the law. When the union with Denmark ended in 1814, the Dano-Norwegian "koiné" had become the mother tongue of many Norwegians.
From the 1840s, some writers experimented with a Norwegianised Danish by incorporating words that were descriptive of Norwegian scenery and folk life, and adopting a more Norwegian syntax. Knud Knudsen proposed to change spelling and inflection in accordance with the Dano-Norwegian "koiné", known as "cultivated everyday speech." A small adjustment in this direction was implemented in the first official reform of the Danish language in Norway in 1862 and more extensively after his death in two official reforms in 1907 and 1917.
Meanwhile, a nationalistic movement strove for the development of a new written Norwegian. Ivar Aasen, a botanist and self-taught linguist, began his work to create a new Norwegian language at the age of 22. He traveled around the country collecting words and examples of grammar from the dialects and comparing the dialects among the different regions. He examined the development of Icelandic, which had largely escaped the influences under which Norwegian had come. He called his work, which was published in several books from 1848 to 1873, Landsmål, meaning "national language". The name "Landsmål" is sometimes interpreted as "rural language" or "country language", but this was clearly not Aasen's intended meaning.
The name of the Danish language in Norway was a topic of hot dispute through the 19th century. Its proponents claimed that it was a language common to Norway and Denmark, and no more Danish than Norwegian. The proponents of Landsmål thought that the Danish character of the language should not be concealed. In 1899, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson proposed the neutral name Riksmål, meaning national language like Landsmål, and this was officially adopted along with the 1907 spelling reform. The name "Riksmål" is sometimes interpreted as "state language", but this meaning is secondary at best. (Compare to Danish rigsmål from where the name was borrowed.)
After the personal union with Sweden was dissolved in 1905, both languages were developed further and reached what is now considered their classic forms after a reform in 1917. Riksmål was in 1929 officially renamed "Bokmål" (literally "book language"), and Landsmål to "Nynorsk" (literally "new Norwegian"). A proposition to substitute Danish-Norwegian ("dansk-norsk") for "Bokmål" lost in parliament by a single vote. The name "Nynorsk", the linguistic term for modern Norwegian, was chosen to contrast with Danish and emphasis on the historical connection to Old Norwegian. Today, this meaning is often lost, and it is commonly mistaken as a "new" Norwegian in contrast to the "real" Norwegian Bokmål.
Bokmål and Nynorsk were made closer by a reform in 1938. This was a result of a state policy to merge Nynorsk and Bokmål into a single language, to be called "Samnorsk". A 1946 poll showed that this policy was supported by 79% of Norwegians at the time. However, opponents of the official policy still managed to create a massive protest movement against "Samnorsk" in the 1950s, fighting in particular the use of "radical" forms in Bokmål text books in schools. In the reform in 1959, the 1938 reform was partially reversed in Bokmål, but Nynorsk was changed further towards Bokmål. Since then Bokmål has reverted even further toward traditional Riksmål, while Nynorsk still adheres to the 1959 standard. Therefore, a small minority of Nynorsk enthusiasts use a more conservative standard called Høgnorsk. The Samnorsk policy had little influence after 1960, and was officially abandoned in 2002.
While the sound systems of Norwegian and Swedish are similar, considerable variation exists among the dialects.
The retroflex consonants only appear in East Norwegian dialects as a result of sandhi, combining with , , , , and .
The realization of the rhotic depends on the dialect. In Eastern, Central, and Northern Norwegian dialects, it is a tap , whereas in Western and Southern Norway, and for some speakers also in Eastern Norway, it is uvular or . And in the dialects of North-Western Norway, it is realized as , much like the trilled of Spanish.
Norwegian is a pitch-accent language with two distinct pitch patterns, like Swedish. They are used to differentiate two-syllable words with otherwise identical pronunciation. For example, in many East Norwegian dialects, the word "" (farmers) is pronounced using the simpler tone 1, while "" (beans or prayers) uses the more complex tone 2. Though spelling differences occasionally differentiate written words, in most cases the minimal pairs are written alike, since written Norwegian has no explicit accent marks. In most eastern low-tone dialects, accent 1 uses a low flat pitch in the first syllable, while accent 2 uses a high, sharply falling pitch in the first syllable and a low pitch in the beginning of the second syllable. In both accents, these pitch movements are followed by a rise of intonational nature (phrase accent)—the size (and presence) of which signals emphasis or focus, and corresponds in function to the normal accent in languages that lack lexical tone, such as English. That rise culminates in the final syllable of an accentual phrase, while the utterance-final fall common in most languages is either very small or absent.
There are significant variations in pitch accent between dialects. Thus, in most of western and northern Norway (the so-called high-pitch dialects) accent 1 is falling, while accent 2 is rising in the first syllable and falling in the second syllable or somewhere around the syllable boundary. The pitch accents (as well as the peculiar phrase accent in the low-tone dialects) give the Norwegian language a "singing" quality that makes it easy to distinguish from other languages. Accent 1 generally occurs in words that were monosyllabic in Old Norse, and accent 2 in words that were polysyllabic.
The Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters.
The letters "c", "q", "w", "x" and "z" are only used in loanwords. As loanwords are assimilated into Norwegian, their spelling might change to reflect Norwegian pronunciation and the principles of Norwegian orthography, e.g. "zebra" in Norwegian is written "sebra". Due to historical reasons, some otherwise Norwegian family names are also written using these letters.
Some letters may be modified by diacritics: "é", "è", "ê", "ó", "ò", and "ô". In Nynorsk, "ì" and "ù" and "ỳ" are occasionally seen as well. The diacritics are not compulsory, but may in a few cases distinguish between different meanings of the word, e.g.: for (for/to), fór (went), fòr (furrow) and fôr (fodder). Loanwords may be spelled with other diacritics, most notably "ü", "á" and "à".
As established by law and government policy, the two official forms of "written" Norwegian are "Bokmål" (literally "book tongue") and "Nynorsk" ("new Norwegian"). The official Norwegian Language Council ("Språkrådet") is responsible for regulating the two forms, and recommends the terms "Norwegian Bokmål" and "Norwegian Nynorsk" in English. Two other written forms without official status also exist, one, called "Riksmål" ("national language"), is today to a large extent the same language as Bokmål though somewhat closer to the Danish language. It is regulated by the unofficial Norwegian Academy, which translates the name as "Standard Norwegian". The other is "Høgnorsk" ("High Norwegian"), a more purist form of Nynorsk, which maintains the language in an original form as given by Ivar Aasen and rejects most of the reforms from the 20th century; this form has limited use.
Nynorsk and Bokmål provide standards for how to write Norwegian, but not for how to speak the language. No standard of spoken Norwegian is officially sanctioned, and most Norwegians speak their own dialects in all circumstances. Thus, unlike in many other countries, the use of any Norwegian dialect, whether it coincides with the written norms or not, is accepted as correct "spoken" Norwegian. However, in areas where East Norwegian dialects are used, a tendency exists to accept a "de facto" spoken standard for this particular regional dialect, "Urban East Norwegian" or "Standard East Norwegian" (), in which the vocabulary coincides with Bokmål. Outside Eastern Norway, this spoken variation is not used.
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the standard written language of Norway. As a result, the development of modern written Norwegian has been subject to strong controversy related to nationalism, rural versus urban discourse, and Norway's literary history. Historically, Bokmål is a Norwegianised variety of Danish, while Nynorsk is a language form based on Norwegian dialects and puristic opposition to Danish. The now-abandoned official policy to merge Bokmål and Nynorsk into one common language called "Samnorsk" through a series of spelling reforms has created a wide spectrum of varieties of both Bokmål and Nynorsk. The unofficial form known as "Riksmål" is considered more conservative than Bokmål and is far closer to Danish while the unofficial "Høgnorsk" is more conservative than Nynorsk and is far closer to Faroese, Icelandic and Old Norse.
Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. The language form that is not registered as the main language form of a Norwegian student will be a mandatory school subject in both high school and elementary school for the student, which is called Sidemål. For instance, a Norwegian whose main language form is Bokmål will study Nynorsk as a mandatory subject throughout both elementary and high school. A 2005 poll indicates that 86.3% use primarily Bokmål as their daily written language, 5.5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7.5% use primarily Nynorsk. Thus, 13% are frequently "writing" Nynorsk, though the majority "speak" dialects that resemble Nynorsk more closely than Bokmål. Broadly speaking, Nynorsk writing is widespread in western Norway, though not in major urban areas, and also in the upper parts of mountain valleys in the southern and eastern parts of Norway. Examples are Setesdal, the western part of Telemark county ("fylke") and several municipalities in Hallingdal, Valdres, and Gudbrandsdalen. It is little used elsewhere, but 30–40 years ago, it also had strongholds in many rural parts of Trøndelag (mid-Norway) and the southern part of northern Norway (Nordland county). Today, not only is Nynorsk the official language of four of the 19 Norwegian counties, but also of many municipalities in five other counties. NRK, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, broadcasts in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages. Bokmål is used in 92% of all written publications, and Nynorsk in 8% (2000).
Like some other European countries, Norway has an official "advisory board" Språkrådet (Norwegian Language Council) that determines, after approval from the Ministry of Culture, official spelling, grammar, and vocabulary for the Norwegian language. The board's work has been subject to considerable controversy throughout the years.
Both Nynorsk and Bokmål have a great variety of optional forms. The Bokmål that uses the forms that are close to Riksmål is called "moderate" or "conservative", depending on one's viewpoint, while the Bokmål that uses the forms that are close to Nynorsk is called "radical". Nynorsk has forms that are close to the original Landsmål and forms that are close to Bokmål.
Opponents of the spelling reforms aimed at bringing Bokmål closer to Nynorsk have retained the name Riksmål and employ spelling and grammar that predate the Samnorsk movement. Riksmål and conservative versions of Bokmål have been the "de facto" standard written language of Norway for most of the 20th century, being used by large newspapers, encyclopedias, and a significant proportion of the population of the capital Oslo, surrounding areas, and other urban areas, as well as much of the literary tradition. Since the reforms of 1981 and 2003 (effective in 2005), the official Bokmål can be adapted to be almost identical with modern Riksmål. The differences between written Riksmål and Bokmål are comparable to American and British English differences.
Riksmål is regulated by the Norwegian Academy, which determines acceptable spelling, grammar, and vocabulary.
There is also an unofficial form of Nynorsk, called "Høgnorsk", discarding the post-1917 reforms, and thus close to Ivar Aasen's original Landsmål. It is supported by Ivar Aasen-sambandet, but has found no widespread use.
In 2010 86.5% of the pupils in the primary and lower secondary schools in Norway receive education in Bokmål, while 13.0% receive education in Nynorsk. From the eighth grade onwards pupils are required to learn both. Out of the 431 municipalities in Norway, 161 have declared that they wish to communicate with the central authorities in Bokmål, 116 (representing 12% of the population) in Nynorsk, while 156 are neutral. Of 4,549 state publications in 2000 8% were in Nynorsk, and 92% in Bokmål. The large national newspapers (Aftenposten, Dagbladet, and VG) are published in Bokmål or Riksmål. Some major regional newspapers (including "Bergens Tidende" and "Stavanger Aftenblad"), many political journals, and many local newspapers use both Bokmål and Nynorsk.
A newer trend is to write in dialect for informal use. When writing an SMS, Facebook update, or fridge note, most younger people write the way they talk rather than using Bokmål or Nynorsk.
There is general agreement that a wide range of differences makes it difficult to estimate the number of different Norwegian dialects. Variations in grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and pronunciation cut across geographical boundaries and can create a distinct dialect at the level of farm clusters. Dialects are in some cases so dissimilar as to be unintelligible to unfamiliar listeners. Many linguists note a trend toward regionalization of dialects that diminishes the differences at such local levels; there is, however, a renewed interest in preserving dialects.
Below are a few sentences giving an indication of the differences between Bokmål and Nynorsk, compared to the conservative (closer to Danish) form Riksmål, Danish, as well as Old Norse, Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic (the living language grammatically closest to Old Norse), Old English and some modern West Germanic languages:
Norwegian nouns are inflected for number (singular/plural) and for definiteness (indefinite/definite). In a few dialects, definite nouns are also inflected for the dative case.
Norwegian nouns belong to three noun classes (genders): masculine, feminine and neuter. All feminine nouns can optionally be inflected using masculine noun class morphology in Bokmål due to its Danish heritage. In comparison, the use of all three genders (including the feminine) is mandatory in Nynorsk.
All Norwegian dialects have traditionally retained all the three grammatical genders from Old Norse to some extent. The only exceptions are the dialect of Bergen and a few upper class sociolects at the west end of Oslo that have completely lost the feminine gender.
Norwegian and other Scandinavian languages use a suffix to indicate definiteness of a noun, unlike English which has a separate article "the" to indicate the same.
In general, almost all nouns in Bokmål follow these patterns (like the words in the examples above):
In contrast, almost all nouns in Nynorsk follow these patterns (the noun gender system is more pronounced than in Bokmål):
Feminine nouns cannot be inflected using masculine noun class morphology in Nynorsk, unlike Bokmål. That is, all feminine nouns in Nynorsk must follow the prescribed inflection pattern above.
There is in general no way to infer what grammatical gender a specific noun has, but there are some patterns of nouns where the gender can be inferred. For instance, all nouns ending in -"nad" will be masculine in both Bokmål and Nynorsk (for instance the noun "jobbsøknad", which means job application). Most nouns ending in -"ing" will be feminine, like the noun "forventning" (expectation).
There are some common irregular nouns, many of which are irregular in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, like the following:
In Nynorsk, even though the irregular word "fot" is masculine, it is inflected like a feminine word in the plural. Another word with the same irregular inflection is "son - søner" (son - sons).
In Nynorsk, nouns ending in -"ing" typically have masculine plural inflections, like the word "dronning" in the following table. But they are treated as feminine nouns in every other way.
In general, the genitive case has died out in modern Norwegian and there are only some remnants of it in certain expressions: "til fjells" (to the mountains), "til sjøs" (to the sea). To show ownership, there is an enclitic -"s" similar to English -"s"; "Sondres flotte bil" (Sondre's nice car, Sondre being a personal name). There are also reflexive possessive pronouns, "sin", "si", "sitt", "sine"; "Det er Sondre sitt" (It is Sondre's). In both Bokmål and modern Nynorsk, there is often a mix of both of these to mark possession, though it is more common in Nynorsk to use the reflexive pronouns; in Nynorsk use of the reflexive possessive pronouns is generally encouraged to avoid mixing the enclitic -"s" with the historical grammatical case remnants of the language. The reflexive pronouns agree in gender and number with the noun.
The enclitic -"s" in Norwegian evolved as a shorthand expression for the possessive pronouns "sin", "si", "sitt" and "sine".
Norwegian adjectives, like those of Swedish and Danish, inflect for definiteness, gender, number and for comparison (affirmative/comparative/superlative). Inflection for definiteness follows two paradigms, called "weak" and "strong", a feature shared among the Germanic languages.
The following table summarizes the inflection of adjectives in Norwegian. The indefinite affirmative inflection can vary between adjectives, but in general the paradigm illustrated below is the most common.
Predicate adjectives follow only the indefinite inflection table. Unlike attributive adjectives, they are not inflected for definiteness.
In most dialects, some verb participles used as adjectives have a separate form in both definite and plural uses, and sometimes also in the masculine-feminine singular. In some Southwestern dialects, the definite adjective is also declined in gender and number with one form for feminine and plural, and one form for masculine and neuter.
In Norwegian, a definite noun has a suffixed definite article (cf. above) compared to English which in general uses the separate word "the" to indicate the same. However, when a definite noun is preceded by an adjective, the adjective also gets a definite inflection, shown in the inflection table above. There is also another definite marker "den" that has to agree in gender with the noun when the definite noun is accompanied by an adjective. It comes before the adjective and has the following forms
Examples of definite affirmative inflection of adjectives (Bokmål):
If the adjective is dropped completely, the meaning of the preceding article before the noun changes, as shown in this example.
Examples (Bokmål):
Examples of definite comparative and superlative inflection of adjectives (Bokmål):
Definiteness is also signaled by using possessive pronouns or any uses of a noun in its genitive form in either Nynorsk or Bokmål: "mitt grønne hus" ("my green house"), "min grønne bil" ("my green car"), "mitt tilbaketrukne tannkjøtt" ("my pulled gums"), "presidentens gamle hus" ("the president's old house").
Examples (Bokmål):
Examples of comparative and superlative inflections in Bokmål: "en grønnere bil" (a greener car), "grønnest bil" (greenest car).
There is also predicative agreement of adjectives in all dialects of Norwegian and in the written languages, unlike related languages like German and Dutch. This feature of predicative agreement is shared among the Scandinavian languages. Predicative adjectives do not inflect for definiteness unlike the attributive adjectives.
This means that nouns will have to agree with the adjective when there is a copula verb involved, like in Bokmål: «være» (to be), «bli» (become), «ser ut» (looks like), «kjennes» (feels like) etc.
Norwegian verbs are not conjugated for person or number unlike English and most European languages, though a few Norwegian dialects do conjugate for number. Norwegian verbs are conjugated according to mainly three grammatical moods: indicative, imperative and subjunctive, though the subjunctive mood has largely fallen out of use and is mainly found in a few common frozen expressions. The imperative is formed by removing the last vowel of the infinitive verb form, just like in the other Scandinavian languages.
Indicative verbs are conjugated for tense: present / past / future. The present and past tense also have a passive form for the infinitive.
There are four non-finite verb forms: infinitive, passive infinitive, and the two participles: perfective/past participle and imperfective/present participle.
The participles are verbal adjectives. The imperfective participle is not declined, whereas the perfect participle is declined for gender (though not in Bokmål) and number like strong, affirmative adjectives. The definite form of the participle is identical to the plural form.
As with other Germanic languages, Norwegian verbs can be divided into two conjugation classes; weak verbs and strong verbs.
There are ergative verbs in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, where there are two different conjugation patterns depending on if the verb takes an object or not. In Bokmål, there are only two different conjugations for the preterite tense for the strong verbs, while Nynorsk has different conjugations for all tenses, like Swedish and a majority of Norwegian dialects. Some weak verbs are also ergative and are differentiated for all tenses in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, like «ligge»/«legge» that both means to lie down, but «ligge» does not take an object while «legge» requires an object. «legge» corresponds to the English verb «lay», while «ligge» corresponds to the English verb «lie». There are however many verbs that do not have this direct translation to English verbs.
Norwegian personal pronouns are declined according to case: nominative / accusative. Like English, pronouns in Bokmål and Nynorsk are the only class that has case declension. Some of the dialects that have preserved the dative in nouns, also have a dative case instead of the accusative case in personal pronouns, while others have accusative in pronouns and dative in nouns, effectively giving these dialects three distinct cases.
In the most comprehensive Norwegian grammar, Norsk referansegrammatikk, the categorization of personal pronouns by person, gender, and number is not regarded as inflection. Pronouns are a closed class in Norwegian.
The words for «mine», «yours» etc. are dependent on the gender of the noun it describes. Just like adjectives, they have to agree in gender with the noun.
Bokmål has two sets of 3rd person pronouns. "Han" and "hun" refer to male and female individuals respectively, "den" and "det" refer to impersonal or inanimate nouns, of masculine/feminine or neutral gender respectively. In contrast, Nynorsk and most dialects use the same set of pronouns "han" (he), "ho" (she) and "det" (it) for both personal and impersonal references, just like in German, Icelandic and Old Norse. "Det" also has expletive and cataphoric uses like in the English examples it rains" and it was known by everyone (that) he had travelled the world".
The ordering of possessive pronouns is somewhat freer than in Swedish or Danish. When there is no adjective, the most common word order is the one used in the examples in the table above, where the possessive comes after the noun, while the noun is in its definite form; «boka mi» (my book). If one wishes to emphasize the owner of the noun, the possessive pronoun usually come first. In Bokmål however, due to its Danish origins, one could choose to always write the possessive first «min bil» (my car), but this may sound very formal. Some dialects that have been very influenced by Danish do this too, some speakers in Bærum and the west of Oslo may always use this word order. When there is an adjective describing the noun, the possessive pronoun will always come first; «min egen bil» (my own car).
The closed class of Norwegian determiners are declined in gender and number in agreement with their argument. Not all determiners are inflected.
Norwegian has five closed classes without inflection, i.e. lexical categories with grammatical function and a finite number of members that may not be distinguished by morphological criteria. These are interjections, conjunctions, subjunctions, prepositions, and adverbs. The inclusion of adverbs here requires that traditional adverbs that are inflected in comparison be classified as adjectives, as is sometimes done.
Adverbs can be formed from adjectives in Norwegian. English usually creates adverbs from adjectives by the suffix "-ly," like the adverb "beautifully" from the adjective "beautiful." By comparison, Scandinavian languages usually form adverbs from adjectives by the grammatical neuter singular form of the adjective. This is in general true for both Bokmål and Nynorsk.
Example (Bokmål):
In the third sentence, "grusomt" is an adverb. In the first and second sentence "grusomt" and "grusom" are adjectives and have to agree in grammatical gender with the noun.
Another example is the adjective "vakker" (beautiful) which exist in both Nynorsk and Bokmål and has the neuter singular form "vakkert."
Example (Nynorsk):
In Norwegian compound words, the head, i.e. the part determining the compound's class, is the last part. If the compound word is constructed from many different nouns, the last noun in the compound noun will determine the gender of the compound noun. Only the first part has primary stress. For instance, the compound "tenketank" (think tank) has primary stress on the first syllable and is a masculine noun since the noun «tank» is masculine.
Compound words are written together in Norwegian, which can cause words to become very long, for example ' (maximum likelihood estimator) and ' (human rights organizations). Other examples are the title "høyesterettsjustitiarius" (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, originally a combination of supreme court and the actual title, justiciar) and the translation "En midtsommernattsdrøm" for "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
If they are not written together, each part is naturally read with primary stress, and the meaning of the compound is lost. Examples of this in English are the difference between a green house and a greenhouse or a black board and a blackboard.
This is sometimes forgotten, occasionally with humorous results. Instead of writing, for example, ' (lamb chops), people make the mistake of writing ' (lame, or paralyzed, chops). The original message can even be reversed, as when ' (lit. "smoke-free" meaning no smoking) becomes ' (smoke freely).
Other examples include:
These misunderstandings occur because most nouns can be interpreted as verbs or other types of words.
Similar misunderstandings can be achieved in English too. The following are examples of phrases that both in Norwegian and English mean one thing as a compound word, and something different when regarded as separate words:
Norwegian syntax is predominantly SVO with the subject of the sentence coming first, the verb coming second, and the object after that. However, like many other Germanic languages, it follows the V2 rule, which means that the finite verb is invariably the second element in a sentence. For example:
•"Jeg spiser fisk "i dag"" (I eat fish "today")
•""I dag" spiser jeg fisk" ("Today", I eat fish)
•"Jeg vil drikke kaffe "i dag"" (I want to drink coffee "today")
•""I dag" vil jeg drikke kaffe" ("Today", I want to drink coffee)
Regardless of which element is placed first, the finite verb comes second.
Attributive adjectives always precede the noun that they modify.
Norwegian vocabulary descends primarily from Old Norse. Middle Low German is the largest source of loanwords, having a marked influence on Norwegian vocabulary from the late Middle Ages onwards (in addition some impact on grammatical structures such as genitive constructions). Many of these loanwords, however, while found in Bokmål and many dialects, are absent from Nynorsk, which retains or has substituted words derived from Old Norse. Nynorsk thus shares more vocabulary with Icelandic and Faroese than does Bokmål.
At present, the main source of new loanwords is English e.g. "rapper", "e-mail", "catering", "juice", "bag" (itself possibly a loan word to English from Old Norse). Norwegian has also borrowed words and phrases from Danish and Swedish and continues to do so.
The spelling of some loanwords has been adapted to Norwegian orthographic conventions, but in general Norwegianised spellings have taken a long time to take hold. For example, ' (from French ') and ' (from French ') are now the common Norwegian spellings, but "juice" is more often used than the Norwegianised form ', "catering" more often than ', "service" more often than "", etc.
In the case of Danish and Swedish, the spelling in Norwegian of both loanwords and native cognates is often less conservative than the spelling in those languages, and, arguably, closer to the pronunciation. Four of the letters most shunned in Norwegian in comparison to the other Scandinavian languages are "c", "d", "j" and "x". Norwegian ' is ' in Swedish and Danish; the words "sex" and "six" are ' and ' in Norwegian, but in Swedish they are both '; Danish words ending in ' end in ' to reflect pronunciation and many traditional Danish spellings with "d" preceded by another consonant are changed to double consonants, such as in the Danish for water, ', versus Norwegian (Bokmål) spelling ', but "sand" is spelled ' in both languages (Norwegian was standardized this way because in some dialects a "d" was pronounced in ', whereas Norwegian speakers pronounced ' without a "d"-sound). (The word for water in Nynorsk is "".) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21704 |
Nonstandard analysis
The history of calculus is fraught with philosophical debates about the meaning and logical validity of fluxions or infinitesimal numbers. The standard way to resolve these debates is to define the operations of calculus using epsilon–delta procedures rather than infinitesimals. Nonstandard analysis instead reformulates the calculus using a logically rigorous notion of infinitesimal numbers.
Nonstandard analysis was originated in the early 1960s by the mathematician Abraham Robinson. He wrote:
... the idea of infinitely small or "infinitesimal" quantities seems to appeal naturally to our intuition. At any rate, the use of infinitesimals was widespread during the formative stages of the Differential and Integral Calculus. As for the objection ... that the distance between two distinct real numbers cannot be infinitely small, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz argued that the theory of infinitesimals implies the introduction of ideal numbers which might be infinitely small or infinitely large compared with the real numbers but which were "to possess the same properties as the latter."
Robinson argued that this law of continuity of Leibniz's is a precursor of the transfer principle. Robinson continued:
However, neither he nor his disciples and successors were able to give a rational development leading up to a system of this sort. As a result, the theory of infinitesimals gradually fell into disrepute and was replaced eventually by the classical theory of limits.
Robinson continues:
... Leibniz's ideas can be fully vindicated and ... they lead to a novel and fruitful approach to classical Analysis and to many other branches of mathematics. The key to our method is provided by the detailed analysis of the relation between mathematical languages and mathematical structures which lies at the bottom of contemporary model theory.
In 1973, intuitionist Arend Heyting praised nonstandard analysis as "a standard model of important mathematical research".
A non-zero element of an ordered field formula_1 is infinitesimal if and only if its absolute value is smaller than any element of formula_1 of the form formula_3, for formula_4 a standard natural number. Ordered fields that have infinitesimal elements are also called non-Archimedean. More generally, nonstandard analysis is any form of mathematics that relies on nonstandard models and the transfer principle. A field that satisfies the transfer principle for real numbers is a hyperreal field, and nonstandard real analysis uses these fields as "nonstandard models" of the real numbers.
Robinson's original approach was based on these nonstandard models of the field of real numbers. His classic foundational book on the subject "Nonstandard Analysis" was published in 1966 and is still in print. On page 88, Robinson writes:
The existence of nonstandard models of arithmetic was discovered by Thoralf Skolem (1934). Skolem's method foreshadows the ultrapower construction [...]
Several technical issues must be addressed to develop a calculus of infinitesimals. For example, it is not enough to construct an ordered field with infinitesimals. See the article on hyperreal numbers for a discussion of some of the relevant ideas.
In this section we outline one of the simplest approaches to defining a hyperreal field formula_5. Let formula_6 be the field of real numbers, and let formula_7 be the semiring of natural numbers. Denote by formula_8 the set of sequences of real numbers. A field formula_5 is defined as a suitable quotient of formula_10, as follows. Take a nonprincipal ultrafilter formula_11. In particular, formula_12 contains the Fréchet filter. Consider a pair of sequences
We say that formula_14 and formula_15 are equivalent if they coincide on a set of indices that is a member of the ultrafilter, or in formulas:
The quotient of formula_10 by the resulting equivalence relation is a hyperreal field formula_5, a situation summarized by the formula formula_19.
There are at least three reasons to consider nonstandard analysis: historical, pedagogical, and technical.
Much of the earliest development of the infinitesimal calculus by Newton and Leibniz was formulated using expressions such as "infinitesimal number" and "vanishing quantity". As noted in the article on hyperreal numbers, these formulations were widely criticized by George Berkeley and others. It was a challenge to develop a consistent theory of analysis using infinitesimals and the first person to do this in a satisfactory way was Abraham Robinson.
In 1958 Curt Schmieden and Detlef Laugwitz published an Article "Eine Erweiterung der Infinitesimalrechnung" - "An Extension of Infinitesimal Calculus", which proposed a construction of a ring containing infinitesimals. The ring was constructed from sequences of real numbers. Two sequences were considered equivalent if they differed only in a finite number of elements. Arithmetic operations were defined elementwise. However, the ring constructed in this way contains zero divisors and thus cannot be a field.
H. Jerome Keisler, David Tall, and other educators maintain that the use of infinitesimals is more intuitive and more easily grasped by students than the "epsilon–delta" approach to analytic concepts. This approach can sometimes provide easier proofs of results than the corresponding epsilon–delta formulation of the proof. Much of the simplification comes from applying very easy rules of nonstandard arithmetic, as follows:
together with the transfer principle mentioned below.
Another pedagogical application of nonstandard analysis is Edward Nelson's treatment of the theory of stochastic processes.
Some recent work has been done in analysis using concepts from nonstandard analysis, particularly in investigating limiting processes of statistics and mathematical physics. Sergio Albeverio et al. discuss some of these applications.
There are two very different approaches to nonstandard analysis: the semantic or model-theoretic approach and the syntactic approach. Both these approaches apply to other areas of mathematics beyond analysis, including number theory, algebra and topology.
Robinson's original formulation of nonstandard analysis falls into the category of the "semantic approach". As developed by him in his papers, it is based on studying models (in particular saturated models) of a theory. Since Robinson's work first appeared, a simpler semantic approach (due to Elias Zakon) has been developed using purely set-theoretic objects called superstructures. In this approach "a model of a theory" is replaced by an object called a "superstructure" over a set . Starting from a superstructure one constructs another object using the ultrapower construction together with a mapping that satisfies the transfer principle. The map * relates formal properties of and . Moreover, it is possible to consider a simpler form of saturation called countable saturation. This simplified approach is also more suitable for use by mathematicians who are not specialists in model theory or logic.
The "syntactic approach" requires much less logic and model theory to understand and use. This approach was developed in the mid-1970s by the mathematician Edward Nelson. Nelson introduced an entirely axiomatic formulation of nonstandard analysis that he called internal set theory (IST). IST is an extension of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZF) in that alongside the basic binary membership relation ∈, it introduces a new unary predicate "standard", which can be applied to elements of the mathematical universe together with some axioms for reasoning with this new predicate.
Syntactic nonstandard analysis requires a great deal of care in applying the principle of set formation (formally known as the axiom of comprehension), which mathematicians usually take for granted. As Nelson points out, a fallacy in reasoning in IST is that of "illegal set formation". For instance, there is no set in IST whose elements are precisely the standard integers (here "standard" is understood in the sense of the new predicate). To avoid illegal set formation, one must only use predicates of ZFC to define subsets.
Another example of the syntactic approach is the Alternative Set Theory introduced by Petr Vopěnka, trying to find set-theory axioms more compatible with the nonstandard analysis than the axioms of ZF.
In 2018 Abdeljalil Saghe proposed an explicit approach to construct the field of the nonstandard analysis without using the ultrafilters.
Abraham Robinson's book "Nonstandard analysis" was published in 1966. Some of the topics developed in the book were already present in his 1961 article by the same title (Robinson 1961). In addition to containing the first full treatment of nonstandard analysis, the book contains a detailed historical section where Robinson challenges some of the received opinions on the history of mathematics based on the pre–nonstandard analysis perception of infinitesimals as inconsistent entities. Thus, Robinson challenges the idea that Augustin-Louis Cauchy's "sum theorem" in Cours d'Analyse concerning the convergence of a series of continuous functions was incorrect, and proposes an infinitesimal-based interpretation of its hypothesis that results in a correct theorem.
Abraham Robinson and Allen Bernstein used nonstandard analysis to prove that every polynomially compact linear operator on a Hilbert space has an invariant subspace.
Given an operator on Hilbert space , consider the orbit of a point in under the iterates of . Applying Gram–Schmidt one obtains an orthonormal basis for . Let be the corresponding nested sequence of "coordinate" subspaces of . The matrix expressing with respect to is almost upper triangular, in the sense that the coefficients are the only nonzero sub-diagonal coefficients. Bernstein and Robinson show that if is polynomially compact, then there is a hyperfinite index such that the matrix coefficient is infinitesimal. Next, consider the subspace of . If in has finite norm, then is infinitely close to .
Now let be the operator formula_20 acting on , where is the orthogonal projection to . Denote by the polynomial such that is compact. The subspace is internal of hyperfinite dimension. By transferring upper triangularisation of operators of finite-dimensional complex vector space, there is an internal orthonormal Hilbert space basis for where runs from to , such that each of the corresponding -dimensional subspaces is -invariant. Denote by the projection to the subspace . For a nonzero vector of finite norm in , one can assume that is nonzero, or to fix ideas. Since is a compact operator, is infinitely close to and therefore one has also . Now let be the greatest index such that formula_21. Then the space of all standard elements infinitely close to is the desired invariant subspace.
Upon reading a preprint of the Bernstein and Robinson paper, Paul Halmos reinterpreted their proof using standard techniques. Both papers appeared back-to-back in the same issue of the "Pacific Journal of Mathematics". Some of the ideas used in Halmos' proof reappeared many years later in Halmos' own work on quasi-triangular operators.
Other results were received along the line of reinterpreting or reproving previously known results. Of particular interest is Teturo Kamae's proof of the individual ergodic theorem or L. van den Dries and Alex Wilkie's treatment of Gromov's theorem on groups of polynomial growth. Nonstandard analysis was used by Larry Manevitz and Shmuel Weinberger to prove a result in algebraic topology.
The real contributions of nonstandard analysis lie however in the concepts and theorems that utilize the new extended language of nonstandard set theory. Among the list of new applications in mathematics there are new approaches to probability,
hydrodynamics, measure theory, nonsmooth and harmonic analysis, etc.
There are also applications of nonstandard analysis to the theory of stochastic processes, particularly constructions of Brownian motion as random walks. Albeverio et al. have an excellent introduction to this area of research.
As an application to mathematical education, H. Jerome Keisler wrote "". Covering nonstandard calculus, it develops differential and integral calculus using the hyperreal numbers, which include infinitesimal elements. These applications of nonstandard analysis depend on the existence of the "standard part" of a finite hyperreal . The standard part of , denoted , is a standard real number infinitely close to . One of the visualization devices Keisler uses is that of an imaginary infinite-magnification microscope to distinguish points infinitely close together. Keisler's book is now out of print, but is freely available from his website; see references below.
Despite the elegance and appeal of some aspects of nonstandard analysis, criticisms have been voiced, as well, such as those by Errett Bishop, Alain Connes, and P. Halmos, as documented at criticism of nonstandard analysis.
Given any set , the "superstructure" over a set is the set defined by the conditions
Thus the superstructure over is obtained by starting from and iterating the operation of adjoining the power set of and taking the union of the resulting sequence. The superstructure over the real numbers includes a wealth of mathematical structures: For instance, it contains isomorphic copies of all separable metric spaces and metrizable topological vector spaces. Virtually all of mathematics that interests an analyst goes on within .
The working view of nonstandard analysis is a set and a mapping that satisfies some additional properties. To formulate these principles we first state some definitions.
A formula has "bounded quantification" if and only if the only quantifiers that occur in the formula have range restricted over sets, that is are all of the form:
For example, the formula
has bounded quantification, the universally quantified variable ranges over , the existentially quantified variable ranges over the powerset of . On the other hand,
does not have bounded quantification because the quantification of "y" is unrestricted.
A set "x" is "internal" if and only if "x" is an element of *"A" for some element "A" of . *"A" itself is internal if "A" belongs to .
We now formulate the basic logical framework of nonstandard analysis:
One can show using ultraproducts that such a map * exists. Elements of are called "standard". Elements of are called hyperreal numbers.
The symbol denotes the nonstandard natural numbers. By the extension principle, this is a superset of . The set is nonempty. To see this, apply countable saturation to the sequence of internal sets
The sequence has a nonempty intersection, proving the result.
We begin with some definitions: Hyperreals "r", "s" are "infinitely close" if and only if
A hyperreal is "infinitesimal" if and only if it is infinitely close to 0. For example, if is a hyperinteger, i.e. an element of , then is an infinitesimal. A hyperreal is "limited" (or "finite") if and only if its absolute value is dominated by (less than) a standard integer. The limited hyperreals form a subring of containing the reals. In this ring, the infinitesimal hyperreals are an ideal.
The set of limited hyperreals or the set of infinitesimal hyperreals are "external" subsets of ; what this means in practice is that bounded quantification, where the bound is an internal set, never ranges over these sets.
Example: The plane with and ranging over is internal, and is a model of plane Euclidean geometry. The plane with and restricted to limited values (analogous to the Dehn plane) is external, and in this limited plane the parallel postulate is violated. For example, any line passing through the point on the -axis and having infinitesimal slope is parallel to the -axis.
Theorem. For any limited hyperreal there is a unique standard real denoted infinitely close to . The mapping is a ring homomorphism from the ring of limited hyperreals to .
The mapping st is also external.
One way of thinking of the standard part of a hyperreal, is in terms of Dedekind cuts; any limited hyperreal defines a cut by considering the pair of sets where is the set of standard rationals less than and is the set of standard rationals greater than . The real number corresponding to can be seen to satisfy the condition of being the standard part of .
One intuitive characterization of continuity is as follows:
Theorem. A real-valued function on the interval is continuous if and only if for every hyperreal in the interval , we have: .
(see microcontinuity for more details). Similarly,
Theorem. A real-valued function is differentiable at the real value if and only if for every infinitesimal hyperreal number , the value | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21708 |
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is an African American political and new religious movement, founded in Detroit, Michigan, United States, by Wallace Fard Muhammad on July 4, 1930. Its stated goals are to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African Americans. Critics have described the theology of the organization as promoting antisemitism and anti-LGBT rhetoric, and of having promoted black supremacist beliefs in the past. The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks the NOI as a hate group. Its official newspaper is "The Final Call". In 2007, the core membership was estimated to be between 20,000 and 50,000. It is one of the wealthiest organizations in black America.
Fard disappeared in June 1934. His successor Elijah Muhammad established places of worship (called temples or mosques), a school named Muhammad University of Islam, farms, and real estate holdings in the United States and abroad. The Nation has long been a strong advocate of African-American businesses.
There were a number of splits and splinter groups during Elijah Muhammad's leadership, most notably the departure of senior leader Malcolm X to become a Sunni Muslim. After Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975, his son, Warith Deen Mohammed, changed the name of the organization to "World Community of Islam in the West" (and twice more after that), and attempted to convert it to a mainstream Sunni Muslim ideology.
In 1977, Louis Farrakhan rejected Warith Deen Mohammed's leadership and re-established the Nation of Islam on the original model. He took over the Nation of Islam's headquarters temple, Mosque Maryam (Mosque #2) in Chicago, Illinois. Since 2010, under Farrakhan, members have been strongly encouraged to study Dianetics, and the Nation claims it has trained 1,055 auditors.
The NOI was founded in Detroit in 1930, by Wallace Fard Muhammad, also known as W. D. Fard Muhammad. Prior to the founding of the NOI, Fard was a member of the Moorish Science Temple of America, known then as David Ford-el and had tried to claim its leadership by proclaiming himself to be the reincarnation of founder Noble Drew Ali but failed. His goal, according to the Nation of Islam, was to "teach the downtrodden and defenseless Black people a thorough Knowledge of God and of themselves, and to put them on the road to Self-Independence with a superior culture and higher civilization than they had previously experienced."
According to the NOI, Fard chose Elijah Muhammad to be his assistant in 1931. According to Muhammad, Fard trained him daily for nine months, then less frequently for about two years. In May 1933, shortly after naming Elijah Muhammad Minister of Islam, Fard disappeared without notifying his followers or designating a successor. In the wake of Fard's disappearance, several potential leaders emerged. Muhammad asserted that Fard had selected him to be his successor and trained him "day and night" for three years. He argued that Fard was God incarnate, and that Fard had revealed this to him alone. Muhammad established a newspaper, "The Final Call to Islam", initially referring to Fard as a prophet and later as Almighty God. He prevailed over his rivals as leader.
In 1942, during World War II, Elijah Muhammad was convicted of violating the Selective Service Act and jailed. Many other Nation of Islam members were similarly charged, as NOI opposed serving in the United States military. Upon his release in 1946, Elijah Muhammad slowly built up the membership of his movement through recruitment in the postwar decades. His program called for the establishment of a separate nation for black Americans and the adoption of a religion based on the worship of Allah and on the belief that blacks were his chosen people.
During this time, the Nation of Islam attracted Malcolm Little. While in prison in Boston for burglary from 1946 to 1952, Little joined the Nation of Islam. He was influenced by his brother, Reginald, who had become a member in Detroit. Little quit smoking, gambling and eating pork, in keeping with the Nation's practices and dietary restrictions. He spent long hours reading books in the prison library. He sharpened his oratory skills by participating in debating classes. Following Nation tradition, Elijah Muhammad ordered him to replace his surname, "Little", with an "X", a custom among Nation of Islam followers who considered their surnames to have been imposed by white slaveholders after their African names were taken from them. The X was meant to represent a "lost heritage and a personal unknown history."
Malcolm X rose rapidly to become a minister and national spokesperson for the NOI. He is largely credited with the group's dramatic increase in membership between the early 1950s and early 1960s (from 500 to 25,000 by one estimate; from 1,200 to 50,000 or 75,000 by another). In March 1964, Malcolm X left the Nation due to disagreements with Elijah Muhammad; among other things, Malcolm X cited his interest in working with other civil rights leaders, saying that Muhammad had prevented him from doing so in the past. Later, Malcolm X also said Muhammad had engaged in extramarital affairs with young Nation secretariesa serious violation of Nation teachings. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot and killed while giving a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, New York. In March 1966, three NOI members were convicted of assassinating Malcolm X.
In 1955, Louis Wolcott joined the Nation of Islam. Following custom, he also replaced his surname with an "X". He was given his new name, "Farrakhan", by Elijah Muhammad. In 1965, following the assassination of Malcolm X, Farrakhan gradually emerged as his successor. Like his predecessor, Farrakhan was a dynamic, charismatic leader and a powerful speaker with the ability to appeal to the African-American masses.
At the time of Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975, there were 75 NOI centers across America. The Nation's leadership chose Wallace Muhammad, also known as Warith Deen Mohammad, the fifth of Elijah's sons—not Farrakhan—as the new Supreme Minister. At the time, Nation of Islam was founded upon the principles of self-reliance and black supremacy, a belief that mainstream Muslims consider heretical. He shunned his father's theology and black pride views, forging closer ties with mainstream Muslim communities in an attempt to transition the Nation of Islam into orthodoxy more similar to Sunni Islam. Under W. D. Mohammed's leadership, the Nation of Islam decentralized into many bodies of followers led by many different leaders. This made it hard to track the exact number of NOI members, but it is estimated to have been in the tens of thousands.
In 1977, Farrakhan resigned from Wallace Muhammad's reformed organization. He worked to rebuild the Nation of Islam upon the original foundation established by Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad. Farrakhan traveled across America speaking in cities to gain new followers. Over time, Farrakhan regained many of the Nation of Islam's original properties. There are now mosques and study groups in over 120 American cities attributed to Farrakhan's work as a leader.
In 1995, the Nation of Islam sponsored the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. to promote African-American unity and family values. Estimates of the number of marchers were between 400,000 and 840,000. Under Farrakhan's leadership, the Nation of Islam tried to redefine the standard "black male stereotype" of drug and gang violence. Meanwhile, the Nation continued to promote social reform in African-American communities according to its traditional goals of self-reliance and economic independence.
Under Farrakhan's leadership, the Nation was one of the fastest-growing political movements in the country. Foreign branches of the Nation were formed in Ghana, London, Paris, and the Caribbean islands. In order to strengthen the international influence of the Nation, Farrakhan attempted to establish relations with Muslim countries. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991 and had a near-death experience in 2000 due to complications. After that, Farrakhan toned down the politics of the NOI and attempted to strengthen its relations with other minority communities, including Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians.
On May 8, 2010, Farrakhan publicly announced his embrace of Dianetics and has actively encouraged Nation of Islam members to undergo auditing from the Church of Scientology.
Since the announcement in 2010, the Nation of Islam has hosted its own Dianetics courses and its own graduation ceremonies. At the third such ceremony, which was held on Saviours' Day 2013, it was announced that nearly 8500 members of the organization had undergone Dianetics auditing. The organization announced it had graduated 1,055 auditors and had delivered 82,424 hours of auditing. The graduation ceremony was certified by the Church of Scientology, and the Nation of Islam members received certification. The ceremony was attended by Shane Woodruff, vice-president of the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre International. He stated that, "[t]he unfolding story of the Nation of Islam and Dianetics is bold, [i]t is determined and it is absolutely committed to restoring freedom and wiping hell from the face of this planet."
The main belief of the NOI and its followers is that there is no other God but Allah. They teach that their founder, Fard Muhammad is the Mahdi. The official beliefs of the NOI have been outlined in books, documents, and articles published by the organization, and in speeches by Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Farrakhan, and other ministers. Many of Elijah Muhammad's teachings may be found in "Message to the Blackman in America".
Written lessons from 1930 to 1934 were passed from Fard Muhammad to his student, Elijah Muhammad. These were collected and entitled "The Supreme Wisdom". The NOI continues to teach its followers that the present world society is segmented into three distinct categories. They teach that from a general perspective, 85% of the population are the "deaf, dumb and blind" masses of the people who "are easily led in the wrong direction and hard to lead in the right direction". Those 85% of the masses are said to be manipulated by 10% of the people. Those 10% rich "slave-makers" are said to manipulate the 85% masses of the people through ignorance, the skillful use of religious doctrine, and the mass media. The third group is referred to as the 5% "poor righteous teachers" of the people of the world, who know the truth of the manipulation of the 85% masses of the people by the 10%. The 5% "righteous teachers" are at constant struggle and war with the 10% to reach and "free the minds" of the masses of the people.
An official Nation of Islam platform referred to as "The Muslim Program" was written by Elijah Muhammad in his book "Message to the Blackman in America" (1965). The itemized platform contains two sections; "What The Muslims Want", consisting of 10 points; and "What The Muslims Believe", consisting of 12 points.
Elijah Muhammad once said that the Moon was once a part of the Earth, and that the Earth is over 76 trillion years old. The entire land mass on the Earth was called "Asia". This was, Elijah Muhammad claimed, long before Adam.
Elijah Muhammad declared that Black People in America are descendants of the Asian black nation and of the tribe of Shabazz. He writes on page 31 of his book, "Message to the Blackman in America", "...who is this tribe of Shabazz? Originally, they were the tribe who came with the earth (or this part) 66 trillion years ago when a great explosion on our planet divided it into two parts. One we call earth and the other moon. This was done by one of our scientists, God, who wanted the people to speak one language, one dialect for all, but was unable to bring this about."
In an April 13, 1997, interview on NBC's "Meet the Press", Tim Russert asked Farrakhan to explain the Nation of Islam's view on separation:
While a separation of races was always the goal of the Nation of Islam, it all came from a desire to disrupt the moral and normative attitude that Western philosophy and religion imposed during colonialism. With different aesthetics and a rejection of normative ideals, and with a different nation, the Nation of Islam essentially wanted agency and self-determination in the economic development of their own lives. They saw the only way out of the past was with a radically different future. "For instance, to combat the eradication of black religiosity initially practiced by enslaved Africans, the NOI introduced, or, in some cases reintroduced Islam, a religion that had historically challenged Western religious ideas. In addition, to address efforts to obliterate other aspects of African culture, such as names, dress, food, education, socialization and marriage practices, the NOI constructed a new way of life. As black self-determination remained its primary objective, the NOI focused on designing unique clothing and uniforms, introducing bean pies and other dietary changes and creating its private black schools and culturally-centered curriculum. Finally, the Nation created an economic plan that envisioned a collaborative enterprise built on non-European control. All of these initiatives intended to repair Black people and prepare them for active engagement in the increasingly liberated non-European global community, particularly but not exclusively in Africa." In their pursuit of self-determination, many African Americans turned to Christianity to reclaim autonomy of their historically emasculated and defiled bodies. The problem for many, however, was that Christianity was used to justify gender-based violence. Edward E. Curtis notes that Christianity was used in tandem with American nationalism, and therefore was purposely misinterpreted to make arguments for the continuation of slavery. Therefore, a new found autonomy of the human body, according to the members of the Nation of Islam, could not be found in Christianity. It was already entrenched with Western ideals. Islam, they found, was a way to return to African heritage, a pan-African identity, a re-imagination of African-American bodies, and thus fathomable post-colonial future. Of course, this post colonial nature of self determination could not have been accomplished within notions of self love According to those in the nation of Islam, this self love could not be practiced under the American democracy and in American courts. Self determination (fueled by love of self and others) could only be found in the Sunni Islamic faith and in separation from American institutions.
Wallace Fard Muhammad taught that the original peoples of the world were black and that white people were a race of "devils" created by a scientist named Yakub (the Biblical and Qur'anic Jacob) on the Greek island of Patmos. According to the supreme wisdom lessons, Fard taught that whites were devils because of a culture of lies and murder that Yakub instituted on the island to ensure the creation of his new people. Fard taught that Yakub established a secret eugenics policy among the ruling class on the island. They were to kill all dark babies at birth and lie to the parents about the child's fate. Further, they were to ensure that lighter-skinned children thrived in society. This policy encouraged a general preference for light skin. It was necessary to allow the process of grafting or making of a lighter-skinned race of people who would be different. The idea was that if the light-skinned people were allowed to mate freely with the dark-skinned people, the population would remain dark-skinned due to the genetic dominance of the original dark-skinned people. This process took approximately 600 years to produce a blond-haired, blue-eyed group of people. As they migrated into the mainland, they were greeted and welcomed by the indigenous people wherever they went. But according to the supreme wisdom lessons, they started making trouble among the righteous people, telling lies and causing confusion and mischief. This is when the ruling class of the Middle East decided to round up all the troublemakers they could find and march them out, over the hot desert sands, into the caves and hillsides of Europe. Elijah claimed that this history is well-known and preserved, and is ritualized or re-enacted within many fraternal organizations and secret societies. Fard taught that much of the savage ways of white people came from living in the caves and hillsides of Europe for over 2,000 years without divine revelation or knowledge of civilization. The writings of Elijah Muhammad advise a student must learn that the white man is "Yacub's grafted Devil" and "the Skunk of the planet Earth".
The Nation of Islam teaches that black people are the original people, and that all other people come from them. Farrakhan has stated, regarding spiritual ascension, "If you look at the human family—now, I'm talking about black, brown, red, yellow and white—we all seem to be frozen on a subhuman level of existence. In Islam and, I believe, in Christian theology and Jewish theology as well, there are three stages of human development. The first stage is called the animalistic stage of development. But when we submit to animal passions, then we can do evil things to one another in that animalistic stage of development. But when moral consciousness comes and we have a self-accusing spirit, it is then that we become human beings. Right now, we have the potential for humanity, but we have not reached that potential, because we are functioning on the animalistic plane of existence."
In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press", Farrakhan said the following in response to host Tim Russert's question on the Nation of Islam's teachings on race:
Pressed by Russert on whether he agreed with Elijah Muhammad's preaching that whites are "blue-eyed devils", Farrakhan responded:
During the time when Malcolm X was a member and leader of the Nation of Islam, he preached that black people were genetically dominant to white people but were dominated by a system of white supremacy:
After Malcolm X made his pilgrimage to Mecca, he stated that seeing Muslims of "all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans", interacting as equals led him to see Islam as a means by which racial problems could be overcome. He credits his evolving views on Islam and race as a reason for leaving the Nation of Islam and his decision to convert to Sunni Islam.
The Nation of Islam teaches that intermarriage or race mixing should be prohibited. This is point 10 of the official platform, "What the Muslims Want", published 1965. Farrakhan nevertheless stated in the Tim Russert interview:
Elijah Muhammad taught his followers about a Mother Plane or Wheel, a UFO that was seen and described in the visions of the prophet Ezekiel in the "Book of Ezekiel", in the Hebrew Bible.
Farrakhan, commenting on his teacher's description said the following:
The first book analyzing the Nation of Islam was "The Black Muslims in America" (1961) by C. Eric Lincoln. Lincoln describes the use of doctrines during religious services:
In recent years, the embrace of Dianetics under Farrakhan has drawn much criticism that the Nation of Islam is becoming too close to the Church of Scientology and the ideas of its founder L. Ron Hubbard, whom Farrakhan has said he respects. Farrakhan has praised Hubbard, saying he was "exceedingly valuable to every Caucasian person on this Earth". Of followers of Scientology, he stated "You can still be a Christian; you just won't be a devil Christian. You'll still be a Jew, but you won't be a satanic Jew!" NOI Sister Charlene Muhammad, a correspondent for NOI's newspaper "The Final Call," received the "Dianetics Auditor of the Year" Award 2018. In her acceptance speech she thanked, in order, Minister Louis Farrakhan, David Miscavige (leader of the Church of Scientology), and “most of all, L. Ron Hubbard.”
In the 1930s Japanese national, and member of the Black Dragon Society, Satokata Takahashi allegedly promised financial aid and military assistance to African Americans in Detroit if they "joined a war against the white race". In 1938 the FBI charged that Nakane had an influential presence within the NOI, speaking as a guest at temples in Chicago and Detroit. A poster was removed from a raid of Muhammad's Chicago home that was a copy of a poster removed from Detroit headquarters of Takahashi. The poster was entitled "Calling the Four Winds". There were images of four guns, each titled "Asia" and they had barrels pointing to the center of the poster, which had an image of the United States. "Calling the Four Winds" is the title of a speech written by Takahashi's wife. Muhammad engaged in the use of various names to elude federal authorities because they were monitoring Black Muslims for sedition and failure to register for the draft. He used names such as Elijah Karriem, Elijah Evans, Gulam Bogans, Mr. Muck Muck, and Muhammad Rasoul. Muhammad went to prison from 1942–1946 for influencing his followers not to register.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Nation of Islam "has maintained a consistent record of anti-Semitism and racism since its founding in the 1930s."
The Nation of Islam has repeatedly denied charges of anti-Semitism. Farrakhan has stated, "The ADL ... uses the term 'anti-Semitism' to stifle all criticism of Zionism and the Zionist policies of the State of Israel and also to stifle all legitimate criticism of the errant behavior of some Jewish people toward the non-Jewish population of the earth." However, NOI officials and outlets including Farrakhan have also been accused of repeatedly using anti-semitic and homophobic rhetoric, including saying, "It's the wicked Jews, the false Jews, that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality. It's the wicked Jews, false Jews, that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!"
Regarding condemnation for having referred to Adolf Hitler as being a "great man", Farrakhan has said, "I have throughout my life referred to Hitler as a wicked man, yet, the national news media insists that I called him a 'great man', with the implied inference that 'great' means 'good'. However, I did refer to him as 'wickedly great', in the same sense that Genghis Khan stands out in history."
David W. Leinweber of Emory University asserts that the Nation of Islam engages in revisionist and antisemitic interpretations of the Holocaust and that they exaggerate the role of Jews in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Leinweber and others use the original statements of Farrakhan and others as the basis for their evaluation.
NOI Health Minister Abdul Alim Muhammad has accused Jewish doctors of injecting Blacks with the AIDS virus.
Jeffery Muhammad, the Nation of Islam's longtime leader in Dallas, Texas, stated:
The Nation of Islam resembles traditional Sunni Islam with some differences. It preaches the following of the Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith, though somewhat differently. Interpretation of the Five Pillars differs among many different Islamic schools of thought, as well as among different Islamic cultures.
Other doctrines of the Nation of Islam are disputed, specifically:
Due to these differences, the Nation of Islam is not recognized by many mainstream Muslims.
On March 7, 1998 the Board of Ulema of the Italian Muslim Association (AMI) issued a fatwa against the Nation of Islam. The AMI issued the fatwa after being asked their opinion on the NOI; it was the AMI's opinion that members of the NOI were not Muslim, on the grounds that "their official doctrine is that Allah appeared in the form of a human being named Fareed Muhammad, and that this "incarnation of God" chose another man, called Elijah Muhammad, as his Prophet." In the AMI's view, this contradicts the core Muslim tenet of monotheism, and as such members of the NOI could not be considered Muslim; "Muslims must declare this truth, and each one of them who keeps silent while listening to Mr. Farrakhan being called "a Muslim leader" is committing a sin."
The NOI obtained substantial funds from the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, notably a $5 million loan used to pay back-taxes and costs for the home of the movement's former leader Elijah Muhammad and a $3 million loan from Libya in the 1970s to acquire its opulent headquarters on Chicago's South Side. Libya channeled funds through the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) based in Canada to a Libyan intelligence front in Washington. The money was provided to finance trips to Tripoli by the NOI and American radicals, according to a Canadian parliamentary investigation and a prosecution by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. "At least one gathering attended by Farrakhan in Libya – in violation of a travel ban imposed on Americans by President Reagan after Libya was linked to terrorist attacks in Europe – offered training seminars on weapons and explosives." The Libyans paid $250,000 in travel and other expenses to stage a pro-Gaddafi demonstration in which NOI played a leading role.
In 1994, the NOI leader visited Khartoum, where he met with General Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, the former Sudanese head of state and Doctor Hassan Abdullah al-Turabi, who headed Sudan's ruling party. Farrakhan's National Assistant Khalid Abdul Muhammed attended the 1995 PAIC meeting. Upon meeting Sheikh Naim Qassem of Hezbollah after a news conference at a Khartoum hotel, Muhammed found a translator to convey his greetings.
In 1996, Farrakhan traveled to Iran, Iraq, and Libya, at which time Gaddafi offered him an additional $1 billion. Farrakhan said he would use the money to develop the black community and increase its power in politics. He also denied an earlier report, which originated in the Iranian press, that while in Iran he had said, "God will destroy America by the hands of Muslims. God will not give Japan or Europe the honor of bringing down the United States; this is an honor God will bestow upon Muslims." In August 1996, Farrakhan formally asked the U.S. government to allow him to accept the funds from Libya, a requirement because of sanctions against the African state. His application was denied.
In 2011, shortly after Gaddafi's death, Farrakhan portrayed Gaddafi as a fellow revolutionary who had lent millions of dollars to the Nation of Islam over the years, "It wasn't the money, but the principles that made me his brother".
NOI video titles include "Conspiracy of the International Bankers", "Conspiracy of the U.S. Government", "Controversy with Jews", and "Which One Will You Choose, the Flag of Islam or the Flag of America?" In one video Farrakhan is said to state, "I hasten to tell you that the precious lives that were lost in the World Trade Center was a cover, a cover for a war that had been planned to bring a pipeline through Afghanistan to bring oil from that region, oil owned by Unocal, of which Dick Cheney is a stock holder."
Farrakhan's videos also address the U.S. military. During the Millions March in Harlem, Farrakhan discussed the Fort Hood shootings as he addressed the crowd.
Controversy over the availability of NOI videos and writings surfaced on June 15, 2011, when Representative Peter King, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security hosted a hearing titled "The Threat of Muslim-American Radicalization in U.S. Prisons". During the hearing, former Bureau of Prisons director Harley Lappin testified on the extreme susceptibility of radicalization of inmates through propaganda efforts of groups like NOI. Testimony included discussion of an incident in which two radicalized converts planned a terrorist attack on a military facility in Seattle. The suspects had met in prison and had converted to Islam while there. In July 2011, King and Representative Frank Wolf, worried that prisoners were being radicalized by Farrakhan, asked U.S. Bureau of Prisons Acting Director Thomas Kane to remove Nation of Islam material from prisons and to audit all other Islamic texts and sermons made available to inmates as well as bureau procedures for approving such materials.
"The Final Call" is a newspaper published by NOI in Chicago, with news stories on a variety of topics, primarily related to Blacks in America. "The Muslim Program" is published in every issue of the newspaper stating the demands of the Nation of Islam. NOI journalists have written about a range of topics, including conspiracy theories on the assassination of John F. Kennedy and a Central Intelligence Agency conspiracy to disrupt rule in Libya. Harold Muhammad, minister of an NOI New Orleans mosque, wrote in the paper that there is enough evidence that AIDS is a man-made disease being used by the U.S. government against Blacks.
Ula Y. Taylor, professor of African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, in her book "The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam" writes that the Nation of Islam is a "promise of patriarchy" for black women, or a guarantor of security beyond centuries of physical and sexual exploitation. She writes that the purpose of this patriarchal promise is to overcome the negative stereotypes that had been tattooed onto black people, consequently improving the lives of the urban poor. Thus, "the respect and protection offered by black men in the Nation was appealing given the extreme sexual and economic vulnerability of black women during this period." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21709 |
Nerve agent
Nerve agents, sometimes also called nerve gases, are a class of organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanisms by which nerves transfer messages to organs. The disruption is caused by the blocking of acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter.
Poisoning by a nerve agent leads to constriction of pupils, profuse salivation, convulsions, and involuntary urination and defecation, with the first symptoms appearing in seconds after exposure. Death by asphyxiation or cardiac arrest may follow in minutes due to the loss of the body's control over respiratory and other muscles. Some nerve agents are readily vaporized or aerosolized, and the primary portal of entry into the body is the respiratory system. Nerve agents can also be absorbed through the skin, requiring that those likely to be subjected to such agents wear a full body suit in addition to a respirator.
Nerve agents are generally colorless to amber-colored, tasteless liquids that may evaporate to a gas. Agents sarin and VX are odorless; tabun has a slightly fruity odor and soman has a slight camphor odor.
Nerve agents attack the nervous system. All such agents function the same way resulting in cholinergic crisis: they inhibit the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which is responsible for the breakdown of acetylcholine (ACh) in the synapses between nerves that control muscle contraction. If the agent cannot be broken down, muscles are prevented from relaxing and they are effectively paralyzed. This includes the heart and the muscles used for breathing. Because of this, the first symptoms usually appear within seconds of exposure and death can occur via asphyxiation or cardiac arrest in a few minutes.
Initial symptoms following exposure to nerve agents (like sarin) are a runny nose, tightness in the chest, and constriction of the pupils. Soon after, the victim will have difficulty breathing and will experience nausea and salivation. As the victim continues to lose control of bodily functions, involuntary salivation, lacrimation, urination, defecation,
gastrointestinal pain and vomiting will be experienced. Blisters and burning of the eyes and/or lungs may also occur. This phase is followed by initially myoclonic jerks (muscle jerks) followed by status epilepticus -type epileptic seizure. Death then comes via complete respiratory depression, most likely via the excessive peripheral activity at the neuromuscular junction of the diaphragm.
The effects of nerve agents are long lasting and increase with continued exposure. Survivors of nerve agent poisoning almost invariably suffer chronic neurological damage and related psychiatric effects. Possible effects that can last at least up to 2–3 years after exposure include blurred vision, tiredness, declined memory, hoarse voice, palpitations, sleeplessness, shoulder stiffness and eye strain. In people exposed to nerve agents, serum and erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase in the long-term are noticeably lower than normal and tend to be lower the worse the persisting symptoms are.
When a normally functioning motor nerve is stimulated, it releases the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which transmits the impulse to a muscle or organ. Once the impulse is sent, the enzyme acetylcholinesterase immediately breaks down the acetylcholine in order to allow the muscle or organ to relax.
Nerve agents disrupt the nervous system by inhibiting the function of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase by forming a covalent bond with its active site, where acetylcholine would normally be broken down (undergo hydrolysis). Acetylcholine thus builds up and continues to act so that any nerve impulses are continually transmitted and muscle contractions do not stop. This same action also occurs at the gland and organ levels, resulting in uncontrolled drooling, tearing of the eyes (lacrimation) and excess production of mucus from the nose (rhinorrhea).
The reaction product of the most important nerve agents, including soman, sarin, tabun and VX, with acetylcholinesterase were solved by the U.S. Army using X-ray crystallography in the 1990s. The reaction products have been confirmed subsequently using different sources of acetylcholinesterase and the closely related target enzyme, butyrylcholinesterase. The X-ray structures clarify important aspects of the reaction mechanism (e.g., stereochemical inversion) at atomic resolution and provide a key tool for antidote development.
Atropine and related anticholinergic drugs act as antidotes to nerve agent poisoning because they block acetylcholine receptors, but they are poisonous in their own right. Some synthetic anticholinergics, such as biperiden, may counteract the central symptoms of nerve agent poisoning better than atropine, since they pass the blood–brain barrier better than atropine. While these drugs will save the life of a person affected by nerve agents, that person may be incapacitated briefly or for an extended period, depending on the extent of exposure. The endpoint of atropine administration is the clearing of bronchial secretions. Atropine for field use by military personnel is often loaded in an autoinjector (e.g. ATNAA), for ease of use in stressful conditions.
Pralidoxime chloride, also known as "2-PAM chloride", is also used as an antidote. Rather than counteracting the initial effects of the nerve agent on the nervous system as does atropine, pralidoxime chloride reactivates the poisoned enzyme (acetylcholinesterase) by scavenging the phosphoryl group attached on the functional hydroxyl group of the enzyme. Though safer to use than atropine, it takes longer to act.
Revival of acetylcholinesterase with pralidoxime chloride works more effectively on nicotinic receptors while blocking acetylcholine receptors with atropine is more effective on muscarinic receptors. Often, severe cases of poisoning are treated with both drugs.
Butyrylcholinesterase is under development by the U.S. Department of Defense as a prophylactic countermeasure against organophosphate nerve agents. It binds nerve agent in the bloodstream before the poison can exert effects in the nervous system.
Both purified acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase have demonstrated success in animal studies as "biological scavengers" (and universal targets) to provide stoichiometric protection against the entire spectrum of organophosphate nerve agents. Butyrylcholinesterase currently is the preferred enzyme for development as a pharmaceutical drug primarily because it is a naturally circulating human plasma protein (superior pharmacokinetics) and its larger active site compared with acetylcholinesterase may permit greater flexibility for future design and improvement of butyrylcholinesterase to act as a nerve agent scavenger.
There are two main classes of nerve agents. The members of the two classes share similar properties and are given both a common name (such as "sarin") and a two-character NATO identifier (such as GB).
The "G-series" is thus named because German scientists first synthesized them. G series agents are known as non-persistent, while the V series are persistent. All of the compounds in this class were discovered and synthesized during or prior to World War II, led by Gerhard Schrader (later under the employment of IG Farben).
This series is the first and oldest family of nerve agents. The first nerve agent ever synthesised was GA (tabun) in 1936. GB (sarin) was discovered next in 1939, followed by GD (soman) in 1944, and finally the more obscure GF (cyclosarin) in 1949. GB was the only G agent that was fielded by the US as a munition, in rockets, aerial bombs, and artillery shells.
The "V-series" is the second family of nerve agents and contains five well known members: VE, VG, VM, VR, and VX, along with several more obscure analogues.
The most studied agent in this family, VX, was invented in the 1950s at Porton Down in the United Kingdom. Ranajit Ghosh, a chemist at the Plant Protection Laboratories of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was investigating a class of organophosphate compounds (organophosphate esters of substituted aminoethanethiols). Like Schrader, Ghosh found that they were quite effective pesticides. In 1954, ICI put one of them on the market under the trade name Amiton. It was subsequently withdrawn, as it was too toxic for safe use. The toxicity did not go unnoticed and some of the more toxic materials had been sent to the British Armed Forces research facility at Porton Down for evaluation. After the evaluation was complete, several members of this class of compounds became a new group of nerve agents, the V agents (depending on the source, the V stands for Victory, Venomous, or Viscous). The best known of these is probably VX, with VR ("Russian V-gas") coming a close second (Amiton is largely forgotten as VG). All of the V-agents are persistent agents, meaning that these agents do not degrade or wash away easily and can therefore remain on clothes and other surfaces for long periods. In use, this allows the V-agents to be used to blanket terrain to guide or curtail the movement of enemy ground forces. The consistency of these agents is similar to oil; as a result, the contact hazard for V-agents is primarily – but not exclusively – dermal. VX was the only V-series agent that was fielded by the US as a munition, in rockets, artillery shells, airplane spray tanks, and landmines.
The Novichok (Russian: , "newcomer") agents, a series of organophosphate compounds, were developed in the Soviet Union and in Russia from the mid-1960s to the 1990s. The Novichok program aimed to develop and manufacture highly deadly chemical weapons that were unknown to the West. The new agents were designed to be undetectable by standard NATO chemical-detection equipment and to defeat chemical-protective gear.
In addition to the newly-developed "third generation" weapons, binary versions of several Soviet agents were developed and were designated as "Novichok" agents.
Contrary to some claims, not all nerve agents are organophosphates. A large group of them are carbamates like EA-3990 and EA-4056, both of which have been claimed to be about 3 times more toxic than VX. Both the USA and the Soviet Union
developed carbamate nerve agents during the Cold War. They are sometimes grouped as "fourth generation" agents along with the Novichok agents due to their falling outside the definitions of controlled substances under the CWC.
Some insecticides, including carbamates and organophosphates such as dichlorvos, malathion and parathion, are nerve agents. The metabolism of insects is sufficiently different from mammals that these compounds have little effect on humans and other mammals at proper doses, but there is considerable concern about the effects of long-term exposure to these chemicals by farm workers and animals alike. At high enough doses, acute toxicity and death can occur through the same mechanism as other nerve agents. Some insecticides such as demeton, dimefox and paraoxon are sufficiently toxic to humans that they have been withdrawn from agricultural use, and were at one stage investigated for potential military applications. Paraoxon was allegedly used as an assassination weapon by the apartheid South African government as part of Project Coast. Organophosphate pesticide poisoning is a major cause of disability in many developing countries and is often the preferred method of suicide.
Many methods exist for spreading nerve agents such as:
The method chosen will depend on the physical properties of the nerve agent(s) used, the nature of the target, and the achievable level of sophistication.
This first class of nerve agents, the G-series, was accidentally discovered in Germany on December 23, 1936, by a research team headed by Gerhard Schrader working for IG Farben. Since 1934, Schrader had been working in a laboratory in Leverkusen to develop new types of insecticides for IG Farben. While working toward his goal of improved insecticide, Schrader experimented with numerous compounds, eventually leading to the preparation of tabun.
In experiments, tabun was extremely potent against insects: as little as 5 ppm of tabun killed all the leaf lice he used in his initial experiment. In January 1937, Schrader observed the effects of nerve agents on human beings first-hand when a drop of tabun spilled onto a lab bench. Within minutes he and his laboratory assistant began to experience miosis (constriction of the pupils of the eyes), dizziness and severe shortness of breath. It took them three weeks to recover fully.
In 1935 the Nazi government had passed a decree that required all inventions of possible military significance to be reported to the Ministry of War, so in May 1937 Schrader sent a sample of tabun to the chemical warfare (CW) section of the Army Weapons Office in Berlin-Spandau. Schrader was summoned to the Wehrmacht chemical lab in Berlin to give a demonstration, after which Schrader's patent application and all related research was classified as secret. Colonel Rüdiger, head of the CW section, ordered the construction of new laboratories for the further investigation of tabun and other organophosphate compounds and Schrader soon moved to a new laboratory at Wuppertal-Elberfeld in the Ruhr valley to continue his research in secret throughout World War II. The compound was initially codenamed Le-100 and later Trilon-83.
Sarin was discovered by Schrader and his team in 1938 and named in honor of its discoverers: Schrader, Ambros, Gerhard Ritter, and von der Linde. It was codenamed T-144 or Trilon-46. It was found to be more than ten times as potent as tabun.
Soman was discovered by Richard Kuhn in 1944 as he worked with the existing compounds; the name is derived from either the Greek 'to sleep' or the Latin 'to bludgeon'. It was codenamed T-300.
Cyclosarin was also discovered during WWII but the details were lost and it was rediscovered in 1949.
The G-series naming system was created by the United States when it uncovered the German activities, labeling tabun as GA (German Agent A), sarin as GB and soman as GD. Ethyl sarin was tagged GE and cyclosarin as GF.
In 1939, a pilot plant for tabun production was set up at Munster-Lager, on Lüneburg Heath near the German Army proving grounds at . In January 1940, construction began on a secret plant, code named "Hochwerk" ("High factory"), for the production of tabun at "Dyhernfurth an der Oder" (now Brzeg Dolny in Poland), on the Oder River from Breslau (now Wrocław) in Silesia.
The plant was large, covering an area of and was completely self-contained, synthesizing all intermediates as well as the final product, tabun. The factory even had an underground plant for filling munitions, which were then stored at Krappitz (now Krapkowice) in Upper Silesia. The plant was operated by , a subsidiary of IG Farben, as were all other chemical weapon agent production plants in Germany at the time.
Because of the plant's deep secrecy and the difficult nature of the production process, it took from January 1940 until June 1942 for the plant to become fully operational. Many of tabun's chemical precursors were so corrosive that reaction chambers not lined with quartz or silver soon became useless. Tabun itself was so hazardous that the final processes had to be performed while enclosed in double glass-lined chambers with a stream of pressurized air circulating between the walls.
Three thousand German nationals were employed at Hochwerk, all equipped with respirators and clothing constructed of a poly-layered rubber/cloth/rubber sandwich that was destroyed after the tenth wearing. Despite all precautions, there were over 300 accidents before production even began and at least ten workers died during the two and a half years of operation. Some incidents cited in "A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare" are as follows:
In 1940 the German Army Weapons Office ordered the mass production of sarin for wartime use. A number of pilot plants were built and a high-production facility was under construction (but was not finished) by the end of World War II. Estimates for total sarin production by Nazi Germany range from 500 kg to 10 tons.
During that time, German intelligence believed that the Allies also knew of these compounds, assuming that because these compounds were not discussed in the Allies' scientific journals information about them was being suppressed. Though sarin, tabun and soman were incorporated into artillery shells, the German government ultimately decided not to use nerve agents against Allied targets. The Allies did not learn of these agents until shells filled with them were captured towards the end of the war. German forces used chemical warfare against partisans during the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula in 1942, but did not use any nerve agent.
This is detailed in Joseph Borkin's book "The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben":
Since World War II, Iraq's use of mustard gas against Iranian troops and Kurds (Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988) has been the only large-scale use of any chemical weapons. On the scale of the single Kurdish village of Halabja within its own territory, Iraqi forces did expose the populace to some kind of chemical weapons, possibly mustard gas and most likely nerve agents.
Operatives of the Aum Shinrikyo religious group made and used Sarin several times on other Japanese, most notably the Tokyo subway sarin attack.
In the Gulf War, no nerve agents (nor other chemical weapons) were used, but a number of U.S. and UK personnel were exposed to them when the Khamisiyah chemical depot was destroyed. This and the widespread use of anticholinergic drugs as a protective treatment against any possible nerve gas attack have been proposed as a possible cause of Gulf War syndrome.
Sarin gas was deployed in a 2013 attack on Ghouta during the Syrian Civil War, killing several hundred people. Most governments contend that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad deployed the gas; however, the Syrian Government has denied responsibility.
On 13 February 2017, the nerve agent VX was used in the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.
On 4 March 2018, a former Russian agent (who was convicted of high treason but allowed to live in the United Kingdom via a spy swap agreement), Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who was visiting from Moscow, were both poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury. They survived, and were subsequently released from hospital. In addition, a Wiltshire Police officer, Nick Bailey, was exposed to the substance. He was one of the first to respond to the incident. Twenty-one members of the public received medical treatment following exposure to the nerve agent. Despite this, only Bailey and the Skripals remained in critical conditions. On 11 March 2018, Public Health England issued advice for the other people believed to have been in the Mill pub (the location where the attack is believed to have been carried out) or the nearby Zizzi Restaurant. On 12 March 2018, British Prime Minister Theresa May stated that the substance used was a Novichok nerve agent.
On 30 June 2018, two British nationals, Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess, were poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent of the same kind that was used in the Skripal poisoning, which Rowley had found in a discarded perfume bottle and gifted to Sturgess. Whilst Rowley survived, Sturgess died on 8 July. Metropolitan Police believe that the poisoning was not a targeted attack, but a result of the way the nerve agent was disposed of after the poisoning in Salisbury.
In 1972, the United States Congress banned the practice of disposing chemical weapons into the ocean. 32 000 tons of nerve and mustard agents had already been dumped into the ocean waters off the United States by the U.S. Army, primarily as part of Operation CHASE. According to a 1998 report by William Brankowitz, a deputy project manager in the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, the Army created at least 26 chemical weapons dump sites in the ocean off at least 11 states on both the west and east coasts. Due to poor records, they currently only know the rough whereabouts of half of them.
There is currently a lack of scientific data regarding the ecological and health effects of this dumping. In the event of leakage, many nerve agents are soluble in water and would dissolve in a few days, while other substances like sulfur mustard could last longer. There have also been a few incidents of chemical weapons washing ashore or being accidentally retrieved, for example during dredging or trawl fishing operations.
The methods of detecting gaseous nerve agents include but are not limited to the following.
Laser photoacoustic spectroscopy (LPAS) is a method that has been used to detect nerve agents in the air. In this method, laser light is absorbed by gaseous matter. This causes a heating/cooling cycle and changes in pressure. Sensitive microphones convey sound waves that result from the pressure changes. Scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory engineered an LPAS system that can detect multiple trace amounts of toxic gases in one air sample.
This technology contained three lasers modulated to different frequency, each producing a different sound wave tone. The different wavelengths of light were directed into a sensor referred to as the photoacoustic cell. Within the cell were the vapors of different nerve agents. The traces of each nerve agent had a signature effect on the “loudness” of the lasers’ sound wave tones. Some overlap of nerve agents’ effects did occur in the acoustic results. However, it was predicted that specificity would increase as additional lasers with unique wavelengths were added. Yet, too many lasers set to different wavelengths could result in overlap of absorption spectra. Citation LPAS technology can identify gases in parts per billion (ppb) concentrations.
The following nerve agent simulants have been identified with this multiwavelength LPAS:
Other gases and air contaminants identified with LPAS include:
Non-dispersive infrared techniques have been reported to be used for gaseous nerve agent detection.
Traditional IR absorption has been reported to detect gaseous nerve agents.
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been reported to detect gaseous nerve agents. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21710 |
Neon Genesis Evangelion
"Evangelion" is set fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm, particularly in the futuristic fortified city of Tokyo-3. The protagonist is Shinji, a teenage boy who was recruited by his father Gendo to the shadowy organization Nerv to pilot a giant bio-machine mecha called an "Evangelion" into combat with alien beings called "Angels". The series explores the experiences and emotions of Evangelion pilots and members of Nerv as they try to prevent Angels from causing more cataclysms. In the process they are called upon to understand the ultimate causes of events and the motives for human action.
It recast the saintly inventor/father as a sinister figure, and the enthusiastic teenage protagonist as a vacillating introvert, a deconstruction of classic mecha anime tropes. The series features archetypal imagery derived from Shinto cosmology as well as Jewish and Christian mystical traditions, including Midrashic tales, Kabbalah and Gnosticism. The psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Jung also feature prominently.
"Neon Genesis Evangelion" received critical acclaim but also garnered controversy. Particularly controversial were the last two episodes of the show. In 1997 Hideaki Anno and Gainax released the feature film "The End of Evangelion", providing an alternative ending for the show. Regarded as a deconstruction of the mecha genre, the original TV series led to a rebirth of the anime industry and has become a cultural icon. Film, manga, home video, and other products in the "Evangelion" franchise have achieved record sales in Japanese markets and strong sales in overseas markets, with related goods selling over by 2007 and "Evangelion" pachinko machines selling by 2015.
In 2015, fifteen years after a global cataclysm known as the Second Impact, teenager Shinji Ikari is summoned to the futuristic city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo Ikari, director of the special paramilitary force Nerv. Shinji witnesses United Nations forces battling an Angel, one of a race of giant monstrous beings whose awakening was foretold by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Because of the Angels' near-impenetrable force-fields, Nerv's giant Evangelion bio-machines, synchronized to the nervous systems of their pilots and possessing their own force-fields, are the only weapons capable of keeping the Angels from annihilating humanity. Nerv officer Misato Katsuragi escorts Shinji into the Nerv complex beneath the city, where his father pressures him into piloting the Evangelion Unit-01 against the Angel. Without training, Shinji is quickly overwhelmed in the battle, causing the Evangelion to go berserk and savagely kill the Angel on its own.
Following hospitalization, Shinji moves in with Misato and settles into life in Tokyo-3. In his second battle, Shinji destroys an Angel but runs away afterwards, distraught. Misato confronts Shinji and he decides to remain a pilot. The Nerv crew and Shinji must then battle and defeat the remaining 14 Angels in order to prevent the Third Impact, a global cataclysm that would destroy the world. Evangelion Unit-00 is repaired shortly afterwards. Shinji tries to befriend its pilot, the mysterious, socially isolated teenage girl Rei Ayanami. With Rei's help, Shinji defeats another Angel. They are then joined by the pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, the multitalented, but insufferable teenager Asuka Langley Sōryu, who is German-Japanese-American. Together, the three of them manage to defeat several Angels. As Shinji adjusts to his new role as a pilot, he gradually becomes more confident and self-assured. Asuka moves in with Shinji, and they begin to develop confused feelings for one another, kissing at her provocation.
After being absorbed by an Angel, Shinji breaks free thanks to the Eva acting on its own. He is later forced to fight an infected Evangelion Unit-03 and watches its pilot, his friend and classmate Toji Suzuhara, incapacitated and presumably permanently disabled. Asuka loses her self-confidence following a defeat and spirals into depression. This is worsened by her next fight, against an Angel which attacks her mind and forces her to relive her worst fears and childhood trauma, resulting in a mental breakdown. In the next battle, Rei self-destructs Unit-00 and dies to save Shinji's life. Misato and Shinji visit the hospital where they find Rei alive but claiming she is "the third Rei". Misato forces scientist Ritsuko Akagi to reveal the dark secrets of Nerv, the Evangelion boneyard and the dummy plug system which operates using clones of Rei, who was herself created with the DNA of Shinji's mother, Yui Ikari. This succession of events leaves Shinji emotionally scarred and alienated from the rest of the characters. Kaworu Nagisa replaces the catatonic Asuka as pilot of Unit-02. Kaworu, who initially befriends Shinji and gains his trust, is in truth the final foretold Angel, Tabris. Kaworu fights Shinji, then realizes that he must die if humanity is to survive and asks Shinji to kill him. Shinji hesitates but eventually kills Kaworu, causing Shinji to be overridden with guilt.
After the final Angel is defeated, Seele, the mysterious cabal overseeing the events of the series, triggers the "Human Instrumentality Project", a forced evolution of humanity in which the souls of all mankind are merged for benevolent purposes, believing that if unified, humanity could finally overcome the loneliness and alienation that has eternally plagued mankind. Shinji's soul grapples with the reason for his existence and reaches an epiphany that he needs others to thrive, enabling him to destroy the wall of negative emotions that torment him and reunite with the others, who congratulate him.
Hideaki Anno attempted to create characters that reflected parts of his own personality. The characters of "Evangelion" struggle with their interpersonal relationships, their personal problems, and traumatic events in their past. The human qualities of the characters have enabled some viewers of the show to identify with the characters on a personal level, while others interpret them as historical, religious, or philosophical symbols. Shinji Ikari is the series protagonist and the designated pilot of Evangelion Unit-01. After witnessing his mother Yui Ikari's death as a child, Shinji was abandoned by his father, Gendo Ikari. He is emotionally hypersensitive and sometimes does as expected out of fear of rejection, but he has often rebelled and refused to pilot the Eva because of the extremely excruciating harm that has been done to him or to his friends. Throughout the series, he says to himself "I mustn't run away" as a means of encouraging himself to face the threats of the day, and this sometimes actually gives him bravery in battle, but he has a lingering habit of withdrawing in response to traumatic events. Anno has described Shinji as a boy who "shrinks from human contact" and has "convinced himself that he is a completely unnecessary person".
The withdrawn and mysterious pilot of Evangelion Unit-00, Rei Ayanami, is a clone made from the salvaged remains of Yui and is plagued by a sense of negative self-worth stemming from the realization that she is an expendable asset. She at one time despised Shinji for his lack of trust in his father Gendo, with whom Rei is very close. However, after Shinji and Rei successfully defeat the Angel Ramiel, she takes a friendly liking to him. Towards the end of the series, it is revealed that she is one of many clones, whose use is to replace the currently existing Rei if she is killed.
Asuka Langley Soryu is a child prodigy who pilots Evangelion Unit-02 and possesses a fiery temper and an overabundance of pride and self-confidence, which often gets her in trouble and difficulty, especially during battles. As a little girl, Asuka discovered the body of her mother shortly after she committed suicide, leading the child to repress her emotions and vow never to cry. Asuka and Shinji develop intense but ambiguous feelings towards each other having difficulty to reach out to others, as their relationship was initially modeled on the one between Jean, Nadia's love interest and eventual husband in the earlier "". Compared to Shinji, Asuka and Rei are presented with their own flaws and difficulty relating to other people. Misato Katsuragi is the caretaker and commanding officer for Shinji and Asuka. Her professional demeanor at Nerv contrasts dramatically with her carefree and irresponsible behavior at home. Character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto conceived her as an older "girl next door" and promiscuous loser who failed to take life seriously. Hideaki Anno described Shinji and Misato as "afraid of being hurt" and "unsuitable—lacking the positive attitude—for what people call heroes of an adventure."
The teenaged Evangelion pilots are ordered into battle by the steely Gendo Ikari, Shinji's father and the commander of Nerv. He abandoned Shinji and recalled him only to serve as an Evangelion pilot. Gendo salvaged the remains of his dead wife's body to create Rei, whom he viewed as a mere tool at his disposal to defeat the Angels and enact Instrumentality. Similar to Shinji, he is somewhat asocial and is afraid of being insulted by others and often runs away from such, often committing immoralities in the process. This fear is also what drove him to abandon Shinji. He is depicted as relentless in his drive to win, a man who "takes drastic and extreme measures, by fair means or foul, or by hook or by crook, in order to accomplish his own purpose." According to Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the characters of Gendo and Fuyutsuki are based on Ed Straker and Alec Freeman of the television series "UFO". Sadamoto designed the visual appearance of the characters so that their personalities "could be understood more or less at a glance". The distinctive aesthetic appeal of the female lead characters' designs contributed to high sales of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" merchandise. The design of Rei in particular became so popular that the media referred to the character as "Premium Girl" due to the high sales of books with Rei on the cover.
Director Hideaki Anno fell into a deep depression following completion of work on "" and the 1992 failure of the "" sequel project. According to Yasuhiro Takeda, Anno agreed to a collaboration between King Records and Gainax while drinking with King representative Toshimichi Ōtsuki; King Records guaranteed Anno a time slot for "something, anything". Anno began development of the new series in 1993 around the notion of not running away, which had been the underlying theme of "Aoki Uru", an earlier Anno project that had failed to move into production. Early into the production, Anno stated his intent to have "Evangelion" increase the number of otaku (anime fans) by attracting interest in the medium. According to him, the plot of the series reflects his four-year depression. In the early design phase of the "Evangelion" project several formats were considered, including a film, a television series and an original video animation (OVA) series. The producers finally opted for the television series as it was the most widely accessible media in Japan at that time. The proposed title "Alcion" was rejected due to its lack of hard consonant sounds.
"Evangelion" borrowed certain scenarios and the use of introspection as a narrative device from a previous Anno project entitled "Gunbuster". He incorporated the narrative structure of "Nadia" and multiple frames of reference to leave the story open to interpretation. Over the course of the writing process, elements of the "Evangelion" storyline evolved from the original concept. A female protagonist was initially proposed for the series, but the idea was scrapped. Originally, the first episode presented the battle between an Angel and Rei, while the character of Shinji was only introduced after the Angel had been defeated. Further changes to the plot were made following the Aum Shinrikyo sect's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in March. Azuma Hiroki has said that the original "Evangelion" story was "too close to reality" from Anno's point of view. Basically, Anno thought that the original scenario was not suitable for broadcasting, and he feared censorship. However he also criticized Aum Shinrikyo, because "they lost any contact with reality". For this reason Azuma stated that "Evangelion" "is an intrinsic critique of Aum". The final version of the story reflects inspiration drawn from numerous other anime and fictional works. Chief among these are "Space Battleship Yamato", "Mobile Suit Gundam", "Devilman" and "Space Runaway Ideon". The series also incorporates tributes to "Childhood's End", the novels of Ryū Murakami, "The Andromeda Strain", "The Divine Invasion", the poem "Pippa Passes", "The Hitcher", and several television series including "The Prisoner", "Thunderbirds", "Ultraman" and "Ultra Seven".
The development of the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" series ran close to deadlines throughout its production run. The initial cuts of the first two episodes were screened at the second Gainax festival in July 1995, only three months before they were aired on television. By episode 13 the series began to deviate significantly from the original story, and the initial script was abandoned. The number of Angels was reduced to 17 instead of the original 28, and the writers changed the story's ending, which had originally described the failure of the Human Instrumentality Project after an Angel attack from the moon. Not only did the series suffer from scheduling issues, but according to Anno, despite Gainax being the lead studio for the series, the company itself had inadequate materials and staff for the full production of the series. Only three staff members from Gainax were working on the series at any given time, and the majority of the series' production was outsourced to Tatsunoko Production.
Starting with episode 16, the show changed drastically, discarding the grand narrative concerning salvation for a narrative focusing on the individual characters. This change coincided with Anno's development of an interest in psychology after a friend lent him a book on mental illness. This focus culminated in a psychoanalysis of the characters in the two final episodes. The production ran so close to the airing deadline that the completed scenes used in the preview of the twenty-fifth episode had to be redesigned to work with the new ending. These episodes feature heavy use of abstract animation, flashbacks, simple line drawings, photographs and fixed image scenes with voice-over dialogue. Some critics speculated that these unconventional animation choices resulted from budget cuts, but Toshio Okada stated that while it wasn't only a problem of schedule or budget, Anno "couldn't decide the ending until the time came, that's his style". These two episodes sparked controversy and condemnation among fans and critics of the series. In 1997, Hideaki Anno and Gainax released two animated feature films, providing an alternative ending for the show: "" and "The End of Evangelion".
References to mystical traditions in Judaism and Christianity, including Midrashic literature, Kabballah and Gnosticism are threaded liberally through the series. Complicating viewers' attempts to form an unambiguous interpretation, the series reworks Midrash stories, Zohar images and other Kabbalistic ideas developed from the Book of Genesis to create a new "Evangelion"-specific mythology. Assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki said the religious visual references were intended to make the series more "interesting" and "exotic", denying the existence of a religious meaning for the use of Christian visual symbols in the show. However, according to Anno, "as the symbols are mixed together, for the first time something like an interrelationship or a meaning emerges". The plot combines elements of esotericism and mysticism of the Jewish Kabbalah, including the Angels, which have many common features with the Angels of the religious tradition, such as Sachiel, Sandalphon and Ramiel.
According to Patrick Drazen, numerous allusions to the "Kojiki" and the "Nihongi" have a prominent role in "Evangelion", along with the Shinto vision of the primordial cosmos and the mythical lances of the Shinto deities Izanagi and Izanami. Elements of the Judeo-Christian tradition also feature prominently throughout the series, including references to Adam, Lilith, Eve, the Lance of Longinus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Kabbalistic concept of Adam Kadmon, the Tree of Life, among many others. The merging of all human souls into one through the Human Instrumentality Project at the end of the series is similar to the Kabbalistic concept of tikkun olam. The Evangelions have been likened to the golem of Jewish folklore, and their visual design resembles the traditional depictions of oni (Japanese demons or ogres).
"Neon Genesis Evangelion" has been interpreted as a deeply personal expression of Hideaki Anno's own emotional struggles with depression. During the production of the series, he became interested in mental illness and psychology. According to him, Rei is a schizophrenic character and she represents the unconscious of Shinji. Shinji has an Oedipus complex, and is characterized by a libido-destrudo conflict. Similarly, Ritsuko has an Electra complex, in which she loves Gendo, a sort of substitute for her father figure. Anno himself stated that he identifies with Shinji, Asuka and Misato in a conscious manner, whereas Rei and Kaworu are part of his subconscious, with Kaworu as his Jungian shadow. It has even been suggested that Shinji's entering into Unit-01 is a Freudian "return to the womb", and that his struggle to be free of the Eva is his "rite of passage" into manhood. The series contains many references to philosophical and psychoanalytic concepts, such as the oral stage, introjection, oral personality, ambivalence, and the death drive, including some elements of the works of Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard and others.
In May 1996, Gainax announced an "Evangelion" film in response to fan dissatisfaction with the series finale. On March 15, 1997, Gainax released "Evangelion: Death & Rebirth", consisting of 60 minutes of clips taken from the first 24 episodes of the series and only the first 30 minutes of the new ending due to production issues. The second film, "The End of Evangelion", which premiered on July 19, 1997, provided the complete new ending as a retelling of the final two episodes of the television series. Rather than depicting series' climax within the characters' minds, the film provides a more conventional, action-based resolution to the series' plot lines. The film won numerous awards and grossed 1.45 billion yen within six months of its release. EX.org ranked the film in 1999 as the fifth best 'All-Time Show', with the television series at #2. and in 2009 CUT Magazine ranked it the third greatest anime film of all time. In July 1998 the films were re-released as "Revival of Evangelion" which combined "Death(true)²" (the director's cut of "Death") with "The End of Evangelion".
On September 9, 2006, Gainax confirmed a new animated film series called "Rebuild of Evangelion", consisting of four movies. The first film retells the first five episodes from the series but from the second film onward the story is completely different, including new characters, EVAs and Angels. The first film, "", was released in Japan on September 1, 2007, with "" released on June 27, 2009 and "" released on November 17, 2012. The final film, titled "", was originally scheduled for release in June 2020 but has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On February 8, 2015, "Evangelion:Another Impact", a 3D-rendered short film collaboration between the Khara studio and the media company Dwango is was directed by Shinji Aramaki, was released and streamed as number 12 anime short from the Japan Animator Expo. It depicts "the story of an Evangelion's activation, rampage and howling in another world".
Ten months prior to the television broadcast of "Evangelion", the character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto illustrated a manga version of the story, initially as a supplement meant to promote the animated series. The first installment of the manga was published in the February issue of "Shōnen Ace" in December 1994 with subsequent installments produced on an irregular basis over an eighteen-year period. The final installment was published in June 2013. Several publishers were initially concerned at the selection of Sadamoto to develop the manga adaptation, viewing him as "too passé to be bankable". These concerns proved unfounded upon the strong commercial success of the manga: the first 10 volumes sold over 15 million copies, and the eleventh volume reached number one on the Tohan charts, selling an additional two million copies. The manga series won the 1996 "Comicker" fan manga poll. The story has been adapted into several other manga series in addition to the original Sadamoto project: "", a mystery story that omits the Evangelion units, and "", a parody series which received its own original net animation serial show.
Shirō Sagisu composed most of the original music for the series. The soundtracks released to high rankings on the Oricon charts, with "Neon Genesis Evangelion III" reaching the number one slot for highest sales in 1997; that same year, Sagisu received the Kobe Animation award for "Best Music Score" for his work on "Evangelion". Classical music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Giuseppe Verdi and George Frideric Handel were also featured throughout the series. Additional classical works and original symphonic compositions were used to score later movies produced within the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" franchise. In total, the series' discography includes 21 full studio, live, compilation and soundtrack albums and six CD singles. The series' opening theme is "A Cruel Angel's Thesis", performed by Yoko Takahashi. It ranked on two TV Asahi polls, reaching #55 for best anime theme songs of all time, and #18 for best anime theme songs of the 1990s. Fifteen years after its release, the theme won JASRAC's annual award for the royalties it continues to generate from its usage in pachinko, pachislo, karaoke and other venues. The end theme of the series was a version of "Fly Me to the Moon" arranged and sung by Claire Littley (credited only as CLAIRE).
Several video games based on the series have been developed, ranging from RPG and adventure games to mahjong and card games. The series has also spawned visual novels, two of them inspired the romance and comedy-focused manga series "" and "".
The original home video releases in Japan included VHS and Laserdisc sets using a release structured around "Genesis 0:(volume number)", with each of the first 12 releases containing two episodes each. Each of the episodes received minor changes and Episodes 21–24 were extended with new scenes. "Genesis 0:13" and "Genesis 0:14" contained the original and the alternate versions of episodes 25 and 26 first presented in "". A fifteenth and final release for Laserdisc, entitled "Genesis 0:X", contained the broadcast versions of episodes 21 to 24 and was a special mail-in offer for fans who purchased all 14 discs. The first Japanese DVD release was spread across seven volumes; all contained four episodes with the seventh volume containing both the original and alternate versions of episodes 25 and 26. This version was identical to the previous laserdisc and VHS release. The Movies were also released as a special set, just like before. In 2000 and 2001, three box sets were released to commemorate the fictional "Second Impact" which occurred in the year 2000 in the series. The "Second Impact Box" contained the 26 original episodes and both movies on 9 DVDs—three per Box. The versions were the original broadcast and theatrical versions respectively and therefore different from the previous DVD release. In addition, the video game "Girlfriend of Steel" was included in the third box set.
In 2003, the Japanese-only, nine volume "Renewal of Evangelion" DVDs were released on June 25, with improved acoustic effects, remixed dialogue and remastered soundtrack for 5.1 stereo sound. The first eight volumes covered the original 26 episodes, including two versions of episodes 21 to 24: the (extended) video version (that was available in previous releases) and a reconstruction of the shorter broadcast version, which was now made available for the first time since the Genesis 0:X laserdisc and also wasn't censored like in the original broadcast. The ninth volume was named "Evangelion: The Feature Film" and "Revival of Evangelion" and contained "Death(true)²" and "End of Evangelion" (omitting "Rebirth") on two discs. The "Renewal Project" release formed the basis for the western "Platinum Edition". On December 1, 2014, Studio Khara announced a Blu-ray boxset that will contain a new HD-remastering of the television series, the video versions of Episodes 21–24, as well as the two movies, both as "Revival of Evangelion", the director's cut, which was available in the "Renewal" DVDs, and as their original theatrical versions "Death and Rebirth" and "The End of Evangelion". In addition, another DVD set, titled "Archives of Evangelion", was announced that contains the original unaltered broadcast version of the television series as well as the broadcast version of "Death (True) & Rebirth" that aired in January 1998. Both sets were released on August 26, 2015, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the TV series.
The series was distributed in North America and Europe by ADV Films. The 13 English VHS tapes, released from August 4, 1997 to July 7, 1998, contained two episodes each and were released using the same "Genesis 0:(volume number)" titling convention as the first Japanese home video release. Two laserdisc collections were released as "Collection 1 Deluxe Edition" and "Collection 2 Deluxe Edition", containing episodes one to four and five to eight, respectively. The first DVD release by ADV Films was the eight disk "Perfect Collection" in 2002, containing the original 26 installments. In 2004, ADV released two DVD compilations titled "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Resurrection" and "Neon Genesis: Reborn", encompassing the directors' cuts of Episodes 21 through 24. In the same year, the "Platinum Edition" release was announced by ADV in 2004, consisting of seven DVDs released between July 27, 2004 and April 19, 2005. The "Platinum Edition" contained the original 26 episodes and the four "Director's cut" versions of episodes 21 to 24. A six-disc version of the Platinum Edition, the "Platinum Complete Edition", was released on November 22, 2005, and omitted several extras included in other versions, including commentary and trailers.
On November 26, 2018, streaming company Netflix announced that it had acquired the worldwide streaming rights to the original anime series, as well as "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death (true)²" and "The End of Evangelion", for release in Q2 2019. On March 22, 2019, Netflix announced a June 21, 2019 premiere date for the titles. Following the dissolution of ADV Films in 2008, the Netflix release includes a re-translated script from Studio Khara's in-house translator Dan Kanemitsu and a new English-language cast chosen by Khara. The Netflix release omits "Fly Me to the Moon" in certain regions due to licensing issues. On May 30, 2020, British anime distributor Anime Limited announced it had acquired home video distribution rights for the original series, "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death (true)²" and "The End of Evangelion" in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with an "Ultimate Edition Blu-ray" release scheduled for 2021, marking the international release of the original series on Blu-ray.
"Neon Genesis Evangelion" received critical acclaim both domestically and internationally during its initial broadcast and in the decades since its release. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 100% based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 8.29/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Neon Genesis Evangelion", both a cultural touchstone for Japan and an uncompromising auteurist vision by creator Hideaki Anno, doubles as an enthralling apex for the mecha anime genre and as a harrowing exploration of depression – making for a wholly singular epic about angels and inner demons."
Following the conclusion of the series' original television broadcast, the public and critical reception to "Neon Genesis Evangelion" was polarized, particularly with regard to the final two episodes. The experimental style of the finale confused or alienated many fans and spawned debate and controversy; Hideaki Anno received anonymous online death threats, as well as a number of letters, which would later be shown in "End of Evangelion," expressing both support and criticism. The criticism was largely directed toward the lack of storyline resolution in the final two episodes. Opinion on the finale was mixed, with the audience broadly divided between those who considered the episodes "deep", and those who felt their meaning was "more apparent than real". The English voice actors admitted that they also had trouble understanding the series' conclusion. The "Mainichi Times" wrote that after episode 25, "nearly all viewers felt betrayed ... When commentator Eiji Ōtsuka sent a letter to the "Yomiuri Shimbun", complaining about the end of the "Evangelion" series, the debate went nationwide." Despite the criticism, Anno stood by his artistic choices for the series' conclusion. Critic Zac Bertschy remarked in 2003 that "Most of the backlash against "Evangelion" existed because people don't like to think". The initial controversy surrounding the end of "Evangelion" has had no lasting negative influence on the popularity of the series.
The "richness" of the characters and "complex and layered" narrative have received praise by critics, with Mike Hale of "The New York Times" describing it in 2009 as "a superior anime, a giant-robot tale of unusual depth, feeling and detail." "Evangelion" has developed into a social phenomenon beyond its primary fan base, generating national discussion in Japan. The series has also been the subject of numerous media reports, debates, and research studies world-wide. "Evangelion" has received review by critics, academics and sociologists alike, including by Susan J. Napier, William Rout, Mick Broderick, Mari Kotani, Shinji Miyadai, Hiroki Azuma, Yuriko Furuhata, and Marc Steinberg. The series has been described as both a critique and deconstruction of the mecha genre. Theron Martin (Anime News Network) described the character design as "distinctive, designed to be sexy rather than cutesy", and the mecha designs as "among the most distinctive ever produced for an anime series, with sleek, lithe appearances that look monstrous, fearsome, and nimble rather than boxy and knight-like". Mike Crandol stated "It no longer seems contrite to say that "Evangelion" is surely one of the all-time great works of animation". Japanese critic Manabu Tsuribe considered that "Evangelion" was "extremely interior and is lacking in sociality, so that it seems to reflect pathology of the times." In February 2004 "Cinefantastique" listed the anime as one of the "10 Essential Animations".
"Neon Genesis Evangelion" has scored highly in numerous popularity polls. In 1996, the series won first place in the "Best Loved Series" category of the Anime Grand Prix, a reader-polled award series published in "Animage" magazine. The show was again awarded this prize in 1997 by a large margin. The "End of Evangelion" won first place in 1998, making "Neon Genesis Evangelion" the first anime franchise to win three consecutive first place awards. The website IGN ranked "Evangelion" as the 10th best animated series in its "Top 100 Animated TV Series" list. The series placed third in "Animage"s "anime that should be remembered in the 21st Century". In 1998, EX.org's readers voted "Neon Genesis Evangelion" the #1 US anime release and in 1999, the #2 show of all time. In 2007, a large-scale poll by TV Asahi found "Evangelion" was the second most appreciated anime in Japan. The series was ranked as the most popular of all time in a 2006 survey of 80,000 attendees at the "Japan Media Arts Festival".
"Evangelion" won the Animation Kobe award in 1996, and 1997. The series was awarded the Nihon SF Taisho Award and the Excellence Award Japan Media Arts Festival in 1997. The film ranked #6 on "Wizard's Anime" Magazine on their "Top 50 Anime released in North America". In the August 1996 issue of "Animage", "Evangelion" characters placed high in the rankings of best characters with Rei ranked first, Asuka third, Kaworu fourth and Shinji sixth. Rei Ayanami won in the Female Character category in 1995 and 1996 and Shinji Ikari won the Male Character category in 1996 and 1997. In 2010, "Newtype" magazine recognized Rei Ayanami as the most popular character of the 1990s in the female category, and Shinji Ikari in the male category. "TV Asahi" recognized the "suicide of Ayanami Rei" as the ninth most touching anime scene ever. "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" won the Animage award in the Best Song category in 1996, and TV Asahi recognized it as the 18th best anime song since 1990.
"Evangelion" has had a significant impact on Japanese popular culture. The series also had a strong influence on anime, at a time when the anime industry and televised anime series in particular were in a slump period. CNET reviewer Tim Hornyak credits the series with revitalizing and transforming the giant mecha genre. In the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese animation saw decreased production following the economic crash in Japan. This was followed by a crisis of ideas in the years to come. Against this background, "Evangelion" imposed new standards for the animated serial, ushering in the era of the "new Japanese animation serial", characterized by innovations that allowed a technical and artistic revival of the industry. The production of anime serials began to reflect greater author control, the concentration of resources in fewer but higher quality episodes (typically ranging from 13 to 26), a directorial approach similar to live film, and greater freedom from the constraints of merchandising.
"Evangelion" has influenced numerous subsequent anime series, including "Serial Experiments Lain", "RahXephon", "Texhnolyze", "Gasaraki",
"Guilty Crown", "Boogiepop Phantom", "Blue Submarine No. 6", "Mobile Battleship Nadesico", "", "Gurren Lagann", "Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure", "Argento Soma", "Pilot Candidate", "Generator Gawl", and "Dai-Guard". References, homages and tributes to the series are also contained in the third episode of "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi", "Koi Koi Seven", "Hayate the Combat Butler", "Baka and Test", "Regular Show" and "Keroro Gunsō". The show's mixture of religion and mecha influenced several Japanese video games, including "Xenogears", "Xenosaga", "Persona 3" and "".
The design and personality traits of the character Rei Ayanami were reused for many anime and manga characters of the late 1990s, such as Ruri Hoshino of "Nadesico", Ruriko Tsukushima ("The Droplet"), Miharu ("Gasaraki"), Anthy Himemiya ("Revolutionary Girl Utena"), and Lain Iwakura ("Serial Experiments Lain"). The character of Asuka was parodied by Excel ("Excel Saga"), and some of her traits were used to create the character of Mai in "Gunparade March". According to Italian critic Guido Tavassi, "Evangelion"'s mecha design, characterized by a greater resemblance to the human figure, and the abstract designs of the Angels, also had a significant impact on the designs of future anime productions. Nobuhiro Watsuki designed several characters for "Rurouni Kenshin" based on characters from "Neon Genesis Evangelion", namely Uonuma Usui, Honjō Kamatari and Fuji.
According to Keisuke Iwata, the global spread of Japanese animation dramatically expanded due to the popularity of "Evangelion". After the success of the show, otaku culture gained wide attention. In Japan, "Evangelion" prompted a review of the cultural value of anime, and with its success, anime reached a new point of maturity. With the interest in the series, otaku culture became a mass social phenomenon. The show's regular reruns increased the number of otaku, which John Lynden links to a boom in interest in literature on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Kabbalah and Christianity. Anime director Makoto Shinkai declared that the genre of anime owes a cinematographic debt to "Evangelion". In the aftermath of "Evangelion", Anno reused many of its stylistic conceits in the live-action "Love & Pop" and the anime romance "Kare Kano". "Neon Genesis Evangelion" also influenced some music artists, such as the UK band Fightstar and its debut album, "Grand Unification", and the Japanese band Rey, which derived its name from the character of Rei Ayanami.
The popularity of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" extends to its merchandising which exceeded $400 million within two years of its release. The series has established itself greatly on the Japanese market, developing a varied range of products for adult consumers, such as cell phones (including a special Nerv and MAGI-themed Sharp SH-06D smartphone released in 2012), laptop computers, many soundtracks, DVDs, action figures, and telephone cards. The stylized mecha design that would later earn praise for "Evangelion" was initially criticized by certain toy companies as being too difficult to manufacture, with some expressing concern that models of the Evangelions "would never sell." Eventually, Sega agreed to license all toy and video game sales. At the time of the release of the Japanese film "Death & Rebirth" and "The End of Evangelion", estimated sales of "Evangelion" merchandise topped $300 million, of which 70% derived from sales of video and laser discs, soundtrack CDs, single CDs, computer software and the three-volume manga. Multiple merchandising products were released during the "Renewal Project", such as CDs, video games, cel-art illustrations and collectible models.
The commercial exploitation of the series for the home video market achieved record sales and remained strong over a decade later. The fame of the show has grown through home video sales, which exceeded two or three times the sales of other contemporary anime series and films. The series contributed significantly to the spread of the DVD format in Japan and generated a considerable impact on the Japanese economy, calculated in billions of yen. In 2006, Matt Greenfield stated that the franchise had earned over . A 2007 estimate placed total sales of 6,000 related goods at over . In 2015, pachinko manufacturer Fields Corporation revealed that "Evangelion" pachinko and pachislot machines sold over 2million units, generating a revenue of . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21711 |
Nijmegen
Nijmegen ( , ;, Nijmeegs: "Nimwèège" ) is a city in the Netherlands' province of Gelderland, on the Waal river close to the German border.
Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands, the second to be recognized as such in Roman times, and in 2005 celebrated 2,000 years of existence.
The municipality is part of the Arnhem–Nijmegen metropolitan area, with 736,107 inhabitants in 2011.
The municipality is formed by the city of Nijmegen, incorporating the former villages of Hatert, Hees and Neerbosch, as well as the urban expansion project of Waalsprong, situated north of the river Waal and including the village of Lent and the hamlet of 't Zand, as well as the new suburbs of Nijmegen-Oosterhout and Nijmegen–Ressen.
The city lies a few kilometers from the border with Germany, and to some extent the westernmost villages in the municipality of Kranenburg, Germany, function as dormitories for people who work in the Dutch city of Nijmegen in part due to the immigration of Dutch people from the region who were attracted by the lower house pricing just across the border.
The German city of Duisburg (in the Ruhr region) is about away.
The first mention of Nijmegen in history is in the 1st century BC, when the Romans built a military camp on the place where Nijmegen was to appear; the location had great strategic value because of the surrounding hills, which gave (and continue to give) a good view over the Waal and Rhine valley.
By 69, when the Batavians, the original inhabitants of the Rhine and Maas delta, revolted, a village called "Oppidum Batavorum" had formed near the Roman camp. This village was destroyed in the revolt, but when it had ended the Romans built another, bigger camp where the Legio X Gemina was stationed. Soon after, another village formed around this camp.
In 98, Nijmegen was the first of two settlements in what is now the Kingdom of the Netherlands to receive Roman city rights.
In 103, the X "Gemina" was re-stationed to Vindobona, modern day Vienna, which may have been a major blow to the economy of the village around the camp, losing around 5000 inhabitants. In 104 Emperor Trajan renamed the town, which now became known as "Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum", Noviomagus for short (the origin of the current name Nijmegen).
A collection of artifacts from Roman antiquity were compiled by Johannes Smetius in the 17th century, called the Smetius Collection.
Beginning in the second half of the 4th century, Roman power decreased and Noviomagus eventually became part of the Frankish kingdom. It also appeared around this time on the Peutinger Map. In the 8th century Emperor Charlemagne maintained his "palatium" in Nijmegen in 777, and possibly on at least three more occasions. During his brief deposition of 830, the emperor Louis the Pious was sent to Nijmegen by his son Lothar I. Thanks to the Waal river, trade flourished.
The powerful Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor was born at Nijmegen in 1165. In 1230 his son Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor granted Nijmegen city rights. In 1247, the city was ceded to the count of Guelders as collateral for a loan. The loan was never repaid, and Nijmegen has been a part of Gelderland ever since. This did not hamper trade; Nijmegen even became part of the Hanseatic League in 1364.
The arts also flourished in this period. Famous medieval painters like the Limbourg brothers were born and educated in Nijmegen. Some of Hieronymus Bosch's ancestors also came from the city.
During the Dutch Revolt, trade came to a halt and even though Nijmegen became a part of the Republic of United Provinces after its capture from the Spanish in 1591, it remained a border town and had to endure multiple sieges.
In 1678 Nijmegen was host to the negotiations between the European powers that aimed to put an end to the constant warfare that had ravaged the continent for years. The result was the Treaty of Nijmegen that, unfortunately, failed to provide for a lasting peace.
In the second half of the 19th century, the fortifications around the city became a major problem. There were too many inhabitants inside the walls, but the fortifications could not be demolished because Nijmegen was deemed as being of vital importance to the defence of the Netherlands. When events in the Franco-Prussian war proved that old-fashioned fortifications were no more of use, this policy was changed and the fortifications were dismantled in 1874. The old castle had already been demolished in 1797, so that its bricks could be sold.
Through the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Nijmegen grew steadily. The Waal was bridged in 1878 by a rail bridge and in 1936 by a car bridge, which was claimed to be Europe's biggest bridge at the time. In 1923 the current Radboud University Nijmegen was founded and in 1927 a channel was dug between the Waal and Maas rivers.
In 1940, the Netherlands was invaded by Germany with Nijmegen being the first Dutch city to fall into German hands. On 22 February 1944, Nijmegen was heavily bombed by American planes, causing great damage to the city centre. It was subsequently claimed by the Allies that the American pilots thought they were bombing the German city of Kleve, while the Germans alleged that it was a planned operation authorised by the Dutch government in exile. The Dutch organization for investigating wartime atrocities, the NIOD, announced in January 2005 that its study of the incident confirmed that it was an accident caused by poor communications and chaos in the airspace. Over 750 people died in the bombardment.
During September 1944, the city saw heavy fighting during Operation Market Garden. The objective of the Battle of Nijmegen was mainly to prevent the Germans from destroying the bridges. Capturing the road bridge allowed the British Army XXX Corps to attempt to reach the 1st British Airborne Division in Arnhem. The bridge was heavily defended by over 300 German troops on both the north and south sides with close to 20 anti-tank guns and two anti-aircraft guns, supported with artillery. The Germans' late attempt to blow the road bridge was possibly foiled by a local Dutch resistance hero, Jan van Hoof, who is said to have cut the wires to the bridge. The Germans made repeated attacks on the bridge using bombs attached to driftwood, midget submarines and later resorted to shelling the bridge with 88mm barrages. Troops were positioned on the bridge giving an excellent arc of fire in case of attack. Troops that couldn't fit onto the bridge were positioned in a bombed-out house slightly upstream of the bridge. During the shelling, the house was hit, killing six soldiers and wounding one more. Nijmegen was liberated from German occupation by the British Grenadier Guards of the Guards Armoured Division, as well as elements of the American 82nd Airborne Division in September 1944. The city would later be used as a springboard for Operation Veritable, the invasion across the Rhine River by Allied Troops.
On 23 February 1981, the Nijmegen police department and the Dutch Army stormed the Piersonstraat and Zeigelhof, a squatters housing block in the city centre of Nijmegen. Using 200 riot vans, three Leopard 1s, three armoured personnel carriers, a helicopter, 1,200 policemen, and 750 members of the armed forces, they evicted the squatters and demolished the block, while clouding the entire area in teargas and CS gas. This received enormous backlash in local politics. While the city government wanted the squatters out to build a parking garage, most of the population wanted affordable housing to be built in the area.
As of this date, Nijmegen is still known as "Havana on the Waal" among some right-wingers. The city council is largely dominated by left-wing and progressive parties such as Green Party, Democrats 66, Socialist Party, and Labour. At times Nijmegen has been the only major city in the Netherlands with a solely left-wing government. The current mayor is Hubert Bruls.
Nijmegen celebrated its 2000th year of existence in 2005. It is considered the oldest city in the Netherlands. In gaining this qualification, it has competed with the city of Maastricht.
In November 2005, the city centre of Nijmegen was the site of the assassination of political activist Louis Sévèke by a former activist Marcel T. who was arrested in 2007 in Spain and extradited to the Netherlands. Marcel T. has also been accused of bank robbery. He committed his acts out of revenge for a forcible eviction from the squatter scene by Louis Sévèke.
Nijmegen has an oceanic climate ("Cfb"). It is one of the warmest cities of the Netherlands, especially during summer, when the highest temperatures in the country are usually measured in the triangle Roermond–Nijmegen–Eindhoven. The lack of north-south oriented mountain ranges in Europe make this area prone to sudden shifts in weather, giving the region a semi-continental climate.
Some of the northernmost wineries in the world are found just outside Nijmegen, around Groesbeek, a suburban village south-east of Nijmegen.
During the 2006 European heat wave, closest official weather station Volkel reached a high of on 19 July. The heat wave coincided with that year's Four Day Marches, which were cancelled after the first day, when two people died of hyperthermia-related causes. Temperatures on that day, 18 July, reached around in the city.
Few Roman remains are visible today; a fragment of the old city wall can be seen near the casino and the foundations of the amphitheatre are traced in the paving of the present-day Rembrandtstraat. The Valkhof Museum, on the Valkhof, has a permanent display of the history of Nijmegen, including artifacts from the Roman era. Additionally, they usually have temporary exhibitions of more and less famous artists. Not many very old buildings are left in town: first the Americans carpet-bombed it in February 1944, later the Germans shelled it for about five months after the liberation in September 1944, and finally there were a number of vigorous city planners in the 1950s, 60s and 70s who finished the demolition.
There are still a few noteworthy sights, however. Valkhof hill downtown features a Carolingian chapel (eighth, ninth century AD) and a small remainder of an imperial castle that was demolished in 1798.
The city council has 39 seats. After the 2002 municipal elections, the three major parties, GroenLinks (9 seats), PvdA (8 seats) and SP (6 seats) formed a coalition. Because these are all left-wing parties, Nijmegen received the nickname 'Havana on the Waal'. Although such majorities are not exceptional (compare Amsterdam) and sometimes also form coalitions (see Muntendam), this is unusual for a city this size. Since such a left-wing coalition might be possible at a national level after the 2006 general election, the achievements of this council are often scrutinised. After the 2006 municipal election such a coalition became possible in many more municipalities, making the example even more interesting.
The municipal elections of 7 March 2006 saw an increase of 4,6% of the votes for these three parties taken together, which could be seen as increased support for the coalition. However, nationally these parties scored much better, recovering from an electoral blow of the 2002 elections. Then again, the Leefbaar parties that caused the loss then and lost most of their votes this time have no branch in Nijmegen, which makes this comparison less valid. Among the three big parties, there was a shift from GroenLinks, who lost 6.5%, to PvdA, who won 6.4% and SP, who won 2.3%. As a result, it is no longer the biggest party. The seat assignment is now as shown in the table. The three-party coalition was returned to office.
After the 2010 Dutch municipal election, the PvdA lost three of its eleven seats. Short before the elections, there were problems with the SP. Therefore, GroenLinks and the PvdA formed a coalition with the social-liberal D66.
The municipal elections of 19 March 2014 saw the Socialist Party narrowly becoming the largest party in the Nijmegen city council after gaining three more seats. The Greens were only some 200 votes behind, while the Liberal Democrats (D'66) gained another seat, while Labour lost half their support, becoming as small as the liberal-conservative VVD. The coalition government was formed between the three centre-left and leftist parties SP, GroenLinks and PvdA, and a local party called The Nijmegen Group (De Nijmeegse Fractie). It also had informal support from the United Senior Party (VSP).
Later in 2014, a city council member of the VVD, Paul Eigenhuijsen, left the VVD group. The former leader of the group, Hayke Veldman, had gone to the House of Representatives, and thus left the city council. Eigenhuijsen had been second on the party list, but he was not elected to the position of leader. Thereafter, he left the group and started his own one-man group, called Liberal Nijmegen.
Nijmegen is twinned with:
Nijmegen has long been known for its annual Four Days Marches , beginning on the third Tuesday of each July. Over 40,000 participants from about 70 countries undertake four days of walking with distances ranging from . The marches are supplemented with festivities such as "de-Affaire".
In 1968, prominent liberal theologians in the Roman Catholic Church issued what is now known as the Nijmegen Statement, demanding sweeping reforms in the Vatican's Holy Office, previously known as The Inquisition, and calling for greater scope for theological inquiry. Among its signatories was the then-progressive theologian Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, then a member of the faculty at the University of Tübingen, but later a much more conservative figure as the head of the successor to the Holy Office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and later still Pope Benedict XVI.
The Nijmegen Statement said: "Any form of Inquisition however subtle, not only harms the development of sound theology, it also causes irreparable damage to the credibility of the church". The signatories, a group of predominantly German-speaking theologians asserted that "the freedom of theologians, and theology in the service of the church, regained by Vatican II, must not be jeopardised again." The signatories pledged their loyalty to the Pope, but argued that the teaching office of pope and bishops "cannot and must not supersede, hamper and impede the teaching task of theologians as scholars."
Sport in the city is principally focused on its football club N.E.C. Nijmegen or just NEC, short for Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie, which plays at the 12,500 seat Stadion de Goffert. The club plays in the Eerste Divisie.
Bandy Vereniging Nijmegen is the biggest bandy club in the country. The national team got celebrated by over a hundred fans and Mayor Hubert Bruls after winning Division B of the 2018 Bandy World Championship.
The city is also home to one of the country's oldest cricket clubs, Quick 1888, a current member of the KNCB. Formed in 1888, the club is the largest cricket club in the east of the country and was formed 13 years after the first club, Utile Dulci from Deventer. The cricket club has both men's and women's teams. The city also has the Nijmegen Devils, an Ice hockey club. Nijmegen also plays host to the annual Zevenheuvelenloop ("Seven Hills Run"), an annual run recognised by the IAAF as a Bronze Label race.
The three main employers in Nijmegen are:
1. Radboud University;
2. The three hospitals in the city: Radboud University Medical Center, , and (CWZ); and
3. The semiconductor industry. Nexperia and Ampleon (both spun off from NXP Semiconductors) are headquartered in the city.
Other notable companies headquartered in Nijmegen include Synthon, a Dutch multinational pharmaceutical company and Vaxxinova, an subsidiary which produces animal vaccines.
To prevent flooding in the near future, the Dutch government is changing the course of more than 30 rivers throughout the country. These measures, taken along the rivers IJssel, Lek, Maas and Waal, are known as ‘Room for the River’. Room for the river Waal as it passes Nijmegen is one of these measures. As part of this, the artificial island Veur-Lent was created in 2015.
The river Waal not only has a sharp bend near Nijmegen, it also forms a bottleneck. In 1993 and 1995 this led to high water and floods. To prevent this from happening again and to protect inhabitants of the city and its surroundings against the water, work has been done to relocate the Waal dike in Lent and to excavate a large ancillary channel in the flood plains, creating an island in the Waal. The large-scale project involves the construction of three bridges, new dikes and concrete water barriers. On the island, a project of alleged sustainable urbanism is giving birth to an urban river park with possibilities for recreation, culture, water and nature.
Nijmegen has five train stations: Nijmegen, Nijmegen Dukenburg, Nijmegen Heyendaal, Nijmegen Lent and Nijmegen Goffert. The central station is connected to the national Intercity network. The bus company Breng (a subsidiary of Hermes) operates the city buses in the Arnhem-Nijmegen metropolitan area.
Like most Dutch cities, bicycles are an important mode of transport. The city is connected to Arnhem, to the north, by a "fietssnelweg" (fast cycle highway) which crosses the Snelbinder bridge in the city. During 2010–2012 the cycle highway received upgrades to further encourage the use of bicycles for transport between Nijmegen and Arnhem. In May 2016, the Dutch Fietsersbond (Cyclists' Union) awarded the 2016 Fietsstad (Cycling City) award to the city of Nijmegen.
The river is a busy freight transport route, with barges to the city as well as passing through on the way between the industrial regions of Germany and the docks at Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hook of Holland. The Maas-Waal Canal also carries freight through the city.
Nijmegen is host to Radboud University Nijmegen. Founded in 1923 as the first Catholic university in the Netherlands, it used to be called "Catholic University of Nijmegen" until 2004, when it took its current name. , it had 22,142 students and 4,921 staff in fte. Radboud University runs the High Field Magnetic Laboratory which is able to achieve some of the highest fields available in Europe at 38 teslas (continuous). The facility is available to outside users, primarily for research purposes.
The education and social work departments of the HAN University of Applied Sciences, school for higher-level vocational training are also located in Nijmegen, as are that school's medical departments.
In addition to these institutions, there is also an intermediate-level vocational school and a number of secondary schools: Groenschool Nijmegen, Kandinsky College, Nijmeegse Scholengemeenschap Groenewoud (NSG), Citadel College, Stedelijke Scholengemeenschap Nijmegen (SSGN), Canisius College, St. Jorisschool, Mondial College, the Stedelijk Gymnasium (formally the "Latijnse school", founded in the 16th century), the Karel de Grote College, Montessori College and the Dominicus College. Of note is also Leefwerkschool Eigenwijs, which caters to students from all over the Netherlands who have been repeatedly expelled from "regular" high schools. Leefwerkschool Eigenwijs has its roots in the local activist movement of the early 1980s and is the only school of its kind recognised in the Netherlands.
Nijmegen is also an important centre of Psycholinguistics, home to the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics and the F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging.
The Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov while at Radboud University "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."
Literature | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21713 |
North Africa
North Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in the west, to Egypt's Suez Canal and the Red Sea in the east. Others have limited it to the countries of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, a region that was known by the French during colonial times as "Afrique du Nord" and is known by Arabs as the Maghreb ("West", "The western part of Arab World"). The most commonly accepted definition includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Sudan, the 6 countries that shape the top North of the African continent. Meanwhile, "North Africa", particularly when used in the term Middle East and North Africa (MENA), often refers only to the countries of the Maghreb and Libya.
North Africa includes a number of Spanish and Portuguese possessions, Plazas de soberanía, Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands and Madeira. The countries of North Africa share a common ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity with the Middle East or West Asia, and is unique to this region as compared to Sub-Saharan Africa. Northwest Africa has been inhabited by Berbers since the beginning of recorded history, while the eastern part of North Africa has been home to the Egyptians. Between the A.D. 600s and 1000s, Arabs from the Middle East swept across the region in a wave of Muslim conquest. These peoples, physically quite similar, formed a single population in many areas, as Berbers and Egyptians merged into Arabic and Muslim culture. This process of Arabization and Islamization has defined the cultural landscape of North Africa ever since.
The distinction between North Africa, the Sahel and the rest of the continent is as follows:
The Sahel or "African Transition Zone" has been affected by many formative epochs in North African history ranging from Ottoman occupation to the Arab-Berber control of the Andalus. As a result, many modern African nation-states that are included in the Sahel evidence cultural similarities and historical overlap with their North African neighbours. In the present day, North Africa is associated with West Asia in the realm of geopolitics to form a Middle East-North Africa region. The Islamic influence in the area is also significant and North Africa is a major part of the Muslim world.
North Africa has three main geographic features: the Sahara desert in the south, the Atlas Mountains in the west, and the Nile River and delta in the east. The Atlas Mountains extend across much of northern Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. These mountains are part of the fold mountain system that also runs through much of Southern Europe. They recede to the south and east, becoming a steppe landscape before meeting the Sahara desert, which covers more than 75 percent of the region. The tallest peaks are in the High Atlas range in south-central Morocco, which has many snow-capped peaks.
South of the Atlas Mountains is the dry and barren expanse of the Sahara desert, which is the largest sand desert in the world. In places the desert is cut by irregular watercourses called wadis—streams that flow only after rainfalls but are usually dry. The Sahara's major landforms include ergs, large seas of sand that sometimes form into huge dunes; the hammada, a level rocky plateau without soil or sand; and the reg, a level plain of gravel or small stones. The Sahara covers the southern part of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, and most of Libya. Only two regions of Libya are outside the desert: Tripolitania in the northwest and Cyrenaica in the northeast. Most of Egypt is also desert, with the exception of the Nile River and the irrigated land along its banks. The Nile Valley forms a narrow fertile thread that runs along the length of the country.
Sheltered valleys in the Atlas Mountains, the Nile Valley and Delta, and the Mediterranean coast are the main sources of fertile farming land. A wide variety of valuable crops including cereals, rice and cotton, and woods such as cedar and cork, are grown. Typical Mediterranean crops, such as olives, figs, dates and citrus fruits, also thrive in these areas. The Nile Valley is particularly fertile and most of the population in Egypt live close to the river. Elsewhere, irrigation is essential to improve crop yields on the desert margins.
Variously the Sudan and Western Sahara are considered to be part of the region by the United Nations, while Western Sahara and Mauritania (but not Sudan) are included by the African Union. In general geopolitical and business usage, as for example with the World Bank, North Africa is often grouped with the Middle East under the acronym MENA ("Middle East and North Africa") and sometimes in American governmental usage the geopolitical term Greater Middle East. Similarly, the traditional Arabic toponym Maghreb (meaning "the West") is commonly used to mean the African part of the Arab World, though usually with the exclusion of Egypt.
The inhabitants of the Spanish Canary Islands are of mixed Spanish and North African Berber ancestry, and the people of Malta are of North African ancestry and speak a derivative of Arabic. However, these areas are not generally considered part of North Africa, but rather Southern Europe, due to their European-based cultures and religion.
The inhabitants of North Africa are roughly divided in a manner corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa: the Maghreb, the Nile valley, and the Sahel. The Maghreb or western North Africa on the whole is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers since at least 10,000 B.C., while the eastern part of North Africa or the Nile Valley has mainly been home to the Egyptians. Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber. As the Tassili n'Ajjer and other rock art findings in the Sahara have shown, the Sahara also hosted various populations before its rapid desertification in 3500 B.C and even today continues to host small populations of nomadic trans-Saharan peoples.
In the eleventh century, the Banu Hilal invaded the North African plains and plateaus, but not the mountainous areas such as the Tell Atlas range, the Rif or the Aurès Mountains and brought with them Hilalian dialects of Arabic, which over the centuries have been in significant contact with other languages, including the languages of Europe. They have contributed to the Arabized Berber populations.
The official languages in the countries making up the Maghreb are Tamazight which is also known as Berber, and Arabic and French as administratives languages. The most spoken language is Darija, which is a form of ancient Arabic dating back from the 8th century AD that follows a Berber grammatical and syntactical structure. For the remaining North African countries the official language is Arabic. The largest ethnic groups in North Africa Berbers and West Africans in the west and the Arabs in the east approaching the Middle East. The region is predominantly Muslim with a Jewish minority in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and significant Christian minority—the Copts—in Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
The people of the Maghreb and the Sahara regions speak Berber languages and several varieties of Arabic and almost exclusively follow Islam. The Arabic and Berber languages are distantly related, both being members of the Afroasiatic language family. The Tuareg Berber languages are notably more conservative than those of the coastal cities.
Over the years, Berbers have been influenced by contact with other cultures: Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Europeans and Africans. The cultures of the Maghreb and the Sahara therefore combine indigenous Berber, Arab and elements from neighboring parts of Africa and beyond. In the Sahara, the distinction between sedentary oasis inhabitants and nomadic Bedouins and Tuaregs is particularly marked.
The diverse peoples of North Africa are usually categorized along ethno-linguistic lines. In the Maghreb, where Arab and Berber identities are often integrated, these lines can be blurred. Some Berber-speaking North Africans may identify as "Arab" depending on the social and political circumstances, although substantial numbers of Berbers (or "Amazighen") have retained a distinct cultural identity which in the 20th century has been expressed as a clear ethnic identification with Berber history and language. Arabic-speaking Northwest Africans, regardless of ethnic background, often identify with Arab history and culture and may share a common vision with other Arabs. This, however, may or may not exclude pride in and identification with Berber and/or other parts of their heritage. Berber political and cultural activists for their part, often referred to as Berberists, may view all Northwest Africans as principally Berber, whether they are primarily Berber- or Arabic-speaking.
Egyptians over the centuries have shifted their language from Egyptian (in its late form, varieties of Coptic) to modern Egyptian Arabic while retaining a sense of national identity that has historically set them apart from other people in the region. Most Egyptians are Sunni Muslim, although there is a significant minority of Coptic Christians.
The Maghreb formerly had a significant Jewish population, almost all of whom emigrated to France or Israel when the North African nations gained independence. Prior to the modern establishment of Israel, there were about 600,000–700,000 Jews in Northern Africa, including both Sephardi Jews (refugees from France, Spain and Portugal from the Renaissance era) as well as indigenous Mizrahi Jews. Today, less than fifteen thousand remain in the region, almost all in Morocco and Tunisia, and are mostly part of a French-speaking urban elite. (See Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries.)
Due to the recent African origin of modern humans, the history of Prehistoric North Africa is important to the understanding of pre-hominid and early modern human history in Africa.
Some researchers have postulated that North Africa rather than East Africa served as the exit point for the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent in the Out of Africa migration.. The earliest inhabitants of central North Africa have left behind significant remains: early remnants of hominid occupation in North Africa, for example, were found in Ain el Hanech, near Saïda (c. 200,000 BCE); in fact, more recent investigations have found signs of Oldowan technology there, and indicate a date of up to 1.8 million BCE.
Recent finds in Jebel Irhoud in Morocco have been found to contain some of the oldest "Homo sapiens" remains; This suggests that, rather than arising only in East Africa around 200,000 years ago, early "Homo sapiens" may already have been present across the length of Africa 100,000 years earlier. According to study author Jean-Jacques Hublin, "The idea is that early "Homo sapiens" dispersed around the continent and elements of human modernity appeared in different places, and so different parts of Africa contributed to the emergence of what we call modern humans today." Early humans may have comprised a large, interbreeding population dispersed across Africa whose spread was facilitated by a wetter climate that created a "green Sahara", around 330,000 to 300,000 years ago. The rise of modern humans may thus have taken place on a continental scale rather than being confined to a particular corner of Africa.
In September 2019, scientists reported the computerized determination, based on 260 CT scans, of a virtual skull shape of the last common human ancestor to modern humans/"H. sapiens", representative of the earliest modern humans, and suggested that modern humans arose between 260,000 and 350,000 years ago through a merging of populations in East and Southern Africa.
The cave paintings found at Tassili n'Ajjer, north of Tamanrasset, Algeria, and at other locations depict vibrant and vivid scenes of everyday life in central North Africa during the Neolithic Subpluvial period (about 8000 to 4000 BCE). Some parts of North Africa began to participate in the Neolithic revolution in the 6th millennium BCE, just before the rapid desertification of the Sahara around 3500 B.C. largely due to a tilt in the Earth's orbit. It was during this period that domesticated plants and animals were introduced in the region, spreading from the north and east to the southwest. There has been an inferred connection between areas of rapid drying and the introduction of livestock in which the natural (orbital) aridification was amplified by the spread of shrubs and open land due to grazing. Nevertheless, changes in northern Africa's ecology after 3500 BCE provided the backdrop for the formation of dynastic civilizations and the construction of monumental architecture such as the Pyramids of Giza.
When Egypt entered the Bronze Age, the Maghreb remained focused on small-scale subsistence in small, highly mobile groups. Some Phoenician and Greek colonies were established along the Mediterranean coast during the 7th century BCE.
The most notable nations of antiquity in western North Africa are Carthage and Numidia. The Phoenicians colonized much of North Africa including Carthage and parts of present-day Morocco (including Chellah, Essaouira and Volubilis). The Carthaginians were of Phoenician origin, with the Roman myth of their origin being that Dido, a Phoenician princess, was granted land by a local ruler based on how much land she could cover with a piece of cowhide. She ingeniously devised a method to extend the cowhide to a high proportion, thus gaining a large territory. She was also rejected by the Trojan prince Aeneas according to Virgil, thus creating a historical enmity between Carthage and Rome, as Aeneas would eventually lay the foundations for Rome. Ancient Carthage was a commercial power and had a strong navy, but relied on mercenaries for land soldiers. The Carthaginians developed an empire in the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily, the latter being the cause of First Punic War with the Romans.
Over a hundred years and more, all Carthaginian territory was eventually conquered by the Romans, resulting in the Carthaginian North African territories becoming the Roman province of Africa in 146 B.C. This led to tension and eventually conflict between Numidia and Rome. The Numidian wars are notable for launching the careers of both Gaius Marius, and Sulla, and stretching the constitutional burden of the Roman republic as Marius required a professional army, something previously contrary to Roman values, to overcome the talented military leader Jugurtha.
North Africa remained a part of the Roman Empire, which produced many notable citizens such as Augustine of Hippo, until incompetent leadership from Roman commanders in the early fifth century allowed the Germanic peoples, the Vandals, to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, whereupon they overcame the fickle Roman defense. The loss of North Africa is considered a pinnacle point in the fall of the Western Roman Empire as Africa had previously been an important grain province that maintained Roman prosperity despite the barbarian incursions, and the wealth required to create new armies. The issue of regaining North Africa became paramount to the Western Empire, but was frustrated by Vandal victories. The focus of Roman energy had to be on the emerging threat of the Huns. In 468 AD, the Romans made one last serious attempt to invade North Africa but were repelled. This perhaps marks the point of terminal decline for the Western Roman Empire. The last Roman emperor was deposed in 476 by the Heruli general Odoacer. Trade routes between Europe and North Africa remained intact until the coming of Islam. Some Berbers were members of the Early African Church (but evolved their own Donatist doctrine), some were Berber Jews, and some adhered to traditional Berber religion. African pope Victor I served during the reign of Roman emperor Septimius Severus
The early Muslim conquests included North Africa by 640. By 700, most of North Africa had come under Muslim rule. Indigenous Berbers subsequently started to form their own polities in response in places such as Fez and Sijilmasa. In the eleventh century, a reformist movement made up of members that called themselves the Almoravid dynasty expanded south into Sub-Saharan Africa.
North Africa's populous and flourishing civilization collapsed after exhausting its resources in internal fighting and suffering devastation from the invasion of the Banu Sulaym and Banu Hilal. Ibn Khaldun noted that the lands ravaged by Banu Hilal invaders had become completely arid desert.
After the Middle Ages the area was loosely under the control of the Ottoman Empire, except Morocco. The Spanish Empire conquered several coastal cities between the 16th and 18th centuries. After the 19th century, the imperial and colonial presence of France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy left the entirety of the region under one form of European occupation.
In World War II from 1940 to 1943 the area was the setting for the North African Campaign. During the 1950s and 1960s all of the North African states gained independence. There remains a dispute over Western Sahara between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front.
In 2010–2011 massive protests swept the region leading to the overthrow of the governments in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as civil war in Libya. Large protests also occurred in Algeria and Morocco to a lesser extent. Many hundreds died in the uprisings. This uprising is commonly referred to as the "Arab spring".
The economies of Algeria and Libya were transformed by the discovery of oil and natural gas reserves in the deserts. Morocco's major exports are phosphates and agricultural produce, and as in Egypt and Tunisia, the tourist industry is essential to the economy. Egypt has the most varied industrial base, importing technology to develop electronics and engineering industries, and maintaining the reputation of its high-quality cotton textiles.
Oil rigs are scattered throughout the deserts of Libya and Algeria. Libyan oil is especially prized because of its low sulfur content, which means it produces much less pollution than other fuel oils. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21714 |
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team plays its home games at Gillette Stadium in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is located southwest of downtown Boston. The Patriots are also headquartered at Gillette Stadium.
Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, an original member of the American Football League (AFL), the team joined the NFL in the leagues' 1970 merger, then changed its name when it moved to Foxborough in 1971. The New England Patriots played their home games at Foxboro Stadium through 2001, then moved to Gillette Stadium at the start of the 2002 season. The Patriots' rivalry with the New York Jets is considered one of the most bitter rivalries in the NFL.
Since the arrival of head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady in 2000, the Patriots have become one of the most successful teams in NFL history, claiming 16 AFC East titles as part of 18 consecutive winning seasons since 2001. The franchise has since set numerous notable records, including most wins in a ten-year period (126, in 2003–2012), an undefeated 16-game regular season in 2007, the longest winning streak consisting of regular season and playoff games in NFL history (a 21-game streak from October 2003 to October 2004), and the most consecutive division titles won by a team in NFL history (11 straight division titles from 2009 to 2019). The team owns the record for most Super Bowl appearances (nine) and wins (six) by a head coach–quarterback tandem, most conference championships overall (11), most Super Bowl appearances overall (11). The Patriots are tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl wins (six), and with the Denver Broncos for the most Super Bowl losses (five). Following the 2019 season, Tom Brady left in free agency, and Rob Gronkowski came out of a year long retirment, asking Bill Belichick to trade him as part of the 2020 NFL Draft, both went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
On November 16, 1959, Boston business executive Billy Sullivan was awarded the eighth and final franchise of the developing American Football League (AFL). The following winter, locals were allowed to submit ideas for the Boston football team's official name. The most popular choice – and the one that Sullivan selected – was the "Boston Patriots," with "Patriots" referring to those colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution and in July 1776 declared the United States of America an independent nation. Immediately thereafter, artist Phil Bissell of "The Boston Globe" developed the "Pat Patriot" logo.
The Patriots struggled for most of their years in the AFL, and they never had a regular home stadium. Nickerson Field, Harvard Stadium, Fenway Park, and Alumni Stadium all served as home fields during their time in the American Football League. They played in only one AFL championship game, following the 1963 season, in which they lost to the San Diego Chargers 51–10. They did not appear again in an AFL or NFL post-season game for another 13 years.
When the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, the Patriots were placed in the American Football Conference (AFC) East division, where they still play today. The following year, the Patriots moved to a new stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, which would serve as their home for the next 30 years. As a result of the move, they announced they would change their name from the Boston Patriots to the Bay State Patriots, after the state of Massachusetts. The name was rejected by the NFL and on March 22, 1971, the team officially announced they would change its geographic name to New England.
During the 1970s, the Patriots had some success, earning a berth to the playoffs in 1976—as a wild card team—and in 1978—as AFC East champions. They lost in the first round both times. In 1985, they returned to the playoffs, and made it all the way to Super Bowl XX, which they lost to the Chicago Bears 46–10. Following their Super Bowl loss, they returned to the playoffs in 1986, but lost in the first round. The team would not make the playoffs again for eight more years. During the 1990 season, the Patriots went 1–15. They changed ownership three times in the ensuing 14 years, being purchased from the Sullivan family first by Victor Kiam in 1988, who sold the team to James Orthwein in 1992. Though Orthwein's period as owner was short and controversial, he did oversee major changes to the team, first with the hiring of former New York Giants coach Bill Parcells in 1993. Orthwein and his marketing team also commissioned the NFL to develop a new visual identity and logo, and changed their primary colors from the traditional red, white and blue to blue and silver for the team uniforms. Orthwein intended to move the team to his native St. Louis, Missouri (where it would have been renamed as the St. Louis Stallions), but instead sold the team in 1994 for $175million to Boston paper magnate Robert Kraft, who had bought the Patriots' then-home, Foxboro Stadium, out of bankruptcy in 1988.
Since then, the Patriots have sold out every preseason, regular season, and playoff home game. By 2009, the value of the franchise had increased by over $1billion, to a "Forbes" magazine estimated value of $1.361billion, third highest in the NFL only behind the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins. , the Patriots are the sixth most valuable sports franchise in the world according to "Forbes" magazine with a value of $3.7billion.
Continuing on as head coach under Kraft's ownership, Parcells would bring the Patriots to two playoff appearances, including Super Bowl XXXI, which they lost to the Green Bay Packers by a score of 35–21. Pete Carroll, Parcells's successor, would also take the team to the playoffs twice in 1997 and 1998 before being dismissed as head coach after the 1999 season.
The Patriots hired head coach Bill Belichick, who had served as defensive coordinator under Parcells including during Super Bowl XXXI, in 2000. Their new home field, Gillette Stadium, opened in 2002 to replace the aging Foxboro Stadium. Under Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, the Patriots consistently became one of the most dominant teams in the NFL, with many describing the team as a "dynasty". Within the first few seasons of the 21st century, the team won three Super Bowls in four seasons (2001, 2003, and 2004), over the St. Louis Rams, Carolina Panthers, and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively. The Patriots finished the 2007 regular season with a perfect 16–0 record, becoming only the fourth team in league history to go undefeated in the regular season, and the only one since the league expanded its regular season schedule to 16 games. After advancing to Super Bowl XLII, the team's fourth Super Bowl in seven years, the Patriots were defeated by the Giants to end their bid for a 19–0 season. With the loss, the Patriots ended the year at 18–1, becoming only one of three teams to go 18–1 along with the 1984 San Francisco 49ers and the 1985 Chicago Bears. However, both the Bears and 49ers lost their only game during the regular season, and both would win their respective Super Bowl.
The Patriots returned to the Super Bowl in 2012 but lost again to the Giants, 21–17. In 2015, the Patriots reached a record-tying eighth Super Bowl, where they defeated the defending champions Seattle Seahawks by a score of 28–24 to win Super Bowl XLIX for their fourth title. They became the first team to reach nine Super Bowls in the 2016–17 playoffs and faced the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, which ended up paving the way for their fifth Super Bowl victory, tying them with the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers for the second-most in NFL history. The Patriots extended their record to ten Super Bowl appearances in the 2017–18 playoffs but lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII. The Patriots returned to the championship game for a third consecutive season in Super Bowl LIII, where they defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13–3 to win their sixth Super Bowl, tying them with the Pittsburgh Steelers for most Super Bowl victories in NFL history.
The Patriots original helmet logo was a simple tricorne hat, used only for the 1960 season. From 1961 to 1992, the Patriots used a logo of a Revolutionary War minuteman hiking a football. The Patriots script logo during this time consisted of a western-style font. The minuteman logo became known as the "Pat Patriot" logo, which later became the name of the team's mascot.
In 1979, the Patriots worked with NFL Properties to design a new, streamlined logo, to replace the complex Pat Patriot logo. The new logo featured the blue and white profile of a minuteman in a tricorne hat set against a flag showing three red stripes separated by two white stripes. Team owner Billy Sullivan decided to put the new logo up to a vote against Pat Patriot with the fans at the September 23 home game against the San Diego Chargers, using a sound level meter to judge the crowd's reaction. The new logo was decidedly rejected by the crowd in favor of Pat, and the concept was shelved.
In 1993, a new logo was unveiled involving the gray face of a minuteman wearing a red, white and blue hat that begins as a tricorne and transitions into a flowing banner-like design. The logo is a fundamentally identical design to the aborted 1979 logo which the fans booed out of the home stadium: A right facing profile of a silhouetted dull face image and hat with a white star, with red stripes to the left. It became popularly known as the "Flying Elvis" due to many observing its resemblance to the profile of a young Elvis Presley. In 2000, the blue color was darkened.
On July 3, 2013, the Patriots unveiled a new logo, which replaced the script of their previous wordmark with block letters and modified the tricorne hat.
The Patriots originally wore red jerseys with white block numbering at home, and white jerseys with red block numbering on the road. Both uniforms used white pants and white helmets, first with the hat logo over the player's number, then with the "Pat Patriot" logo starting in 1961. A blue stripe was added to the two red helmet stripes in 1964. The numbers on both the home and away jerseys gained a blue outline in 1973. In 1979, the Patriots began the first of many sporadic runs of wearing red pants with the white jerseys. The red pants were dropped in 1981, but returned in 1984. After being dropped again in 1988, they were used again from 1990 to 1992.
The Patriots underwent a complete identity overhaul before the 1993 season, starting with the introduction of the aforementioned "Flying Elvis" logo. The new uniforms consisted of a royal blue home jersey and a white away jersey. The helmet was silver with the Flying Elvis logo and no additional striping. Both uniforms used silver pants, originally with stripes designed to look like those flowing from the Flying Elvis, but these were changed to simple red and blue stripes after one season. When they debuted, both the home and away jerseys used red block numbers with a blue and white outline, but after one season the home uniforms switched to the now-familiar white with a red outline.
In 1995, the Patriots switched the block numbers to a more modern rounded number font with a dropshadow. The Patriots were one of the first adopters of custom numbers, a trend that would grow drastically over the next 20 years.
However, in 2000, the Patriots also became one of the few teams to drop the rounded numbers and switched back to block numbers. Also that year, the shade of blue was darkened from royal to nautical blue. The Patriots, unsatisfied with the white-on-silver road look, also took the opportunity to introduce blue pants to be worn with the white jersey, offering a better contrast. To better match the blue pants, the number on the white jersey was switched from red to blue.
Starting with the 2020 season, the Patriots made some changes to their uniform. The all-blue "Color Rush" design became the primary home uniform, complete with updated block letters and numbers, and blue/red/white socks. A corresponding white uniform was also unveiled and will also be paired with the blue pants. Both uniforms featured truncated shoulder striping as a nod to the "Pat Patriot" uniforms.
In 1994, the Patriots wore the "Pat Patriot" helmets and plain white striped pants from two seasons prior as alternates as part of the NFL's 75th anniversary celebration. In 2002, NFL teams were allowed to add a permanent third jersey to be worn in a maximum of two games. The Patriots reintroduced a red jersey as their alternate, complemented with the old-style "Pat Patriot" helmet. In 2003, the Patriots changed their alternate to a silver jersey with blue pants. For this uniform, the "Flying Elvis" helmet was used. The uniform was identical to the white jersey with any areas of white replaced by silver. These uniforms were dropped after 2007. No alternate uniform was used in 2008. In 2009, the red alternate was reintroduced, again accompanied by the "Pat Patriot" helmet. An alternate white road jersey was also worn with the older helmet for one game, using red numbers, in tribute to the 50th anniversary of the AFL. The red alternate gained a blue outline around the numbers in 2010 and this was worn through 2012. The Patriots retired their alternate red uniforms in 2013, thanks to a new NFL rule outlawing throwback alternate helmets, and restricting teams to one helmet shell only.
In 2016, the Patriots took part in the NFL Color Rush program, wearing monochrome navy uniforms on September 22 against the Houston Texans. The uniform tops were patterned after the 1980s Pat Patriot-era uniforms, while the pants featured thick white stripes with red accents. They have worn them a total of four times since 2016. In 2017, an all-white Color Rush uniform was introduced and used for the Patriots' Thursday night road game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In terms of number of games played, the Patriots have competed most against other teams in the AFC East division: the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, and New York Jets, who were all a part of the AFC East division since the AFL-NFL Merger, as well as the former AFL Eastern division. The Patriots also share rivalries with several teams outside of their division, including the Indianapolis Colts, who were members of the AFC East from 1970-2001, the Baltimore Ravens, the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The closest geographically has been the rivalry with the New York Jets. The Patriots and Jets have been in the same division (what is now the AFC East) since both teams' foundings in 1960, and have played each other at least twice a year since then. The rivalry between the Jets and Patriots has escalated since 1996, when Patriots head coach Bill Parcells left the Patriots under controversy to become the head coach of the Jets; he was replaced by former Jets coach Pete Carroll. Four years later Carroll was fired, and Parcells's assistant, Bill Belichick, resigned the day he was named the Jets' head coach to become the head coach of the Patriots. Six years after that, Eric Mangini, an assistant under Belichick, became the head coach of the Jets.
Bill Belichick achieved his 200th career head coaching win (regular season and playoffs) on November 22, 2012, defeating the Jets 49–19; it was his 163rd such win as Patriots coach. The Patriots defeated the Jets in Week seven of the 2015 season by a score of 30–23, to give them a 6–0 record to date.
The Patriots rivalry with the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts ran through the two clubs' tenure together in the AFC East (1970–2001). The two clubs clashed in several close games, such as on December 19, 1971, as a late Patriots touchdown decided a 21–17 New England win; on September 18, 1978, the Colts rallied to defeat the Patriots 34–27 on "Monday Night Football" on a virtual one-man scoring rampage by running back Joe Washington; on September 4, 1983, the Colts defeated the Patriots in overtime 29–23 in their final season in Baltimore. The Patriots defeated the Colts in back-to-back overtime games, 23–17 on December 8, 1991, and 37–34 on November 15, 1992.
Even though the two clubs were placed in separate divisions in the NFL's 2002 divisional realignment, their rivalry did not diminish. At that time, both teams were among the best in the AFC, and both were led by likely Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Peyton Manning (for the Colts) and Tom Brady (for the Patriots). The teams met three times in four years (2003, 2004, 2006) in the playoffs, with the winner going on to win that season's Super Bowl each time. The Manning portion of the rivalry began in Manning's rookie season, 1998; in 1999 Manning suffered a bitter 31–28 loss in September as the Patriots behind Drew Bledsoe erased a 28–7 Colts lead, then defeated the Patriots 20–15 in Indianapolis on December 12. The Brady–Manning portion of the rivalry began on September 30, 2001, as Brady made his first NFL start in a 44–13 Patriots win at Foxboro; on October 21 the Patriots defeated the Colts at the RCA Dome 38–17.
After the Colts left the AFC East in 2002, they first met on November 30, 2003, in a 38–34 Patriots win decided on a last-second goal line stand by the Patriots. The Colts broke a six-game Patriot winning streak in the rivalry in November 2005, then won twice in 2006; in the AFC Championship Game the Colts erased a 21–6 halftime lead; the game lead tied or changed seven times in the second half before a late touchdown led to a 38–34 Colts win. The November 4, 2007, meeting involved both teams being unbeaten to that point; the 8–0 Patriots and the 7–0 Colts. The Patriots rallied to win 24–20. The Colts won again in 2008 and then erased a large Patriots lead in 2009's 4th and 2 game. Manning's final meeting with the Patriots as a Colt came in November 2010; a late interception sealed a 31–28 Patriots win.
In 2012, the Patriots faced the Colts, quarterbacked now by Andrew Luck, on November 18; the Patriots defeated the Colts 59–24. The Patriots also beat the Colts on January 12, 2014, 43–22. The Patriots played the Colts in the playoffs again on January 18, 2015, in the AFC title game, winning 45–7.
The Patriots and the Bills were both charter members of the AFL, and even competed with each other in an AFL playoff game. They have remained divisional rivals since the NFL-AFL merger. Prior to the rise of Tom Brady, the two teams shared a mellow, yet occasionally competitive rivalry, featuring highlights from players such as O.J. Simpson, Steve Grogan, Joe Ferguson, Jim Kelly, and Drew Bledsoe. However, Brady has dominated the Bills ever since taking over as the Patriots' franchise quarterback, holding a 29-3 regular season record over them. Though Patriots fans usually feel apathetic towards the Bills, Bills fans have come to despise the Patriots more than any other rival. The rivalry has remained somewhat intense in recent years with multiple players having played for both teams, the Bills usually giving their all when playing the Patriots, and the presence of Rex Ryan, who coached both the Bills and Jets and was known for his trash-talk.
The Patriots first played the Miami Dolphins in 1966 in the AFL, when Miami was one of two expansion teams to debut that year in that league. The Dolphins dominated the Patriots in the 1970s and 1990s, but the two teams remained competitive with each other for years before the rise of Tom Brady. Brady, however, struggled occasionally against the Dolphins in the 2000s before reasserting dominance in the 2010s. The Patriots and Dolphins are the only two teams in the Super Bowl era to post undefeated regular season records, with Miami going 14-0 in 1972 and the Patriots going 16-0 in 2007. Notable moments between the clubs include the Snowplow Game, three playoff matchups, the Dolphins revealing their Wildcat offense against the Patriots, and the Miracle in Miami.
The Ravens first met the New England Patriots in 1996, but the rivalry truly started in 2007 when the Ravens suffered a bitter 27–24 loss in the Patriots' quest for perfection. The rivalry began to escalate in 2009 when the Ravens lost to the Patriots 27–21 in a game that involved a confrontation between Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs. Both players would go on to take verbal shots at each other through the media after the game. The Ravens defeated the Patriots in the 2009 AFC Wild Card playoff game, 33–14. This was the first time the Ravens had ever defeated the Patriots.
The Ravens faced the Patriots in week six of the 2010 season. The Patriots ended up winning 23–20 in overtime; the game caused controversy from a hit to the helmet of tight end Todd Heap by Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather.
The Ravens played the Patriots for the third consecutive season in the 2011 AFC Championship Game, which the Ravens lost 23–20. The rivalry reached a new level of friction with this, the second career playoff game between the two clubs. The Ravens clawed to a 20–16 lead in the fourth quarter, but Patriots quarterback Tom Brady dove into the end zone to make the score 23–20 with around 11 minutes remaining; this proved to be the winning touchdown. On the Ravens' last possession of the game, quarterback Joe Flacco threw a pass to wide receiver Lee Evans in the corner of the end zone which looked to be the game-winning touchdown, before a last-second strip by Sterling Moore forced the ball from the hands of Evans, forcing the game to be decided on a last-minute field goal by Ravens placekicker Billy Cundiff. With 11 seconds remaining on the clock, the kicker missed the 32-yard field goal attempt, allowing the Patriots to kill the clock on their way to Super Bowl XLVI for a rematch with the New York Giants.
The Ravens' first regular-season win over the Patriots came on September 23, 2012. The game was emotional as receiver Torrey Smith was competing following the death of his brother in a motorcycle accident just the night before. Smith caught two touchdowns in a back and forth game; the Ravens erased a 13–0 lead in the first half and led 14–13, but the Patriots scored at the end of the second quarter for a 20–14 lead. The lead changed twice in the third quarter and the Patriots led 30–21 in the fourth, but the Ravens scored on Smith's second touchdown catch. The Ravens were stopped on fourth down but the Patriots had to punt; in the final two minutes a pass interference penalty on Devin McCourty put the ball at the Patriots 7-yard line; new Ravens kicker Justin Tucker booted a 27-yard field goal on the final play; the ball sailed directly over the upright and was ruled good; the quality of officiating by replacement referees caused controversy as Bill Belichick angrily reached for one of the referees as they were leaving the field, leading to a $50,000 fine later that week.
The two teams met again on January 20, 2013, in the AFC Championship, where the Ravens won 28–13. The Patriots led at halftime, 13–7, but the Ravens defense gave up no points in the 2nd half. It was the first time ever that Tom Brady lost a game at home after leading at halftime, and the first time a road team beat the Patriots in the AFC Championship.
The two teams met once again at Gillette Stadium in the playoffs on January 10, 2015. The Patriots trailed by as much as 14 twice, before beating the Ravens 35–31 to advance to the AFC Championship.
The two teams met with Lamar Jackson as the Ravens quarterback for the first time on Sunday Night Football on November 3, 2019. The 8-0 Patriots were favored over the 5-2 Ravens before the game, but the Ravens won in a blowout, 37-20.
The Patriots' professional cheerleading squad is the New England Patriots Cheerleaders (NEPC) which represents the team in the NFL. Notable NEPC alumni include wrestler Carmella, and model Camille Kostek.
The Patriots' mascot is Pat Patriot, a revolutionary minuteman wearing a Patriots home jersey.
The Patriots also employ a corps known as the End Zone Militia, a group of American Revolutionary War reenactors founded in 1996 by Geoff Campbell, a reenactor for the 9th Massachusetts Regiment (26th Continental Regiment). Consisting of about 30 men and women, they dress 20 for each home game and split themselves into two groups of 10 lining the back of either end zone. When the Patriots score – whether it be a touchdown, field goal, point-after-touchdown or safety – the militia behind the opposite end zone fire a volley of blanks from flintlock muskets. Per an interview with the Loren & Wally Show on WROR 105.7 FM in and around the time of Super Bowl XLIX, said shots use double the load of black powder than a regular historical reenactor does, specifically 200 grains, in order to be heard throughout the stadium. ESPN writer Josh Pahigian named this one of the top ten celebrations in the league in 2007.
Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" has become an unofficial theme song and entrance anthem for the Patriots at their home games and Super Bowls, starting when they hosted the NFL Kickoff at Gillette Stadium on September 8, 2005.
Since 2002, the Patriots' home stadium has been Gillette Stadium, a $350million facility privately financed by Kraft. It houses all administrative offices for the team and its owning entity, The Kraft Group, as well as the Kraft-owned Major League Soccer team, the New England Revolution. The field, which was originally natural grass, was replaced with a FieldTurf surface during the 2006 season. The Patriots have a 20-3 playoff record in this stadium as of the conclusion of the 2018 NFL season. The area around the stadium was developed, beginning in 2007, into a $375million "lifestyle and entertainment center" called Patriot Place; among its largest structures is a multi-floor restaurant and bar called CBS Scene.
Prior to 2002, the Patriots played in Foxboro Stadium dating back to 1971, the team's second year in the NFL after the AFL–NFL merger, and this venue was also privately funded. The final game in this stadium was the 2001 AFC Divisional Playoff game which was a 16-13 overtime win over the visiting Oakland Raiders, known for the raging snowstorm and the "tuck rule" call.
During the team's days in the American Football League and its first year in the NFL, the Boston Patriots were hosted by a number of fields in or around Boston—they played at Nickerson Field (1960–62), Fenway Park (1963–68), Alumni Stadium (1969), and Harvard Stadium (1970).
In 2017 the Patriots purchased two Boeing 767-300ERs for use as team planes, with one serving as the backup, which were ready in time for the 2017 NFL season. This made them the first team in league history to own their own planes. At the time it was getting more difficult for professional sports teams to book private charter flights, with eight teams being dropped that season, as major commercial airlines were instead focusing on more profitable scheduled flights. The two jet airliners, N366AA and N39367, were previously operated by American Airlines from 1991 to 2016. The planes are known affectionately as "AirKrafts" after team owner Robert Kraft. Kraft has lent one of the planes to transport students to the March for Our Lives demonstration in Washington D.C.
Under head coach Bill Belichick, the Patriots have employed specific on-field and off-field strategies. On the field, the Patriots have typically used an "Erhardt–Perkins" offense and a "Fairbanks–Bullough" 3–4 defense, referred to commonly as a two-gap 3–4 defensive system. Their philosophy in making personnel decisions and in game planning has focused on the "team" concept, stressing preparation, strong work ethic, versatility, and lack of individual ego. This approach, which has led to six Super Bowl victories under Belichick, was analyzed in the 2004 book "Patriot Reign".
The New England Patriots feature 27 former players and two contributors in their team hall of fame, established in 1991. A committee of media and staff selected 11 players for enshrinement between 1991 and 2001, before a six-year span of no selections. In 2007, in advance of the 2008 opening of The Hall at Patriot Place, the Patriots introduced a new nomination committee to select three candidates, with the winner of an Internet fan vote being enshrined in the hall of fame. In order to be eligible, players and coaches must be retired for at least four years. Beginning in 2011, and meeting every five years, a senior selection committee has the option of voting a player who has been retired for at least 25 seasons into the hall of fame.
Former owner Billy Sullivan was inducted by owner Robert Kraft in March 2009, the Patriots' 50th season, as a contributor.
Additionally, five of these Patriots players have also been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Patriots have officially retired seven uniform numbers.
In November 1971, fans voted on a 10-year Patriots anniversary team, which coincided with the team's 10 years in the then-defunct American Football League: Additional selections for returner, special teamer, and coach were added in 2009:
In March 2009, as part of the Patriots' 50th anniversary, a group of local media and other team figures selected all-decade teams for the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s:
On March 16, 2010, the Patriots Hall of Fame selection committee selected an all-decade team for the 2000s:
On April 29, 2020, the Patriots Hall of Fame selection committee selected an all-decade team for the 2010s:
In 1994, a group of local media selected a 35th anniversary team:
In 2009, the Patriots Hall of Fame selection committee selected a 50th anniversary team:
The Patriots have had 14 head coaches throughout their history. Their first head coach was Lou Saban, who coached them to a 7–12–0 record in the 1960/1961 season . Bill Belichick has the longest tenure as head coach with the Patriots.
During the 2007 season, the New England Patriots were disciplined by the league for videotaping New York Jets' defensive coaches' signals from an unauthorized location during a September 9, 2007 game. Videotaping opposing coaches is not illegal in the NFL "de jure", but there are designated areas allowed by the league to do such taping. After an investigation, the NFL fined Patriots head coach Bill Belichick $500,000 for his role in the incident, fined the Patriots $250,000, and docked the team their original first-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft which would have been the 31st pick of the draft.
During the against the Indianapolis Colts, allegations arose that the Patriots were using under-inflated footballs. It was even suggested that the Patriots' staff themselves deliberately deflated the footballs to give their team an unfair advantage during the playoffs. A lengthy investigation and heated debate commenced shortly afterwards, with a full report being published in May 2015. The Wells Report found that balls provided by the Patriots, who were the home team, indeed had less pressure on average than the balls provided by the Colts. Also notable was the findings of some suggestions of communication between Tom Brady and two Patriots locker room attendants, indicating Brady was likely "generally aware" of the situation and that the Patriots staff intentionally deflated the footballs. A later study by the American Enterprise Institute called the evidence and methodology of the Wells report "deeply flawed" and "unreliable".
In the aftermath of the incident, the NFL suspended Brady without pay for the first four games of the 2015 season, fined the Patriots $1million, and forced them to forfeit their 2016 first round draft pick and 2017 fourth round draft pick. Brady appealed his suspension, which was eventually vacated by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, only for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reinstate it a year later for the 2016 NFL season. Brady eventually agreed to serve the suspension in 2016, but led the Patriots to win Super Bowl LI in spite of it.
The Patriots' flagship radio station is WBZ-FM (98.5 FM, otherwise known as "The Sports Hub"), owned by Beasley Broadcast Group. The larger radio network is called the New England Patriots Radio Network, whose 37 affiliate stations span seven states. Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti were the longtime announcing team until their retirement following the conclusion of the 2012 NFL season. Santos was replaced by Bob Socci. Former Patriots QB Scott Zolak joined the radio team in the 2011 season as a sideline analyst, and in 2013, he replaced Cappelletti as color commentator.
Any preseason games not on national television are shown on CBS's O&O WBZ-TV, who also airs the bulk of Patriots regular season games by virtue of CBS having the rights to most AFC games; CBS also has a presence at the nearby Patriot Place with the "CBS Scene" bar/restaurant. During the regular season whenever the Patriots host an NFC team, the games are aired on Fox affiliate WFXT-TV, and "NBC Sunday Night Football" games are carried by the "NBC Boston" network of stations led by WBTS-CD. Preseason games were broadcast on ABC affiliate WCVB-TV from 1995 until the change to WBZ in 2009 (WCVB continues to simulcast ESPN's "Monday Night Football" games featuring the Patriots). Don Criqui was play-by-play announcer for the 1995–2012 seasons, with Randy Cross as a color commentator and Mike Lynch as a sideline reporter. Lynch was replaced by WBZ reporter Steve Burton in 2009. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21719 |
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The team was founded by John W. Mecom Jr., David Dixon, and the city of New Orleans on November 1, 1966. The Saints began play in Tulane Stadium in 1967 where they remained until the 1974 NFL season, when they moved to the new Louisiana Superdome (now the Mercedes-Benz Superdome).
The name "Saints" is an allusion to November 1 being All Saints' Day in the Catholic faith. New Orleans has a large Catholic population, and the spiritual "When the Saints Go Marching In" is strongly associated with New Orleans and is often sung by fans at games. The team's primary colors are old gold and black; their logo is a simplified fleur-de-lis.
For most of their first 20 years, the Saints were barely competitive, only getting to .500 wins twice. In 1987, they finished 12–3 – their first-ever winning season – and qualified for the NFL playoffs for the first time in franchise history, but lost to the Minnesota Vikings 44–10. The next season in 1988 ended with a 10–6 record, but no playoff berth. Following the 2000 regular season, the Saints defeated the defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams 31–28 to notch their first-ever playoff win.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast region. The Superdome was used as an emergency, temporary shelter for displaced residents. The stadium suffered damage from the hurricane (notably from flooding and part of the roof being torn off as well as internal damage from lack of available facilities). The Saints were forced to play their first scheduled home game against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey (the Giants' home stadium); other home games were rescheduled at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas or Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During the season, it was rumored that Saints' owner Tom Benson might deem the Superdome unusable and seek to legally void his contract and relocate the team to San Antonio, where he had business interests. Ultimately, however, the Superdome was repaired and renovated in time for the 2006 season at an estimated cost of US$185 million. The New Orleans Saints' first post-Katrina home game was an emotionally charged "Monday Night Football" game versus their division rival, the Atlanta Falcons. The Saints, under rookie head coach Sean Payton and new quarterback Drew Brees, defeated the Falcons 23–3, and went on to notch the second playoff win in franchise history.
The 2009 season was a historic one for the Saints. Winning a franchise-record 13 games, they qualified for Super Bowl XLIV and defeated the AFC champion Indianapolis Colts 31–17. To date, it is the only Super Bowl championship that they have won, and as it is the only Super Bowl the Saints have appeared in, they join the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the only three NFL teams to win their lone Super Bowl appearance.
In 53 seasons (through 2019), the Saints' record was overall, 375–438–5 in the regular season and 9–12 in the playoffs.
First the brainchild of local sports entrepreneur Dave Dixon, who later built the Louisiana Superdome and founded the USFL, the Saints were actually secretly born in a backroom deal brought about by U.S. Congressman Hale Boggs, U.S. Senator Russell Long, and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. The NFL needed congressional approval of the proposed AFL–NFL merger. Dixon and a local civic group had been seeking an NFL franchise for over five years and had hosted record crowds for NFL exhibition games. To seal the merger, Rozelle arrived in New Orleans within a week, and announced on November 1, 1966, that the NFL officially had awarded the city of New Orleans an NFL franchise. The team was named for the great jazz song most identified with New Orleans – "When the Saints Go Marching In", and it was no coincidence that the franchise's official birth was announced on November 1, which is the Catholic All Saints' Day. When the deal was reached a week earlier, Dixon strongly suggested to Rozelle that the announcement be delayed until then. Dixon told an interviewer that he even cleared the name with New Orleans' Archbishop Philip M. Hannan: "He thought it would be a good idea. He had an idea the team was going to need all the help it could get."
Boggs' Congressional committee in turn quickly approved the NFL merger. John W. Mecom Jr., a young oilman from Houston, became the team's first majority stockholder. The team's colors, black and gold, symbolized both Mecom's and New Orleans' strong ties to the oil industry. Trumpeter Al Hirt was part owner of the team, and his rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In" was made the official fight song.
The inaugural game in 1967 on September 17 started with a 94-yard opening kickoff return for a touchdown by John Gilliam, but the Saints lost that game 27–13 to the Los Angeles Rams at Tulane Stadium, with over 80,000 in attendance. It was one of the few highlights of a 3–11 season, which set an NFL record for most wins by an expansion team.
For most of their first 20 years, the Saints were the definition of NFL futility. They did not finish as high as second in their division until 1979. The 1979 and 1983 teams were the only ones to even finish at .500 until 1987.
One of the franchise's early bright moments came on November 8, 1970, when Tom Dempsey kicked an NFL record-breaking 63-yard field goal at Tulane Stadium to defeat the Detroit Lions 19–17 in the final seconds of the game; the previous record was seven yards less, set in . Dempsey's record was not broken until by Matt Prater of the Denver Broncos, who kicked one yard farther (at elevation in Colorado).
In 1980, the Saints lost their first 14 games, prompting local sportscaster Bernard "Buddy D" Diliberto to advise Saints supporters to wear paper bags over their heads at the team's home games; many bags rendered the club's name as the "'Aints" rather than the "Saints."
Tom Benson, a successful automobile dealership owner and banker, acquired the franchise in 1985, and hired Jim Finks as general manager and Jim Mora as head coach. That combination provided the Saints with their first-ever winning record and playoff appearance, going 12–3 in 1987, which had one fewer game than normal due to a players' strike. Another playoff berth would follow during the 1990 season, and the club's first division title came in 1991. During Mora's tenure, the Saints made the playoffs four times, with teams marked by strong defenses led by the "Dome Patrol" linebacking corps, but they were never able to win a playoff game. Mora coached the Saints until the middle of the 1996 season, when he stepped down halfway through the 3–13 season. His 93 wins were three more than the Saints won in their entire history prior to his arrival, and would remain the most for any Saints coach until 2016.
After the end of the 1996 season, ironically as Diliberto had suggested before Mora's resignation, former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka was hired to replace Mora. Although this initially generated a lot of excitement among Saints fans, Ditka's tenure ended up being a failure. The Saints went 6–10 in their first two seasons under Ditka (1997 and 1998). During the 1999 NFL Draft, Ditka traded all of his picks for that season, as well as the first-round and third-round picks for the following season, to the Washington Redskins in order to draft University of Texas Heisman Trophy running back Ricky Williams in the first round. Ditka and Williams had a mock wedding picture taken to commemorate the occasion. However, Ditka, most of his coaching staff, and general manager Bill Kuharich were fired at the end of the 1999 season due to the club's 3–13 record.
Jim Haslett held the post from 2000 to 2005. In his first year, he took the team to the 2000 playoffs and defeated the defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams for the team's first ever playoff win. The team lost the following week to the Minnesota Vikings. After winning the 2000 NFL Executive of the Year Award, General Manager Randy Mueller was fired between the 2001 and 2002 seasons without explanation by Benson. The Saints failed to make the playoffs in 2001 and 2002, although in the latter year they had the distinction of beating the eventual Super Bowl XXXVII champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in both of their regular season meetings, only the second team to do so in NFL history.
In 2003, the Saints again missed the playoffs after finishing 8–8. The 2004 season started poorly for the Saints, as they went 2–4 through their first six games and 4–8 through their first twelve games. At that point Haslett's job appeared to be in jeopardy; however, he managed to win the three straight games leading up to the season finale, leaving the Saints in playoff contention in the final week of the season. In week 17, the Saints defeated division rivals Carolina; however, the Saints needed other results to break their way and when the St. Louis Rams beat the New York Jets the Saints were eliminated despite having beaten the Rams, who finished with the same record. The Rams, Saints, and Vikings all were 8–8, with the Rams having a 7–5 conference record, Saints 6–6, and the Vikings 5–7. The Rams received the #1 wild-card due to having the best conference record out of the three, followed by the Vikings due to the 38–31 loss handed to the Saints in Week 6. Haslett was fired after the 2005 season, in which the Saints finished 3–13 and did not play any regular season games in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina.
Due to the damage Hurricane Katrina caused to the Superdome and the New Orleans area, the Saints' scheduled 2005 home opener against the New York Giants was moved to Giants Stadium. The remainder of their 2005 home games were split between the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, and LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.
On January 17, 2006, the Saints hired Sean Payton as their new head coach.
2006 season
On March 14, 2006, the Saints signed former San Diego Chargers quarterback Drew Brees to a six-year, $60 million deal.
On March 23, the Saints announced that the team's two 2006 preseason games were to be played at Shreveport, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi. After a $185 million renovation of the historic stadium, on April 6 the Saints released their 2006 schedule, with all home games scheduled to be played at the Superdome. On September 19, Saints owner Tom Benson announced that the team had sold out the Louisiana Superdome for the entire season with season tickets alone (68,354 seats), a first in franchise history.
The September 25, home opener, the first home game in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, was won by the Saints 23–3 against the Atlanta Falcons, who were undefeated in the 2006 season at that time. The attendance for the game was a sellout crowd of 70,003. Meanwhile, the broadcast of the game was ESPN's highest-ever rated program to date, with an 11.8 rating, and viewership by 10.85 million homes. It was the most-watched program for the night, broadcast or cable, and was the second-highest rated cable program of all time at the time. Green Day and U2 performed "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and "The Saints Are Coming", respectively, before the game. The game received a 2007 ESPY award for "Best Moment in Sports." The game is remembered by Saints fans for Steve Gleason's blocked punt on the opening series that resulted in a touchdown for New Orleans.
On December 17, the Saints clinched their third division title and their first NFC South title in franchise history. For the first time in Saints' history, they clinched their NFC South title on their home field. Sean Payton became the second consecutive Saints coach to win a division title in his first season. After the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys 23–7 on Christmas Day 2006, the Saints clinched a first-round playoff bye for the first time in franchise history.
After the first-round bye, the Saints beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27–24 in the Superdome in the 2006 Divisional Playoffs. No team had ever had such a poor record in the prior year (3–13) and then gone on to a league or conference championship game since the 1999 St. Louis Rams who advanced to win their first Super Bowl after being 4–12 the season before. Since the Saints' only previous playoff win was in the wild card round, this was the farthest the Saints had ever advanced at the time. The victory was only the second playoff win in team history. The season ended on January 21, 2007, when the Saints lost 39–14 to the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship game.
2007 season
The Saints announced that for the second year in a row, the Louisiana Superdome had sold out every ticket for the season. Additionally, all luxury boxes had been sold out for the season. Both of these statistics are particularly surprising given that the city-proper has about 300,000 people or 150,000 fewer people than July 2005 population data (though the metro area still accounts for 1.2 million people).
The first game of the season was against the defending Super Bowl XLI champion Indianapolis Colts. The Saints lost this game, 41–10, and lost their next three games. In one of these three games, against the Tennessee Titans, the Saints lost running back Deuce McAllister for the season with his second career (second time in three seasons) ACL tear. After winning their first game, against the Seattle Seahawks, two weeks later, the team went on a four-game winning streak to bring their record to an even 4–4. After reaching 7–7, the Saints lost their final two games to finish 7–9.
2008 season
Following a disappointing 7–9 record in the 2007 season, the Saints ended the 2008 season 8–8. Failing to qualify for the post season for the second straight year, the Saints found themselves struggling on defense. However, the Saints would match the explosive offense they had in the 2006 season. Drew Brees ended the 2008 season just 16 yards short of beating Dan Marino's single-season record of 5084 total passing yards, and receiver Lance Moore came 72 yards short of his first 1000-yard season.
2009 season: First Super Bowl championship
The 2009 season was the team's most successful season, which culminated in the franchise's first league championship win against the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. After achieving a record of 13–0 with their win over the Atlanta Falcons, it marked the Saints' best start to a season in its franchise history. The result clinched an NFC playoff berth, a bye in the first round of the playoffs. By winning their first 13 games, the Saints also set the record for the longest undefeated season opening (13–0) by an NFC team since the AFL–NFL merger, surpassing the previous record (12–0) held by the 1985 Chicago Bears. However, they would fall victim to the Dallas Cowboys in week 14, going on to end the season with a three-game losing streak. The Saints became the first team to win a Super Bowl after losing its last three regular season games.
Although its opponents would include winners of 9 of the last 15 NFL MVP awards, the team advanced to the 2009 NFC Championship game where they defeated the Minnesota Vikings, led by Brett Favre, 31–28 in overtime (at 9:19 CST), earning their first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. Television ratings for Super Bowl XLIV (44) were the highest for any TV program, sports or otherwise, in history, as their successful bid to win the Super Bowl was seen by many to represent the city's resurgence after the devastating Hurricane Katrina.
2010 season
The Saints 2010 season began in the Superdome as the defending Super Bowl champions defeated the Minnesota Vikings 14–9, in a rematch of the 2009 NFC Championship Game. It was played on Thursday September 9, 2010 and televised on NBC, making it the first time the Saints have opened the NFL's season at home. On Sunday, August 8, 2010, NBC announced the televised opening festivities of the evening would begin with Taylor Swift and Dave Matthews Band. On December 27, 2010, with a 17–14 win against the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta the Saints clinched a playoff appearance (wild card). This marked the first time a team in the NFC South had made back-to-back playoff appearances since the division was formed in 2002. The Saints would face the Seattle Seahawks for the wild-card opener at Qwest Field. The Seahawks were the first NFL team to capture their division with a sub-.500 regular season record (7–9). Drew Brees completed a postseason-record 39 passes for 404 yards and two touchdowns. Despite throwing 60 passes and hindered by a lack of depth at running back, last year's Super Bowl MVP was not intercepted and rallied the Saints within 34–30 in the fourth quarter. In the end, his efforts were negated by a defense that could not get enough stops and a late touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch breaking over a half-dozen tackles with 3:22 left which helped the Seahawks defeat the Saints 41–36.
2011 season
The Saints began their season with a loss against the Green Bay Packers, but the team rebounded for the next four weeks to bring their record to 4–1. A loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers brought the record to 4–2, but the team bounced back with a 62–7 blowout win against the struggling Indianapolis Colts. A surprise loss to the St. Louis Rams resulted in the record dropping to 5–3. In the next seven weeks the Saints beat talented teams such as the eventual Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants, Detroit Lions, and Atlanta Falcons, bringing their season record to 12–3. To cap off the season, quarterback Drew Brees broke the single season passing record held for over 25 years, on the way to a Saints division winning game. The Saints won the NFC South title on December 26 and ended the 2011 season as the third seed in the NFC. They finished with a 13–3 record, beating Carolina 45–17 and also giving running back Darren Sproles the record for most all-purpose yards in a single season. The team broke numerous records that year including most yards in a season, completion percentage, yards passing, completions and more. The New Orleans Saints beat the Detroit Lions in the 2011 NFC wild-card playoff game 45–28. New Orleans also tied the NFL's postseason mark for team first downs in a game (34), and broke the record for total yards with 626, eclipsing the yardage record set 49 years ago. The Saints lost Saturday, January 14, 2012, in the Divisional round in the playoffs against the San Francisco 49ers in Candlestick Park. A game that was considered an instant classic by many as the game saw numerous lead changes in the final four minutes of play.
2012 season: Payton suspended; punishment for Bountygate
After an off-season dominated by news of the bounty scandal and the year-long suspension of head coach Sean Payton, the Saints sought to refocus on football and produce yet another winning year. Instead, the team, led by offensive line coach Aaron Kromer for its first six games, started the season with four straight losses and a last place spot in the NFC South. The team finally broke through with a win in Week 5, against the San Diego Chargers, a game that also saw quarterback Drew Brees break Johnny Unitas's longstanding record for consecutive games with a touchdown pass. After their scheduled bye, the Saints went on to win 4 of their next 5 games, to bring their record to an even 5–5. Joe Vitt returned after his six-game suspension to serve as interim head coach for the rest of the season. The team failed to hold its momentum, however, and lost the next three games, including a loss at Atlanta that also marked the end of Brees' record touchdown streak after 54 games, and a 52–27 blowout loss to the Giants that dropped the Saints to 5–8. Despite winning 2 of their last 3 games, and Brees again leading the league with 5,177 passing yards (his third time to surpass 5,000 yards, as he remained the only quarterback to break that barrier more than once), the team finished tied for last in the NFC South, at 7–9. The Saints defense allowed 7,042 yards, setting an NFL record.
2013 season
The Saints finished their 2013 preseason 3–1, and won their first five regular season games against the Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears. The Saints under Sean Peyton had been winless in Chicago's Soldier Field and had not won in the Windy City since 2000. The Saints fared well against Chicago, Arizona and Miami, winning 26–18, 31–7 and 38–17 respectively, but needed a 4th down shutdown and a last-minute field goal to escape Atlanta and Tampa Bay. The Saints went on a 5–0 win streak, but were stopped short by the New England Patriots in Week 6, losing 30–27, with a touchdown pass by Tom Brady in the last 5 seconds of the game. New Orleans would go undefeated at home for the second straight season with Sean Payton as the head coach, but finish just 3–5 on the road. Key losses included a 7–34 blowout against the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football in Seattle which cost them homefield advantage throughout the playoffs, a 16–27 upset against the St. Louis Rams in St. Louis which led to the Saints needing to win their next game against Carolina to control their own playoff destiny, and a heartbreaking 13–17 defeat to their division rival the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte who went on to win the NFC South. The Saints finished the season with an 11–5 record and earned a wild card berth as the sixth seed in the NFC. On January 4, 2014, the Saints recorded their first road playoff win in franchise history over the Philadelphia Eagles 26–24. On January 11, the Saints lost to the first seed, the Seattle Seahawks, once again in Seattle 15–23. The weather conditions were very poor, which gave the offense much difficulty. Despite the conditions, the defense of the Saints played well, holding Seattle to just 23 over the 34 points allowed against Seattle during the regular season.
2014 season
The Saints finished the season 7–9, second in their division behind the 7–8–1 Carolina Panthers. They missed out on the playoffs after being defeated 14–30 by their divisional rival, the Atlanta Falcons, in the second-to-last week of the season. This season was notorious in Saints history for having the 31st worst ranked defense in the league, which is one of the main reasons for the Saints poor 2014 campaign. The only two great performances by the defense out of the entire season came from a 44–23 home win against the Green Bay Packers and a 31–15 victory against the Chicago Bears in Chicago.
2015 season
The Saints finished with a 7–9 record for the second consecutive season. They were third in the NFC South after the 15–1 NFC champions Carolina Panthers and the 8–8 Atlanta Falcons. Their defense was historically bad. They allowed the most passing touchdowns in a season in NFL history as they allowed 45, effectively making them the worst passing defense in NFL history. They also set the NFL record in opposing passer rating (116.2), while finishing last in points allowed (29.8) and yards allowed per play (6.6). Atrocious play by defensive captain Brandon Browner, who set the NFL record for most penalties with 23, did not help the struggling Saints defense. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was fired near the half-way point in the season and was replaced by senior defensive assistant Dennis Allen. The Saints had strong play from their 2015 draft class. The Saints first pick Andrus Peat started at right tackle and left guard at certain points in the season, and other first-round pick Stephone Anthony finished his rookie season with 112 tackles, one sack, one interception, and two forced fumbles. He had two scores, both coming against the Carolina Panthers and led all rookies in tackles. Second-round pick Hau'oli Kikaha had 4 sacks. Canadian football star Delvin Breaux, who was signed in the off-season, led the Saints struggling secondary with 3 interceptions and 19 pass deflections. Drew Brees also tied the NFL record for touchdown passes in a game with 7, coming against the New York Giants.
On March 15, 2018, the Saints' owner Tom Benson died from flu at the age of 90 after he was hospitalized on February 16, 2018. Benson's wife Gayle Benson succeeded him as the owner of the Saints and the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans.
Black, along with old gold and white, has always been one of the team colors, but it was not the first choice of original majority owner John W. Mecom Jr. His preference was for Mecom blue, a medium shade which was used by all of his other investments. The NFL office, however, informed him that his proposed combination too closely resembled that worn by the San Diego Chargers. Although the Chargers were members of the AFL, the older league did not want to offend its soon-to-be partner so soon after the merger. Mecom settled on black as the primary color as a nod to his financial involvement in the petroleum industry. "Black gold" is a term synonymous with oil. Although the Pittsburgh Steelers—who played a few home games in New Orleans during their early years to avoid conflict with the Pittsburgh Panthers football team—have long used black and gold as their colors, their shade of gold more closely resembles yellow, making the Saints black and gold compatible with the rest of the NFL.
Except for minor modifications, the Saints' logo and uniforms have basically remained the same since the club debuted in 1967. The team's logo is a fleur-de-lis (a symbol of the City of New Orleans and of France's Royal Family, which included the House of Bourbon), while its uniform design consists of gold helmets, gold pants, and either black or white jerseys. Minor changes to the uniform stripes and trim have been made throughout the years. The team wore black helmets during the 1969 preseason, but NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle barred the Saints from using the helmets during the regular season, since Mecom did not notify the league office of the change. Black helmets have never been introduced since, not even as an alternate helmet prior to 2013, when the NFL began to require teams to use only one helmet shell per season.
The Saints predominantly wore white at home when the club played at Tulane Stadium from 1967 through 1974 (except in 1969 and 1970), forcing opponents to suffer in their darker jerseys in the subtropical climate of New Orleans. When the surface at Tulane Stadium switched from natural grass to PolyTurf in 1971, field temperatures became hotter still. In Archie Manning's first game, in the 1971 season opener against the Los Angeles Rams, temperatures on the field reached as high as . The heavily favored Rams wilted in the stifling heat, and the Saints claimed their first-ever victory over their NFC West rivals, 24–20, on Manning's one-yard quarterback sneak on the last play of the game.
The Saints switched to white pants in 1975, coinciding with the team's move from Tulane Stadium to the Superdome, and have worn white at home numerous times since then. One year later, they started to wear black pants with their white jerseys, a move influenced by coach Hank Stram, who introduced red pants to the Kansas City Chiefs' uniforms in 1968. In an October 3, 1976 home game against the Houston Oilers, Hank Stram used the Saints' road uniforms, the white jerseys and black pants. The Saints lost that game 31–26. During the 1981–82 seasons (Bum Phillips' first two seasons as coach), the team wore white jerseys with black pants at home, but reverted to the black jerseys and white pants for 1983. They reverted to wearing gold pants with both their black and white jerseys in 1986 under new coach Jim E. Mora. From 1986 through 1995, the sleeves of the jerseys and sides of the pants featured a logo with a fleur-de-lis inside an outline of the state of Louisiana (with the location of New Orleans marked with a star in the state outline). The logo replaced the striping pattern that had been on the uniforms since the team's inception; save for color variations, the striping pattern was similar to that used by the Washington Redskins (until 1979), Green Bay Packers (until 1997), and Cleveland Browns (until 2014), which is likely why the change was made. That logo was removed in 1996 and replaced with a fleur-de-lis on both the sleeves and sides of the pants.
From 1996 through 1998, the Saints returned to gold numbers on both the white and black jerseys, but complaints about the numbers on the white jerseys being too difficult to read forced the numbers on the white jerseys to be changed to black in 1999. The Saints wore black pants with a wide gold stripe with their white jerseys in 1999, but following a 3–13 season and the dismissal of coach Mike Ditka, the black pants were mothballed by new coach Jim Haslett.
In 2000, the Saints won their first playoff game as they hosted the St. Louis Rams, and after having a better road record than home record, they wore their white jerseys, and won 31–28 over the defending champion Rams. The defining play of the game came with the Saints clinging to a three-point lead with minutes to play. The Saints punted to the Rams' Az-Zahir Hakim (who would play one season for the Saints in 2005), who fumbled the punt deep in Rams' territory. Brian Milne recovered for the Saints, who then ran out the clock to preserve the victory.
In 2001, they wore their white jerseys in the first six home games. During that same year, they primarily wore black pants with both their white and black jerseys. They became the first NFL team to wear all-black uniforms in a week 5 road game against the Carolina Panthers, and again in weeks 16 and 17 in home games against the Washington Redskins and San Francisco 49ers; the Saints were outscored 78–10 in the final two contests to end a 7–9 campaign.
In 2002, the Saints wore black pants with their white jerseys (except for the final road game, a 20–13 loss in Cincinnati when they went back to the gold pants), and gold pants with their black jerseys, a gold alternate jersey, and a 1967-style throwback uniform, complete with an accurate 1967-era helmet which featured a larger fleur-de-lis, a darker shade of gold and grey facemasks. But one season later, they stopped using the alternates and again reverted to wearing gold pants with both their black and white jerseys.
The team introduced a gold alternate jersey (worn with the black pants) during a December 15, 2002 game versus the Minnesota Vikings, a 32–31 loss, but have never worn them since then. Because of the metallic gold's bright color, the gold jerseys were considered the "light" jersey in the game, so the Vikings wore their purple home jerseys as the "dark" colored team. One team must wear "dark" and one team must wear "light", this was done because of black & white t.v. broadcasts so viewers could tell the teams apart. The only exception being if both teams are wearing throwback uniforms, such as Thanksgiving Classic games. From 2003 through 2007, the New England Patriots had a "light" jersey (their alternate, a bright metallic silver) that is not white in which the other team would wear their colored, or "dark" jerseys against them since the third jersey rule was implemented in the NFL in 2002.
The Saints also introduced a 1967-style throwback uniform in a 23–20 win on December 1, 2002, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This uniform was not worn again until a 40–33 win against the Houston Texans on September 25, 2011, and also on November 6, 2011, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a 27–16 Saints win. However, the 2011 throwbacks use the current helmet, meaning the shades of gold on the helmet and jersey do not match.
In 2006, to honor their return to Louisiana, the Saints wore a patch on their uniforms with an outline of the State of Louisiana with a fleur-de-lis superimposed, similar to the logo from the 1980s.
The Saints originally planned to wear white jerseys at home for the 2006 season, but during the season, the players voted to wear the black jerseys at home after the second game. Since the team had informed the NFL office that they planned to wear white jerseys at home, each of the Saints' remaining home opponents would have to agree to New Orleans' request. The Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cincinnati Bengals did not agree to the switch, forcing the Saints to wear white jerseys for those games.
Starting in week 13 of the 2006 season, the Saints wore black pants with the black jerseys against the San Francisco 49ers (restoring them after a four-season absence), and in a Week 16 game in The Meadowlands against the New York Giants (a 30–7 Saints win), the Saints wore the black pants with their road white jerseys. The Saints later stuck with the black pants in their 2006 playoff run.
Since 2008, the Saints have worn white jerseys at home for preseason games and early regular season home games.
In 2009, the Saints wore the black pants only once, beating St. Louis 28–23. They wore the white jerseys/gold pants combination during the Super Bowl XLIV victory over the Indianapolis Colts. In 2012, the Saints wore black pants 12 times and wore gold pants 4 times. In 2013, gold pants were used only 7 times (including playoffs).
Prior to the 2016 season, the NFL introduced the Color Rush program, and the Saints' version is a mixture of different uniform designs from earlier eras. White jersey tops featured old gold numbers with black trim along with gold and black sleeve stripes (a nod to the team's late 1960s uniforms). Complementing the uniforms were white pants (inspired from the 1975–85 look) and all-white socks. The Saints first wore the uniform during Week 11 of that season against the Carolina Panthers on the road, and was worn on the road two more times thereafter. Its first home appearance came in Week 11 of the 2018 season against the Philadelphia Eagles; the Saints were forced to wear the white uniforms at home after head coach Sean Payton lost a bet with Eagles coach Doug Pederson during a charity golf event in the offseason.
In 2019, a variation of the all-white Color Rush look was unveiled during the Week 6 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Saints wore their current white uniforms, but paired them with white pants minus any striping (an inverse of their black pants).
The Mercedes-Benz Superdome is the Saints' home stadium. It has a listed seating capacity of 76,468 (expanded) or 73,208 (not expanded). The Saints own a perfect record there against the Houston Texans (2–0) and Jacksonville Jaguars (3–0), but a winless one against the Baltimore Ravens (0–2).
The Saints' oldest rival are the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons lead the rivalry series 52–49. The two clubs joined the NFL within a year of each other as expansion teams and have played each other twice a season since the Saints joined the league in 1967.
The Saints have a developing rivalry with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have been part of the NFC South with the Saints since 2002.
The teams actually played each other quite often as non-division rivals. Between 1977 and 2001, there were only five years in which the teams did not play. This includes 12 years in a row from 1981 to 1992 – all as a result of the scheduling formulas in place prior to 2002 (this remains a record for most consecutive years in which two teams not from the same division met each other).
The Saints won 13 of 20 games as non-division opponents. Since becoming division rivals, the Saints have the edge in the series, winning 16 games to the Bucs' 10.
One notable pre-division game is a 1977 matchup that resulted in Tampa Bay's first win in franchise history coming against New Orleans after previously starting out 0–26 overall.
The Saints and the Carolina Panthers have been minor rivals since Carolina joined the league as an expansion franchise in 1995. The teams have been divisional rivals since then, originally in the NFC West and then in the NFC South since 2002. This series has been extremely close. As of the end of the 2019 season, the Saints own the series by a game lead.
Carolina defeated New Orleans on the road every year from 2002 to 2008, a streak of seven seasons. Notable games include Carolina's 19–7 home victory in 1996 that sparked Saints head coach Jim Mora's infamous "Diddley Poo" rant and resignation from the team, Carolina's 10–6 win in the 2002 season finale at the Superdome to knock the Saints out of the playoffs, and the emotional 2005 season opener at Carolina where the Saints won 23–20 in the face of Hurricane Katrina and an eventual 3–13 season.
In their last game in the 2014 NFL season, a fight between players broke out in the end zone and spilled out into the tunnel entrance after a Cam Newton touchdown, with Panther's tight end Brandon Williams getting ejected and both teams receiving offsetting penalties. The Panthers won the contest 41–10, with early turnovers by the Saints being a factor in the blowout.
On January 7, 2018, the two teams met in the NFL playoffs for the first time in the Wild Card round. It was the first ever playoff game between NFC South teams since the division's formation in 2002. The Saints beat the Panthers 31–26, thus eliminating Carolina. The rivalry has been heated since then.
! Total !! 356 !! 437 !! 5 !! !! colspan="4"|
! Total including playoffs !! 362 !! 451 !! 5 !! !! colspan="4"|
Until the selection of Rickey Jackson in 2010, there had been no players in the Hall of Fame who earned their credentials primarily as Saints; the others were chosen for their work with previous teams. Jim Finks’ tenure as Saints general manager was a significant factor in his selection.
When offensive tackle Willie Roaf was selected in 2012, he became the second Saint to earn his Hall of Fame credentials mostly while in New Orleans. Roaf was a member of the NFL's All-Decade team of the '90s. Morten Andersen was selected in 2017, becoming the third former player inducted primarily for their accomplishments in New Orleans. Andersen was only the second full-time placekicker inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The following Saints players have been named to at least one Pro Bowl:
On October 9, 2013, the Saints announced the creation of a Ring of Honor to commemorate former players, administrators and individuals with significant contributions to the franchise. Their names are displayed along the Mercedes-Benz Superdome's Terrace Level fascia. The first three honorees were Archie Manning, Rickey Jackson and Willie Roaf and were officially inducted during halftime of the Saints' game against the Dallas Cowboys on November 10, 2013.
To commemorate the club's 45th anniversary, the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame selected its All-45th Anniversary Team. The Hall of Fame updates its all-time team every five years, and this latest squad of head coach and players features four standouts from the club's roster at the time of selection: QB Drew Brees, G Jahri Evans, and DE Will Smith as well as head coach Sean Payton.
The players are chosen in a vote by the Hall of Fame media selection committee, which includes local and regional media members who cover the Saints now or did so in the past. The All-45th Anniversary Team is as follows, with an asterisk (*) designating those players who have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame:
Offense
Specialists
Defense
Coach
1 2005 induction ceremonies postponed to October 27, 2006, due to Hurricane Katrina
The "Joe Gemelli Fleur-De-Lis Award" is given yearly to a person who has contributed to the betterment of the New Orleans Saints organization. The award is named for Joe Gemelli, a New Orleans clothing store owner and an active supporter of sports in the city, who was known as the team's biggest fan.
The Saintsations are the cheerleading squad for the Saints. A cheerleading squad has existed since the franchise's founding, but the current name was only adopted in 1987.
The Saints' flagship station is WWL (870 AM/105.3 FM), one of the oldest radio stations in the city of New Orleans and one of the nation's most powerful as a clear-channel station with 50,000 watts of power. Former Saints guard Zach Strief is the play-by-play announcer, with former Saints running back Deuce McAllister as color commentator. Strief succeeded longtime play-by-play announcer Jim Henderson in 2018, and McAllister succeeded another former Saints running back, Hokie Gajan, in the role after Gajan's death on April 11, 2016, from liposarcoma. Henderson was the play-by-play announcer for Saints radio broadcasts continuously from 1993 to 2017, and previously held the position from 1986–89 after serving as a color commentator from 1981–85, and again in 1992, when Dave Garrett was play-by-play announcer. Previous color commentators include former Saints players Archie Manning (QB, 1971–82) and Stan Brock (OT, 1980–91).
Most preseason games are televised by WVUE (Channel 8), a station which until its outright 2017 sale to Raycom Media (and subsequent sale in 2019 to Gray Television) was owned by a consortium led by Saints owner Tom Benson since mid-2008 (that consortium continues to hold a minority stake in the station). As the Fox affiliate for New Orleans, it carries the majority of Saints games; WVUE also carries a heavy complement of coach and player shows. Tim Brando and Jon Stinchcomb call the preseason games for the Saints.
Saints preseason games were previously produced by Cox Sports Television. Beginning in the 2015 season, owing to Raycom's management of the station on behalf of Tom Benson's ownership group, production of preseason telecasts were taken over by Raycom Sports under a new multi-year deal, and syndicated to Raycom stations and others around the team's footprint. Regular season games are also aired on WWL-TV, the local CBS station whenever they host an AFC opponent (and games vs. NFC opponents cross-flexed from Fox to CBS) and NBC affiliate WDSU via "Sunday Night Football", with the latter also syndicating "Monday Night Football" games for local airing from sister operation ESPN. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21720 |
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team is headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey. The Jets play their home games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which they share with the New York Giants. The franchise is legally and corporately registered as New York Jets, LLC.
The team was founded in 1959 as the Titans of New York, an original member of the American Football League (AFL); later, the franchise joined the NFL in the AFL–NFL merger in . The team began play in 1960 at the Polo Grounds. Under new ownership, the current name was adopted in 1963 and the franchise moved to Shea Stadium in 1964 and then to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in 1984. The Jets advanced to the playoffs for the first time in 1968 and went on to compete in Super Bowl III where they defeated the Baltimore Colts, becoming the first AFL team to defeat an NFL club in an AFL–NFL World Championship Game. Since 1968, the Jets have appeared in the playoffs 13 times, and in the AFC Championship Game four times, most recently losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010. However, the Jets have never returned to the Super Bowl, making them one of three NFL teams to win their lone Super Bowl appearance, along with the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Apart from the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions, who have never reached the Super Bowl (although both won NFL championships prior to 1966), the Jets' drought is the longest among current NFL franchises.
The team's training facility, Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, which opened in 2008, is located in Florham Park. The team currently holds their annual training camp sessions in Florham Park, New Jersey.
The first organizational meeting of the American Football League took place on August 14, 1959. Harry Wismer, representing the city of New York at the meeting, proclaimed the state was ready for another professional football team and that he was more than capable of running the daily operations.
Wismer was granted the charter franchise later dubbed the Titans of New York as Wismer explained, "Titans are bigger and stronger than Giants." He secured the Titans' home field at the decrepit Polo Grounds, where the team struggled financially and on the field during its first three years. By 1962, the debt continued to mount for Wismer, forcing the AFL to assume the costs of the team until season's end.
A five-man syndicate, headed by Sonny Werblin, saved the team from certain bankruptcy, purchasing the lowly Titans for $1 million. Werblin renamed the team the New York Jets since the team would play in Shea Stadium near LaGuardia Airport. The new name was intended to reflect the modern approach of his team. The Jets' owners hired Weeb Ewbank as the general manager and head coach. Ewbank and quarterback Joe Namath led the Jets to prominence in 1969, when New York defeated the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III and solidified the AFL's position in the world of professional football.
When the AFL and NFL merged, the team fell into a state of mediocrity along with their star quarterback, Namath, who only had three successful post-merger seasons after injuries hampered much of his career. The Jets continued to spiral downward before enjoying a string of successes in the 1980s, which included an appearance in the 1982 AFC Championship Game, and the emergence of the popular New York Sack Exchange.
The early 1990s saw the team struggling. After firing coach Bruce Coslet, owner Leon Hess hired Pete Carroll who struggled to a 6–10 record and was promptly fired at the end of the season. Thereafter, Rich Kotite was selected to lead the team to victory; instead he led the Jets to a 4–28 record over the next two years. Kotite stepped down at the end of his second season forcing the Jets to search for a new head coach.
Hess lured then-disgruntled New England Patriots head coach Bill Parcells to New York in 1997. Parcells led the team back to relevance and coached them to the AFC Championship Game in 1998. Hess died in 1999 while the team, plagued by injuries, produced an eight win record, falling short of a playoff berth. At the end of the season, Parcells stepped down as head coach deferring control to his assistant, Bill Belichick; Belichick resigned the very next day (leaving a napkin at the stage for his introduction, on which he had written "I resign as HC of the NYJ") and went on to accept the head coaching position with the Patriots.
The franchise obtained a new owner in Woody Johnson in 2000. Additionally, through the 2000s the Jets visited the playoffs five times, a franchise record, under the direction of three coaches. Rex Ryan was hired in January 2009. Ryan led the team to back-to-back AFC Championship appearances during his first two years but the team never made the playoffs again during his tenure.
Harry Wismer, a businessman, had been interested in sports for much of his life when he was granted a charter franchise in the American Football League. A three-sport letterman, football, particularly, stuck with Wismer who went on to play for the University of Florida and Michigan State University before a knee injury ended his playing career. Undeterred, Wismer began his career as a broadcaster originally with Michigan State and became a pioneer of the industry. Later, as the Titans owner, Wismer formulated a league-wide policy which allowed broadcasting rights to be shared equally among the teams.
Wismer, who had previously had a 25% stake in the Washington Redskins, was interested in the American Football League and was given a franchise to develop in New York. Wismer, whose philosophy was who you knew mattered most, tried to make the team and the league a success. His efforts began to accrue debt as the Titans' first two seasons were mediocre with attendance dropping in the team's second year. The franchise was sold for $1 million to a five-man syndicate headed by Sonny Werblin of the Gotham Football Club, Inc., in February 1963.
Sonny Werblin graduated from Rutgers University and was employed by the Music Corporation of America, eventually becoming president of the company's television division. With a vast knowledge of media, Werblin was determined to put the spotlight on the team. His first order of business, after changing the team's name and jerseys, was to sign Joe Namath to an unprecedented contract. Werblin's gamble would later pay off as Namath, who became a public star, led the Jets on to victory in Super Bowl III, though by then Werblin had sold his stake in the team.
Werblin's partners, Townsend B. Martin, Leon Hess, Donald C. Lillis, and Philip H. Iselin, had a falling out with Werblin over the way the team was run—though the franchise had begun to make a profit, Werblin was making all the policies and decisions himself with little or no input from his partners, much to their dismay. Though Werblin initially resisted their ultimatum to dissolve the partnership, Werblin agreed to be bought out in 1968. Werblin remained involved in the sports community and became the first chairman and CEO of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority where he helped to create the Meadowlands Sports Complex, including Giants Stadium.
Leon Hess became well known for his Hess Corporation gas stations; however, he also played an instrumental part in the development of the Jets during his tenure as co-owner and eventual sole owner. Hess had often fought for improvements while the team was a tenant at Shea Stadium but generally stayed away from football operations, allowing his coaches and general manager to make football-related decisions.
Becoming the team's majority stockholder in 1973, Hess bought Philip H. Iselin's share upon his death in 1976 after which only two of Hess' partners remained, Townsend Martin and Helen Dillon, who had inherited the stake from her father Donald Lillis, upon his death. Hess began to buy out the remaining partners in 1981 when he bought Martin's 25% stake for $5 million. Hess bought Dillon's stake three years later for another $5 million, acquiring sole control of the team.
Hess had a passion for his team and took losses hard. In 1995, following a mediocre 6–10 season under Pete Carroll, despite generally shying away from football operations, Hess announced "I'm 80 years old, I want results now" during a conference in which Rich Kotite was introduced as the team's new coach. After two unsuccessful years with Kotite, Hess heavily involved himself in hiring Bill Parcells in hopes to see his team again reach the Super Bowl. He did not live to see his dream realized, dying on May 7, 1999.
With the team for sale, two potential buyers were found in Cablevision and philanthropist Woody Johnson whose grandfather, Robert Wood Johnson II, expanded Johnson & Johnson. Johnson was unknown among the other NFL owners at the time of his $635 million purchase of the franchise. However, Johnson had a passion for sports according to former Knicks general manager Ernie Grunfeld and desired to own his own team. Johnson has been considered to be an enabler who wants the best from his employees.
Much like Hess, Johnson left many of the football related decisions up to his management team and tended to avoid the spotlight. However, upon hiring head coach Rex Ryan, Johnson had an increased presence as he molded the Jets into his team.
In 2017, Woody Johnson was appointed by President Donald Trump as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Once his post was confirmed, his brother Christopher Johnson became a co-owner and took over the day-to-day operations for the team, including personnel decisions.
Owner Harry Wismer sought out a place for the team to play their home games but was only able to secure the dilapidated Polo Grounds, which had not had a major tenant since the baseball New York Giants vacated the stadium in 1957. The Titans played their first four seasons at the stadium—in the final season they were renamed the Jets. The Titans shared the stadium with baseball's new expansion team, the New York Mets, for two years before both teams moved to the Shea Stadium in Queens in 1964. The Jets hold the distinction of being the final team to host a game at the Polo Grounds, a 19–10 loss to the Buffalo Bills on December 14, 1963.
Wismer hoped the Titans could play in what would become known as Shea Stadium beginning in 1961. However, funding difficulties and legal problems delayed construction of the stadium. Wismer signed a memorandum of understanding in late 1961 to secure the Titans' new home. That memorandum recognized that the Mets would have exclusive use of the stadium until they had completed their season. As the team moved to Shea under new ownership, they were, in most years, required to open the season with several road games, a problem made worse in 1969 and 1973 when the Mets had long playoff runs.
Feeling that this arrangement put the Jets at a disadvantage, the team announced in 1977 that they would play two home games a year during the month of September at the Giants' new home in New Jersey, Giants Stadium. Litigation began between New York City and the Jets over the issue, and in the lawsuit's settlement, the city agreed to allow the Jets to play two September home games a season at Shea beginning in 1978 for the remaining six years in the Jets' lease. In 1977, the Jets were to play one September game at Giants Stadium and an October 2 game at Shea.
In spite of these issues, majority owner Leon Hess was interested in renewing the team's lease at Shea, which was due to expire in 1983. Hess negotiated with New York mayor Ed Koch. Hess wanted the city to redevelop the stadium to expand its capacity. He also hoped to renegotiate other aspects of the lease—the Jets received no money from ticketholders parking at Shea. Hess's proposals met resistance from Koch. When negotiations reached an impasse, the Jets announced their intention to depart for New Jersey. On December 10, 1983, the Jets played their final game at Shea and lost to the Steelers 34–7. As fans pillaged the stadium for mementos, the scoreboard read "N.J. Jets" in reference to the Jets' departure to the Meadowlands.
When the Jets joined the Giants at the stadium, many Jets fans hoped the name, Giants Stadium, would be changed. However, the Giants, who had the authority to approve the change, refused. In an effort to conceal the fact that they played in a stadium built and decorated for another team, the stadium grounds crew was assigned to make the stadium more Jet-friendly during Jets games by putting up green banners and placing the Jets' logo over the Giants'. No change could be made to the blue and red seating bowl. The Jets were featured in the first NFL playoff game in the stadium's history, falling to the Patriots on December 28, 1985.
As the Jets sought to become a stronger franchise and remove themselves from their counterparts' shadow, the team entered into negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in an attempt to build a stadium on the west side of Manhattan, entering a bidding war with TransGas Energy Systems and Cablevision for the rights to the West Side Yard property—Hess, prior to his death, had been approached by former mayor Rudy Giuliani about bringing the team to the West Side when their lease at Giants Stadium expired in 2008. Cablevision was fixated against the Jets owning the land as Madison Square Garden, located only a few blocks away, would be forced to compete with the stadium. Team owners had voted, 31–1, with the Buffalo Bills the only objectors, to award the 2010 Super Bowl to New York contingent on the Jets winning the bid and completing construction of the stadium prior to 2010.
The MTA unanimously voted to sell the land to the Jets for approximately $210 million as the committee agreed that having the stadium would be beneficial in the long run. An angry Cablevision, community groups and transportation advocates were determined to derail the Jets' attempts at building the stadium and two lawsuits challenging the construction of the stadium on environmental grounds were filed.
Although confident they could secure the stadium, their hopes were dashed when Sheldon Silver and Joseph L. Bruno, both of whom held veto power over the stadium construction, refused to support the project, alleging it would hurt rather than help the development of the West Side.
Defeated, the Jets agreed to enter a 50–50 joint venture with their rival, the Giants, to build a new stadium effectively agreeing to a 99-year lease, which the Giants had signed earlier in the year, to remain in New Jersey. The stadium, known as MetLife Stadium, became the first in the history of the NFL to be jointly built by two franchises. The stadium, which is illuminated in different colors depending on which team is hosting a game, opened in April 2010 and saw the Jets and Giants open the stadium together in a preseason exhibition game. The Jets' first regular season home game at the new stadium was held on September 13, 2010 and was shown nationwide on Monday Night Football. New York lost to the Ravens 10–9. Team owners voted to have the stadium host Super Bowl XLVIII, held in 2014.
Since the inception of the American Football League, the Jets have maintained what is considered to be a marquee rivalry with the New England Patriots. The rivalry was relatively docile in its early years until 1966 when the Jets removed the Patriots, who had hopes of appearing in Super Bowl I, from playoff contention with a 38–28 defeat at Shea Stadium. The Patriots returned the favor in 1985 when the Jets lost to New England 26–14 in the wild card round; the Patriots went on to Super Bowl XX where they were defeated by the Bears.
The rivalry began to escalate and receive increased media attention in 1997 when a disgruntled Bill Parcells vacated his head coaching position with New England to accept the same position with New York. The following year, the Jets signed Pro Bowl running back Curtis Martin from the Patriots. After the Jets declined during Parcells' third year, Parcells decided to resign as head coach. His assistant, Bill Belichick, resigned suddenly the next day to become the head coach of the Patriots instead.
A critical turning point of the rivalry took place on September 23, 2001 when Jets linebacker Mo Lewis tackled Drew Bledsoe, leaving the veteran with internal bleeding. This provided an opportunity for Tom Brady to take over as the starting quarterback and during his tenure, Brady successfully guided New England to six Super Bowl titles. In 2006, Eric Mangini, an assistant under Belichick, left New England to join the Jets as their head coach. Under Mangini, the famous Spygate incident took place, further escalating tensions between both clubs. When Rex Ryan was hired as the team's head coach, the rivalry further escalated due to an increased war of words between both teams. In January 2011, the two met in a Divisional Round playoff game. The visiting Jets pulled a 28–21 upset to advance to the AFC Championship Game, which they ultimately lost one week later to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Jets and the Bills represent the same state (New York), and this rivalry represents the differences between New York City and Western New York, where the Bills play. The teams are both charter members of the American Football League and have generally stayed in the same division since, even after the NFL and AFL merged. Aside from a few notable moments, such as O. J. Simpson breaking an NFL rushing record against the Jets, a playoff game in 1981, and ex-Jets coach Rex Ryan coaching the Bills for two years, the rivalry has otherwise been characterized by shared mediocrity and uncompetitive games, including notable blunders by quarterbacks Mark Sanchez of the Jets, and J. P. Losman of the Bills. However, in recent years, the series has heated up again due to a friendly rivalry between quarterbacks Sam Darnold and Josh Allen, who were selected in the first round of the 2018 draft.
New York has maintained a rivalry with the Miami Dolphins since the Dolphins' inception in 1966. One of the most famous games in Jets history took place in 1994 when the Dolphins ran the Fake Spike play, giving them an improbable victory and halting the Jets' momentum that season, serving as a precursor to the Jets' next two unsuccessful years under Rich Kotite. The Jets went on to complete an improbable victory of their own on October 23, 2000 in what is known as The Monday Night Miracle. The Jets, trailing the Dolphins 30–7 at the end of the third quarter, rallied in the fourth quarter scoring 23 unanswered points, eventually winning in overtime with a 40-yard John Hall kick.
When Rex Ryan became New York's head coach, there was an increased war of words between the clubs culminating with Ryan flashing an obscene gesture to heckling Dolphins fans in January 2010. The rivalry continued between both teams when Sal Alosi, then the strength and conditioning coach of the Jets, tripped Dolphins cornerback Nolan Carroll. Carroll was not seriously injured and Alosi resigned nearly two months later.
The New York Jets previously maintained a high tension rivalry against their in-town counterparts, the New York Giants, that has since diminished due to the infrequency with which the teams meet in the regular season. The pinnacle of the rivalry came on August 17, 1969 when both the Jets and Giants met for the first time, in a preseason game which was viewed as a "turf war" by both opponents. The Giants, considered a mediocre team at the time, were regarded as underdogs and were under much scrutiny by the media and their fans. Ultimately, the Jets bested their rival 37–14; this would result in the firing of Giants coach Allie Sherman.
The Jets met the Giants in 1988 during the final game of the regular season. The Jets, with a 7–7–1 record, had little to lose as their hopes for playoff contention had vanished. The Giants, however, were contending for a playoff spot (they were 10–5 at that point) and a victory would have secured their spot and their division title. Although the six point favorites, the Giants were unable to overcome the Jets defense which sacked Giants quarterback Phil Simms eight times. With the Jets' victory and victories by the Rams and Eagles, the Giants were eliminated from playoff contention and the Jets gained respect in the eyes of many.
In spite of the big sibling rivalry that has resulted in trash talk between the players, both teams have formed an unexpected and consequently strong partnership sharing Giants Stadium for 26 years and MetLife Stadium, a venture in which both teams own a 50% share of the stadium. The rivalry regained much of its tension in the 2011 NFL season when the Jets and Giants met in Week 16. Both teams needed a victory to keep their playoffs hope alive and there was significant trash talk between Rex Ryan and his players and many of the Giants in the weeks leading up to the game. Ryan and Giants running back Brandon Jacobs reportedly came close to blows after the game, a 29–14 win by the Giants. The two teams met again on December 6, 2015, with the Jets coming from behind and winning 23–20 in overtime.
The Jets redesigned their uniforms and primary logo for the 2019 season. The new team colors are a medium green that the franchise calls "Gotham Green," white, and black. The primary logo is a green football-shaped oval outlined in white, oriented horizontally, with the word "JETS" in thick, sans-serif italics positioned just below the horizontal axis with "NEW YORK" above it in smaller letters, and a miniature football graphic at bottom center partially covering the lower portion of the "E" and "T".
The primary uniform consists of green jerseys with white numerals and white jerseys with green numerals, green and white pants, and green socks. The numerals are in a new sans-serif block-style font and have thin black outlines, with "NEW YORK" in thick sans-serif italics above the numerals on the front, TV numerals on the upper shoulders, and the player's name in sans-serif block letters on the back, in either green or white. The jerseys have opposite-colored stripes around the shoulder that taper toward the collar, and the pants have opposite-colored stripes on each side that taper toward the lower thigh. The team also has a black alternate uniform with white numerals outlined in green, green stripes and black socks.
The helmet is a deep metallic emerald green with a black facemask; the decal on each side is a secondary logo, consisting of the primary logo's "JETS" wordmark and football graphic.
The team's original uniforms, as the Titans of New York in 1960, were navy blue with old gold numerals, gold pants with two parallel blue stripes on each side, and navy blue helmets with a single gold stripe down the center and no logo decals. The white jerseys had navy blue numerals. In 1961, the Titans added UCLA-style shoulder stripes (gold and white on the blue jerseys, gold and navy blue on the white jerseys), changed the pants striping to a blue stripe flanked by white stripes, and employed a somewhat brighter shade of gold.
When the Titans became the Jets in 1963, navy and gold were abandoned in favor of kelly green and white. The jerseys had opposite-colored sleeves with thick stripes on the shoulders and cuffs, above and below the TV numerals. The pants were white with two parallel green stripes on each side. The new helmets were white with a single green stripe down the center; the logo on each side was a silhouette of a jet airplane in green, with the word "JETS" in thick white sans-serif italics along the fuselage. In 1964, the single green stripe became two parallel stripes, and the jet-plane decal was replaced with a white football shape outlined in green, with the word "JETS" in thick green sans-serif italics in front of "NY" in green outline serif lettering, and a miniature football at bottom center. The decals were difficult to see from a distance (or on television), so the colors were reversed in 1965.
This design remained largely unchanged through 1977, apart from some variations to the numeral and lettering typefaces, the angle of the helmet decals, and adjustments to the shoulder and sleeve striping due to changes in NFL jersey tailoring and materials.
The Jets' first major design change was made for the 1978 season. The kelly green and white color scheme was retained; the new helmets were solid green with white facemasks, and a stylized "JETS" wordmark in white on each side. The mark featured angular lettering and a silhouette of a modern jet airplane extending horizontally to the right from the top of the "J" above the "ETS". The jerseys featured large TV numerals on the shoulders and two thick parallel stripes on the sleeves, while the pants had a single green stripe from hip to knee on each side. In 1990, the Jets modified this design by adding thin black outlines to the numerals, lettering, stripes and helmet decals, changing the facemasks from white to black, and adding a set of green pants to be worn with the white jerseys.
The Jets adopted a new uniform and logo design in 1998, a modernization of the 1960s–1970s set. Green pants were added in 2002, and have been worn with both the white and green jerseys.
The Jets were the first NFL team to wear a "throwback" uniform, in 1993 for a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals celebrating the 25th anniversary of the 1968 championship team. The jersey and pants mimicked the 1963–77 design, although the team wore its regular green helmets with a white-outlined version of the 1965–77 logo decal. In 1994, as part of the NFL's 75th Anniversary celebration, the Jets wore both home and road versions of this uniform in select games, again using their regular green helmets with the 1965–77 logo but with two parallel white stripes down the center.
In 2007, the team introduced a new "throwback" uniform, evoking the original Titans of New York and combining elements of the 1960 and 1961–62 uniforms, with navy blue helmets and jerseys, old gold numerals and helmet stripes, gold and white shoulder stripes, and gold pants with blue and white stripes on each side. These uniforms appeared again in 2008, 2009 and 2011, with a white jersey variation also appearing in 2009 as part of the NFL's celebration of the American Football League's 50th anniversary.
The Jets unveiled new jerseys and an updated logo for the 2019 season. The jerseys are colored "Gotham Green" for home and "Spotlight White" for away. They also reintroduced black as a team color for the first time since 1997.
The team originally named the Jets Flag Crew was established in 2006. In 2007, the group underwent an expansion and was appropriately renamed the Jets Flight Crew. The squad regularly performs choreographed routines during the team's home contests. Auditions have been held annually since their inception to attract new members.
The Jets Junior Flight Crew was established in 2010 offering children the opportunity to train with the Flight Crew while improving their "talent and abilities in a non-competitive environment."
The Jets' current flagship radio station is WEPN 98.7 ESPN with Bob Wischusen, as the play-by-play announcer and former Jet Marty Lyons of the Sack Exchange, as the color analyst.
Any preseason games not nationally televised are shown on WCBS-TV. SportsNet New York, which serves as the official home of the Jets, airs over 250 hours of "exclusive, in depth" material on the team in high definition.
Monday Night Football games are televised in a simulcast with ESPN by either sister station WABC-TV, or WPIX-TV if WABC chooses to waive the game to another station to carry regularly scheduled programming. Thursday Night Football carriage of a Jets game is incumbent on the producing network for that game (on FOX), which is also simulcast by NFL Network.
This is a partial list of the Jets' last five completed seasons. For the full season-by-season franchise results, see List of New York Jets seasons.
"Note: The Finish, Wins, Losses, and Ties columns list regular season results and exclude any postseason play."
As of December 29, 2019
Ewbank, Hill, Martin, Mawae, Maynard, and Namath are recognized based upon their achievements with the Jets. Ewbank is also recognized based upon his achievements with the Baltimore Colts, coaching them to NFL championships in 1958 and 1959. Riggins is recognized primarily for his seasons with the Washington Redskins (1976–1979, 1981–1985), as is Monk (1980–1993), who won three Super Bowl championships with Washington. Lott is in the Hall of Fame primarily for his exploits as a member of the San Francisco 49ers. Baugh and Turner are recognized based upon their achievements as players with other teams, rather than their head coaching stints with the Jets. While Parcells reversed the fortunes of the Jets, he had major impact for the New York Giants, coaching them to two Super Bowl victories. Wolf only had a brief stint with the Jets between 1990 and 1991, while most of his major contributions occurred as an executive and player personnel director with the Oakland Raiders (1963–1974, 1979–1989), and later as General Manager of the Green Bay Packers (1991–2001). Favre only played one season as a member of the Jets in 2008, between most of his career with the Packers (1992–2007) and his last two NFL seasons with the Minnesota Vikings (2009–2010).
The Jets established a Ring of Honor on July 20, 2010, to commemorate former players. Each season, players will be nominated by an internal committee and then inducted into the Ring. There is no specific amount of honorees to be selected each year.
The following Titans/Jets were selected to the American Football League All-Time Team on January 14, 1970. The first and second teams were determined by a panel of members of the AFL's Hall of Fame Board of Selectors:
New York announced their official All-Time Four Decade team in 2003 which, was determined by the fans of the team.
Perhaps the most famous of the Jets' first round picks came in 1965 when they selected Alabama quarterback Joe Namath who boosted the Jets into the national spotlight with his boisterous personality and lifestyle. His physical talents on the field helped improve the Jets' fortunes, leading them to victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Though injuries hampered the latter part of Namath's career, he is best remembered, according to former teammate John Dockery, as "a guy that came along and broke a lot of the conventions." Namath was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985.
The Jets have had a history of selecting players who turned out to be draft busts. Perhaps one of the most disappointing players in Jets history was running back Blair Thomas. Thomas, who averaged 5.4 yards per carry at Penn State, was an intriguing prospect the Jets were interested in utilizing to help their cumbersome offense. Confident in their decision, the Jets drafted Thomas with the second overall pick in 1990, expecting him to be a solid player for years to come. Thomas ran for only 620 yards in 1990, and failed to meet the high expectations. By the time Thomas left the team as an unrestricted free agent in 1993, he had rushed for 2,009 yards and only five touchdowns. The 2008 first round pick, defensive lineman Vernon Gholston, followed a similar path, failing to record a sack during his three-year tenure with the team.
Kyle Brady in 1995, who was drafted ahead of Warren Sapp, one of many disappointments during Rich Kotite's tenure as coach. However, in the same draft, the Jets did better with Hugh Douglas. Dewayne Robertson was a fourth overall selection in 2003 by the Jets. The defensive tackle out of Kentucky failed to make a big impact with the team. He accounted for 14.5 sacks in his 5 seasons with the team, a rather underwhelming player given what the Jets had hoped for. At quarterback, the Jets found themselves dealing with the consequences of drafting University of Alabama QB Richard Todd in 1976. In his tenure with the Jets, he threw for more interceptions than he did touchdowns. In the '81 season, the Jets played vs the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Championship Game. Todd threw for 5 interceptions and the Jets lost the game. A year later, Todd would be traded to the New Orleans Saints. The most recent bust, Dee Milliner, was drafted by the team in 2013. Milliner played his college career at the University of Alabama and had high expectations after being drafted. Lasting just 3 years with the team, Milliner's career was plagued by injuries and inconsistency, recording only 3 interceptions during his brief Jets career.
In the 2013 and 2014 seasons, one of the Jets' strongest units was their defensive line, manned by 1st Round selections Muhammad Wilkerson (2011) and Sheldon Richardson (2013). In 2013, Wilkerson ended the season with 10.5 sacks, matching the last Jets player to have more than 10 sacks in a single season, John Abraham in 2005. Also that year, Richardson was honored with an award from the AP for Defensive Rookie of the Year. The Jets' run defense was stout with all three in the line up, finishing fifth as a team in rushing yards allowed in 2014.
In the 2017 NFL Draft, the Jets selected Jamal Adams with the sixth overall pick out of LSU. Adams had a strong start to his early career, making the Pro Bowl in the 2018 season and winning the Defensive MVP Award alongside Kansas City Chiefs' quarterback Patrick Mahomes as the Offensive MVP. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21721 |
Nonlinear optics
Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in "nonlinear media", that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typically observed only at very high light intensities (values of atomic electric fields, typically 108 V/m) such as those provided by lasers. Above the Schwinger limit, the vacuum itself is expected to become nonlinear. In nonlinear optics, the superposition principle no longer holds.
The first nonlinear optical effect to be predicted was two-photon absorption, by Maria Goeppert Mayer for her PhD in 1931, but it remained an unexplored theoretical curiosity until 1961 and the almost simultaneous observation of two-photon absorption at Bell Labs
and the discovery of second-harmonic generation by Peter Franken "et al." at University of Michigan, both shortly after the construction of the first laser by Theodore Maiman. However, some nonlinear effects were discovered before the development of the laser. The theoretical basis for many nonlinear processes were first described in Bloembergen's monograph "Nonlinear Optics".
Nonlinear optics explains nonlinear response of properties such as frequency, polarization, phase or path of incident light. These nonlinear interactions give rise to a host of optical phenomena:
In these processes, the medium has a linear response to the light, but the properties of the medium are affected by other causes:
Nonlinear effects fall into two qualitatively different categories, parametric and non-parametric effects. A parametric non-linearity
is an interaction in which the quantum state of the nonlinear material is not changed by the interaction with the optical field. As a consequence of this, the process is "instantaneous". Energy and momentum are conserved in the optical field, making phase matching important and polarization-dependent.
Parametric and "instantaneous" (i.e. material must be lossless and dispersionless through the Kramers–Kronig relations) nonlinear optical phenomena, in which the optical fields are not too large, can be described by a Taylor series expansion of the dielectric polarization density (electric dipole moment per unit volume) P("t") at time "t" in terms of the electric field E("t"):
where the coefficients χ("n") are the "n"-th-order susceptibilities of the medium, and the presence of such a term is generally referred to as an "n"-th-order nonlinearity. Note that the polarization density P("t") and electrical field E("t") are considered as scalar for simplicity. In general, χ("n") is an ("n" + 1)-th-rank tensor representing both the polarization-dependent nature of the parametric interaction and the symmetries (or lack) of the nonlinear material.
Central to the study of electromagnetic waves is the wave equation. Starting with Maxwell's equations in an isotropic space, containing no free charge, it can be shown that
where PNL is the nonlinear part of the polarization density, and "n" is the refractive index, which comes from the linear term in P.
Note that one can normally use the vector identity
and Gauss's law (assuming no free charges, formula_6),
to obtain the more familiar wave equation
For nonlinear medium, Gauss's law does not imply that the identity
is true in general, even for an isotropic medium. However, even when this term is not identically 0, it is often negligibly small and thus in practice is usually ignored, giving us the standard nonlinear wave equation:
The nonlinear wave equation is an inhomogeneous differential equation. The general solution comes from the study of ordinary differential equations and can be obtained by the use of a Green's function. Physically one gets the normal electromagnetic wave solutions to the homogeneous part of the wave equation:
and the inhomogeneous term
acts as a driver/source of the electromagnetic waves. One of the consequences of this is a nonlinear interaction that results in energy being mixed or coupled between different frequencies, which is often called a "wave mixing".
In general, an "n"-th order nonlinearity will lead to ("n" + 1)-wave mixing. As an example, if we consider only a second-order nonlinearity (three-wave mixing), then the polarization P takes the form
If we assume that "E"("t") is made up of two components at frequencies "ω"1 and "ω"2, we can write "E"("t") as
and using Euler's formula to convert to exponentials,
where "c.c." stands for complex conjugate. Plugging this into the expression for P gives
which has frequency components at 2"ω"1, 2"ω"2, "ω"1 + "ω"2, "ω"1 − "ω"2, and 0. These three-wave mixing processes correspond to the nonlinear effects known as second-harmonic generation, sum-frequency generation, difference-frequency generation and optical rectification respectively.
Note: Parametric generation and amplification is a variation of difference-frequency generation, where the lower frequency of one of the two generating fields is much weaker (parametric amplification) or completely absent (parametric generation). In the latter case, the fundamental quantum-mechanical uncertainty in the electric field initiates the process.
The above ignores the position dependence of the electrical fields. In a typical situation, the electrical fields are traveling waves described by
at position formula_18, with the wave vector formula_19, where formula_20 is the velocity of light in vacuum, and formula_21 is the index of refraction of the medium at angular frequency formula_22. Thus, the second-order polarization at angular frequency formula_23 is
At each position formula_18 within the nonlinear medium, the oscillating second-order polarization radiates at angular frequency formula_26 and a corresponding wave vector formula_27. Constructive interference, and therefore a high-intensity formula_26 field, will occur only if
The above equation is known as the "phase-matching condition". Typically, three-wave mixing is done in a birefringent crystalline material, where the refractive index depends on the polarization and direction of the light that passes through. The polarizations of the fields and the orientation of the crystal are chosen such that the phase-matching condition is fulfilled. This phase-matching technique is called angle tuning. Typically a crystal has three axes, one or two of which have a different refractive index than the other one(s). Uniaxial crystals, for example, have a single preferred axis, called the extraordinary (e) axis, while the other two are ordinary axes (o) (see crystal optics). There are several schemes of choosing the polarizations for this crystal type. If the signal and idler have the same polarization, it is called "type-I phase matching", and if their polarizations are perpendicular, it is called "type-II phase matching". However, other conventions exist that specify further which frequency has what polarization relative to the crystal axis. These types are listed below, with the convention that the signal wavelength is shorter than the idler wavelength.
Most common nonlinear crystals are negative uniaxial, which means that the "e" axis has a smaller refractive index than the "o" axes. In those crystals, type-I and -II phase matching are usually the most suitable schemes. In positive uniaxial crystals, types VII and VIII are more suitable. Types II and III are essentially equivalent, except that the names of signal and idler are swapped when the signal has a longer wavelength than the idler. For this reason, they are sometimes called IIA and IIB. The type numbers V–VIII are less common than I and II and variants.
One undesirable effect of angle tuning is that the optical frequencies involved do not propagate collinearly with each other. This is due to the fact that the extraordinary wave propagating through a birefringent crystal possesses a Poynting vector that is not parallel to the propagation vector. This would lead to beam walk-off, which limits the nonlinear optical conversion efficiency. Two other methods of phase matching avoid beam walk-off by forcing all frequencies to propagate at a 90° with respect to the optical axis of the crystal. These methods are called temperature tuning and quasi-phase-matching.
Temperature tuning is used when the pump (laser) frequency polarization is orthogonal to the signal and idler frequency polarization. The birefringence in some crystals, in particular lithium niobate is highly temperature-dependent. The crystal temperature is controlled to achieve phase-matching conditions.
The other method is quasi-phase-matching. In this method the frequencies involved are not constantly locked in phase with each other, instead the crystal axis is flipped at a regular interval Λ, typically 15 micrometres in length. Hence, these crystals are called periodically poled. This results in the polarization response of the crystal to be shifted back in phase with the pump beam by reversing the nonlinear susceptibility. This allows net positive energy flow from the pump into the signal and idler frequencies. In this case, the crystal itself provides the additional wavevector "k" = 2π/Λ (and hence momentum) to satisfy the phase-matching condition. Quasi-phase-matching can be expanded to chirped gratings to get more bandwidth and to shape an SHG pulse like it is done in a dazzler. SHG of a pump and self-phase modulation (emulated by second-order processes) of the signal and an optical parametric amplifier can be integrated monolithically.
The above holds for formula_30 processes. It can be extended for processes where formula_1 is nonzero, something that is generally true in any medium without any symmetry restrictions; in particular resonantly enhanced sum or difference frequency mixing in gasses is frequently used for extreme or "vacuum" Ultra Violet light generation. In common scenarios, such as mixing in dilute gases, the non-linearity is weak and so the light beams are focused which, unlike the plane wave approximation used above, introduces a pi phase shift on each light beam, complicating the phase matching requirements. Conveniently, difference frequency mixing with formula_1 cancels this focal phase shift and often has a nearly self-canceling overall phase matching condition, which relatively simplifies broad wavelength tuning compared to sum frequency generation. In formula_1 all four frequencies are mixing simultaneously, as opposed to sequential mixing via two formula_30 processes.
The Kerr effect can be described as a formula_1 as well. At high peak powers the Kerr effect can cause filamentation of light in air, in which the light travels without dispersion or divergence in a self-generated waveguide. At even high intensities the Taylor series, which led the domination of the lower orders, does not converge anymore and instead a time based model is used. When a noble gas atom is hit by an intense laser pulse, which has an electric field strength comparable to the Coulomb field of the atom, the outermost electron may be ionized from the atom. Once freed, the electron can be accelerated by the electric field of the light, first moving away from the ion, then back toward it as the field changes direction. The electron may then recombine with the ion, releasing its energy in the form of a photon. The light is emitted at every peak of the laser light field which is intense enough, producing a series of attosecond light flashes. The photon energies generated by this process can extend past the 800th harmonic order up to a few KeV. This is called high-order harmonic generation. The laser must be linearly polarized, so that the electron returns to the vicinity of the parent ion. High-order harmonic generation has been observed in noble gas jets, cells, and gas-filled capillary waveguides.
One of the most commonly used frequency-mixing processes is frequency doubling, or second-harmonic generation. With this technique, the 1064 nm output from Nd:YAG lasers or the 800 nm output from Ti:sapphire lasers can be converted to visible light, with wavelengths of 532 nm (green) or 400 nm (violet) respectively.
Practically, frequency doubling is carried out by placing a nonlinear medium in a laser beam. While there are many types of nonlinear media, the most common media are crystals. Commonly used crystals are BBO (β-barium borate), KDP (potassium dihydrogen phosphate), KTP (potassium titanyl phosphate), and lithium niobate. These crystals have the necessary properties of being strongly birefringent (necessary to obtain phase matching, see below), having a specific crystal symmetry, being transparent for both the impinging laser light and the frequency-doubled wavelength, and having high damage thresholds, which makes them resistant against the high-intensity laser light.
It is possible, using nonlinear optical processes, to exactly reverse the propagation direction and phase variation of a beam of light. The reversed beam is called a "conjugate" beam, and thus the technique is known as optical phase conjugation (also called "time reversal", "wavefront reversal" and is significantly different from "retroreflection").
A device producing the phase-conjugation effect is known as a phase-conjugate mirror (PCM).
One can interpret optical phase conjugation as being analogous to a real-time holographic process. In this case, the interacting beams simultaneously interact in a nonlinear optical material to form a dynamic hologram (two of the three input beams), or real-time diffraction pattern, in the material. The third incident beam diffracts at this dynamic hologram, and, in the process, reads out the "phase-conjugate" wave. In effect, all three incident beams interact (essentially) simultaneously to form several real-time holograms, resulting in a set of diffracted output waves that phase up as the "time-reversed" beam. In the language of nonlinear optics, the interacting beams result in a nonlinear polarization within the material, which coherently radiates to form the phase-conjugate wave.
Reversal of wavefront means a perfect reversal of photons linear momentum and angular momentum. The reversal of angular momentum means reversal of both polarization state and orbital angular momentum. Reversal of orbital angular momentum of optical vortex is due to the perfect match of helical phase profiles of the incident and reflected beams. Optical phase conjugation is implemented via stimulated Brillouin scattering, four-wave mixing, three-wave mixing, static linear holograms and some other tools.
The most common way of producing optical phase conjugation is to use a four-wave mixing technique, though it is also possible to use processes such as stimulated Brillouin scattering.
For the four-wave mixing technique, we can describe four beams ("j" = 1, 2, 3, 4) with electric fields:
where "Ej" are the electric field amplitudes. Ξ1 and Ξ2 are known as the two pump waves, with Ξ3 being the signal wave, and Ξ4 being the generated conjugate wave.
If the pump waves and the signal wave are superimposed in a medium with a non-zero χ(3), this produces a nonlinear polarization field:
resulting in generation of waves with frequencies given by ω = ±ω1 ± ω2 ± ω3 in addition to third-harmonic generation waves with ω = 3ω1, 3ω2, 3ω3.
As above, the phase-matching condition determines which of these waves is the dominant. By choosing conditions such that ω = ω1 + ω2 − ω3 and k = k1 + k2 − k3, this gives a polarization field:
This is the generating field for the phase-conjugate beam, Ξ4. Its direction is given by k4 = k1 + k2 − k3, and so if the two pump beams are counterpropagating (k1 = −k2), then the conjugate and signal beams propagate in opposite directions (k4 = −k3). This results in the retroreflecting property of the effect.
Further, it can be shown that for a medium with refractive index "n" and a beam interaction length "l", the electric field amplitude of the conjugate beam is approximated by
where "c" is the speed of light. If the pump beams "E"1 and "E"2 are plane (counterpropagating) waves, then
that is, the generated beam amplitude is the complex conjugate of the signal beam amplitude. Since the imaginary part of the amplitude contains the phase of the beam, this results in the reversal of phase property of the effect.
Note that the constant of proportionality between the signal and conjugate beams can be greater than 1. This is effectively a mirror with a reflection coefficient greater than 100%, producing an amplified reflection. The power for this comes from the two pump beams, which are depleted by the process.
The frequency of the conjugate wave can be different from that of the signal wave. If the pump waves are of frequency ω1 = ω2 = ω, and the signal wave is higher in frequency such that ω3 = ω + Δω, then the conjugate wave is of frequency ω4 = ω − Δω. This is known as "frequency flipping".
In "classical Maxwell electrodynamics" a phase-conjugating mirror performs reversal of the Poynting vector:
("in" means incident field, "out" means reflected field) where
which is a linear momentum density of electromagnetic field.
In the same way a phase-conjugated wave has an opposite angular momentum density vector formula_43
with respect to incident field:
The above identities are valid "locally", i.e. in each space point formula_45 in a given moment formula_46 for an "ideal phase-conjugating mirror".
In "quantum electrodynamics" the photon with energy formula_47 also possesses linear momentum formula_48 and angular momentum, whose projection on propagation axis is formula_49, where
formula_50 is "topological charge" of photon, or winding number, formula_51 is propagation axis. The angular momentum projection on propagation axis has "discrete values" formula_52.
In "quantum electrodynamics" the interpretation of phase conjugation is much simpler compared to "classical electrodynamics". The photon reflected from phase conjugating-mirror (out) has opposite directions of linear and angular momenta with respect to incident photon (in):
Optical fields transmitted through nonlinear Kerr media can also display pattern formation owing to the nonlinear medium amplifying spatial and temporal noise. The effect is referred to as optical modulation instability. This has been observed both in photo-refractive, photonic lattices, as well as photo-reactive systems. In the latter case, optical nonlinearity is afforded by reaction-induced increases in refractive index.
The early studies of nonlinear optics and materials focused on the inorganic solids. With the development of nonlinear optics, molecular optical properties were investigated, forming molecular nonlinear optics. The traditional approaches used in the past to enhance nonlinearities include extending chromophore π-systems, adjusting bond length alternation, inducing intramolecular charge transfer, extending conjugation in 2D, and engineering multipolar charge distributions. Recently, many novel directions were proposed for enhanced nonlinearity and light manipulation, including twisted chromophores, combining rich density of states with bond alternation, microscopic cascading of second-order nonlinearity, etc. Due to the distinguished advantages, molecular nonlinear optics have been widely used in the biophotonics field, including bioimaging, phototherapy, biosensing, etc.
Ordered by pump wavelength: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21723 |
Normandy
Normandy (; ; ; from Old French , plural of "Normant", originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is the northwesternmost of the 18 regions of France, roughly referring to the historical Duchy of Normandy.
Normandy is divided into five administrative departments: Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne, and Seine-Maritime. It covers , comprising roughly 5% of the territory of metropolitan France. Its population of 3,322,757 accounts for around 5% of the population of France. The inhabitants of Normandy are known as Normans, and the region is the historic homeland of the Norman language. The neighboring regions are Hauts-de-France and Ile-de-France to the east, Centre-Val de Loire to the southeast, Pays de la Loire to the south, and Brittany to the southwest. The capital is Rouen.
The historical region of Normandy comprised the present-day region of Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the departments of Mayenne and Sarthe. The Channel Islands (French: "Îles Anglo-Normandes") are also historically part of Normandy; they cover 194 km² and comprise two bailiwicks: Guernsey and Jersey, which are British Crown dependencies over which Queen Elizabeth II reigns as Duke of Normandy.
Normandy's name comes from the settlement of the territory by mainly Danish and Norwegian Vikings ("Northmen") from the 9th century, and confirmed by treaty in the 10th century between King Charles III of France and the Viking "jarl" Rollo. For a century and a half following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman and Frankish rulers.
Archaeological finds, such as cave paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times.
Celts (also known as Belgae and Gauls) invaded Normandy in successive waves from the 4th to the 3rd century BC. When Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, there were nine different Celtic tribes living in Normandy. The Romanisation of Normandy was achieved by the usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation. Classicists have knowledge of many Gallo-Roman villas in Normandy.
In the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated Normandy. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates. Christianity also began to enter the area during this period. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, while the Saxons subjugated the Norman coast. As early as 487, the area between the River Somme and the River Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis.
Vikings started to raid the Seine valley during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, the principal route by which they entered the kingdom. After attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagne's empire to take northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson, or Rollo (also known as Robert of Normandy). Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory which he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (i.e. "Norseman") origins. To this day, in Norwegian, the word "nordmann" (pron. Norman) denotes a Norwegian person.
The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and intermarried with the area's native Gallo-Roman inhabitants. They became the Normans – a Norman French-speaking mixture of Norsemen and indigenous Franks, Celts and Romans.
Rollo's descendant William became king of England in 1066 after defeating Harold Godwinson, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, at the Battle of Hastings, while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants.
Besides the conquest of England and the subsequent invasions of Wales and Ireland, the Normans expanded into other areas. Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the conquest of southern Italy and the Crusades.
The Drengot lineage, de Hauteville's sons William Iron Arm, Drogo, and Humphrey, Robert Guiscard and Roger the Great Count progressively claimed territories in southern Italy until founding the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor and the Holy Land.
The 14th-century explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands in 1404. He received the title King of the Canary Islands from Pope Innocent VII but recognized Henry III of Castile as his overlord, who had provided him aid during the conquest.
In 1204, during the reign of John of England, mainland Normandy was taken from England by France under King Philip II. Insular Normandy (the Channel Islands) remained, however, under English control. In 1259, Henry III of England recognized the legality of French possession of mainland Normandy under the Treaty of Paris. His successors, however, often fought to regain control of their ancient fiefdom.
The "Charte aux Normands" granted by Louis X of France in 1315 (and later re-confirmed in 1339) – like the analogous Magna Carta granted in England in the aftermath of 1204 – guaranteed the liberties and privileges of the province of Normandy.
French Normandy was occupied by English forces during the Hundred Years' War in 1345–1360 and again in 1415–1450. Normandy lost three-quarters of its population during the war. Afterward prosperity returned to Normandy until the Wars of Religion. When many Norman towns (Alençon, Rouen, Caen, Coutances, Bayeux) joined the Protestant Reformation, battles ensued throughout the province. In the Channel Islands, a period of Calvinism following the Reformation was suppressed when Anglicanism was imposed following the English Civil War.
Samuel de Champlain left the port of Honfleur in 1604 and founded Acadia. Four years later, he founded Québec City. From then onwards, Normans engaged in a policy of expansion in North America. They continued the exploration of the New World: René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle travelled in the area of the Great Lakes, then on the Mississippi River. Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brother Lemoyne de Bienville founded Louisiana, Biloxi, Mobile and New Orleans. Territories located between Québec and the Mississippi Delta were opened up to establish Canada and Louisiana. Colonists from Normandy were among the most active in New France, comprising Acadia, Canada, and Louisiana.
Honfleur and Le Havre were two of the principal slave trade ports of France.
Although agriculture remained important, industries such as weaving, metallurgy, sugar refining, ceramics, and shipbuilding were introduced and developed.
In the 1780s, the economic crisis and the crisis of the "Ancien Régime" struck Normandy as well as other parts of the nation, leading to the French Revolution. Bad harvests, technical progress and the effects of the Eden Agreement signed in 1786 affected employment and the economy of the province. Normans laboured under a heavy fiscal burden.
In 1790 the five departments of Normandy replaced the former province.
13 July 1793, the Norman Charlotte Corday assassinated Marat.
The Normans reacted little to the many political upheavals which characterized the 19th century. Overall they warily accepted the changes of régime (First French Empire, Bourbon Restoration, July Monarchy, French Second Republic, Second French Empire, French Third Republic).
There was an economic revival (mechanization of textile manufacture, first trains...) after the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815).
And new economic activity stimulated the coasts: seaside tourism. The 19th century marks the birth of the first beach resorts.
During the Second World War, following the armistice of 22 June 1940, continental Normandy was part of the German occupied zone of France. The Channel Islands were occupied by German forces between 30 June 1940 and 9 May 1945. The town of Dieppe was the site of the unsuccessful Dieppe Raid by Canadian and British armed forces.
The Allies, in this case involving Britain, the United States, Canada and Free France, coordinated a massive build-up of troops and supplies to support a large-scale invasion of Normandy in the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord. The Germans were dug into fortified emplacements above the beaches. Caen, Cherbourg, Carentan, Falaise and other Norman towns endured many casualties in the Battle of Normandy, which continued until the closing of the so-called Falaise gap between Chambois and Mont Ormel. The liberation of Le Havre followed. This was a significant turning point in the war and led to the restoration of the French Republic.
The remainder of Normandy was liberated only on 9 May 1945 at the end of the war, when the Channel Island occupation effectively ended.
Between 1956 and 2015 Normandy was divided into two administrative regions: Lower Normandy and Upper Normandy; the regions were merged into one single region on 1 January 2016. Upper Normandy ("Haute-Normandie") consisted of the French "departments" of Seine-Maritime and Eure, and Lower Normandy ("Basse-Normandie") of the "departments" of Orne, Calvados, and Manche.
The historical Duchy of Normandy was a formerly independent duchy occupying the lower Seine area, the Pays de Caux and the region to the west through the Pays d'Auge as far as the Cotentin Peninsula.
Western Normandy belongs to the Armorican Massif, whereas the major part of the region belongs to the Paris Basin. France's oldest rocks crop out in Jobourg in the Cotentin peninsula. The region is bordered along the northern and western coasts by the English Channel. There are granite cliffs in the west and limestone cliffs in the east. There are also long stretches of beach in the centre of the region. The "bocage" typical of the western areas caused problems for the invading forces in the Battle of Normandy. A notable feature of the landscape is created by the meanders of the Seine as it approaches its estuary.
The highest point is the Signal d'Écouves (417m) in the Massif armoricain.
Normandy is sparsely forested: 12.8% of the territory is wooded, compared to a French average of 23.6%, although the proportion varies between the departments. Eure has most cover (21%) while Manche has least (4%), a characteristic shared with the Islands.
The Channel Islands are considered culturally and historically a part of Normandy. However, they are British Crown Dependencies, and are not part of the modern French region of Normandy,
Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy, France, and other French possessions in 1801, the monarch of the United Kingdom retains the title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for Chausey) remain Crown dependencies of the British Crown in the present era. Thus the Loyal Toast in the Channel Islands is "La Reine, notre Duc" ("The Queen, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to "not" be the Duke with regards to mainland Normandy described herein, by virtue of the Treaty of Paris of 1259, the surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to Salic Law which excludes inheritance through female heirs.
Rivers in Normandy include:
And many coastal rivers:
The modern region of Normandy was created by the territorial reform of French Regions in 2014 by the merger of Lower Normandy, and Upper Normandy. The new region took effect on 1 January 2016, after the regional elections in December 2015.
The Regional Council has 102 members who are elected under a system of proportional representation. The executive consists of a president and vice-presidents. Hervé Morin from the Centre party was elected president of the council in January 2016.
The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 95.0 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 4.0% of French economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 25,600 euros or 85% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 105% of the EU average.
Much of Normandy is predominantly agricultural in character, with cattle breeding the most important sector (although in decline from the peak levels of the 1970s and 1980s). The "bocage" is a patchwork of small fields with high hedges, typical of western areas. Areas near the Seine (the former Upper Normandy region) contain a higher concentration of industry. Normandy is a significant cider-producing region, and also produces calvados, a distilled cider or apple brandy. Other activities of economic importance are dairy produce, flax (60% of production in France), horse breeding (including two French national stud farms), fishing, seafood, and tourism. The region contains three French nuclear power stations.
There is also easy access to and from the UK using the ports of Cherbourg, Caen (Ouistreham), Le Havre and Dieppe.
In January 2006 the population of Normandy (including the part of Perche which lies inside the Orne "département" but excluding the Channel Islands) was estimated at 3,260,000 with an average population density of 109 inhabitants per km², just under the French national average, but rising to 147 for Upper Normandy.
The main cities (population given from the 1999 census) are Rouen (518,316 in the metropolitan area), the capital since 2016 of the province and formerly of Upper Normandy; Caen (420,000 in the metropolitan area) and formerly the capital of Lower Normandy; Le Havre (296,773 in the metropolitan area); and Cherbourg (117,855 in the metropolitan area).
The traditional provincial flag of Normandy, "gules, two leopards passant or", is used in the region and its predecessors. The historic three-leopard version (known in the Norman language as "les treis cats", "the three cats") is used by some associations and individuals, especially those who supported reunification of the regions and cultural links with the Channel Islands and England. Jersey and Guernsey use three leopards in their national symbols. The three leopards represents the strength and courage Normandy has towards the neighbouring provinces.
The unofficial anthem of the region is the song "Ma Normandie".
The Norman language, a regional language, is spoken by a minority of the population on the continent and the islands, with a concentration in the Cotentin Peninsula in the far west (the Cotentinais dialect), and in the Pays de Caux in the East (the Cauchois dialect). Many place names demonstrate the Norse influence in this Oïl language; for example "-bec" (stream), "-fleur" (river), "-hou" (island), "-tot" (homestead), "-dal" or "-dalle" (valley) and "-hogue" (hill, mound). French is the only official language in continental Normandy and English is also an official language in the Channel Islands.
Architecturally, Norman cathedrals, abbeys (such as the Abbey of Bec) and castles characterise the former duchy in a way that mirrors the similar pattern of Norman architecture in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Domestic architecture in upper Normandy is typified by half-timbered buildings that also recall vernacular English architecture, although the farm enclosures of the more harshly landscaped Pays de Caux are a more idiosyncratic response to socio-economic and climatic imperatives. Much urban architectural heritage was destroyed during the Battle of Normandy in 1944 – post-war urban reconstruction, such as in Le Havre and Saint-Lô, could be said to demonstrate both the virtues and vices of modernist and brutalist trends of the 1950s and 1960s. Le Havre, the city rebuilt by Auguste Perret, was added to Unesco's World Heritage List in 2005.
Vernacular architecture in lower Normandy takes its form from granite, the predominant local building material. The Channel Islands also share this influence – Chausey was for many years a source of quarried granite, including that used for the construction of Mont Saint-Michel.
The south part of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne is filled with bourgeois villas in "Belle Époque" style with polychrome façades, bow windows and unique roofing. This area, built between 1886 and 1914, has an authentic “Bagnolese” style and is typical of high-society country vacation of the time. The Chapel of Saint Germanus ("Chapelle Saint-Germain") at Querqueville with its trefoil floorplan incorporates elements of one of the earliest surviving places of Christian worship in the Cotentin – perhaps second only to the Gallo-Roman baptistry at Port-Bail. It is dedicated to Germanus of Normandy.
Parts of Normandy consist of rolling countryside typified by pasture for dairy cattle and apple orchards. A wide range of dairy products are produced and exported. Norman cheeses include Camembert, Livarot, Pont l'Évêque, Brillat-Savarin, Neufchâtel, Petit Suisse and Boursin. Normandy butter and Normandy cream are lavishly used in gastronomic specialties.
Turbot and oysters from the Cotentin Peninsula are major delicacies throughout France. Normandy is the chief oyster-cultivating, scallop-exporting, and mussel-raising region in France.
Normandy is a major cider-producing region (very little wine is produced). Perry is also produced, but in less significant quantities. Apple brandy, of which the most famous variety is calvados, is also popular. The mealtime "trou normand", or "Norman hole", is a pause between meal courses in which diners partake of a glassful of calvados in order to improve the appetite and make room for the next course, and this is still observed in many homes and restaurants. "Pommeau" is an "apéritif" produced by blending unfermented cider and apple brandy. Another aperitif is the "kir normand", a measure of crème de cassis topped up with cider. "Bénédictine" is produced in Fécamp.
Other regional specialities include "tripes à la mode de Caen", "andouilles" and "andouillettes", salade cauchoise, salt meadow ("pré salé") lamb, seafood (mussels, scallops, lobsters, mackerel...), and "teurgoule" (spiced rice pudding).
Normandy dishes include duckling "à la rouennaise", sautéed chicken "yvetois", and goose "en daube". Rabbit is cooked with morels, or "à la havraise" (stuffed with truffled pigs' trotters). Other dishes are sheep's trotters "à la rouennaise", casseroled veal, larded calf's liver braised with carrots, and veal (or turkey) in cream and mushrooms.
Normandy is also noted for its pastries. Normandy turns out "douillons" (pears baked in pastry), "craquelins", "roulettes" in Rouen, "fouaces" in Caen, "fallues" in Lisieux, "sablés" in Lisieux. It is the birthplace of brioches (especially those from Évreux and Gisors). Confectionery of the region includes Rouen apple sugar, Isigny caramels, Bayeux mint chews, Falaise berlingots, Le Havre marzipans, Argentan "croquettes", and Rouen macaroons.
Normandy is the native land of Taillevent, cook of the kings of France Charles V and Charles VI. He wrote the earliest French cookery book named "Le Viandier". "Confiture de lait" was also made in Normandy around the 14th century.
The dukes of Normandy commissioned and inspired epic literature to record and legitimise their rule. Wace, Orderic Vitalis and Stephen of Rouen were among those who wrote in the service of the dukes. After the division of 1204, French literature provided the model for the development of literature in Normandy. Olivier Basselin wrote of the Vaux de Vire, the origin of literary "vaudeville". Notable Norman writers include Jean Marot, Rémy Belleau, Guy de Maupassant, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Gustave Flaubert, Octave Mirbeau, and Remy de Gourmont, and Alexis de Tocqueville. The Corneille brothers, Pierre and Thomas, born in Rouen, were great figures of French classical literature.
David Ferrand (1591–1660) in his "Muse Normande" established a landmark of Norman language literature. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the workers and merchants of Rouen established a tradition of polemical and satirical literature in a form of language called the "parler purin". At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century a new movement arose in the Channel Islands, led by writers such as George Métivier, which sparked a literary renaissance on the Norman mainland. In exile in Jersey and then Guernsey, Victor Hugo took an interest in the vernacular literature. "Les Travailleurs de la mer" is a well-known novel by Hugo set in the Channel Islands. The boom in insular literature in the early 19th century encouraged production especially in La Hague and around Cherbourg, where Alfred Rossel, Louis Beuve and Côtis-Capel became active. The typical medium for literary expression in Norman has traditionally been newspaper columns and almanacs. The novel "Zabeth" by André Louis which appeared in 1969 was the first novel published in Norman.
Normandy has a rich tradition of painting and gave to France some of its most important artists.
In the 17th century some major French painters were Normans like Nicolas Poussin, born in Les Andelys and Jean Jouvenet.
Romanticism drew painters to the Channel coasts of Normandy. Richard Parkes Bonington and J. M. W. Turner crossed the Channel from Great Britain, attracted by the light and landscapes. Théodore Géricault, a native of Rouen, was a notable figure in the Romantic movement, its famous "Radeau de la Méduse" being considered come the breakthrough of pictorial romanticism in France when it was officially presented at the 1819 Salon. The competing Realist tendency was represented by Jean-François Millet, a native of La Hague. The landscape painter Eugène Boudin, born in Honfleur, was a determining influence on the impressionnists and was highly considered by Monet.
Breaking away from the more formalised and classical themes of the early part of the 19th century, Impressionist painters preferred to paint outdoors, in natural light, and to concentrate on landscapes, towns and scenes of daily life.
Leader of the movement and father of modern painting, Claude Monet is one of the best known Impressionists and a major character in Normandy's artistic heritage. His house and gardens at Giverny are one of the region's major tourist sites, much visited for their beauty and their water lilies, as well as for their importance to Monet's artistic inspiration. Normandy was at the heart of his creation, from the paintings of Rouen's cathedral to the famous depictions of the cliffs at Etretat, the beach and port at Fécamp and the sunrise at Le Havre. It was "Impression, Sunrise", Monet's painting of Le Havre, that led to the movement being dubbed Impressionism. After Monet, all the main avant-garde painters of the 1870s and 1880s came to Normandy to paint its landscapes and its changing lights, concentrating along the Seine valley and the Norman coast.
Landscapes and scenes of daily life were also immortalised on canvas by artists such as William Turner, Gustave Courbet, the Honfleur born Eugène Boudin, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. While Monet's work adorns galleries and collections all over the world, a remarkable quantity of Impressionist works can be found in galleries throughout Normandy, such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Rouen, the Musée Eugène Boudin in Honfleur or the André Malraux Museum in Le Havre.
Maurice Denis, one of the leaders and theoricists of the Nabis movement in the 1890s, was a native of Granville, in the Manche department.
The "Société Normande de Peinture Moderne" was founded in 1909 by Pierre Dumont, Robert Antoine Pinchon, Yvonne Barbier and Eugène Tirvert. Among members were Raoul Dufy, a native of Le Havre, Albert Marquet, Francis Picabia and Maurice Utrillo. Also in this movement were the Duchamp brothers, Jacques Villon and Marcel Duchamp, considered one of the father of modern art, also natives of Normandy. Jean Dubuffet, one of the leading French artist of the 1940s and the 1950s was born in Le Havre.
Christian missionaries implanted monastic communities in the territory in the 5th and 6th centuries. Some of these missionaries came from across the Channel. The influence of Celtic Christianity can still be found in the Cotentin. By the terms of the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Rollo, a Viking pagan, accepted Christianity and was baptised. The Duchy of Normandy was therefore formally a Christian state from its foundation. The cathedrals of Normandy have exerted influence down the centuries in matters of both faith and politics. King Henry II of England, did penance at the cathedral of Avranches on 21 May 1172 and was absolved from the censures incurred by the assassination of Thomas Becket. Mont Saint-Michel is a historic pilgrimage site.
Normandy does not have one generally agreed patron saint, although this title has been ascribed to Saint Michael, and to Saint Ouen. Many saints have been revered in Normandy down the centuries, including:
Since the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State there is no established church in mainland Normandy. In the Channel Islands, the Church of England is the established church. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21724 |
Neuromancer
Neuromancer is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It is one of the best-known works in the cyberpunk genre and the first novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy. Set in the future, the novel follows Henry Case, a washed-up computer hacker who is hired for one last job, which brings him up against a powerful artificial intelligence.
Before "Neuromancer", Gibson had written several short stories for US science fiction periodicals—mostly noir countercultural narratives concerning low-life protagonists in near-future encounters with cyberspace. The themes he developed in this early short fiction, the Sprawl setting of "Burning Chrome" (1982), and the character of Molly Millions from "Johnny Mnemonic" (1981) laid the foundations for the novel. John Carpenter's "Escape from New York" (1981) influenced the novel; Gibson was "intrigued by the exchange in one of the opening scenes where the Warden says to Snake 'You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad, didn't you?' It turns out to be just a throwaway line, but for a moment it worked like the best SF, where a casual reference can imply a lot." The novel's street and computer slang dialogue derives from the vocabulary of subcultures, particularly "1969 Toronto dope dealer's slang, or biker talk". Gibson heard the term "flatlining" in a bar around twenty years before writing "Neuromancer" and it stuck with him. Author Robert Stone, a "master of a certain kind of paranoid fiction", was a primary influence on the novel. The term "Screaming Fist" was taken from the song of the same name by Toronto punk rock band The Viletones.
"Neuromancer" was commissioned by Terry Carr for the second series of Ace Science Fiction Specials, which was intended to feature debut novels exclusively. Given a year to complete the work, Gibson undertook the actual writing out of "blind animal panic" at the obligation to write an entire novel—a feat which he felt he was "four or five years away from". After viewing the first 20 minutes of landmark cyberpunk film "Blade Runner" (1982), which was released when Gibson had written a third of the novel, he "figured ["Neuromancer"] was sunk, done for. Everyone would assume I’d copied my visual texture from this astonishingly fine-looking film." He re-wrote the first two-thirds of the book 12 times, feared losing the reader's attention and was convinced that he would be "permanently shamed" following its publication; yet what resulted was seen as a major imaginative leap forward for a first-time novelist. He added the final sentence of the novel at the last minute in a deliberate attempt to prevent himself from ever writing a sequel, but ended up doing precisely that with "Count Zero" (1986), a character-focused work set in the Sprawl alluded to in its predecessor.
Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City, Japan. Once a talented computer hacker, Case was caught stealing from his employer. As punishment for his theft, Case's central nervous system was damaged with a mycotoxin, leaving him unable to access the global computer network in cyberspace, a virtual reality dataspace called the "matrix". Case is unemployable, suicidal, and apparently at the top of the hit list of a drug lord named Wage. Case is saved by Molly Millions, an augmented "street samurai" and mercenary for a shadowy US ex-military officer named Armitage, who offers to cure Case in exchange for his services as a hacker. Case jumps at the chance to regain his life as a "console cowboy," but neither Case nor Molly knows what Armitage is really planning. Case's nervous system is repaired using new technology that Armitage offers the clinic as payment, but he soon learns from Armitage that sacs of the poison that first crippled him have been placed in his blood vessels as well. Armitage promises Case that if he completes his work in time, the sacs will be removed; otherwise they will dissolve, disabling him again. He also has Case's pancreas replaced and new tissue grafted into his liver, leaving Case incapable of metabolizing cocaine or amphetamines and apparently ending his drug addiction.
Case develops a close personal relationship with Molly, who suggests that he begin looking into Armitage's background. Meanwhile, Armitage assigns them their first job: they must steal a ROM module that contains the saved consciousness of one of Case's mentors, legendary cyber-cowboy McCoy Pauley, nicknamed "Dixie Flatline." Armitage needs Pauley's hacking expertise, and the ROM construct is stored in the corporate headquarters of media conglomerate Sense/Net. A street gang named the "Panther Moderns" is hired to create a simulated terrorist attack on Sense/Net. The diversion allows Molly to penetrate the building and steal Dixie's ROM with Case unlocking the computer safeguards on the way in and out from within the matrix.
Case and Molly continue to investigate Armitage, discovering his former identity of Colonel Willis Corto. Corto was a member of "Operation Screaming Fist," which planned on infiltrating and disrupting Soviet computer systems from ultralight aircraft dropped over Russia. The Russian military had learned of the idea and installed defenses to render the attack impossible, but the military went ahead with Screaming Fist, with a new secret purpose of testing these Russian defenses. As his team attacked a Soviet computer center, EMP weapons shut down their computers and flight systems, and Corto and his men were targeted by Soviet laser defenses. He and a few survivors commandeered a Soviet military helicopter and escaped over the heavily guarded Finnish border. The helicopter was shot down by Finnish defense forces mistaking it for a hostile aircraft, and everyone aboard was killed except for Corto, who was seriously wounded and disfigured. After some months in the hospital, Corto was visited by a US government official, who returned him to the United States to receive computer-aided psychotherapy and reconstructive surgery and to be able to provide what he came to realize was false testimony, designed to mislead the public and protect the senior military officers who had covered up knowledge of the EMP weapons. After the trials, Corto snapped, killing the official who had first contacted him and then disappearing into the criminal underworld, becoming Armitage.
In Istanbul, the team recruits Peter Riviera, an artist, thief, and drug addict who is able to project detailed holographic illusions with the aid of sophisticated cybernetic implants. Although Riviera is a sociopath, Armitage coerces him into joining the team. The trail leads Case and Molly to Wintermute, a powerful artificial intelligence created by the Tessier-Ashpool family. The Tessier-Ashpools spend most of their inactive time in cryonic preservation in a labyrinthine mansion known as Villa Straylight, located at one end of Freeside, a cylindrical space habitat at L5, which functions primarily as a Las Vegas-style space resort for the wealthy.
Wintermute finally reveals itself to Case through a simulated personality of one of Case's associates as it lacks the ability to form its own personality. Wintermute explains that it is one-half of a super-AI entity planned by the family, although its exact purpose is unknown. The Turing Law Code governing AIs bans the construction of such entities; to get around this, it had to be built as two separate AIs. Wintermute (housed in a computer mainframe in Berne, Switzerland) was programmed by the Tessier-Ashpools with a need to merge with its other half, Neuromancer (whose physical mainframe is installed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Unable to achieve this merger on its own, Wintermute recruited Armitage and his team to help complete the goal. Case is tasked with entering cyberspace to pierce the Turing-imposed software barriers using a powerful icebreaker program. At the same time, Riviera is to obtain the password to the Turing lock from Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool, an unfrozen daughter clone and the current CEO of the family's corporation, Tessier-Ashpool SA. Wintermute believes Riviera will pose an irresistible temptation to her, and that she will give him the password. The password must be spoken into an ornate computer terminal located in Villa Straylight, and entered simultaneously as Case pierces the software barriers in cyberspace—otherwise the Turing lock will remain intact.
Armitage's team attracts the attention of the Turing Police, whose job is to prevent AIs from exceeding their built-in limitations. As Molly and Riviera gain entrance to Villa Straylight, three Turing officers arrest Case and take him into custody; Wintermute manipulates the orbital casino's security and maintenance systems and kills the officers, allowing Case to escape. Armitage's personality starts to disintegrate and revert to the Corto personality as he relives Screaming Fist. It is revealed that Wintermute had originally contacted Corto through a bedside computer during his original psychotherapy, eventually convincing Corto that he was Armitage. Wintermute used him to persuade Case and Molly to help it merge with its twin AI, Neuromancer. Finally, Corto breaks through the remains of the Armitage personality, but he is uncontrollable, and Wintermute kills him by ejecting him through an airlock into space.
Inside Villa Straylight, Riviera meets Lady 3Jane and tries to stop the mission, helping Lady 3Jane and Hideo, her ninja bodyguard, to capture Molly. Worried about Molly and operating under orders from Wintermute, Case tracks her down with help from Maelcum, his Rastafarian pilot. After reaching Villa Straylight, Case uses a computer inside the compound to enter cyberspace where Neuromancer attempts to trap Case within a simulated reality. There he finds the consciousness of Linda Lee, his girlfriend from Chiba City, who was murdered by one of Case's underworld contacts. He also meets Neuromancer who takes the form of a young boy. Unlike Wintermute, Neuromancer is able to create its own personality and identity. Neuromancer tries to convince Case to give up and remain in the virtual world with Linda, but Case refuses. He escapes, partly because Maelcum gives his body an overdose of a drug that can bypass his augmented liver and pancreas.
With Wintermute guiding them, Case goes with Maelcum to confront Lady 3Jane, Riviera, and Hideo. Riviera tries to kill Case, but Lady 3Jane is sympathetic towards Case and Molly, and Hideo protects him. Riviera blinds Hideo with a concentrated laser pulse from his projector implant, but flees when he learns that the ninja is just as adept without his sight. Molly then explains to Case that Riviera is doomed anyway, as he has been fatally poisoned by his drugs, which she had spiked with a lethal toxin to ensure he would never survive the mission, regardless of the outcome. With Lady 3Jane in possession of the password, the team makes it to the computer terminal. Case enters cyberspace to guide the icebreaker to penetrate its target; Lady 3Jane is induced to give up her password, and the lock is opened. Wintermute unites with Neuromancer, fusing into a superconsciousness. The poison in Case's bloodstream is washed out, and he, Molly, and Maelcum are profusely paid for their efforts, while Pauley's ROM construct is apparently erased, at his own request.
In the epilogue, Molly leaves Case. Case finds a new girlfriend, resumes his hacking work, and spends his earnings from the mission replacing his internal organs. Wintermute/Neuromancer contacts him, saying that it has become "the sum total of the works, the whole show," and has begun looking for other AIs like itself. Scanning old recorded transmissions from the 1970s, the super-AI finds an AI transmitting from the Alpha Centauri star system.
In the end, while logged into the matrix, Case catches a glimpse of Neuromancer standing in the distance with his dead girlfriend Linda Lee, and himself. Neuromancer appears as a smiling boy, Linda waves, and Case hears inhuman laughter (a trait associated with Pauley during Case's work with his ROM construct). This suggests that Pauley was not erased after all, but instead transformed and exists in the matrix. The implication of the sighting is that Neuromancer created a copy of Case's consciousness. The copy of Case's consciousness now exists with that of Linda's and Pauley's, in the matrix. As promised there has been change, but what that change means is left ambiguous.
«But Porush does not point out a secondary "necromancy" in the title. Not only are characters raised from the dead by a number of fictional magicians, but also various genres are "raised from the dead" by the very real magician of magicians—Gibson himself. The text is one about regeneration and endurance. Forms arise, undergo transformations, and continue metamorphosed. Gibson becomes the new romancer behind Neuromancer, revitalizing the science fiction novel, the quest story, the myth of the hero, the mystery, the hard-boiled detective novel, the epic, the thriller, and the tales of the cowboy and romantic artist, among others. He represents old stories in a revealing revamped intertexual pastiche.»
"Neuromancer"s release was not greeted with fanfare, but it hit a cultural nerve, quickly becoming an underground word-of-mouth hit. It became the first novel to win the Nebula, the Hugo, and Philip K. Dick Award for paperback original, an unprecedented achievement described by the "Mail & Guardian" as "the sci-fi writer's version of winning the Goncourt, Booker and Pulitzer prizes in the same year". The novel thereby legitimized cyberpunk as a mainstream branch of science fiction literature. It is among the most-honored works of science fiction in recent history, and appeared on "Time" magazine's list of 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. The novel was also nominated for a British Science Fiction Award in 1984.
"Neuromancer" is considered "the archetypal cyberpunk work". Outside science fiction, it gained unprecedented critical and popular attention as an "evocation of life in the late 1980s", although "The Observer" noted that "it took the "New York Times" 10 years" to mention the novel. By 2007 it had sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide.
The novel has had significant linguistic influence, popularizing such terms as cyberspace and ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics). Gibson himself coined the term "cyberspace" in his novelette "Burning Chrome", published in 1982 by "Omni" magazine, but it was through its use in "Neuromancer" that it gained recognition to become the "de facto" term for the "World Wide Web" during the 1990s. The portion of "Neuromancer" usually cited in this respect is:
The 1999 cyberpunk science fiction film "The Matrix" particularly draws from "Neuromancer" both eponym and usage of the term "matrix". "After watching The Matrix, Gibson commented that the way that the film's creators had drawn from existing cyberpunk works was 'exactly the kind of creative cultural osmosis" he had relied upon in his own writing."
In his afterword to the 2000 re-issue of "Neuromancer", fellow author Jack Womack goes as far as to suggest that Gibson's vision of cyberspace may have inspired the way in which the Internet developed (particularly the World Wide Web), after the publication of "Neuromancer" in 1984. He asks "[w]hat if the act of writing it down, in fact, "brought it about?"" (269).
Norman Spinrad, in his 1986 essay "The Neuromantics" which appears in his non-fiction collection "Science Fiction in the Real World", saw the book's title as a triple pun: "neuro" referring to the nervous system; "necromancer"; and "new romancer". The cyberpunk genre, the authors of which he suggested be called "neuromantics", was "a fusion of the romantic impulse with science and technology", according to Spinrad.
Writing in "F&SF" in 2005, Charles de Lint noted that while Gibson's technological extrapolations had proved imperfect (in particular, his failure to anticipate the cellular telephone), "Imagining story, the inner workings of his characters' minds, and the world in which it all takes place are all more important.
Lawrence Person in his "Notes Toward a Postcyberpunk Manifesto" (1998) identified "Neuromancer" as "the archetypal cyberpunk work", and in 2005, "Time" included it in their list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, opining that "[t]here is no way to overstate how radical ["Neuromancer"] was when it first appeared." Literary critic Larry McCaffery described the concept of the matrix in "Neuromancer" as a place where "data dance with human consciousness... human memory is literalized and mechanized... multi-national information systems mutate and breed into startling new structures whose beauty and complexity are unimaginable, mystical, and above all nonhuman." Gibson later commented on himself as an author circa "Neuromancer" that "I'd buy him a drink, but I don't know if I'd loan him any money," and referred to the novel as "an adolescent's book". The success of "Neuromancer" was to effect the 35-year-old Gibson's emergence from obscurity.
In 1989, Epic Comics published a 48-page graphic novel version by Tom de Haven and Bruce Jensen. It only covers the first two chapters, "Chiba City Blues" and "The Shopping Expedition", and was never continued.
In the 1990s a version of "Neuromancer" was published as one of the Voyager Company's "Expanded Books" series of hypertext-annotated HyperCard stacks for the Apple Macintosh (especially the PowerBook).
A video game adaptation of the novel—also titled "Neuromancer"—was published in 1988 by Interplay. Designed by Bruce J. Balfour, Brian Fargo, Troy A. Miles, and Michael A. Stackpole, the game had many of the same locations and themes as the novel, but a different protagonist and plot. It was available for a variety of platforms, including the Amiga, the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and for DOS-based computers. It featured, as a soundtrack, a computer adaptation of the Devo song "Some Things Never Change."
According to an episode of the American version of "Beyond 2000", the original plans for the game included a dynamic soundtrack composed by Devo and a real-time 3D-rendered movie of the events the player went through. Psychologist and futurist Dr. Timothy Leary was involved, but very little documentation seems to exist about this proposed second game, which was perhaps too grand a vision for 1988 home computing.
The BBC World Service Drama production of "Neuromancer" aired in two one-hour parts, on 8 and 15 September 2002. Dramatised by Mike Walker, and directed by Andy Jordan, it starred Owen McCarthy as Case, Nicola Walker as Molly, James Laurenson as Armitage, John Shrapnel as Wintermute, Colin Stinton as Dixie, David Webber as Maelcum, David Holt as Riviera, Peter Marinker as Ashpool, and Andrew Scott as The Finn. It can no longer be heard on The BBC World Service Archive.
In Finland, Yle Radioteatteri produced a 4-part radio play of Neuromancer.
Gibson read an abridged version of his novel "Neuromancer" on four audio cassettes for Time Warner Audio Books (1994). An unabridged version of this book was read by Arthur Addison and made available from Books on Tape (1997). In 2011, Penguin Audiobooks produced a new unabridged recording of the book, read by Robertson Dean.
"Neuromancer the Opera" is an adaptation written by Jayne Wenger and Marc Lowenstein (libretto) and Richard Marriott of the Club Foot Orchestra (music). A production was scheduled to open on March 3, 1995 at the Julia Morgan Theater (now the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts) in Berkeley, California, featuring Club Foot Orchestra in the pit and extensive computer graphics imagery created by a world-wide network of volunteers. However, this premiere did not take place and the work has yet to be performed in full.
There have been several proposed film adaptations of "Neuromancer", with drafts of scripts written by British director Chris Cunningham and Chuck Russell, with Aphex Twin providing the soundtrack. The box packaging for the video game adaptation had even carried the promotional mention for a major motion picture to come from "Cabana Boy Productions." None of these projects have come to fruition, though Gibson had stated his belief that Cunningham is the only director with a chance of doing the film correctly.
In May 2007, reports emerged that a film was in the works, with Joseph Kahn (director of "Torque") in line to direct and Milla Jovovich in the lead role. In May 2010 this story was supplanted with news that Vincenzo Natali, director of "Cube" and "Splice", had taken over directing duties and would rewrite the screenplay. In March 2011, with the news that Seven Arts and GFM Films would be merging their distribution operations, it was announced that the joint venture would be purchasing the rights to "Neuromancer" under Vincenzo Natali's direction. In August, 2012, GFM Films announced that it had begun casting for the film (with offers made to Liam Neeson and Mark Wahlberg), but no cast members have been confirmed yet. In November 2013, Natali shed some light on the production situation; announcing that the script had been completed for "years", and had been written with assistance from Gibson himself. In May 2015, it was reported that movie got new funding from Chinese company C2M, but Natali is no longer available for directing the movie.
In August 2017, it was announced that "Deadpool" director Tim Miller was signed on to direct a new film adaptation by Fox, with Simon Kinberg producing. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21725 |
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a Major League Baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two MLB teams based in New York City, the other being the New York Yankees of the American League (AL).
One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed NL teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. The team's colors combine the Dodgers' blue and the Giants' orange. For the 1962 and 1963 seasons, the Mets played home games at the Polo Grounds. From 1964 to 2008, their home ballpark was Shea Stadium. In 2009, they moved into their current ballpark, Citi Field.
In their inaugural season, the Mets posted a record of 40–120, the worst regular season record since MLB went to a 162-game schedule. The team never finished better than second-to-last until the "Miracle Mets" beat the Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series, one of the biggest upsets in World Series history. Since then, they have played in four World Series, including a dramatic run in that ended in a seven-game loss to the Oakland Athletics, a second championship in over the Boston Red Sox, a Subway Series loss against their cross-town rivals the New York Yankees in , and a five-game loss to the Kansas City Royals in .
The Mets qualified to play in the MLB postseason in 1988 and 2006, coming within one game of the World Series both years. After near-misses in 2007 and 2008, the team made the playoffs in 2015 for the first time in nine years, and won their first NL pennant in 15 years. The team again returned to the playoffs in 2016, this time with a wild card berth. This was the team's second back-to-back playoff appearance, the first occurring during the 1999 and 2000 seasons.
At the end of the 2019 season, the team's overall win-loss record was 4448–4808, a .481 win percentage.
After the 1957 season, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants relocated from New York to California to become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, leaving the largest city in the United States with no National League franchise and only one major league team, the New York Yankees of the American League (AL). With the threat of a New York team joining a new third league, the National League expanded by adding the New York Mets following a proposal from William Shea. In a symbolic reference to New York's earlier National League teams, the new team took as its primary colors the blue of the Dodgers and the orange of the Giants, both of which are colors also featured on the Flag of New York City. The nickname "Mets" was adopted: it was a natural shorthand to the club's corporate name, "The New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc.", hearkened back to the "Metropolitans" (a former New York team in the American Association from 1880 to 1887), and its brevity was advantageous for newspaper headlines.
For the first two years of its existence, the team played its home games at the historic Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan. In 1964, they moved into newly constructed Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens, where the Mets played until the 2008 season. In 2009, the club moved into Citi Field, adjacent to the former Shea Stadium site.
During their history, the Mets have won two World Series titles (1969 and 1986), five National League pennants (1969, 1973, 1986, 2000, 2015) and six National League East titles (1969, 1973, 1986, 1988, 2006, 2015). The Mets also qualified for the postseason as the National League wild card team in 1999, 2000, and 2016. The Mets have appeared in five World Series, more than any other expansion team in MLB history. Their two championships are the most titles among expansion teams, equal to the tallies of the Toronto Blue Jays, Miami Marlins, and Kansas City Royals.
The Mets held the New York baseball single-season attendance record for 29 years. They broke the Yankees' 1948 record by drawing nearly 2.7 million spectators in 1970. The Mets broke their own record five times before the record was regained by the Yankees in 1999.
The 1962 Mets posted a 40–120 record, a record for the most losses in a season since 1899. In 1966, the Mets famously bypassed future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson in the amateur draft, instead selecting Steve Chilcott, who never played in the majors. But the following year, they acquired future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver in a lottery. Seaver helped the 1969 "Miracle Mets" win the new National League East division title, then defeat the Atlanta Braves to win the National League pennant and the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles to win the 1969 World Series.
In 1973, the Mets rallied from 5th place to win the division, despite a record of only 82–79. They shocked the heavily favored Cincinnati Reds "Big Red Machine" in the NLCS and pushed the defending World Series champion Oakland Athletics to a seventh game, but lost the series. Notably, 1973 was the only NL East title between 1970 and 1980 that wasn't won by either the Philadelphia Phillies or the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Star pitcher Tom Seaver was traded in 1977, on a day remembered as "the Midnight Massacre", and the Mets fell into last place for several years. The franchise turned around in the mid-1980s. During this time the Mets also drafted slugger Darryl Strawberry (#1 in 1980) and 1985 Cy Young Award winner Dwight Gooden (#5 in 1982). In addition, former National League MVP and perennial Gold Glove winner Keith Hernandez was obtained by the Mets in 1983.
In 1985, they acquired Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter from the Montreal Expos and won 98 games, but narrowly missed the playoffs. In 1986, they won the division with a record of 108–54, one of the best in National League history. They won a dramatic NLCS in six games over the Houston Astros. The sixth game of the series went sixteen innings, the longest playoff game in history until 2005. They came within one strike of losing the World Series against the Boston Red Sox before a series of hits and defensive miscues ultimately led to an error by Boston's Bill Buckner which gave the Mets a game 6 victory. They then won Game 7 to win their second World Series title.
The Mets continued playing well after 1986 and won the division in 1988, but lost in the NLCS that year and declined into the 1990s. They were out of contention until the 1997 season when they were in wild card contention until the final week of the season. In 1998, the Mets acquired catcher Mike Piazza in a blockbuster trade and missed the postseason by only one game. In 1999, they made the playoffs after a one-game playoff, but lost the 1999 National League Championship Series to the Atlanta Braves. In 2000, they easily clinched a wild card spot in the playoffs, and earned a trip to the 2000 World Series against their crosstown rivals, the New York Yankees for a "Subway Series". The Mets were defeated by the Yankees in five games.
The Mets had a near playoff miss in 2001 and struggled from 2002 to 2004. In the aftermath of the 2004 season, the Mets hired a new general manager, Omar Minaya, who immediately turned the franchise around by signing pitcher Pedro Martínez and hiring a new manager, Willie Randolph. The Mets finished 2005 four games over .500, and the franchise's resurgence was complete by 2006 as they won 97 games and the NL East title behind new acquisitions Carlos Beltrán and Carlos Delgado, as well as young superstars José Reyes and David Wright. The Mets advanced to game seven of the 2006 NLCS but lost after Yadier Molina's game-winning two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning. The Mets loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the inning, but Adam Wainwright struck out Beltran looking with a devastating curveball.
In 2007, the Mets entered the final 17 games in the season with a seven-game lead in the division. But the team went on an ill-timed losing streak, losing 11 of the next 15 games and needing to win their final two games to make the playoffs. The Mets won their penultimate game, but on the final day of the season, Tom Glavine gave up seven runs in the first inning en route to an 8–1 loss that eliminated the team from contention. The Philadelphia Phillies won the division by one game after a win on the season's last day.
The Mets held a more modest 3.5-game lead after 145 games of the 2008 season, their final season at Shea Stadium. While their 7–10 mark down the stretch was better than the previous season's 5–12, it still allowed the Phillies to pass them once again for the division crown, which they lost by three games. The Mets opened Citi Field in 2009, but were not a factor due to a rash of injuries to numerous key players including Reyes, Carlos Beltrán, Carlos Delgado, Óliver Pérez and Liván Hernández. The effect of the injuries plummeted the Mets to a 70–92 record. The Mets improved to a 79–83 in 2010, but still finished in fourth place, missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
After the 2010 season, the Mets fired Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel. Former Oakland Athletics G.M. and MLB executive Sandy Alderson was hired to run the team, who hired Terry Collins as manager.
In 2012, Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz settled a lawsuit brought against them on behalf of the victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme for $162 million. As a result of this agreement the liquidator, Irving Picard, agreed to drop the charges that Wilpon and Katz blindly went along with the scheme for their personal benefit. Picard had originally sought to recover $1 billion from the Wilpon family and Katz, but settled for $162 million along with the admission that neither the Wilpons nor Katz had any knowledge of the Ponzi scheme. In 2011–2012, Mets ownership sold twelve minority 4% shares (48%) of the franchise at $20 million apiece to provide a cash infusion of $240 million for the team.
Despite yet another losing season, the Mets made history in 2011 when closer Jason Isringhausen converted his 300th save with the team, the third player in franchise history to reach the milestone while with the organization (after John Franco and Billy Wagner). Also, Reyes became the first Met in franchise history to win a National League batting title, posting a .337 batting average. In 2012, as the Mets tried to bounce back from three consecutive losing seasons, they lost star shortstop Reyes to free agency, when he signed with the Miami Marlins. The team started out strong, getting a career-year performance from the league's only knuckleballer, R.A. Dickey, and strong production from Wright. But they faltered midseason and ended with a 74–88 record, again finishing fourth in the division.
Prior to the 2012 season the Mets had yet to throw a no-hitter, and the franchise's hurlers had gone 8,019 games without pitching one – longer than any other major-league franchise. They were one of only two major-league teams to never have a pitcher throw a no-hitter (the other being the San Diego Padres). However, on June 1, 2012 Johan Santana pitched a no-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals. Averting the spotlight from Carlos Beltrán's return to Citi Field, Santana turned a routine game into a memorable moment in Mets history. Santana risked being removed from the game after he went over his limit of 110 pitches, placed by the team because of his shoulder surgery. Still Santana stayed in the game and threw 134 total pitches that evening in an 8–0 Mets victory, helped by a few great defensive plays as well as a controversial foul-ball call (coincidentally on Beltran), to pull off the first no-hitter in Mets history. That was the high point of 2012 along with pitcher R.A. Dickey winning the National League Cy Young Award. This would be Dickey's final season with the Mets, though, as he along with Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas were traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for prospects Travis d'Arnaud, Noah Syndergaard, Wuilmer Becerra, and veteran catcher John Buck. The 2013 season brought another 74–88 finish but they were able to finish in 3rd place. The highlight of the season was sweeping the season series between their cross town rivals Yankees, a first since interleague play started in 1997.
Prior to the start of the 2014 season the Mets made a big splash in the free agent market by signing former New York Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson to a 4-year $60 million contract. They also signed former Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Bartolo Colón to a 2-year deal to help offset losing ace pitcher Matt Harvey for the year after he required Tommy John surgery. They would improve to 79–83 and finish the season tied for 2nd place with Atlanta but it was their 6th consecutive season where they finished under .500. Pitcher Jacob deGrom would win the National League Rookie of the Year.
On April 23, 2015 the Mets tied a franchise season record of eleven straight wins. For the first time in its history the Mets won ten straight homestand games, becoming the 7th team since 1900 to win at least 10 straight homestand games. On September 26, 2015, the Mets clinched the NL East division title, and thus their first postseason berth since 2006, by defeating the Cincinnati Reds 10–2. They defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, three games to two, and swept the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS for their first pennant in 15 years. In the 2015 World Series, they were defeated by the Kansas City Royals in five games. After the season ended, pitcher Matt Harvey won the NL Comeback Player of the Year award. Outfielder Yoenis Céspedes won the NL Gold Glove award as a left fielder.
"Meet the Mets" is the Mets' signature song, written in 1961, one year before the first season, by Bill Katz and Ruth Roberts. It is played on the radio, during television broadcasts and at Mets' home games.
Mr. Met is the official mascot of the New York Mets. He was introduced on the cover of game programs in 1963, when the Mets were still playing at the Polo Grounds in northern Manhattan. When the Mets moved to Shea Stadium in 1964, fans were introduced to a live costumed version. Mr. Met is believed to have been the first mascot in Major League Baseball to exist in human (as opposed to artistically rendered) form.
Mrs. Met (formerly Lady Met) is the female counterpart to Mr. Met, and the couple sometimes appears with 2–3 smaller "children".
The Mets have had two mascots other than Mr. and Mrs. Met at different points in its history. The franchise's original official mascot was Homer, a beagle trained by Rudd Weatherwax that lived at the Waldorf-Astoria, was sponsored by Rheingold Beer and had his own platform behind home plate at the Polo Grounds. The dog was not included in the ballclub's transition to Shea Stadium. The brainchild of team owner Lorinda de Roulet's daughter Bebe, Mettle the mule represented the Mets for only the 1979 season. The name was the result of a contest won by Dolores Mapps of Mercerville, New Jersey whose explanation was that it typified the team's “spirit, ardor, stamina and courage, all of which the Mets have in abundance.” Mettle was not retained after the franchise was sold to Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon the following year.
The Mets' colors are blue and orange, originally chosen to honor the city's history of National League baseball; blue for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and orange for the New York Giants. Blue and orange are also the colors of New York City, as seen on its flag.
In 1998, black was officially added to the color scheme, although beginning with 2012 the black elements in the uniform began to be phased out, and were completely eliminated in 2013.
The primary logo, designed by sports cartoonist Ray Gotto, consists of "Mets" written in orange script trimmed in white across a blue representation of the New York City skyline with a white suspension bridge in the foreground, all contained in an orange circle with orange baseball stitching across the image. Each part of the skyline has special meaning—at the left is a church spire, symbolic of Brooklyn, the borough of churches; the second building from the left is the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building, the tallest building in Brooklyn at the time of the team's founding; next is the Woolworth Building; after a general skyline view of midtown comes the Empire State Building; at the far right is the headquarters of the United Nations. The suspension bridge in the center symbolizes that the Mets, by bringing National League baseball back to New York, represent all five boroughs; many of New York's major bridges are suspension designs. In 1999, the logo received a slight alteration; a small "NY" originally placed to the left of the team script was removed. No other notable changes have ever been made to the logo.
The cap logo consists of an orange, interlocking "NY" identical to the logo used by the New York Giants in their final years, and is on a blue cap reminiscent of the caps worn by the Brooklyn Dodgers.
With the introduction of black as an official color, an alternate team logo was created in 1999. It is identical to the original logo, but the skyline is black instead of blue and the "Mets" script is blue trimmed in orange and white instead of orange trimmed in white (the alternate black jerseys displayed the primary blue and orange logo on the left sleeves in 1998; in 1999 this was changed to the alternate black and blue logo). The logo fell into disuse after the Mets dropped the alternate black jerseys and caps in 2012.
Currently, the Mets wear an assortment of uniforms.
The home uniforms are white with blue pinstripes, and feature the "Mets" script and block lettering and numbers in blue with orange outline. The uniforms are paired with a standard blue cap featuring the "NY" script in orange, plus blue undersleeves, belts and socks. The white pinstriped uniforms replaced both the cream pinstriped uniform and the alternate white uniform starting with the 2015 season.
The gray road jerseys feature a radially-arched "NEW YORK" script in Tiffany style, player numerals and names in blue outlined in orange, and blue placket and sleeve piping. Like the home uniforms, the road grays are worn with blue caps, undersleeves, belts and socks.
On November 14, 2012, the Mets introduced two new blue alternate jerseys. The home alternate features the "Mets" script, player numerals and names in orange outlined in white, while the road alternate feature the "NEW YORK" script, player numerals and names in gray outlined in orange.
On December 10, 2012, the Mets unveiled an alternate blue fielding cap, featuring an orange brim and a white trim around the orange "NY" insignia. Currently it is only worn in games featuring the home blue alternates. For 2015, another alternate blue cap, this time featuring the "NY" in gray outlined in orange, was introduced, and is paired with the road blue alternates. In 2017, the alternate home blue cap was modified to feature a blue brim.
For the 2014 season, a Mr. Met sleeve patch was added to the blue alternate jerseys, a feature that was later removed in favor of the primary logo in 2017.
The Mets' standard blue batting helmet, with the "NY" in orange, is currently used regardless of the cap and jersey design they wear. This was in contrast to previous seasons, where they played with alternate batting helmets to match their caps and jerseys.
Four players have been team captains for the Mets:
Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson's number 42 on April 15, 1997, when the Mets played the Dodgers at Shea Stadium. Butch Huskey wore the number throughout the rest of his Mets career because of a grandfather clause placed on the retired number by MLB. Mo Vaughn also wore 42 during his stint with the Mets, because of the same clause.
On the final opening day at Shea Stadium, April 8, 2008, the Mets unveiled a sign bearing the name "Shea" next to the team's retired numbers honoring William Shea and his contributions to the franchise.
In 2014, a special memorial logo honoring broadcaster Ralph Kiner, depicting a microphone along with his name and the years 1922–2014, was displayed on the left field wall adjacent to, but not as a part of, the Mets' retired numbers, from 2014 to 2016. In the 2016 Mets yearbook, a sidebar in an article on Mike Piazza's upcoming number retirement implies that Kiner has been "retired" a la William A. Shea. This was confirmed when the Mets' retired numbers were moved to the roof facade during the 2016 season to accommodate Mike Piazza's #31; the Kiner logo was placed next to the Shea and Jackie Robinson numbers, no longer separated from the others.
The New York Mets announced that they will retire Jerry Koosman's #36 on June 13, 2020, making him only the third former Mets player to have their number retired in honor of his playing career.
The Mets – New York Yankees rivalry is the latest incarnation of the Subway Series, the competition between New York City's teams, the American League New York Yankees and the National League Mets. Until Interleague play started, the two teams had only met in exhibition games. Since the inception of interleague play the two teams have met every regular season since 1997, and since 1999 they have met six times each season, playing two three-game series, one in each team's ballpark. From the 2013 season however the number of games was reduced to four, two at each ballpark with the Mets winning six of the last eight games in that span. They have made the postseason in the same year four times: 1999, 2000, 2006, and 2015, and faced off in the 2000 World Series.
The Braves–Mets rivalry is a rivalry between two teams in the National League East, featuring the Atlanta Braves and the Mets.
Although their first major confrontation occurred when the Mets swept the Braves in the 1969 NLCS, en route to their first World Series championship, the first playoff series won by an expansion team (also the first playoff appearance by an expansion team), the rivalry did not become especially heated until the 1990s, when a division realignment in 1994 put the Mets and the Braves in the NL East together (from 1969 to 1993, the Braves were in the NL West). The two teams faced each other again in the 1999 NLCS, and the Braves won the series four games to two. However, they would go on to lose to the Yankees in the 1999 World Series.
The rivalry between the Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies from 2006 to 2008 was said to be among the "hottest" rivalries in the National League.
Aside from several brawls in the 1980s, the rivalry remained low-key before the 2006 season, as the teams had seldom been equally good at the same time. Since 2006, the teams have battled for playoff position. The Mets won the division in 2006 and contended in 2007 and 2008, while the Phillies won five consecutive division titles from 2007 to 2011. The Phillies' 2007 Eastern Division Title was won on the last day of the season as the Mets lost a seven-game lead with 17 games remaining while losing 12 of 18 games that season to the Phillies, including being swept at home in the first 3 games of the remaining 17, dropping their lead from 7 games to 3.5.
A registered 501(c)(3) charity, the New York Mets Foundation is the philanthropic organization of the New York Mets. Founded in 1963, it funds and promotes charitable causes in the Mets community. One of these causes is Tuesday's Children, is a non-profit family service organization that "has made a long term commitment to meet the needs of every family who lost a loved one in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001". The Mets host the annual Welcome Home Dinner, which raised over $550,000 for the Mets Foundation in 2012. All proceeds were distributed to Katz Institute for Women's Health and Katz Women's Hospitals of North Shore-LIJ Health System and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Most Mets games are carried by SportsNet New York (SNY), a joint venture of the Mets and NBC Sports Regional Networks. The team's terrestrial broadcast home is WPIX, where the team has broadcast games since 1999.
Longtime Mets radio announcer Gary Cohen does the play-by-play, having moved to television with the launch of SNY in 2006. Former Mets Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are the color commentators with Steve Gelbs being the on the field reporter.
In early January 2016, Keith Hernandez re-signed with SNY. Reports indicate that Hernandez received a raise and three-year contract.
Beginning in 2019, Mets games are broadcast on WCBS-AM 880. Howie Rose is the main play-by-play announcer; Josh Lewin, his broadcast partner since 2012, will not return. Wayne Randazzo, who previously hosted the pre- and post-game shows, will replace Lewin; longtime Mets beat reporter Ed Coleman will take over the pre- and post-game role for most games.
The Mets' previous radio flagship was WOR-AM, from 2014 to 2018. The Mets were previously carried by WFAN-AM, which inherited the team's broadcast rights from WHN when it took over its frequency in 1987, and in later years by WFAN-FM which simulcasts the AM signal.
Spanish-language broadcasts are carried by WEPN-AM 1050, ESPN Deportes Nueva York, featuring Juan Alicea and Max Perez-Jimenez.
Rose, who has spent much of his career covering the Mets, replaced Bob Murphy as Gary Cohen's broadcast partner in 2004 following Murphy's retirement. Cohen then left the radio booth for the SNY television booth in 2006 and was replaced by Tom McCarthy, who departed after two seasons and was replaced by Wayne Hagin. Lewin joined the broadcast after the team parted ways with Hagin following the 2011 season.
Coinciding with the move to WCBS, the Mets, abruptly and without public announcement (other than a brief e-mail to its affiliates days before the season began), stopped syndicating its games to other stations outside the New York City area, shutting down the New York Mets Radio Network.
The New York Mets farm system consists of nine minor league affiliates. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21728 |
Nursery rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term only dates from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
From the mid-16th century nursery rhymes begin to be recorded in English plays, and most popular rhymes date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The first English collections, "Tommy Thumb's Song Book" and a sequel, "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book", were published by Mary Cooper in 1744. Publisher John Newbery's stepson, Thomas Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of English rhymes, "Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle" (London, 1780).
The oldest children's songs of which we have records are lullabies, intended to help a child fall asleep. Lullabies can be found in every human culture. The English term lullaby is thought to come from "lu, lu" or "la la" sounds made by mothers or nurses to calm children, and "" or "bye bye", either another lulling sound or a term for good night. Until the modern era lullabies were usually only recorded incidentally in written sources. The Roman nurses' lullaby, "Lalla, Lalla, Lalla, aut dormi, aut lacta", is recorded in a scholium on Persius and may be the oldest to survive.
Many medieval English verses associated with the birth of Jesus take the form of a lullaby, including "Lullay, my liking, my dere son, my sweting" and may be versions of contemporary lullabies. However, most of those used today date from the 17th century. For example, a well known lullaby such as "Rock-a-bye, baby on a tree top", cannot be found in records until the late-18th century when it was printed by John Newbery (c. 1765).
A French poem, similar to "Thirty days hath September", numbering the days of the month, was recorded in the 13th century. From the later Middle Ages there are records of short children's rhyming songs, often as marginalia. From the mid-16th century they begin to be recorded in English plays. "Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man" is one of the oldest surviving English nursery rhymes. The earliest recorded version of the rhyme appears in Thomas d'Urfey's play "The Campaigners" from 1698. Most nursery rhymes were not written down until the 18th century, when the publishing of children's books began to move from polemic and education towards entertainment, but there is evidence for many rhymes existing before this, including "To market, to market" and "Cock a doodle doo", which date from at least the late 16th century. Nursery rhymes with 17th century origins include, "Jack Sprat" (1639), "The Grand Old Duke of York" (1642), "Lavender's Blue" (1672) and "Rain Rain Go Away" (1687).
The first English collections, "Tommy Thumb's Song Book" and a sequel, "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book", were published by Mary Cooper in London in 1744, with such songs becoming known as 'Tommy Thumb's songs'. A copy of the latter is held in the British Library. John Newbery's stepson, Thomas Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of English rhymes, "Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle" (London, 1780). These rhymes seem to have come from a variety of sources, including traditional riddles, proverbs, ballads, lines of Mummers' plays, drinking songs, historical events, and, it has been suggested, ancient pagan rituals. About half of the currently recognised "traditional" English rhymes were known by the mid-18th century.
In the early 19th century printed collections of rhymes began to spread to other countries, including Robert Chambers's "Popular Rhymes of Scotland" (1826) and in the United States, "Mother Goose's Melodies" (1833). From this period we sometimes know the origins and authors of rhymes—for instance, in "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" which combines the melody of an 18th-century French tune "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" with a 19th-century English poem by Jane Taylor entitled "The Star" used as lyrics.
Early folk song collectors also often collected (what are now known as) nursery rhymes, including in Scotland Sir Walter Scott and in Germany Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim in "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" (1806–1808). The first, and possibly the most important academic collection to focus in this area was James Orchard Halliwell's "The Nursery Rhymes of England" (1842) and "Popular Rhymes and Tales" in 1849, in which he divided rhymes into antiquities (historical), fireside stories, game-rhymes, alphabet-rhymes, riddles, nature-rhymes, places and families, proverbs, superstitions, customs, and nursery songs (lullabies). By the time of Sabine Baring-Gould's "A Book of Nursery Songs" (1895), folklore was an academic study, full of comments and footnotes. A professional anthropologist, Andrew Lang (1844–1912) produced "The Nursery Rhyme Book" in 1897.
The early years of the 20th century are notable for the illustrations to children's books including Randolph Caldecott's "Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book" (1909) and Arthur Rackham's "Mother Goose" (1913). The definitive study of English rhymes remains the work of Iona and Peter Opie.
Many nursery rhymes have been argued to have hidden meanings and origins. John Bellenden Ker (1765?–1842), for example, wrote four volumes arguing that English nursery rhymes were actually written in 'Low Saxon', a hypothetical early form of Dutch. He then 'translated' them back into English, revealing in particular a strong tendency to anti-clericalism. Many of the ideas about the links between rhymes and historical persons, or events, can be traced back to Katherine Elwes's book "The Real Personages of Mother Goose" (1930), in which she linked famous nursery-rhyme characters with real people, on little or no evidence. She assumed that children's songs were a peculiar form of coded historical narrative, propaganda or covert protest, and rarely considered that they could have been written simply for entertainment.
There have been several attempts, across the world, to revise nursery rhymes (along with fairy tales and popular songs). Even in the late 18th century we can sometimes see how rhymes like "Little Robin Redbreast" were cleaned up for a young audience. In the late 19th century the major concern seems to have been violence and crime, which led leading children's publishers in the United States like Jacob Abbot and Samuel Goodrich to 'improve' Mother Goose rhymes.
In the early and mid-20th centuries this was a form of bowdlerisation, concerned with some of the more violent elements of nursery rhymes and led to the formation of organisations like the British 'Society for Nursery Rhyme Reform'. Psychoanalysts such as Bruno Bettelheim strongly criticized this revisionism, on the grounds that it weakened their usefulness to both children and adults as ways of symbolically resolving issues and it has been argued that revised versions may not perform the functions of catharsis for children, or allow them to imaginatively deal with violence and danger.
In the late 20th century revisionism of nursery rhymes became associated with the idea of political correctness. Most attempts to reform nursery rhymes on this basis appear to be either very small scale, light-hearted updating, like Felix Dennis's "When Jack Sued Jill – Nursery Rhymes for Modern Times" (2006), or satires written as if from the point of view of political correctness in order to condemn reform. The controversy in Britain in 1986 over changing the language of "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" because, it was alleged in the popular press, it was seen as racially dubious, was apparently based only on a rewriting of the rhyme in one private nursery, as an exercise for the children.
It has been argued that nursery rhymes set to music aid in a child's development. In the German "Kniereitvers", the child is put in mock peril, but the experience is a pleasurable one of care and support, which over time the child comes to command for itself. Research also supports the assertion that music and rhyme increase a child's ability in spatial reasoning, which aid mathematics skills.
Sources | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21731 |
Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke and others.
Inspired by a visit to Japan, Black and More primarily created Ninja Tune in 1990 as a means to escape the creative control of major labels, and to act as a vehicle to release music of a more underground nature, free from the restraints that were put on them via their brief stints with Arista and Big Life. The label has been called "visionary" and "reliably excellent". It has signed a diverse range of artists, and has created its own publishing company, Just Isn't Music, and finds innovative uses of software.
The label's first releases—the first five volumes of DJ Food's "Jazz Brakes"—were produced by Coldcut in the early 1990s, and celebrated by the music press and beat aficionados. They were composed of instrumental sample-based cuts that led the duo to help pioneer new instrumental hip hop beats genres (alongside the Mo'Wax label and Ninja Tune artists such as Funki Porcini, The Herbaliser and DJ Vadim) and, to this day, are recognized as being indispensable tools for DJs.
The label has since released music of myriad artists (including The Cinematic Orchestra, Amon Tobin, Bonobo, Kelis, BICEP, The Bug, Machinedrum, Lee Bannon, Wiley) and distributes other record labels – including Big Dada, Brainfeeder (Flying Lotus' label) and Technicolour Records.
Following a Coldcut tour in Japan with Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, then of Beats International, the label lifted its moniker and aesthetic from the Japanese TV shows of the 1950s and 1960s based on the Ninja. With their first releases in the early 1990s, Ninja Tune went on to, according to Pitchfork, "usher in trip-hop/instrumental hip hop".
After Coldcut's success with their first label, "Ahead of Our Time", contractual issues prevented them from releasing anything under their own name. Ninja Tune's inaugural release was Coldcut's (under the name Bogus Order) house break collection "Zen Brakes Vol. 1" in 1990. The label got a bigger name for itself when Coldcut, as DJ Food, released their funky hip hop jazz-breaks album, "Jazz Brakes Vol. 1", which, according to "Record Collector", "blew up" in the DJ circuit. DJ Food's "Jazz Brakes" series were intended as musical "food" or, in other words, source material for DJs and producers who worked with breaks and beats.
In 1992, Peter Quicke stepped aboard as label manager, as did Patrick Carpenter, a.k.a. PC, who joined Coldcut as sound engineer. PC would become a crucial member of Ninja Tune, and from "Jazz Brakes Vol. 4" onwards, an integral part of the DJ Food production team.
Steinski, a big inspiration behind Coldcut's initial forays into music, released his first Ninja Tune EP as Steinski and Mass Media in the same year. The single, in the words of Pitchfork, "builds on a catchy loop of the Jackson 5's 'It's Great to Be Here' and creates one of the few anti-Gulf War protest songs of the era, transforming [ U.S. President George H. W. ] Bush's speech into a pop hook ('Regrettably, we now believe/ That only force will make him leave') and interspersing quotes from Jello Biafra ('don't hate the media, become the media!') and Mario Savio's famous 1964 address to the Berkeley Free Speech Movement".
Between 1994 and 1997 Ninja explored and defined the instrumental hip hop beats sound further (often known as trip hop). Its pioneering influence on the genre became more prevalent with the label's first compilation, "Funkjazztical Tricknology", in 1995. The genre originated in England as a successor to acid house, taking in acid jazz and funk, and using hip hop style breakbeats rather than the mechanical '4 on the floor' drum rhythm of house. Ninja artists especially looked beyond the normal sampling sources of old funk records into jazz, epitomised by Ninja act The Cinematic Orchestra.
Coldcut's contribution to Britain's flourishing scene was solidified by their Solid Steel show on London's Kiss FM, on airwaves since 1988. The ongoing success of Solid Steel, and its subsequent syndication across the globe, broadcast the Ninja brand across the airwaves. The late night Saturday show cut all manner of beats, samples and loops into a chaotic musical blend. The show's 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach continued through Coldcut's "utterly brilliant" "Journeys by DJ" series of mix compilations in 1995. The title "70 Minutes of Madness" was a nod to Coldcut's earlier Eric B & Rakim remix, and included sounds from Depth Charge, DJ Food, Plastikman, Mantronix, Harold Budd and the Doctor Who theme.
In 1994, Matt Black's close friend Mixmaster Morris introduced Matt to Openmind – a DJ & design collective in Camberwell – at the Telepathic Fish chill-out club they were running. Openmind included Kevin Foakes a.k.a. Strictly Kev of DJ Food. After submitting a re-styled company logo he was employed by Ninja Tune in the capacity of overall design consultant. Matt Black also invited Foakes to Ninja's recording studio, where he eventually joined the many hands at work on DJ Food's 1995 album, "Recipe for Disaster" (which also included Patrick Carpenter a.k.a. PC, Isaac Elliston, Paul Rabiger and Paul Brooks). The album was called a "whirlwind of beats put through the blender" and proved a good cross-selection of the group's various styles.
In 1995, The Herbaliser, one of the more purely hip-hop oriented acts on Ninja Tune's roster at that point released their debut album "Remedies". "Remedies" brought both the group and the label much attention.
Also in 1995, an album launch party for DJ Food's "Recipe for Disaster" was the beginning what would become a regular club night, Stealth. Stealth was named Club of the Year by NME in 1996, with guests including Kruder & Dorfmeister, Squarepusher, Ashley Beedle, James Lavelle, Kid Koala and the label roster. Around the same time, Ninja Tune began organizing its first package tours across the UK and Europe.
With their two 1994 albums, "Paradise Blown" and "Electric Lazyland", 9 Lazy 9 helped spawn the funky, subterranean sound for which Ninja Tune would earn its early acclaim, combining hip hop and funk breakbeats with jazz-influenced sound. Their success inspired one half of the Italian-based duo, James Braddell, to return to the UK and begin his own solo project. As Funki Porcini, Braddell released "Hed Phone Sex" in 1995, which ran through a gamut of genres, from dub to drum and bass. Braddell continued to explore sonic territories on 1996's "Let's See What Carmen Can Do" EP and the "Love, Pussycats and Car Wrecks" album from the same year.
DJ Vadim, a Russian born turntablist from London, who'd already released EPs on his own Jazz Fudge label, further expanded the vocabulary of instrumental hip hop with his 1996 album "U.S.S.R. Repertoire", bringing "locked grooves and ultra-vivid, up-close sample-textures". "U.S.S.R. Reconstruction" followed in 1998, a remix album filled with hip hop that The Wire claimed "turns the air into molasses". With "U.S.S.R. Reconstruction", Vadim selected a baker's dozen of likeminded producers, including Reflection, Clatterbox. DJ Krush, Silent Poets and Kid Koala, creating an album that flows without a hitch through the darkest hip hop and beat exploration.
Throughout the 1990s, Matt Black began exploring his own interests in burgeoning computer and audio/visual technologies, to experiment with the VJ software and hardware that was already changing the Coldcut DJ performances. His Hex collective – also featuring artist Robert Pepperell and programmer Miles Visman – produced video games and multimedia CD-Roms in the early 1990s, along with subsequent projects that further affirmed Ninja Tune's alliance with A/V disciples. Teaming up with Hexstatic member Stuart Warren-Hill (who also signed to the Ntone label for several audio visual albums), Coldcut's "Timber" video – an AV collage piece using analogous techniques to audio sample collage – was put on heavy rotation on MTV, and won awards for its innovative use of repetitive video clips synced to the music, including being shortlisted at the Edinburgh Television and Film Festival in their top five music videos of the year in 1998.
In 1995, Matt Black created "Pipe", Ninja's first website. The label's current website ninjatune.net was developed by the following year.
Also in 1996, Ninja Tune expanded across the ocean, opening its Montreal office to manage distribution across North America. That same year, Ninja Tune cemented its place with the double-disc "Flexistentialism", a rare compilation that featured the label's growing roster, including DJ Food, Funki Porcini, The Herbaliser, Luke Vibert, Kruder & Dorfmeister and DJ Vadim, among others. With "Flexistentialism", Ninja was described as devising "a term that perfectly expresses the antitheses between chaos and order"
Amon Tobin, meanwhile, was building groundbreaking drum and bass from 1950s big band drum battles. His 1997 Ninja Tune debut, "Bricolage", contains influences from drum and bass, hip hop, blues, jazz and samba, all digitally processed to create a sense of the bricolage suggested by the title. The album proved a strong seller, especially in America, where Pitchfork awarded the album a perfect 10.0. The following year's immensely complex album, "Permutation", saw Tobin creating electronic experimentation that retools d'n'b's basic structures to a practically surreal extent.
In 1997 Stealth finished at the Blue Note (in Hoxton), and Ninja Tune's sister label Big Dada was launched. Coldcut's fourth album "Let Us Play!" was released in September 1997, making its way to the Top 40, reaching No. 33 in the UK Charts. "Let Us Play!" paid homage to the greats that inspired them. Their first album to be released on Ninja Tune, it featured guest appearances by Grandmaster Flash, Steinski, Jello Biafra, Jimpster, The Herbaliser, Talvin Singh, Daniel Pemberton and Selena Saliva. Coldcut's cut 'n' paste method on the album was compared to that of Dadaism and William S. Burroughs. Hex collaborated with Coldcut to produce the multimedia CD-Rom for the album. Hex later evolved the software into the engine that was used on the "Let Us Play!" world tour.
In 1999, "Let Us Replay!" was released, a double-disc remix album where Coldcut's classic tunes were remixed by Cornelius (the opener of the album, which was heralded as a highlight of the album), Irresistible Force, Shut Up and Dance, Carl Craig and J Swinscoe. "Spin Magazine" stated that "Let Us Replay!" pieces together "short sharp shocks that put the mental in 'experimental' and still bring the breaks till the breakadawn". It also includes a few live tracks from the duo's innovative world tour. The CD-Rom of the album, which also contained a free demo disc of the VJamm software, was one of the earliest audiovisual CD- Roms on the market, and Muzik claimed deserved to "have them canonized...it's like buying an entire mini studio for under $15".
In March 1999, Big Dada introduced Rodney Smith, a.k.a. Roots Manuva. "Brand New Second Hand" was, in the words of AllMusic, "a bright moment for British rap, the debut album from Roots Manuva introduced a hip hop chameleon boasting dark productions and a distinct style, plus much more to say than most rappers". He soon became heralded for his unique delivery, which Pitchfork claimed one of the "addictive, compelling, and, above all, heartfelt".
Having worked as an intern in the Ninja Tune office in the mid 1990s, Jason Swinscoe became an instrumental part of the team, and by 1998 he released his first 12" as The Cinematic Orchestra, "Diabolus", shortly followed by the full length "Motion". The surprise hit album landed somewhere between jazz and electronica and gathered samples from unlikely sources. That same year, Swinscoe began performing live with an expanded line-up, featuring Federico Ughi on drums, Alex James on piano and DJ Food's Patrick Carpenter on turntables.
Mr. Scruff's "Keep It Unreal" was released in the summer of 1999. Filled with bubbly breakbeats, slick horn sizzles and bristling house beats, the album opened with BBC Radio 1 DJ Mary Ann Hobbes asking, "Are you ready Mr. Scruff?"
At some point in 1999, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission decided that DJ Vadim and Sarah Jones' pro-women empowerment record "Your Revolution" was "indecent" for radio. The decision ended up in court in 2002, where arguments were advanced for freedom of speech, freedom of expression and to argue the double standards of the ban and fine.
In 2000, Ninja Tune celebrated its first decade of music with "Xen Cuts", a three CD, 6 x LP box set that provided a collection of their artists. The mostly downtempo affair featured the likes of Latyrx (Lyrics Born and Lateef), The Herbaliser, Kid Koala and Luke Vibert, Clifford Gilberto, Amon Tobin and Funki Porcini.
Also in 2000, Kid Koala released "Carpal Tunnel Syndrome", "a playfully arranged montage of quirky sound bites, rhythmic scratching and fluid hip hop beats". Relying as heavily upon comedy albums and sound effects records as jazz and funk vinyl for sample material, the release, which was called brilliant and humorous received much critical success. Kid Koala cut two further highly acclaimed albums for Ninja, 2003's "Some of My Best Friends Are DJs" and 2006's "Your Mom's Favorite DJ".
In 2001, Roots Manuva delivered his second album, "Run Come Save Me", which was deemed one of the albums of the year by "The Independent", and "not just a landmark UK hip hop album, but a landmark hip hop album period" by Mojo. The album charted at number 33 in the UK Charts. "Witness (1 Hope)", the first single off the album, charted at No. 45, and was declared by AllMusic as being "the best British rap single since Tricky's 'Aftermath'". "Run Come Save Me" won a nomination for the 2002 Mercury Music Award, and was called by "The Times" "Too maverick, too brilliantly original a talent to be tethered by mere genre or geography."missing ref
Also in 2001 Cornwall's Luke Vibert joined Ninja Tune. Growing up amongst contemporaries Aphex Twin and Tom Middleton/Global Communication, Vibert had made a name for himself in experimental electronica, though his name has always been hard to pin down: he operates under several different aliases. With the moniker Wagon Christ, Vibert released "Musipal" on Ninja, which "NME" called "an intriguing procession of cheeky collages".
Mr. Scruff's second album on Ninja Tune, "Trouser Jazz", was released on 9 September 2002. It charted at 29 on the UK Chart.
In 2003, Simon Green, a.k.a. Bonobo, released his first proper Ninja album, "Dial 'M' for Monkey", a subliminally seductive collection of atmospheric instrumentals. A live version of Bonobo soon took to the road, which seeped into the production of 2006's "Days to Come," an album that blurs the line between a programmed and live sound and created "a daydream vibe embedded within its moodiness".
Blurring lines further, Coldcut collaborated with American video mashup artist TV Sheriff in 2004 to produce their cut-up entitled "Revolution USA". The tactical-media project (coordinated with Canadian art duo NomIg) followed on from the UK version and extended the premise "into an open access participatory project". Through the multimedia political art project, over 12 gigabytes of footage from the last 40 years of US politics were made accessible to download, allowing participants to create a cut-up over a Coldcut beat. Coldcut also collaborated with TV Sheriff and NomIg to produce two audiovisual pieces "World of Evil" (2004) and "Revolution '08" (2008), both composed of footage from the United States presidential elections of respective years. The music used was composed by Coldcut, with "Revolution '08" featuring a remix by The Qemists.
Roots Manuva climbed back into the limelight at the beginning of 2005, with his deft album "Awfully Deep". His third album, which reached number 24 in the UK Charts, was celebrated by critics for his growth as an artist, with "NME" calling it "a set of immense maturity that never rubs your nose in its thematic complexity, compositional innovation and thunderous thump-beats".
The Cinematic Orchestra scored a new soundtrack, Man with a Movie Camera, for a screening of the visionary 1929 Russian silent feature, "Man with a Movie Camera", for the 2000 Portuguese Film Festival Fantasporto. The following year it was performed at the opening gala of Portugal's year as European Capital of Culture in Porto in front of 3000 people. The material written for this film score laid the groundwork for what would be The Cinematic Orchestra's second full-length, "Every Day", released in May 2002, and one of Ninja's best-selling albums. Roots Manuva featured on the track "All Things to All Men", which later soundtracked the final scenes of 2006 movie "Kidulthood". The Cinematic Orchestra's albums grew increasingly ambitious over the years, with 2007's "Ma Fleur" album marking a move away from beats, and embracing folk influences. The album was based on the work of photographer Maya Hayuk (who commissioned 11 pictures based on three short stories recounting the journey from birth to death), and conceived by Swinscoe as the premise for the score of an imaginary film. Album track "To Build a Home" became one of Ninja's top tracks of all time (with its fan video clocking up nearly 9 million plays), and track "TBAH" features vocals from Patrick Watson, which became the band's most successful song.
Following Jason Swinscoe's vocal appreciation of Jaga Jazzist's 2001 album "A Livingroom Hush", the Norwegian jazz band signed to Ninja Tune to re-release "A Livingroom Hush" in 2002, followed by "The Stix" later that year, and their fourth album "What We Must" in 2005.
Coldcut returned with the single "Everything Is Under Control" at the end of 2005, featuring Jon Spencer (of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) and Mike Ladd. It was followed in 2006 by their fifth studio album "Sound Mirrors", which was quoted as being "one of the most vital and imaginative records Jon More and Matt Black have ever made", and saw the duo "continue, impressively, to find new ways to present political statements through a gamut of pristine electronics and breakbeats". The fascinating array of guest vocalists included Soweto Kinch, Annette Peacock, Amiri Baraka, and Saul Williams.
Ninja hooked up with L.A. filmmaker and photographer B+, who had filmed "Keepintime: Talking Drums Whispering Vinyl", a short movie documenting a meeting between jazz/funk drummers Paul Humphrey and James Gadson, and a bunch of turntablists who now scratched and sampled their breakbeats, including DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist and the Beat Junkies. This project snowballed into a live concert featuring the drum duo jamming along with the turntablists – and included extra guests Madlib and DJ Numark. In 2005, Ninja released "Keep in Time: A Live Recording", a CD/DVD package that included remixes from King Britt, Oh No, J Rocc and AmmonContact.
Back in London, having previously scored a place with his college band E.V.A. on the 1996 Ninja 12" "One Track Mind", Fin Greenall subsequently signed to the label as a solo artist, under the name Fink. First releasing "Fresh Produce" – an atmospheric set of downtempo instrumental hip hop tracks – on sister label Ntone in 2000, it was 2006's "Biscuits for Breakfast" album that set Fink officially on Ninja Tune. And it set him far apart from the rest of the label, going his own way to become a full-blown, guitar picking singer-songwriter. Two subsequent full lengths – 2007's "Distance and Time" and 2009's "Sort of Revolution" (which featured song-writing collaborations with John Legend) have seen Fink further develop this new sound.
On the topic of sound, noise manipulator Amon Tobin came back around at the beginning of 2007 with "Foley Room", his sixth studio album, and a long player that was called his "darkest work yet". Tobin was inspired by the work of foley artists: a foley room is where the sound effects are recorded for films; foley artists use their imagination and ingenuity to make the right noise for the situation they are presented with. Amon and a team of assistants headed out into the streets with high sensitivity microphones and recorded found sounds from tigers roaring to cats eating rats, from wasps to falling chickpeas, kitchen utensils to motorbikes to water dripping from a tap. Added to this were the sounds of The Kronos Quartet, Stefan Schneider (of To Rococo Rot) and Sarah Pagé, Tobin travelling from foley rooms in Montreal to San Francisco to Seattle and back as he collected them (the CD release is accompanied by a short DVD, "Foley Room: Found Footage", documenting the recording process).
Kevin Martin began developing his own sound further as The Bug, after other projects as GOD, Techno Animal, Ice and Curse of the Golden Vampire. The Bug's second album in 2003, "Pressure", demonstrated a fully formed aesthetic – stark spaces, gleefully subsonic bass – holding collaborations with vocalists such as Toastie Taylor, Wayne Lonesome and Daddy Freddy. 2008's "London Zoo", meanwhile, was The Bug's third album – and first for Ninja Tune. Recorded over three years with its maker living in his studio, without a kitchen or shower, the album included collaborations with Warrior Queen, Tippa Irie, Burial, Kode9 collaborator Spaceape, and even singer-toaster Ricky Ranking showing up on three tracks. The multivocal, spoken-sung, collaborative album has enjoyed recent cult success, appearing in many outlets' Best of 2008 lists.
The year 2008 launched Ninja Tune's "You Don't Know", their sixth official label sampler, and, like its predecessors, contained high quality picks from their major releases, with select remixes and a few rarities. While 2007's "Well Deep" multimedia package shed light on Big Dada, Ninja Cuts drew a healthy cross-section from all three Ninja associated labels.
2008 also marked Daedelus' first official Ninja album, "Love to Make Music To", after his previous albums "Exquisite Corpse" and "Denies the Day's Demise" had been licensed by Ninja Tune. The album showcased the L.A. artist's diverse nature and his skills as a multi-instrumentalist as well as his engrossing stylistic shifts. Additionally that year (a year after their 2007 "Stompbox" 12"), The Qemists released their debut album, "Join the Q." Known to construct some of the most energetic breakbeats of the late 2000s, the vinyl version of the album comes as four super-heavy platters, weighing nearly a kilogram.
In 2008, an international group of party organisers, activists and artists – including Coldcut – received a grant from the Intelligent Energy Department of the European Union, to create a project that promoted intelligent energy and environmental awareness to the youth of Europe. The result was "Energy Union", a piece of VJ cinema, political campaign, music tour, party, art exhibition and social media hub. "Energy Union" toured 12 EU countries throughout 2009 and 2010, completing 24 events in total. Coldcut created the "Energy Union" show for the tour, a one-hour Audio/Visual montage on the theme of Intelligent Energy. In presenting new ideas for climate, environmental and energy communication strategies, the "Energy Union" tour was well received, and reached a widespread audience in cities across the UK, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain and the Czech Republic.missing reference
Speech Debelle's debut album, 2009's "Speech Therapy", finally scored Big Dada a Mercury Prize, after prior nominations for Roots Manuva's "Run Come Save Me" and Ty's "Upwards". With the album, NME called her: "one to seriously watch".
In 2010, Ninja Tune celebrated 20 years of releasing music. A book entitled Ninja Tune: "20 Years of Beats and Pieces" was released on 12 August 2010, and an exhibition was held at Black Dog Publishing's Black Dog Space in London showcasing artwork, design and photography from the label's 20-year history. A "stunning futurespective" compilation album was released on 20 September in two formats – a regular version consisting of two 2-disc volumes, and a limited edition (of 3,500 copies), containing six CDs, six 7" vinyl singles, a hardback copy of the book, a poster and additional items. It featured new music from Amon Tobin (also as Two Fingers), Roots Manuva, The Cinematic Orchestra, Kid Koala, Mr Scruff, The Bug, King Geedorah, Zomby, Bonobo, Toddla T, Daedelus, Dorian Concept, Floating Points, Wagon Christ, cLOUDDEAD and many others. It also included new remixes from Switch, Autechre, Benga, Cut Chemist, Modeselektor, Roots Manuva, Diplo, Gold Panda, Mark Pritchard, Rustie, Prefuse 73, 808 State, Joe Goddard, King Jammy, The Orb, Micachu, Gaslamp Killer, Kronos Quartet, Mala, El-P (and El-B) and many more. In The Independent's "Album of the Week" review, the compilation was deemed "a glorious celebration of Ninja Tune's audio splendour".
As part of the 20th anniversary, Ninja Tune produced 20 different events around the world. Ninja Tune sold out Royal Albert Hall in London, with The Cinematic Orchestra, Amon Tobin and Dorian Concept all presenting a one-off orchestral performance with the London Metropolitan Orchestra arranged by composer Ilan Eshkeri. For a separate London event, Ninja also placed a legendary rave in 3 rooms in a car park behind the Tate Modern with all of their artists in one place for first time (artists included Coldcut, Mr Scruff, Roots Manuva, Toddla T, The Bug, Daedelus, Kid Koala, Bonobo, Dj Food + DK, Mark Pritchard, DJ Kentaro, Dorian Concept, XXXchange (Spank Rock), DELS, Floating Points, Jammer, Dark Sky and Offshore). For the Ninja XX gig in New York, the label's venue (Santos Party House) was shut down unexpectedly, moving the event at the last minute to the Bowery (CITATION: Brooklyn Vegan, 28 October 2010).
In October 2011, Ninja Tune's massive "Ninja Tune XX" campaign won "Innovative Marketing Campaign of the Year" at the 2011 AIM Awards.
It was around this time that Ninja Tune began expanding its roster in an interesting new direction, co-signing underground labels with whom they felt artistically aligned. In February 2010, LA-based producer Flying Lotus, a.k.a. Steven Ellison, announced his Brainfeeder imprint had struck up a partnership for Ninja Tune to handle manufacturing, marketing and distribution for Brainfeeder everywhere outside the US. In April 2010, Sheffield-born producer and DJ Toddla T (who'd originally arrived at Ninja having produced parts of Roots Manuva's 2008 album, "Slime & Reason", which reached number 22 in the UK Charts) also signed his Girls Music record label to Ninja Tune for distribution, manufacturing and marketing, in addition to signing a three-album deal. In June 2012, Ninja announced a partnership with underground artist Actress and his Werkdiscs imprint, home to Zomby's "Where Were U in 92?", Actress's "Hazyville", and various records by Lukid and Lone.
Also in 2010, Bonobo's own "Black Sands" album marked his fourth full-length. It pushed Bonobo's sound "much more steeped in beat-making, creating deluxe, post-dance soundscapes", and achieved worldwide commercial success. In February 2012, Ninja followed up with a remix album, "Black Sands Remixed", which featured re-imaginings from producers such as Lapalux, Mark Pritchard, Machinedrum and FaltyDL.
A couple months before, in November 2011, New York producer FaltyDL had made his debut on the Ninja roster with his "Atlantis" EP, a "smoother and shufflier" ride than most of his earlier work. His work for Ninja was deemed "calm and focused, a trend that continued on his third album", "Hardcourage", released in January 2012. The album was "sure-footed and big-hearted, accessible and yet cerebral".
Jaga Jazzist returned in 2010 with their strongest release to date, "One-Armed Bandit", which featured new members within Jaga Jazzist's ranks and included "tropical polyrhythms, modernist patterns, and even techno-inspired synth sequences".
Another release that pushed Ninja to new sonic territories came from London-based artist Floating Points at the end of 2010 with 'Post Suite / Almost in Profile'. The Floating Points Ensemble is an instrumental ensemble headed by himself on Fender Rhodes and Sequential Circuits Pro One and Prophet keyboards. The double A-side 10" vinyl single featured two tracks by the full Ensemble, recorded and mixed at Abbey Road Studios for the Ninja Tune XX twentieth anniversary celebration.
In 2010, a sound designer from Berlin (by way of Bristol), Emika, brought a new sound to the label, with her melodic, R&B tinged bass-heavy 'Double Edge.' Her self-titled debut was later released in 2011, bridging the "minimalist menace of Bristol dubstep to breathy accessible vocals and classical piano". On her 2013 follow-up, 'DVA,' Emika beefed up her songwriting, focusing on political and personal themes.
In March 2011, another exploratory bass cadet – Dorian Concept – released his first Ninja EP, "Her Tears Taste Like Pears". It proved to be a "solid example of the kind of genius Concept, himself something of a child piano prodigy, is capable of".
The following May saw the release of a much-awaited album from Amon Tobin, "ISAM", which set a new benchmark for live electronic music. Tobin decided to step away from previous DJ centric performances, and instead provided a large-scale live audio/visual experience to select cities around the world. Developed alongside V Squared Labs, Leviathan, Vello Virkhaus & Matt Daly, Alex Lazarus, Vitamotus Design Studio, and Stefano Novelli, the show featured a 25' x 14' x 8' multi-dimensional/ shape shifting 3D art installation surrounding Tobin and enveloping him and the audience in a 3D experience. Tobin conceptualized the show as a projection mapped "visual score" to the music from "ISAM". The show completed a sold-out 15-show run through US and Canada, in addition to five sold out UK/EU shows. In 2012, ISAM Live returned with a larger tour, starting at Coachella and traveling to Sydney Opera House, London's Brixton Academy, New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, Greek Theatre (Los Angeles), Sonar (Barcelona), as well as full European and US tours throughout summer and fall. In May 2012, Ninja Tune released an Amon Tobin box set (7 × CD, 2 × DVD, 6 × Vinyl, 10").
At the beginning of 2012, Speech Debelle returned to Big Dada, after much critical speculation about leaving the label. She returned from her Mercury Prize win to release another critically acclaimed album, 'Freedom Of Speech,' with – according to Scottish magazine The Skinny – "a verve and vigour that more than justify the early hype". The "refreshingly outspoken" album went on to "trounce all expectations" and was awarded CD of the week by Evening Standard.
In 2009, Ninja's longest-serving artist, DJ Food a.k.a. Strictly Kev, released the 2009 EP 'One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World,' and its 2010 follow up 'The Shape Of Things That Hum' made up two-thirds of a forthcoming album. In January 2012, 'The Search Engine' was released as the first DJ Food album in 11 years. As an album release event, DJ Food created his most ambitious live gig to date: a bespoke AV live show for London's only public planetarium, in conjunction with astronomers from The Royal Observatory Greenwich, using art from The Search Engine, images from Kev's own visual archive, plus a wealth of material provided by the astronomers themselves. Kev adapted his content to fit Montreal's Satosphere in July.
In mid 2012, The Bug announced that after "London Zoo," he set out a new genre and sub-label with Ninja Tune: Acid Ragga. Releasing a set of 7"'s, in June the first Bug track – "Can't Take This No More" – unleashed featuring the legendary Daddy Freddy, while on the flip "Rise Up" featured Inga Copeland of Hype Williams. The "Ganja Baby" 7-inch released shortly afterwards, featuring Daddy Freddy, followed by the 2 x 10" Filthy EP featuring rapper Danny Brown and long time collaborator Flowdan.
In August 2012, London-based band The Invisible dropped their second album, the "cerebral yet instantly accessible" 'Rispah,' on Ninja Tune, having been recorded in Brighton – with producer Richard File. The trio's self-titled debut album (produced by Matthew Herbert) in 2009 was nominated for the Mercury Prize and selected as critics choice for iTunes album of the year. The band's tongue-in-cheek definition of their style of music is 'Experimental Genre-Spanning Spacepop'.
Ever the pioneer, Big Dada's "king of Grime" Wiley was awarded a Genre Spotlight Award for the AIM Independent Music Awards in 2012 for his album "Evolve or Be Extinct". FACT Magazine claimed the award made up "for what many perceive to be a Mercury snub for the LP".
In 2012, Ninja Tune also struck a deal with game developer United Front Games and their publisher Square Enix for their game "Sleeping Dogs". Ninja Tune was featured as a in-game radio channel available to the player during gameplay, one of the ten total. The station featured a select group of works by the real life Ninja Tune record and their then artist lineup, including works by Bonobo, Lorn, Emika, Stateless, Two Fingers, and Cinematic Orchestra among others, for a total of 18 tracks.
Ninja Tune scored well at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards 2013, with Brainfeeder winning "Label of the Year" – and Ninja Tune scoring 2nd – with the public vote. Invisible's "Rispah" also won album of the year.
In typical pioneering fashion, in February 2013, Ninja Tune spearheaded the launch of Beat Delete – a new service for out of press vinyl. The demise of Sony DADC warehouse in Edmonton (destroyed during the London riots in the summer of 2011), left many independent labels ravaged. Ninja Tune launched a website Beat Delete as a pledge scheme enabling fans to partially fund the release of rare collectibles.
In April 2013, Coldcut released Ninja Jamm, an iOS music remix app, in collaboration with London-based arts and technology firm Seeper. Geared toward both casual listeners and more experienced DJs and music producers, the freemium app allows users to download and remix "Tunepacks" that feature original tracks and mixes by Coldcut, as well as other Ninja artists, creating something new altogether. With the "intuitive yet deep" app, users can turn instruments on and off, swap between clips, add glitches and effects, trigger and pitch-bend stabs and one-off samples, and change the tempo of the track instantly. Users can additionally record as they mix and instantly upload to SoundCloud or save the mixes locally. Tunepack releases for Ninja Jamm are increasingly synchronised with Ninja Tune releases on conventional formats. To date over 20 tunepacks have been released, including Amon Tobin, Bonobo, Coldcut, DJ Food, Martyn, Emika, Machinedrum, Raffertie, Irresistible Force, Falty DL.
In March 2013, Bonobo unleashed his highly anticipated follow-up to "Black Sands", the triumphant and revelatory "The North Borders". Hailed as being sumptuous and accomplished, the album featured Erykah Badu, Motion Audio artist Grey Reverend, British singer Szjerdene and Swedish singer-songwriter Cornelia. Visual artist Cyriak's video for Bonobo's "Cirrus" was a cascading visual mantra that hit over 1 million views. The album charted at number 29 on the UK Album Charts. The following November, Bonobo released his contribution to the "" series with a 21-track selection, which Bonobo described as ranging "from neo-classical to more abstract electronic pieces to spiritual jazz." Bonobo's popularity in the live spectrum continues to grow, having sold out a Roundhouse Ninja Tune festival in 2013 and Sydney Opera House. He has a live performance scheduled at Alexandra Palace in November 2014.
Another popular Ninja Tune artist, Travis Stewart, a.k.a. NYC/Berlin artist Machinedrum signed up with the label in 2013, first releasing "Eyesdontlie" that July, a single which XLR8R donned "quite possibly deeper and more ambitious than anything we've heard from Stewart to date". After releasing a second 12" ("Gunshotta Ave") the following month, Machinedrum released his full LP "Vapor City" at the end of September 2013. A visceral album about an imaginary metropolis, "Vapor City" received much acclaim from critics and DJs alike, even landing three live performances on the Boiler Room (New York, Berlin and London). Machinedrum claimed it was his biggest and boldest project to date.
In January 2014, Big Dada released a deluxe European edition of Killer Mike and El-P's Run the Jewels album, featuring new artwork, a new colour vinyl LP + 12" release plus deluxe CD and download editions.
Ninja Tune also released Actress' fourth album, "Ghettoville" in January 2014. The exquisite
In April 2014, new Ninja Tune signing Kelis released a raw soul record entirely produced by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek. Kelis says of the signing: "I'm really happy to be partnering with Ninja Tune on my new record. This is the album I've wanted to make for a long time."
In May 2014, "UK festival favorite" Mr Scruff released his fifth LP on Ninja Tune, entitled "Friendly Bacteria". Meanwhile, The Bug is continuing his series of "Acid Ragga" singles throughout 2014, leading up to his next full length later in the year, "Angels & Devils". Names that The Bug has worked with on the project (in addition to Inga Copeland and Daddy Freddy) include Death Grips, Gonjasufi, Grouper, JK Flesh (Godflesh/Jesu), The Spaceape, Flowdan, Warrior Queen and Earth's Dylan Carlson.
On 2 November 2014, Young Fathers' "Dead" entered the official top 100 UK album chart for the first time, four days after their Mercury success, debuting at 35.
On 30 October 2015, Big Dada's Roots Manuva released his 9th studio album entitled "Bleeds", receiving positive reviews in most publications, currently holding an 80% score on Metacritic.
Kamasi Washington debut solo recording, "The Epic", was released in May 2015 via Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder to critical acclaim. It appeared on numerous 'Best of 2015' lists, including publications such as NPR Music, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Vice's Noisey, MOJO, Uncut, Rolling Stone and many more.
Bonobo released his sixth album, "Migration", in January 2017. It was announced on 3 November 2016 with the release of the single "Kerala" and an official video.
The official video for the single is directed by Bison (Jon Hopkins/London Grammar/Rosie Lowe), featuring lead Gemma Arterton ("Quantum of Solace"/"Inside No. 9"). The album artwork was designed by Neil Krug (Boards of Canada/Lana Del Rey). The album features Nick Murphy, Rhye, Innov Gnawa and Hundred Waters. The album and the track "Bambro Koyo Ganda" were nominated for the 60th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Dance Recording and Best Dance/Electronic Album. The album peaked higher in the UK chart (number 5) and in the US (number 59). In 2018, Bonobo's "Migration" album also won Album of the Year at the 2017 Electronic Music Awards and Bonobo was also nominated for Live Act of the Year. Around the release of the album, Bonobo performed sold-out shows at venues such as Brixton Academy and Alexandra Palace.
On 19 May 2017, Ninja Tune Founders Coldcut and Adrian Sherwood released their collaborative debut album "Outside The Echo Chamber" via Ninja imprint Ahead of our Time. Collaborators that featured on the album included Lee "Scratch" Perry, Roots Manuva, Junior Reid, Ce’Cile, Sugar Hill Gang alumni Skip McDonald and Doug Wimbish on Guitar and Bass respectively and production from Toddla T.
After signing to Ninja Tune in 2017, Belfast based duo Bicep released their long-awaited debut album "Bicep", which reached the Top 20 of the UK Album Charts and received positive reviews on its release, with support from publications such as Pitchfork, The Guardian, Resident Advisor and a cover feature on Mixmag. They went on to play a sold-out show at London's Roundhouse.
"A Moment Apart", ODESZA's third studio album was released on 8 September 2017 on Ninja Tune imprint Counter Records. It reached #3 on the "Billboard" 200, while topping the Top Electronic/Dance Albums Chart. It was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album, with "Line of Sight" also nominated for Best Dance Recording, at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018. The duo were also nominated for Producer of the Year at the 2017 Electronic Music Awards.
Young Fathers' third studio album, "Cocoa Sugar," was announced with the single "In My View" on 17 January 2018. The album was released to critical acclaim on 9 March 2018. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number 28, making it the band's highest-charting album. Due to their support of Palestinians through the BDS movement, the band was dropped from the 2018 Ruhrtriennale line-up.
Berlin based South Korean Dj and Producer Peggy Gou released her EP "Once" in March 2018, with lead single "It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)", on which she sings in Korean, receiving widespread radio play on stations like BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and more. This earned Peggy a place on publication Dazed's top 100 artists of the year.
Following the release of the 'Audio Track 5' EP and live performances at the Strelka Institute (Moscow), Barbican Centre and the Tate Modern, electronic producer and musician Darren Cunningham AKA Actress and the London Contemporary Orchestra released a full album of their collaboration on 25 May 2018 entitled 'LAGEOS'. Originally performed at the Barbican in February 2016, the project was curated by Boiler Room and London Contemporary Orchestra with support from Arts Council England and Ninja Tune.
In December 2017, Ninja artist Helena Hauff became the first ever female DJ to be named BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix of the year. She was also rated number 1 in Crack Magazine's "50 Most Exciting DJs Right Now" 2017. On 3 August 2018 the Hamburg-based Techno producer and DJ released her album "Qualm". The album currently holds an 82% rating on Metacritic indicating "Universal acclaim", with five star write ups in publications such as The Guardian.
As the imprint grew, Ninja grew into an 'anti-corporate' brand, supporting the work of visual artists, filmmakers, and mavericks of all media, running its own club nights and helping disseminate the work of its artists across the globe. From its very beginnings, Ninja Tune sought a strong visual identity, thanks to Michael Bartalos (whose original logo was a monochrome woodcut of a hooded ninja brandishing his long sword) and Mark Porter, Matt Black's friend from Oxford, Ninja's first art director who defined the logo and overall aesthetic (in addition to creating Ninja's striking yellow and black in-house record bags), and subsequently became Art Director at The Guardian. It was the arrival of Kevin Foakes as in-house designer in 1994 that developed the logo to its current international recognition, and became largely responsible for some of the label's most iconic artwork. Working as Openmind, Foakes has designed many of Ninja's album sleeves, including memorable covers for Amon Tobin, Coldcut and Funki Porcini's 2002 album "Fast Asleep". He's also commissioned acclaimed outside talent for a number of key projects.
Foakes' Ninja logo has found its way in diverse remix forms onto DJ bags (the "Wax Sack"), cigarette lighters, T-shirts, turntable slip-mats, iPod skins (bearing the slogan "Remember vinyl?"), sunglasses by Japanese company Less Than Human and the label's own brand of cigarette rolling papers ("Ninja Skins"). French urban vinyl specialists Rolito also marketed a Foakes-designed toy Ninja, who came armed with a 3" CD of Ninja Tunes.
Ewan Robertson (a.k.a. Offshore) and Oscar Bauer, were integral co-designers for Ninja Tune or Big Dada, responsible for iconic covers such as the Wiley 'black playground' image for "Playtime Is Over", the Roots Manuva slime-head for "Slime & Reason" and Bonobo's "Black Sands" triptych.
Some Ninja Tune artists, meanwhile, design their own sleeves, such as Mr Scruff, whose cartoon illustrations are emblazoned across much of his catalogue and merchandise. Another prodigious cartoonist who designs his own sleeves is Kid Koala, whose "Nufonia Must Fall" graphic novel was published in 2003 by ECW Press in association with Ninja Tune, and whose 2000 debut album, "Carpal Tunnel Syndrome", and its 2003 follow-up "Some of My Best Friends Are DJs" came accompanied by Koala-illustrated comic books.
Other unique promotional Ninja Tune items include Coldcut's Top Trump-inspired "Control Cards", Amon Tobin ear-plugs, Kid Koala-illustrated playing cards, Mr Scruff-designed jigsaw puzzles, Scruff-branded tins of tuna-in-brine (to promote his 2008 LP "Ninja Tuna", which was available pre-loaded on a tuna-shaped USB stick), The Heavy and TTC-branded condoms, and plastic travelcard wallets emblazoned with artwork from Big Dada's "Well Deep" compilation and Roots Manuva's "Slime & Reason" album.
As part of Ninja Tune's 20th Anniversary in 2010, 3500 Ninja Tune XX box sets were released, all housed in limited edition hi-spec packaging designed and conceived by Ninja artwork legend Openmind. In May 2013, golden ticket holders for Bonobo's Camden Roundhouse gig in London were given a limited edition 12" for Bonobo's "Cirrus", which came in gatefold plastic cover with "zoetrope" viewer stand and art print, with picture disc art by Cyriak. In January 2014, Werkdiscs boss Actress released a boxset for a collection of photos presented by Hard Format, which included "Ghettoville" as vinyl and CD, as well as—for the first time on vinyl—a 2 LP white vinyl edition of "Hazyville" and CD. The boxset also contained a 40-page artbook, all carefully encased in a black "elephant-skinned" outer box.
Bonobo has collaborated with art director Leif Podhajsky and photographer Pelle Crépin to create covers for some of his albums. The cover of his 2010 album "Black Sands" was designed by design studio Oscar & Ewan and features an image taken by Crépin. The three cover photographs form a triptych around Derwentwater in the Lake District. They were taken at each point on the map with each view capturing the place of the next photograph and the last photograph capturing the place of the first. The abstract cover for Bonobo's 2013 follow-up album The North Borders was created by Leif Podhajsky using a polaroid image of a wave. Podhajsky also provides the artwork for Bonobo's Flashlight EP in 2014, its cover art is a gold lava effect forming the inside sleeve glimpsed through tiny holes in a dark grey die-cut cover for the vinyl product. Leif Podhajsky again collaborated with Ninja Tune on the artwork for Kelis' 2014 album "Food".
For the release of Bonobo's sixth album "Migration" in January 2017, the album artwork was designed by Neil Krug. The physical artwork included photography of the Mojave Desert, with Krug capturing footage using a drone. This drone footage would come to form the video for "Break Apart feat. Rhye". He drove to the desert in the middle of the night to photograph the area just before sunrise, avoiding the sun's intense heat. The shots were then superimposed with various effects such as flames. The LP was accompanied by a special edition booklet containing meditations on themes from the album, the deluxe version housed in a gold-embossed PVC sleeve.
In 2017, Belfast based duo Bicep released their debut album "Bicep", with artwork created by design team Royal Studio in partnership with AnaTypes Type, Xesta Studio and Lyft Studio. Photographs of textures were digitally transformed, modulated, colored, gridded and regridded over and over again in hundreds of different formations. These arrangements of textures in different colorways were then sent to Bicep, who would select their highlights from each.
The artwork for Young Fathers' 2018 album "Cocoa Sugar" was created by photographer Noni Julia & creative director Tom Hingston.
Pre-dating Ninja Tune is the legendary and world-famous radio show Solid Steel, which Coldcut set up in 1988 and joined at a later date by DJ Food and DK. What initially began as a radio show on then-pirate Kiss FM went on to become a weekly 2-hour mix show broadcast online and syndicated to numerous radio stations around the world, with highlights available as a podcast on iTunes. Solid Steel is also the name of a series of DJ mix CDs from the label and various club nights showcasing the talents of the Solid Steel DJ's and a number of Ninja Tune artists.
The show, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013, showcases a varied blend of left field tunes, the broadest beats and forward-thinking selections. Being a freestyle eclectic mix, the weekly two-hour show was described by The Quietus as being "the past mashed with the present plus a dash of the future".
In addition to Solid Steel, Ninja Tune has conducted regular podcast interviews with their roster under the name "The Ninja Tune Podcast".
Hip hop label Big Dada was set up by journalist and writer Will Ashon in 1997. Big Dada was created with a similarly open-minded remit to sister label Ninja Tune, traversing the boundaries between hip hop, grime and ragga. Born out of a frustration over acts going unappreciated elsewhere, Big Dada swiftly cemented itself as a force in its own right. The name came up in reference to Ashon's love of Kool Keith, who he'd described in print as the "Mac Dada", as a combination of mac daddy and Dadaism.
Big Dada began releasing 12"'s in the summer of 1997, the first couple of which were produced by Luke Vibert. The label's debut release, "Misanthropic", featured Alpha Prhyme, a.k.a. Juice Aleem, soon to become a member of crew New Flesh for Old, who would release their own "Electronic Bombardment" on Big Dada that September. Since then, Big Dada has become home of some of the most maverick, forward-thinking and innovative artists in hip hop and beyond, including essential British hip hop artist Roots Manuva (Mercury Prize nominee), Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle, UK hip hop artist TY (whose 2003 "Upwards" album was also Mercury nominated) and grime pioneer Wiley. Roots Manuva's album releases have been integral to the label, including "Brand New Second Hand", "Run Come Save Me", "Awfully Deep", "Slime & Reason" and "4everevolution". Other notable artists include Diplo, cLOUDDEAD, Juice Aleem, DELS, Young Fathers (Mercury Prize Winner 2014) and Spank Rock, with a roster that's as prolific as it is varied. In the words of The Guardian, "heaven help the music hack who tries to pigeonhole Big Dada's output".
Brainfeeder is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California, founded by Warp Records recording artist Flying Lotus in 2008, focusing on electronic music and instrumental hip hop amongst other styles of music.
Werkdiscs (formerly spelt as Werk Discs) is a British independent record label based in London. Originally a club night started by Darren J. Cunningham a.k.a. Actress, Ben Casey and Gavin Weale in the early 2000s,[11] Werkdiscs released their first record in the summer of 2004.
In 1994, Ninja Tune's first sister imprint was Ntone, a label that initially specialised in avant-garde music and in more electronically inclined ambience. Artists on the roster included Animals on Wheels, Cabbageboy, Hexstatic and Neotropic. Ntone was, in the words of Peter Quicke, "for ambient and techno and other stuff that didn't quite fit Ninja Tune, but which we really liked, and didn't want to restrict ourselves from releasing." A collision of spacey dub and chilled ambient house, the first release was "AntiStatic" (TONE 1) by Hex released in February 1994, and last one "Sunflower Girl" (NTONE 45) by Neotropic in 2001. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21732 |
Nazi Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party (abbreviated in German as NSDAP), commonly referred to in English as the Nazi Party, was a far-right political party in Germany that was active between 1920 and 1945, that created and supported the ideology of National Socialism. Its precursor, the German Workers' Party ("Deutsche Arbeiterpartei"; DAP), existed from 1919 to 1920.
The Nazi Party emerged from the German nationalist, racist and populist "Freikorps" paramilitary culture, which fought against the communist uprisings in post-World War I Germany. The party was created to draw workers away from communism and into "völkisch" nationalism. Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist rhetoric, although this was later downplayed to gain the support of business leaders, and in the 1930s the party's main focus shifted to antisemitic and anti-Marxist themes.
Pseudoscientific racist theories were central to Nazism, expressed in the idea of a "people's community" ("Volksgemeinschaft"). The party aimed to unite "racially desirable" Germans as national comrades, while excluding those deemed either to be political dissidents, physically or intellectually inferior, or of a foreign race ("Fremdvölkische"). The Nazis sought to strengthen the Germanic people, the "Aryan master race", through racial purity and eugenics, broad social welfare programs, and a collective subordination of individual rights, which could be sacrificed for the good of the state on behalf of the people.
To protect the supposed purity and strength of the Aryan race, the Nazis sought to exterminate Jews, Romani, Poles and most other Slavs, along with the physically and mentally handicapped. They disenfranchised and segregated homosexuals, Africans, Jehovah's Witnesses and political opponents. The persecution reached its climax when the party-controlled German state set in motion the Final Solution—an industrial system of genocide which achieved the murder of around 6 million Jews and millions of other targeted victims, in what has become known as the Holocaust.
Adolf Hitler, the party's leader since 1921, was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. Hitler rapidly established a totalitarian regime known as the Third Reich. Following the defeat of the Third Reich at the conclusion of World War II in Europe, the party was "declared to be illegal" by the Allied powers, who carried out denazification in the years after the war both in Germany and in territories occupied by Nazi forces. The use of any symbols associated with the party is now outlawed in many European countries, including Germany and Austria.
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"Nazi", the informal and originally derogatory term for a party member, abbreviates the party's name ("" ), and was coined in analogy with "Sozi" (pronounced ), an abbreviation of "Sozialdemokrat" (member of the rival Social Democratic Party of Germany). Members of the party referred to themselves as "Nationalsozialisten" (National Socialists), rarely as Nazis. The term "Parteigenosse" (party member) was commonly used among Nazis, with its corresponding feminine form "Parteigenossin".
The term was in use before the rise of the party as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backward peasant, an awkward and clumsy person. It derived from Ignaz, a shortened version of Ignatius, which was a common name in the Nazis' home region of Bavaria. Opponents seized on this, and the long-existing "Sozi", to attach a dismissive nickname to the National Socialists.
In 1933, when Adolf Hitler assumed power in the German government, the usage of "Nazi" diminished in Germany, although Austrian anti-Nazis continued to use the term, and the use of "Nazi Germany" and "Nazi regime" was popularised by anti-Nazis and German exiles abroad. Thereafter, the term spread into other languages and eventually was brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, the term is not considered slang, and has such derivatives as Nazism and denazification.
The party grew out of smaller political groups with a nationalist orientation that formed in the last years of World War I. In 1918, a league called the "Freier Arbeiterausschuss für einen guten Frieden" (Free Workers' Committee for a good Peace) was created in Bremen, Germany. On 7 March 1918, Anton Drexler, an avid German nationalist, formed a branch of this league in Munich. Drexler was a local locksmith who had been a member of the militarist Fatherland Party during World War I and was bitterly opposed to the armistice of November 1918 and the revolutionary upheavals that followed. Drexler followed the views of militant nationalists of the day, such as opposing the Treaty of Versailles, having antisemitic, anti-monarchist and anti-Marxist views, as well as believing in the superiority of Germans whom they claimed to be part of the Aryan "master race" ("Herrenvolk"). However, he also accused international capitalism of being a Jewish-dominated movement and denounced capitalists for war profiteering in World War I. Drexler saw the political violence and instability in Germany as the result of the Weimar Republic being out-of-touch with the masses, especially the lower classes. Drexler emphasised the need for a synthesis of "völkisch" nationalism with a form of economic socialism, in order to create a popular nationalist-oriented workers' movement that could challenge the rise of Communism and internationalist politics. These were all well-known themes popular with various Weimar paramilitary groups such as the "Freikorps".
Drexler's movement received attention and support from some influential figures. Supporter Dietrich Eckart, a well-to-do journalist, brought military figure Felix Graf von Bothmer, a prominent supporter of the concept of "national socialism", to address the movement. Later in 1918, Karl Harrer (a journalist and member of the Thule Society) convinced Drexler and several others to form the "Politischer Arbeiterzirkel" (Political Workers' Circle). The members met periodically for discussions with themes of nationalism and racism directed against the Jews. In December 1918, Drexler decided that a new political party should be formed, based on the political principles that he endorsed, by combining his branch of the Workers' Committee for a good Peace with the Political Workers' Circle.
On 5 January 1919, Drexler created a new political party and proposed it should be named the "German Socialist Workers' Party", but Harrer objected to the term "socialist"; so the term was removed and the party was named the German Workers' Party ("Deutsche Arbeiterpartei", DAP). To ease concerns among potential middle-class supporters, Drexler made clear that unlike Marxists the party supported the middle-class and that its socialist policy was meant to give social welfare to German citizens deemed part of the Aryan race. They became one of many "völkisch" movements that existed in Germany. Like other "völkisch" groups, the DAP advocated the belief that through profit-sharing instead of socialisation Germany should become a unified "people's community" ("Volksgemeinschaft") rather than a society divided along class and party lines. This ideology was explicitly antisemitic. As early as 1920, the party was raising money by selling a tobacco called "Anti-Semit".
From the outset, the DAP was opposed to non-nationalist political movements, especially on the left, including the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Members of the DAP saw themselves as fighting against "Bolshevism" and anyone considered a part of or aiding so-called "international Jewry". The DAP was also deeply opposed to the Versailles Treaty. The DAP did not attempt to make itself public and meetings were kept in relative secrecy, with public speakers discussing what they thought of Germany's present state of affairs, or writing to like-minded societies in Northern Germany.
The DAP was a comparatively small group with fewer than 60 members. Nevertheless, it attracted the attention of the German authorities, who were suspicious of any organisation that appeared to have subversive tendencies. In July 1919, while stationed in Munich army "Gefreiter" Adolf Hitler was appointed a "Verbindungsmann" (intelligence agent) of an "Aufklärungskommando" (reconnaissance unit) of the "Reichswehr" (army) by Captain Mayr the head of the "Education and Propaganda Department" (Dept Ib/P) in Bavaria. Hitler was assigned to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate the DAP. While attending a party meeting on 12 September 1919, Hitler became involved in a heated argument with a visitor, Professor Baumann, who questioned the soundness of Gottfried Feder's arguments against capitalism; Baumann proposed that Bavaria should break away from Prussia and found a new South German nation with Austria. In vehemently attacking the man's arguments, Hitler made an impression on the other party members with his oratorical skills; according to Hitler, the "professor" left the hall acknowledging unequivocal defeat. Drexler encouraged him to join the DAP. On the orders of his army superiors, Hitler applied to join the party and within a week was accepted as party member 555 (the party began counting membership at 500 to give the impression they were a much larger party). Among the party's earlier members were Ernst Röhm of the Army's District Command VII; Dietrich Eckart, who has been called the spiritual father of National Socialism; then-University of Munich student Rudolf Hess; "Freikorps" soldier Hans Frank; and Alfred Rosenberg, often credited as the philosopher of the movement. All were later prominent in the Nazi regime.
Hitler later claimed to be the seventh party member (he was in fact the seventh executive member of the party's central committee and he would later wear the Golden Party Badge number one). Anton Drexler drafted a letter to Hitler in 1940—which was never sent—that contradicts Hitler's later claim:
Hitler's first DAP speech was held in the Hofbräukeller on 16 October 1919. He was the second speaker of the evening, and spoke to 111 people. Hitler later declared that this was when he realised he could really "make a good speech". At first, Hitler spoke only to relatively small groups, but his considerable oratory and propaganda skills were appreciated by the party leadership. With the support of Anton Drexler, Hitler became chief of propaganda for the party in early 1920. Hitler began to make the party more public, and organised its biggest meeting yet of 2,000 people on 24 February 1920 in the "Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München". Such was the significance of this particular move in publicity that Karl Harrer resigned from the party in disagreement. It was in this speech that Hitler enunciated the twenty-five points of the German Workers' Party manifesto that had been drawn up by Drexler, Feder and himself. Through these points he gave the organisation a much bolder stratagem with a clear foreign policy (abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles, a Greater Germany, Eastern expansion and exclusion of Jews from citizenship) and among his specific points were: confiscation of war profits, abolition of unearned incomes, the State to share profits of land and land for national needs to be taken away without compensation. In general, the manifesto was antisemitic, anti-capitalist, anti-democratic, anti-Marxist and anti-liberal. To increase its appeal to larger segments of the population, on the same day as Hitler's "Hofbräuhaus" speech on 24 February 1920, the DAP changed its name to the "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" ("National Socialist German Workers' Party", or Nazi Party). The word "Socialist" was added by the party's executive committee, over Hitler's objections, in order to help appeal to left-wing workers.
In 1920, the Nazi Party officially announced that only persons of "pure Aryan descent [""]" could become party members and if the person had a spouse, the spouse also had to be a "racially pure" Aryan. Party members could not be related either directly or indirectly to a so-called "non-Aryan". Even before it had become legally forbidden by the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, the Nazis banned sexual relations and marriages between party members and Jews. Party members found guilty of "Rassenschande" ("racial defilement") were persecuted heavily. Some members were even sentenced to death.
Hitler quickly became the party's most active orator, appearing in public as a speaker 31 times within the first year after his self-discovery. Crowds began to flock to hear his speeches. Hitler always spoke about the same subjects: the Treaty of Versailles and the Jewish question. This deliberate technique and effective publicising of the party contributed significantly to his early success, about which a contemporary poster wrote: "Since Herr Hitler is a brilliant speaker, we can hold out the prospect of an extremely exciting evening". Over the following months, the party continued to attract new members, while remaining too small to have any real significance in German politics. By the end of the year, party membership was recorded at 2,000, many of whom Hitler and Röhm had brought into the party personally, or for whom Hitler's oratory had been their reason for joining.
Hitler's talent as an orator and his ability to draw new members, combined with his characteristic ruthlessness, soon made him the dominant figure. However, while Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin in June 1921, a mutiny broke out within the party in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the rival German Socialist Party (DSP). Upon returning to Munich on 11 July, Hitler angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that his resignation would mean the end of the party. Hitler announced he would rejoin on condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich. The committee agreed, and he rejoined the party on 26 July as member 3,680. Hitler continued to face some opposition within the NSDAP, as his opponents had Hermann Esser expelled from the party and they printed 3,000 copies of a pamphlet attacking Hitler as a traitor to the party. In the following days, Hitler spoke to several packed houses and defended himself and Esser to thunderous applause.
His strategy proved successful; at a special party congress on 29 July 1921, he replaced Drexler as party chairman by a vote of 533to1. The committee was dissolved, and Hitler was granted nearly absolute powers as the party's sole leader. He would hold the post for the remainder of his life. Hitler soon acquired the title "Führer" ("leader") and after a series of sharp internal conflicts it was accepted that the party would be governed by the "Führerprinzip" ("leader principle"). Under this principle, the party was a highly centralised entity that functioned strictly from the top down, with Hitler at the apex as the party's absolute leader. Hitler saw the party as a revolutionary organisation, whose aim was the overthrow of the Weimar Republic, which he saw as controlled by the socialists, Jews and the "November criminals" who had betrayed the German soldiers in 1918. The SA ("storm troopers", also known as "Brownshirts") were founded as a party militia in 1921 and began violent attacks on other parties.
For Hitler, the twin goals of the party were always German nationalist expansionism and antisemitism. These two goals were fused in his mind by his belief that Germany's external enemies – Britain, France and the Soviet Union – were controlled by the Jews and that Germany's future wars of national expansion would necessarily entail a war against the Jews. For Hitler and his principal lieutenants, national and racial issues were always dominant. This was symbolised by the adoption as the party emblem of the swastika or "Hakenkreuz". In German nationalist circles, the swastika was considered a symbol of an "Aryan race" and it symbolised the replacement of the Christian Cross with allegiance to a National Socialist State.
The Nazi Party grew significantly during 1921 and 1922, partly through Hitler's oratorical skills, partly through the SA's appeal to unemployed young men, and partly because there was a backlash against socialist and liberal politics in Bavaria as Germany's economic problems deepened and the weakness of the Weimar regime became apparent. The party recruited former World War I soldiers, to whom Hitler as a decorated frontline veteran could particularly appeal, as well as small businessmen and disaffected former members of rival parties. Nazi rallies were often held in beer halls, where downtrodden men could get free beer. The Hitler Youth was formed for the children of party members. The party also formed groups in other parts of Germany. Julius Streicher in Nuremberg was an early recruit and became editor of the racist magazine "Der Stürmer". In December 1920, the Nazi Party had acquired a newspaper, the "Völkischer Beobachter", of which its leading ideologist Alfred Rosenberg became editor. Others to join the party around this time were Heinrich Himmler and World War I flying ace Hermann Göring.
On 31 October 1922, a party with similar policies and objectives came into power in Italy, the National Fascist Party, under the leadership of the charismatic Benito Mussolini. The Fascists, like the Nazis, promoted a national rebirth of their country, as they opposed communism and liberalism; appealed to the working-class; opposed the Treaty of Versailles; and advocated the territorial expansion of their country. The Italian Fascists used a straight-armed Roman salute and wore black-shirted uniforms. Hitler was inspired by Mussolini and the Fascists, borrowing their use of the straight-armed salute as a Nazi salute. When the Fascists came to power in 1922 in Italy through their coup attempt called the "March on Rome", Hitler began planning his own coup.
In January 1923, France occupied the Ruhr industrial region as a result of Germany's failure to meet its reparations payments. This led to economic chaos, the resignation of Wilhelm Cuno's government and an attempt by the German Communist Party (KPD) to stage a revolution. The reaction to these events was an upsurge of nationalist sentiment. Nazi Party membership grew sharply to about 20,000. By November, Hitler had decided that the time was right for an attempt to seize power in Munich, in the hope that the "Reichswehr" (the post-war German military) would mutiny against the Berlin government and join his revolt. In this, he was influenced by former General Erich Ludendorff, who had become a supporter—though not a member—of the Nazis.
On the night of 8 November, the Nazis used a patriotic rally in a Munich beer hall to launch an attempted "putsch" ("coup d'état"). This so-called Beer Hall Putsch attempt failed almost at once when the local "Reichswehr" commanders refused to support it. On the morning of 9 November, the Nazis staged a march of about 2,000 supporters through Munich in an attempt to rally support. Troops opened fire and 16 Nazis were killed. Hitler, Ludendorff and a number of others were arrested and were tried for treason in March 1924. Hitler and his associates were given very lenient prison sentences. While Hitler was in prison, he wrote his semi-autobiographical political manifesto "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle").
The Nazi Party was banned on 9 November 1923; however, with the support of the nationalist Völkisch-Social Bloc ("Völkisch-Sozialer Block"), it continued to operate under the name "German Party" ("Deutsche Partei" or DP) from 1924 to 1925. The Nazis failed to remain unified in the DP, as in the north, the right-wing Volkish nationalist supporters of the Nazis moved to the new German Völkisch Freedom Party, leaving the north's left-wing Nazi members, such as Joseph Goebbels retaining support for the party.
Adolf Hitler was released from prison on 20 December 1924. On 16 February 1925, Hitler convinced the Bavarian authorities to lift the ban on the NSDAP and the party was formally refounded on 26 February 1925, with Hitler as its undisputed leader. The new Nazi Party was no longer a paramilitary organisation and disavowed any intention of taking power by force. In any case, the economic and political situation had stabilised and the extremist upsurge of 1923 had faded, so there was no prospect of further revolutionary adventures. The Nazi Party of 1925 was divided into the "Leadership Corps" ("Korps der politischen Leiter") appointed by Hitler and the general membership ("Parteimitglieder"). The party and the SA were kept separate and the legal aspect of the party's work was emphasised. In a sign of this, the party began to admit women. The SA and the SS members (the latter founded in 1925 as Hitler's bodyguard, and known originally as the "Schutzkommando") had to all be regular party members.
In the 1920s, the Nazi Party expanded beyond its Bavarian base. Catholic Bavaria maintained its right-wing nostalgia for a Catholic monarch; and Westphalia, along with working-class "Red Berlin", were always the Nazis' weakest areas electorally, even during the Third Reich itself. The areas of strongest Nazi support were in rural Protestant areas such as Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia. Depressed working-class areas such as Thuringia also produced a strong Nazi vote, while the workers of the Ruhr and Hamburg largely remained loyal to the Social Democrats, the Communist Party of Germany or the Catholic Centre Party. Nuremberg remained a Nazi Party stronghold, and the first Nuremberg Rally was held there in 1927. These rallies soon became massive displays of Nazi paramilitary power and attracted many recruits. The Nazis' strongest appeal was to the lower middle-classes – farmers, public servants, teachers and small businessmen – who had suffered most from the inflation of the 1920s, so who feared Bolshevism more than anything else. The small business class was receptive to Hitler's antisemitism, since it blamed Jewish big business for its economic problems. University students, disappointed at being too young to have served in the War of 1914–1918 and attracted by the Nazis' radical rhetoric, also became a strong Nazi constituency. By 1929, the party had 130,000 members.
The party's nominal Deputy Leader was Rudolf Hess, but he had no real power in the party. By the early 1930s, the senior leaders of the party after Hitler were Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring. Beneath the Leadership Corps were the party's regional leaders, the "Gauleiters", each of whom commanded the party in his "Gau" ("region"). Goebbels began his ascent through the party hierarchy as "Gauleiter" of Berlin-Brandenburg in 1926. Streicher was "Gauleiter" of Franconia, where he published his antisemitic newspaper "Der Stürmer". Beneath the "Gauleiter" were lower-level officials, the "Kreisleiter" ("county leaders"), "Zellenleiter" ("cell leaders") and "Blockleiter" ("block leaders"). This was a strictly hierarchical structure in which orders flowed from the top and unquestioning loyalty was given to superiors. Only the SA retained some autonomy. Being composed largely of unemployed workers, many SA men took the Nazis' socialist rhetoric seriously. At this time, the Hitler salute (borrowed from the Italian fascists) and the greeting "Heil Hitler!" were adopted throughout the party.
The Nazis contested elections to the national parliament (the "Reichstag") and to the state legislature (the "Landtage") from 1924, although at first with little success. The "National Socialist Freedom Movement" polled 3% of the vote in the December 1924 "Reichstag" elections and this fell to 2.6% in 1928. State elections produced similar results. Despite these poor results and despite Germany's relative political stability and prosperity during the later 1920s, the Nazi Party continued to grow. This was partly because Hitler, who had no administrative ability, left the party organisation to the head of the secretariat, Philipp Bouhler, the party treasurer Franz Xaver Schwarz and business manager Max Amann. The party had a capable propaganda head in Gregor Strasser, who was promoted to national organizational leader in January 1928. These men gave the party efficient recruitment and organizational structures. The party also owed its growth to the gradual fading away of competitor nationalist groups, such as the German National People's Party (DNVP). As Hitler became the recognised head of the German nationalists, other groups declined or were absorbed.
Despite these strengths, the Nazi Party might never have come to power had it not been for the Great Depression and its effects on Germany. By 1930, the German economy was beset with mass unemployment and widespread business failures. The Social Democrats and Communists were bitterly divided and unable to formulate an effective solution: this gave the Nazis their opportunity and Hitler's message, blaming the crisis on the Jewish financiers and the Bolsheviks, resonated with wide sections of the electorate. At the September 1930 "Reichstag" elections, the Nazis won 18.3% of the votes and became the second-largest party in the "Reichstag" after the Social Democrats. Hitler proved to be a highly effective campaigner, pioneering the use of radio and aircraft for this purpose. His dismissal of Strasser and his appointment of Goebbels as the party's propaganda chief were major factors. While Strasser had used his position to promote his own leftish version of national socialism, Goebbels was totally loyal to Hitler and worked only to improve Hitler's image.
The 1930 elections changed the German political landscape by weakening the traditional nationalist parties, the DNVP and the DVP, leaving the Nazis as the chief alternative to the discredited Social Democrats and the Zentrum, whose leader, Heinrich Brüning, headed a weak minority government. The inability of the democratic parties to form a united front, the self-imposed isolation of the Communists and the continued decline of the economy, all played into Hitler's hands. He now came to be seen as "de facto" leader of the opposition and donations poured into the Nazi Party's coffers. Some major business figures, such as Fritz Thyssen, were Nazi supporters and gave generously and some Wall Street figures were allegedly involved, but many other businessmen were suspicious of the extreme nationalist tendencies of the Nazis and preferred to support the traditional conservative parties instead.
During 1931 and into 1932, Germany's political crisis deepened. Hitler ran for President against the incumbent Paul von Hindenburg in March 1932, polling 30.1% in the first round and 36.8% in the second against Hindenburg's 49% and 53%. By now the SA had 400,000 members and its running street battles with the SPD and Communist paramilitaries (who also fought each other) reduced some German cities to combat zones. Paradoxically, although the Nazis were among the main instigators of this disorder, part of Hitler's appeal to a frightened and demoralised middle class was his promise to restore law and order. Overt antisemitism was played down in official Nazi rhetoric, but was never far from the surface. Germans voted for Hitler primarily because of his promises to revive the economy (by unspecified means), to restore German greatness and overturn the Treaty of Versailles and to save Germany from communism. On 24 April 1932, the Free State of Prussia elections to the Landtag resulted in 36.3% of the votes and 162 seats for the NSDAP.
On 20 July 1932, the Prussian government was ousted by a coup, the "Preussenschlag"; a few days later at the July 1932 "Reichstag" election the Nazis made another leap forward, polling 37.4% and becoming the largest party in parliament by a wide margin. Furthermore, the Nazis and the Communists between them won 52% of the vote and a majority of seats. Since both parties opposed the established political system and neither would join or support any ministry, this made the formation of a majority government impossible. The result was weak ministries governing by decree. Under Comintern directives, the Communists maintained their policy of treating the Social Democrats as the main enemy, calling them "social fascists", thereby splintering opposition to the Nazis. Later, both the Social Democrats and the Communists accused each other of having facilitated Hitler's rise to power by their unwillingness to compromise.
Chancellor Franz von Papen called another "Reichstag" election in November, hoping to find a way out of this impasse. The electoral result was the same, with the Nazis and the Communists winning 50% of the vote between them and more than half the seats, rendering this "Reichstag" no more workable than its predecessor. However, support for the Nazis had fallen to 33.1%, suggesting that the Nazi surge had passed its peak—possibly because the worst of the Depression had passed, possibly because some middle-class voters had supported Hitler in July as a protest, but had now drawn back from the prospect of actually putting him into power. The Nazis interpreted the result as a warning that they must seize power before their moment passed. Had the other parties united, this could have been prevented, but their shortsightedness made a united front impossible. Papen, his successor Kurt von Schleicher and the nationalist press magnate Alfred Hugenberg spent December and January in political intrigues that eventually persuaded President Hindenburg that it was safe to appoint Hitler as Reich Chancellor, at the head of a cabinet including only a minority of Nazi ministers—which he did on 30 January 1933.
In "Mein Kampf", Hitler directly attacked both left-wing and right-wing politics in Germany. However, a majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as being a far-right form of politics. When asked in an interview in 1934 whether the Nazis were "bourgeois right-wing" as alleged by their opponents, Hitler responded that Nazism was not exclusively for any class and indicated that it favoured neither the left nor the right, but preserved "pure" elements from both "camps" by stating: "From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative Socialism".
The votes that the Nazis received in the 1932 elections established the Nazi Party as the largest parliamentary faction of the Weimar Republic government. Hitler was appointed as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933.
The "Reichstag" fire on 27 February 1933 gave Hitler a pretext for suppressing his political opponents. The following day he persuaded the Reich's President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the "Reichstag" Fire Decree, which suspended most civil liberties. The NSDAP won the parliamentary election on 5 March 1933 with 43.9 percent of votes, but failed to win an absolute majority. After the election, hundreds of thousands of new members joined the party for opportunistic reasons, most of them civil servants and white-collar workers. They were nicknamed the "casualties of March" () or "March violets" (). To protect the party from too many non-ideological turncoats who were viewed by the so-called "old fighters" "(alte Kämpfer)" with some mistrust, the party issued a freeze on admissions that remained in force from May 1933 to 1937.
On 23 March, the parliament passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave the cabinet the right to enact laws without the consent of parliament. In effect, this gave Hitler dictatorial powers. Now possessing virtually absolute power, the Nazis established totalitarian control as they abolished labour unions and other political parties and imprisoned their political opponents, first at "wilde Lager", improvised camps, then in concentration camps. Nazi Germany had been established, yet the "Reichswehr" remained impartial. Nazi power over Germany remained virtual, not absolute.
During June and July 1933, all competing parties were either outlawed or dissolved themselves and subsequently the Law against the founding of new parties of 14 July 1933 legally established the Nazi Party's monopoly. On 1 December 1933, the Law to secure the unity of party and state entered into force, which was the base for a progressive intertwining of party structures and state apparatus. By this law, the SA—actually a party division—was given quasi-governmental authority and their leader was co-opted as an "ex officio" cabinet member. By virtue of a 30 January 1934 Law concerning the reorganisation of the "Reich", the "Länder" (states) lost their statehood and were demoted to administrative divisions of the "Reich"'s government "(Gleichschaltung)". Effectively, they lost most of their power to the "Gaue" that were originally just regional divisions of the party, but took over most competencies of the state administration in their respective sectors.
During the Röhm Purge of 30 June to 2 July 1934 (also known as the "Night of the Long Knives"), Hitler disempowered the SA's leadership—most of whom belonged to the Strasserist (national revolutionary) faction within the NSDAP—and ordered them killed. He accused them of having conspired to stage a "coup d'état", but it is believed that this was only a pretence to justify the suppression of any intraparty opposition. The purge was executed by the SS, assisted by the Gestapo and Reichswehr units. Aside from Strasserist Nazis, they also murdered anti-Nazi conservative figures like former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. After this, the SA continued to exist but lost much of its importance, while the role of the SS grew significantly. Formerly only a sub-organisation of the SA, it was made into a separate organisation of the NSDAP in July 1934.
After the death of President Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Hitler merged the offices of party leader, head of state and chief of government in one, taking the title of "Führer und Reichskanzler". The Chancellery of the Führer, officially an organisation of the Nazi Party, took over the functions of the Office of the President (a government agency), blurring the distinction between structures of party and state even further. The SS increasingly exerted police functions, a development which was formally documented by the merger of the offices of "Reichsführer-SS" and Chief of the German Police on 17 June 1936, as the position was held by Heinrich Himmler who derived his authority directly from Hitler. The "Sicherheitsdienst" (SD, formally the "Security Service of the Reichsführer-SS") that had been created in 1931 as an intraparty intelligence became the "de facto" intelligence agency of Nazi Germany. It was put under the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in 1939, which then coordinated SD, Gestapo and criminal police, therefore functioning as a hybrid organisation of state and party structures.
Officially, the Third Reich lasted only 12 years. The first Instrument of Surrender was signed by representatives of Nazi Germany at Reims, France on 7 May 1945. The war in Europe had come to an end. The defeat of Germany in World War II marked the end of the Nazi Germany era. The party was formally abolished on 10 October 1945 by the Allied Control Council and denazification began, along with trials of major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg. Part of the Potsdam Agreement called for the destruction of the Nationalist Socialist Party alongside the requirement for the reconstruction of the German political life. In addition, the Control Council Law no. 2 Providing for the Termination and Liquidation of the Nazi Organization specified the abolition of 52 other Nazi affiliated and supervised organisations and prohibited their activities. The denazification was carried out in Germany and continued until the onset of the Cold War.
Between 1939 and 1945, the Nazi Party led regime, assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, was responsible for the deaths of at least eleven million people, including 5.5 to 6 million Jews (representing two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe), and between 200,000 and 1,500,000 Romani people. The estimated total number includes the killing of nearly two million non-Jewish Poles, over three million Soviet prisoners of war, communists, and other political opponents, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled.
The National Socialist Programme was a formulation of the policies of the party. It contained 25 points and is therefore also known as the "25-point plan" or "25-point programme". It was the official party programme, with minor changes, from its proclamation as such by Hitler in 1920, when the party was still the German Workers' Party, until its dissolution.
At the top of the Nazi Party was the party chairman (""Der Führer""), who held absolute power and full command over the party. All other party offices were subordinate to his position and had to depend on his instructions. In 1934, Hitler founded a separate body for the chairman, Chancellery of the Führer, with its own sub-units.
Below the Führer's chancellery was first the "Staff of the Deputy Führer", headed by Rudolf Hess from 21 April 1933 to 10 May 1941; and then the "Party Chancellery" ("Parteikanzlei"), headed by Martin Bormann.
Directly subjected to the Führer were the "Reichsleiter" ("Reich Leader(s)"—the singular and plural forms are identical in German), whose number was gradually increased to eighteen. They held power and influence comparable to the Reich Ministers' in Hitler's Cabinet. The eighteen "Reichsleiter" formed the "Reich Leadership of the Nazi Party" ("Reichsleitung der NSDAP"), which was established at the so-called Brown House in Munich. Unlike a "Gauleiter", a "Reichsleiter" did not have individual geographic areas under their command, but were responsible for specific spheres of interest.
The Nazi Party had a number of party offices dealing with various political and other matters. These included:
In addition to the Nazi Party proper, several paramilitary groups existed which "supported" Nazi aims. All members of these paramilitary organisations were required to become regular Nazi Party members first and could then enlist in the group of their choice. An exception was the Waffen-SS, considered the military arm of the SS and Nazi Party, which during the Second World War allowed members to enlist without joining the Nazi Party. Foreign volunteers of the Waffen-SS were also not required to be members of the Nazi Party, although many joined local nationalist groups from their own countries with the same aims. Police officers, including members of the Gestapo, frequently held SS rank for administrative reasons (known as "rank parity") and were likewise not required to be members of the Nazi Party.
A vast system of Nazi Party paramilitary ranks developed for each of the various paramilitary groups. This was part of the process of "Gleichschaltung" with the paramilitary and auxiliary groups swallowing existing associations and federations after the Party was flooded by millions of membership applications.
The major Nazi Party paramilitary groups were as follows:
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary group divided into an adult leadership corps and a general membership open to boys aged fourteen to eighteen. The League of German Girls was the equivalent group for girls.
Certain nominally independent organisations had their own legal representation and own property, but were supported by the Nazi Party. Many of these associated organisations were labour unions of various professions. Some were older organisations that were nazified according to the "Gleichschaltung" policy after the 1933 takeover.
The employees of large businesses with international operations such as Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, and Commerzbank were mostly party members. All German businesses abroad were also required to have their own Nazi Party "Ausland-Organization" liaison men, which enabled the party leadership to obtain updated and excellent intelligence on the actions of the global corporate elites.
For the purpose of centralisation in the "Gleichschaltung" process a rigidly hierarchal structure was established in the Nazi Party, which it later carried through in the whole of Germany in order to consolidate total power under the person of Hitler ("Führerstaat"). It was regionally sub-divided into a number of "Gaue" (singular: "Gau") headed by a "Gauleiter", who received their orders directly from Hitler. The name (originally a term for sub-regions of the Holy Roman Empire headed by a "Gaugraf") for these new provincial structures was deliberately chosen because of its mediaeval connotations. The term is approximately equivalent to the English "shire".
While the Nazis maintained the nominal existence of state and regional governments in Germany itself, this policy was not extended to territories acquired after 1937. Even in German-speaking areas such as Austria, state and regional governments were formally disbanded as opposed to just being dis-empowered.
After the "Anschluss" a new type of administrative unit was introduced called a "Reichsgau". In these territories the Gauleiters also held the position of Reichsstatthalter, thereby formally combining the spheres of both party and state offices. The establishment of this type of district was subsequently carried out for any further territorial annexations of Germany both before and during World War II. Even the former territories of Prussia were never formally re-integrated into what was then Germany's largest state after being re-taken in the 1939 Polish campaign.
The "Gaue" and "Reichsgaue" (state or province) were further sub-divided into "Kreise" (counties) headed by a "Kreisleiter", which were in turn sub-divided into "Zellen" (cells) and "Blocken" (blocks), headed by a "Zellenleiter" and "Blockleiter" respectively.
A reorganisation of the "Gaue" was enacted on 1 October 1928. The given numbers were the official ordering numbers. The statistics are from 1941, for which the "Gau" organisation of that moment in time forms the basis. Their size and populations are not exact; for instance, according to the official party statistics the "Gau" Kurmark/Mark Brandenburg was the largest in the German Reich. By 1941, there were 42 territorial "Gaue" for Germany, 7 of them for Austria, the Sudetenland (in Czechoslovakia), Danzig and the Territory of the Saar Basin, along with the unincorporated regions under German control known as the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia and the General Government, established after the joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II. Getting the leadership of the individual "Gaue" to co-operate with one another proved difficult at times since there was constant administrative and financial jockeying for control going on between them.
The table below uses the organizational structure that existed before its dissolution in 1945. More information on the older "Gaue" is in the second table.
Later Gaue:
Simple re-namings of existing "Gaue" without territorial changes is marked with the initials RN in the column "later became". The numbering is not based on any official former ranking, but merely listed alphabetically.
The irregular Swiss branch of the Nazi Party also established a number of Party "Gaue" in that country, most of them named after their regional capitals. These included "Gau Basel-Solothurn", "Gau Schaffhausen", "Gau Luzern", "Gau Bern" and "Gau Zürich". The "Gau Ostschweiz" (East Switzerland) combined the territories of three cantons: St. Gallen, Thurgau and Appenzell.
The general membership of the Nazi Party mainly consisted of the urban and rural lower middle classes. 7% belonged to the upper class, another 7% were peasants, 35% were industrial workers and 51% were what can be described as middle class. In early 1933, just before Hitler's appointment to the chancellorship, the party showed an under-representation of "workers", who made up 29.7% of the membership but 46.3% of German society. Conversely, white-collar employees (18.6% of members and 12% of Germans), the self-employed (19.8% of members and 9.6% of Germans) and civil servants (15.2% of members and 4.8% of the German population) had joined in proportions greater than their share of the general population. These members were affiliated with local branches of the party, of which there were 1,378 throughout the country in 1928. In 1932, the number had risen to 11,845, reflecting the party's growth in this period.
When it came to power in 1933, the Nazi Party had over members. In 1939, the membership total rose to 5.3 million with 81% being male and 19% being female. It continued to attract many more and by 1945 the party reached its peak of 8 million with 63% being male and 37% being female (about 10% of the German population of 80 million).
Nazi members with military ambitions were encouraged to join the Waffen-SS, but a great number enlisted in the "Wehrmacht" and even more were drafted for service after World War II began. Early regulations required that all "Wehrmacht" members be non-political and any Nazi member joining in the 1930s was required to resign from the Nazi Party.
However, this regulation was soon waived and full Nazi Party members served in the "Wehrmacht" in particular after the outbreak of World War II. The "Wehrmacht" Reserves also saw a high number of senior Nazis enlisting, with Reinhard Heydrich and Fritz Todt joining the "Luftwaffe", as well as Karl Hanke who served in the army.
The British historian Richard J. Evans wrote that junior officers in the army were inclined to be especially zealous National Socialists with a third of them having joined the Nazi Party by 1941. Reinforcing the work of the junior leaders were the National Socialist Leadership Guidance Officers, which were created with the purpose of indoctrinating the troops for the "war of extermination" against Soviet Russia. Among higher-ranking officers, 29.2% were NSDAP members by 1941.
In 1926, the party formed a special division to engage the student population, known as the National Socialist German Students' League (NSDStB). A group for university lecturers, the National Socialist German University Lecturers' League (NSDDB), also existed until July 1944.
The National Socialist Women's League was the women's organisation of the party and by 1938 it had approximately 2 million members.
Party members who lived outside Germany were pooled into the "Auslands-Organisation" (NSDAP/AO, "Foreign Organization"). The organisation was limited only to so-called "Imperial Germans" (citizens of the German Empire); and "Ethnic Germans" ("Volksdeutsche"), who did not hold German citizenship were not permitted to join.
Under Beneš decree No. 16/1945 Coll., in case of citizens of Czechoslovakia membership of the Nazi Party was punishable by between five and twenty years of imprisonment.
"Deutsche Gemeinschaft" was a branch of the Nazi Party founded in 1919, created for Germans with "Volksdeutsche" status. It is not to be confused with the post-war right-wing "", which was founded in 1949.
Notable members included: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21736 |
New Age
New Age is a term applied to a range of spiritual or religious beliefs and practices that grew rapidly in the Western World during the 1970s. Precise scholarly definitions of the New Age differ in their emphasis, largely as a result of its highly eclectic structure. Although analytically often considered to be religious, those involved in it typically prefer the designation of spiritual or Mind, Body, Spirit and rarely use the term "New Age" themselves. Many scholars of the subject refer to it as the New Age movement, although others contest this term and suggest that it is better seen as a milieu or zeitgeist.
As a form of Western esotericism, the New Age drew heavily upon a number of older esoteric traditions, in particular, those that emerged from the occultist current that developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Such prominent occultist influences include the work of Emanuel Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer, as well as the ideas of Freemasonry, Spiritualism, New Thought, and Theosophy. A number of mid-twentieth century influences, such as the UFO religions of the 1950s, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the Human Potential Movement, also exerted a strong influence on the early development of the New Age. The exact origins of the phenomenon remain contested, but there is general agreement that it became a major movement in the 1970s, at which time it was centered largely in the United Kingdom. It expanded and grew largely in the 1980s and 1990s, in particular within the United States. By the start of the 21st century, the term "New Age" was increasingly rejected within this milieu, with some scholars arguing that the New Age phenomenon had ended.
Despite its highly eclectic nature, a number of beliefs commonly found within the New Age have been identified. Theologically, the New Age typically adopts a belief in a holistic form of divinity that imbues all of the universe, including human beings themselves. There is thus a strong emphasis on the spiritual authority of the self. This is accompanied by a common belief in a wide variety of semi-divine non-human entities, such as angels and masters, with whom humans can communicate, particularly through the form of channeling. Typically viewing human history as being divided into a series of distinct ages, a common New Age belief is that whereas once humanity lived in an age of great technological advancement and spiritual wisdom, it has entered a period of spiritual degeneracy, which will be remedied through the establishment of a coming Age of Aquarius, from which the milieu gets its name. There is also a strong focus on healing, particularly using forms of alternative medicine, and an emphasis on the notion that spirituality and science can be unified.
Centered primarily in Western countries, those involved in the New Age have predominantly been from middle and upper-middle-class backgrounds. The degree to which New Agers are involved in the milieu varied considerably, from those who adopted a number of New Age ideas and practices to those who fully embraced and dedicated their lives to it. The New Age has generated criticism from established Christian organisations as well as modern Pagan and indigenous communities. From the 1990s onward, the New Age became the subject of research by academic scholars of religious studies.
The New Age phenomenon has proved difficult to define, with much scholarly disagreement as to its scope. The scholars Steven J. Sutcliffe and Ingvild Sælid Gilhus have even suggested that it remains "among the most disputed of categories in the study of religion".
The scholar of religion Paul Heelas characterised the New Age as "an eclectic hotch-potch of beliefs, practices, and ways of life" that can be identified as a singular phenomenon through their use of "the same (or very similar) "lingua franca" to do with the human (and planetary) condition and how it can be transformed." Similarly, the historian of religion Olav Hammer termed it "a common denominator for a variety of quite divergent contemporary popular practices and beliefs" that have emerged since the late 1970s and are "largely united by historical links, a shared discourse and an "air de famille"". According to Hammer, this New Age was a "fluid and fuzzy cultic milieu". The sociologist of religion Michael York described the New Age as "an umbrella term that includes a great variety of groups and identities" that are united by their "expectation of a major and universal change being primarily founded on the individual and collective development of human potential."
The scholar of religion Wouter Hanegraaff adopted a different approach by asserting that "New Age" was "a "label" attached indiscriminately to whatever seems to fit it" and that as a result it "means very different things to different people". He thus argued against the idea that the New Age could be considered "a unified ideology or "Weltanschauung"", although he believed that it could be considered a "more or less unified 'movement'." Other scholars have suggested that the New Age is too diverse to be a singular "movement". The scholar of religion George D. Chryssides called it "a counter-cultural "Zeitgeist"", while the sociologist of religion Steven Bruce suggested that New Age was a milieu; Heelas and scholar of religion Linda Woodhead called it the "holistic milieu".
There is no central authority within the New Age phenomenon that can determine what counts as New Age and what does not. Many of those groups and individuals who could analytically be categorised as part of the New Age reject the term "New Age" in reference to themselves. Some even express active hostility to the term. Rather than terming themselves "New Agers", those involved in this milieu commonly describe themselves as spiritual "seekers", and some self-identify as a member of a different religious group, such as Christianity, Judaism, or Buddhism. In 2003 Sutcliffe observed that the use of the term "New Age" was "optional, episodic and declining overall", adding that among the very few individuals who did use it, they usually did so with qualification, for instance by placing it in quotation marks. Other academics, such as Sara MacKian, have argued that the sheer diversity of the New Age renders the term too problematic for scholars to use. MacKian proposed "everyday spirituality" as an alternate term.
While acknowledging that "New Age" was a problematic term, the scholar of religion James R. Lewis stated that it remained a useful etic category for scholars to use because "There exists no comparable term which covers all aspects of the movement." Similarly, Chryssides argued that the fact that "New Age" is a "theoretical concept" does not "undermine its usefulness or employability"; he drew comparisons with "Hinduism", a similar "western etic piece of vocabulary" that scholars of religion used despite its problems.
In discussing the New Age, academics have varyingly referred to "New Age spirituality" and "New Age religion". Those involved in the New Age rarely consider it to be "religion"—negatively associating that term solely with organized religion—and instead describe their practices as "spirituality". Religious studies scholars, however, have repeatedly referred to the New Age milieu as a "religion". York described the New Age as a new religious movement (NRM). Conversely, both Heelas and Sutcliffe rejected this categorisation; Heelas believed that while elements of the New Age represented NRMs, this did not apply to every New Age group. Similarly, Chryssides stated that the New Age could not be seen as "a religion" in itself.
The New Age is also a form of Western esotericism. Hanegraaff regarded the New Age as a form of "popular culture criticism", in that it represented a reaction against the dominant Western values of Judeo-Christian religion and rationalism, adding that "New Age religion formulates such criticism not at random, but falls back on" the ideas of earlier Western esoteric groups.
The New Age has also been identified by various scholars of religion as part of the cultic milieu. This concept, developed by the sociologist Colin Campbell, refers to a social network of marginalised ideas. Through their shared marginalisation within a given society, these disparate ideas interact and create new syntheses.
Hammer identified much of the New Age as corresponding to the concept of "folk religions" in that it seeks to deal with existential questions regarding subjects like death and disease in "an unsystematic fashion, often through a process of bricolage from already available narratives and rituals". York also heuristically divides the New Age into three broad trends. The first, the "social camp", represents groups that primarily seek to bring about social change, while the second, the "occult camp", instead focus on contact with spirit entities and channeling. York's third group, the "spiritual camp", represents a middle ground between these two camps that focuses largely on individual development.
The term "new age", along with related terms like "new era" and "new world", long predate the emergence of the New Age movement, and have widely been used to assert that a better way of life for humanity is dawning. It occurs commonly, for instance, in political contexts; the Great Seal of the United States, designed in 1782, proclaims a "new order of ages", while in the 1980s the Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed that "all mankind is entering a new age". The term has also appeared within Western esoteric schools of thought, having a scattered use from the mid-nineteenth century onward. In 1864 the American Swedenborgian Warren Felt Evans published "The New Age and its Message", while in 1907 Alfred Orage and Holbrook Jackson began editing a weekly journal of Christian liberalism and socialism titled "The New Age". The concept of a coming "new age" that would be inaugurated by the return to Earth of Jesus Christ was a theme in the poetry of Wellesley Tudor Pole and Johanna Brandt, and then also appeared in the work of the American Theosophist Alice Bailey, who used the term prominently in such titles as "Disciplineship in the New Age" (1944) and "Education in the New Age" (1954).
Between the 1930s and 1960s, a small number of groups and individuals became preoccupied with the concept of a coming "New Age" and prominently used the term accordingly. The term had thus become a recurring motif in the esoteric spirituality milieu.
Sutcliffe, therefore, expressed the view that while the term "New Age" had originally been an "apocalyptic emblem", it would only be later that it became "a tag or codeword for a 'spiritual' idiom".
According to scholar Nevill Drury, the New Age has a "tangible history", although Hanegraaff expressed the view that most New Agers were "surprisingly ignorant about the actual historical roots of their beliefs". Similarly, Hammer thought that "source amnesia" was a "building block of a New Age worldview", with New Agers typically adopting ideas with no awareness of where those ideas originated.
As a form of Western esotericism, the New Age has antecedents that stretch back to southern Europe in Late Antiquity. Following the Age of Enlightenment in 18th century Europe, new esoteric ideas developed in response to the development of scientific rationality. Scholars call this new esoteric trend "occultism", and this occultism was a key factor in the development of the worldview from which the New Age emerged.
One of the earliest influences on the New Age was the Swedish 18th century Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, who professed the ability to communicate with angels, demons, and spirits. Swedenborg's attempt to unite science and religion and his prediction of a coming era in particular have been cited as ways that he prefigured the New Age. Another early influence was the late 18th and early 19th century German physician and hypnotist Franz Mesmer, who claimed the existence of a force known as "animal magnetism" running through the human body. The establishment of Spiritualism, an occult religion influenced by both Swedenborgianism and Mesmerism, in the U.S. during the 1840s has also been identified as a precursor to the New Age, in particular through its rejection of established Christianity, its claims to representing a scientific approach to religion, and its emphasis on channeling spirit entities.
A further major influence on the New Age was the Theosophical Society, an occult group co-founded by the Russian Helena Blavatsky in the late 19th century. In her books "Isis Unveiled" (1877) and "The Secret Doctrine" (1888), Blavatsky claimed that her Society was conveying the essence of all world religions, and it thus emphasized a focus on comparative religion. Serving as a partial bridge between Theosophical ideas and those of the New Age was the American esotericist Edgar Cayce, who founded the Association for Research and Enlightenment. Another influence was New Thought, which developed in late nineteenth century New England as a Christian-oriented healing movement before spreading throughout the United States. Another prominent influence was the psychologist Carl Jung.
Drury also identified as an important influence upon the New Age the Indian Swami Vivekananda, an adherent of the philosophy of Vedanta who first brought Hinduism to the West in the late 19th century.
Hanegraaff believed that the New Age's direct antecedents could be found in the UFO religions of the 1950s, which he termed a "proto-New Age movement". Many of these new religious movements had strong apocalyptic beliefs regarding a coming new age, which they typically asserted would be brought about by contact with extraterrestrials. Examples of such groups included the Aetherius Society, founded in the UK in 1955, and the Heralds of the New Age, established in New Zealand in 1956.
From a historical perspective, the New Age phenomenon is most associated with the counterculture of the 1960s. According to author Andrew Grant Jackson, George Harrison's adoption of Hindu philosophy and Indian instrumentation in his songs with the Beatles in the mid 1960s, together with the band's highly publicised study of Transcendental Meditation, "truly kick-started" the Human Potential Movement that subsequently became New Age. Although not common throughout the counterculture, usage of the terms "New Age" and "Age of Aquarius" – used in reference to a coming era – were found within it, for instance appearing on adverts for the Woodstock festival of 1969, and in the lyrics of "Aquarius", the opening song of the 1967 musical "Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical".
This decade also witnessed the emergence of a variety of new religious movements and newly established religions in the United States, creating a spiritual milieu from which the New Age drew upon; these included the San Francisco Zen Center, Transcendental Meditation, Soka Gakkai, the Inner Peace Movement, the Church of All Worlds, and the Church of Satan. Although there had been an established interest in Asian religious ideas in the U.S. from at least the eighteenth-century, many of these new developments were variants of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sufism, which had been imported to the West from Asia following the U.S. government's decision to rescind the Asian Exclusion Act in 1965. In 1962 the Esalen Institute was established in Big Sur, California. Esalen and similar personal growth centers had developed links to humanistic psychology, and from this, the human potential movement emerged, strongly influenced the New Age.
In Britain, a number of small religious groups that came to be identified as the "light" movement had begun declaring the existence of a coming new age, influenced strongly by the Theosophical ideas of Blavatsky and Bailey. The most prominent of these groups was the Findhorn Foundation, which founded the Findhorn Ecovillage in the Scottish area of Findhorn, Moray in 1962. Although its founders were from an older generation, Findhorn attracted increasing numbers of countercultural baby boomers during the 1960s, to the extent that its population had grown sixfold to c. 120 residents by 1972. In October 1965, the founder of Findhorn, Peter Caddy, a former member of the occult Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship, attended a meeting of various prominent figures within Britain's esoteric milieu; advertised as "The Significance of the Group in the New Age", it was held at Attingham Park over the course of a weekend.
All of these groups created the backdrop from which the New Age movement emerged. As James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton point out, the New Age phenomenon represents "a synthesis of many different preexisting movements and strands of thought". Nevertheless, York asserted that while the New Age bore many similarities with both earlier forms of Western esotericism and Asian religion, it remained "distinct from its predecessors in its own self-consciousness as a new way of thinking".
By the early 1970s, use of the term "New Age" was increasingly common within the cultic milieu. This was because—according to Sutcliffe—the "emblem" of the "New Age" had been passed from the "subcultural pioneers" in groups like Findhorn to the wider array of "countercultural baby boomers" between c. 1967 and 1974. He noted that as this happened, the meaning of the term "New Age" changed; whereas it had once referred specifically to a coming era, at this point it came to be used in a wider sense to refer to a variety of spiritual activities and practices. In the latter part of the 1970s, the New Age expanded to cover a wide variety of alternative spiritual and religious beliefs and practices, not all of which explicitly held to the belief in the Age of Aquarius, but were nevertheless widely recognised as broadly similar in their search for "alternatives" to mainstream society. In doing so, the "New Age" became a banner under which to bring together the wider "cultic milieu" of American society.
The counterculture of the 1960s had rapidly declined by the start of the 1970s, in large part due to the collapse of the commune movement, but it would be many former members of the counter-culture and hippie subculture who subsequently became early adherents of the New Age movement.
The exact origins of the New Age movement remain an issue of debate; Melton asserted that it emerged in the early 1970s, whereas Hanegraaff instead traced its emergence to the latter 1970s, adding that it then entered its full development in the 1980s. This early form of the movement was based largely in Britain and exhibited a strong influence from Theosophy and Anthroposophy. Hanegraaff termed this early core of the movement the "New Age sensu stricto", or "New Age in the strict sense".
Hanegraaff terms the broader development the "New Age sensu lato", or "New Age in the wider sense". Stores that came to be known as "New Age shops" opened up, selling related books, magazines, jewellery, and crystals, and they were typified by the playing of New Age music and the smell of incense.This probably influenced several thousand small metaphysical book- and gift-stores that increasingly defined themselves as "New Age bookstores", while New Age titles came to be increasingly available from mainstream bookstores and then websites like Amazon.com.
Not everyone who came to be associated with the New Age phenomenon openly embraced the term "New Age", although it was popularised in books like David Spangler's 1977 work "Revelation: The Birth of a New Age" and Mark Satin's 1979 book "New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society". Marilyn Ferguson's 1982 book "The Aquarian Conspiracy" has also been regarded as a landmark work in the development of the New Age, promoting the idea that a new era was emerging. Other terms that were employed synonymously with "New Age" in this milieu included "Green", "Holistic", "Alternative", and "Spiritual".
1971 witnessed the foundation of est by Werner H. Erhard, a transformational training course that became a prominent part of the early movement. Melton suggested that the 1970s witnessed the growth of a relationship between the New Age movement and the older New Thought movement, as evidenced by the widespread use of Helen Schucman's "A Course in Miracles" (1975), New Age music, and crystal healing in New Thought churches. Some figures in the New Thought movement were skeptical, challenging the compatibility of New Age and New Thought perspectives. During these decades, Findhorn had become a site of pilgrimage for many New Agers, and greatly expanded in size as people joined the community, with workshops and conferences being held there that brought together New Age thinkers from across the world.
Several key events occurred, which raised public awareness of the New Age subculture: publication of Linda Goodman's best-selling astrology books "Sun Signs" (1968) and "Love Signs" (1978); the release of Shirley MacLaine's book "Out on a Limb" (1983), later adapted into a television mini-series with the same name (1987); and the "Harmonic Convergence" planetary alignment on August 16 and 17, 1987, organized by José Argüelles in Sedona, Arizona. The Convergence attracted more people to the movement than any other single event. Heelas suggested that the movement was influenced by the "enterprise culture" encouraged by the U.S. and U.K. governments during the 1980s onward, with its emphasis on initiative and self-reliance resonating with any New Age ideas.
The claims of channelers Jane Roberts (Seth Material), Helen Schucman ("A Course in Miracles"), J. Z. Knight (Ramtha), Neale Donald Walsch ("Conversations with God") (note that Walsch denies being a "channeler" and his books make it obvious that he is not one, though the text emerged through a dialogue with a deeper part of himself in a process comparable to automatic writing) contributed to the movement's growth. The first significant exponent of the New Age movement in the U.S. has been cited as Ram Dass. Core works in the propagating New Age ideas included Jane Roberts's Seth series, published from 1972 onward, Helen Schucman's 1975 publication "A Course in Miracles", and James Redfield's 1993 work "The Celestine Prophecy". A variety of these books were best sellers, with the Seth book series for instance selling over a million copies. Supplementing these books were videos, audiotapes, compact discs and websites. The development of the internet in particular further popularized New Age ideas and made them more widely accessible.
New Age ideas influenced the development of rave culture in the late 1980s and 1990s. In Britain during the 1980s, the term "New Age Travellers" came into use, although York characterised this term as "a misnomer created by the media". These New Age Travellers had little to do with the New Age as the term was used more widely, with scholar of religion Daren Kemp observing that "New Age spirituality is not an essential part of New Age Traveller culture, although there are similarities between the two worldviews". The term "New Age" came to be used increasingly widely by the popular media in the 1990s.
By the late 1980s, some publishers dropped the term "New Age" as a marketing device. In 1994, the scholar of religion Gordon J. Melton presented a conference paper in which he argued that, given that he knew of nobody describing their practices as "New Age" anymore, the New Age had died. In 2001, Hammer observed that the term "New Age" had increasingly been rejected as either pejorative or meaningless by individuals within the Western cultic milieu. He also noted that within this milieu it was not being replaced by any alternative and that as such a sense of collective identity was being lost.
Other scholars disagreed with Melton's idea; in 2004 Daren Kemp stated that "New Age is still very much alive". Hammer himself stated that "the New Age "movement" may be on the wane, but the wider New Age "religiosity"... shows no sign of disappearing". MacKian suggested that the New Age "movement" had been replaced by a wider "New Age sentiment" which had come to pervade "the socio-cultural landscape" of Western countries. Its diffusion into the mainstream may have been influenced by the adoption of New Age concepts by high-profile figures: U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologer, British Princess Diana visited spirit mediums, and Norwegian Princess Märtha Louise established a school devoted to communicating with angels.
New Age shops continued to operate, although many have been remarketed as "Mind, Body, Spirit".
In 2015, the scholar of religion Hugh Urban argued that New Age spirituality is growing in the United States and can be expected to become more visible: "According to many recent surveys of religious affiliation, the 'spiritual but not religious' category is one of the fastest-growing trends in American culture, so the New Age attitude of spiritual individualism and eclecticism may well be an increasingly visible one in the decades to come".
Australian scholar Paul J. Farrelly, in his 2017 doctoral dissertation at Australian National University, argued that, while the New Age may become less popular in the West, it is actually booming in Taiwan, where it is regarded as something comparatively new and is being exported from Taiwan to Mainland China, while it is more or less tolerated by the authorities.
The New Age places strong emphasis on the idea that the individual and their own experiences are the primary source of authority on spiritual matters. It exhibits what Heelas termed "unmediated individualism", and reflects a world-view that is "radically democratic". It places an emphasis on the freedom and autonomy of the individual. This emphasis has led to ethical disagreements; some New Agers believe helping others is beneficial, although another view is that doing so encourages dependency and conflicts with a reliance on the self. Nevertheless, within the New Age, there are differences in the role accorded to voices of authority outside of the self. Hammer stated that "a belief in the existence of a core or true Self" is a "recurring theme" in New Age texts. The concept of "personal growth" is also greatly emphasised among New Agers, while Heelas noted that "for participants spirituality "is" life-itself".
New Age religiosity is typified by its eclecticism. Generally believing that there is no one true way to pursue spirituality, New Agers develop their own worldview "by combining bits and pieces to form their own individual mix", seeking what Drury called "a spirituality without borders or confining dogmas". The anthropologist David J. Hess noted that in his experience, a common attitude among New Agers was that "any alternative spiritual path is good because it is spiritual and alternative". This approach that has generated a common jibe that New Age represents "supermarket spirituality". York suggested that this eclecticism stemmed from the New Age's origins within late modern capitalism, with New Agers subscribing to a belief in a free market of spiritual ideas as a parallel to a free market in economics.
As part of its eclecticism, the New Age draws ideas from many different cultural and spiritual traditions from across the world, often legitimising this approach by reference to "a very vague claim" about underlying global unity. Certain societies are more usually chosen over others; examples include the ancient Celts, ancient Egyptians, the Essenes, Atlanteans, and ancient extraterrestrials. As noted by Hammer: "to put it bluntly, no significant spokespersons within the New Age community claim to represent ancient Albanian wisdom, simply because beliefs regarding ancient Albanians are not part of our cultural stereotypes". According to Hess, these ancient or foreign societies represent an exotic "Other" for New Agers, who are predominantly white Westerners.
A belief in divinity is integral to New Age ideas, although understandings of this divinity vary. New Age theology exhibits an inclusive and universalistic approach that accepts all personal perspectives on the divine as equally valid. This intentional vagueness as to the nature of divinity also reflects the New Age idea that divinity cannot be comprehended by the human mind or language. New Age literature nevertheless displays recurring traits in its depiction of the divine: the first is the idea that it is holistic, thus frequently being described with such terms as an "Ocean of Oneness", "Infinite Spirit", "Primal Stream", "One Essence", and "Universal Principle". A second trait is the characterisation of divinity as "Mind", "Consciousness", and "Intelligence", while a third is the description of divinity as a form of "energy". A fourth trait is the characterisation of divinity as a "life force", the essence of which is creativity, while a fifth is the concept that divinity consists of love.
Most New Age groups believe in an Ultimate Source from which all things originate, which is usually conflated with the divine. Various creation myths have been articulated in New Age publications outlining how this Ultimate Source created the universe and everything in it. In contrast, some New Agers emphasise the idea of a universal inter-relatedness that is not always emanating from a single source. The New Age worldview emphasises holism and the idea that everything in existence is intricately connected as part of a single whole, in doing so rejecting both the dualism of Judeo-Christian thought and the reductionism of Cartesian science. A number of New Agers have linked this holistic interpretation of the universe to the Gaia hypothesis of James Lovelock. The idea of holistic divinity results in a common New Age belief that humans themselves are divine in essence, a concept described using such terms as "droplet of divinity", "inner Godhead", and "divine self". Influenced by Theosophical and Anthroposophical ideas regarding 'subtle bodies', a common New Age idea holds to the existence of a "Higher Self" that is a part of the human but connects with the divine essence of the universe, and which can advise the human mind through intuition.
Cosmogonical creation stories are common in New Age sources, with these accounts reflecting the movement's holistic framework by describing an original, primal oneness from which all things in the universe emanated. An additional common theme is that human souls – once living in a spiritual world – then descended into a world of matter.
The New Age movement typically views the material universe as a meaningful illusion, which humans should try to use constructively rather than focus on escaping into other spiritual realms. This physical world is hence seen as "a domain for learning and growth" after which the human soul might pass on to higher levels of existence. There is thus a widespread belief that reality is engaged in an ongoing process of evolution; rather than Darwinian evolution, this is typically seen as either a teleological evolution which assumes a process headed to a specific goal or an open-ended, creative evolution.
MacKian argued that a central, but often overlooked, element of the phenomenon was an emphasis on "spirit", and in particular participants' desire for a relationship with spirit. Many practitioners in her UK-focused study described themselves as "workers "for" spirit", expressing the desire to help people learn about spirit. They understood various material signs as marking the presence of spirit, for instance, the unexpected appearance of a feather. New Agers often call upon this spirit to assist them in everyday situations, for instance, to ease the traffic flow on their way to work.
New Age literature often refers to benevolent non-human spirit-beings who are interested in humanity's spiritual development; these are variously referred to as angels, guardian angels, personal guides, masters, teachers, and contacts. New Age angelology is nevertheless unsystematic, reflecting the idiosyncrasies of individual authors. The figure of Jesus Christ is often mentioned within New Age literature as a mediating principle between divinity and humanity, as well as an exemplar of a spiritually advanced human being.
Although not present in every New Age group, a core belief within the milieu is in channeling. This is the idea that humans beings, sometimes (although not always) in a state of trance, can act "as a channel of information from sources other than their normal selves". These sources are varyingly described as being God, gods and goddesses, ascended masters, spirit guides, extraterrestrials, angels, devas, historical figures, the collective unconscious, elementals, or nature spirits. Hanegraaff described channeling as a form of "articulated revelation", and identified four forms: trance channeling, automatisms, clairaudient channeling, and open channeling.
Prominent examples of New Age channeling include Jane Roberts' claims that she was contacted by an entity called Seth, and Helen Schucman's claims to have channeled Jesus Christ. The academic Suzanne Riordan examined a variety of these New Age channeled messages, noting that they typically "echoed each other in tone and content", offering an analysis of the human condition and giving instructions or advice for how humanity can discover its true destiny.
For many New Agers, these channeled messages rival the scriptures of the main world religions as sources of spiritual authority, although often New Agers describe historical religious revelations as forms of "channeling" as well, thus attempting to legitimate and authenticate their own contemporary practices. Although the concept of channeling from discarnate spirit entities has links to Spiritualism and psychical research, the New Age does not feature Spiritualism's emphasis on proving the existence of life after death, nor psychical research's focus of testing mediums for consistency.
New Age thought typically envisions the world as developing through cosmological cycles that can be identified astrologically. It adopts this concept from Theosophy, although often presents it in a looser and more eclectic way than is found in Theosophical teaching. New Age literature often claims that humanity once lived in an age of spiritual wisdom. In the writings of New Agers like Edgar Cayce, the ancient period of spiritual wisdom is associated with concepts of supremely-advanced societies living on lost continents such as Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu, as well as the idea that ancient societies like those of Ancient Egypt were far more technologically advanced than modern scholarship, accepts. New Age literature often posits that the ancient period of spiritual wisdom gave way to an age of spiritual decline, sometimes termed the Age of Pisces. Although characterised as being a negative period for humanity, New Age literature views the Age of Pisces as an important learning experience for the species. Hanegraaff stated that New Age perceptions of history were "extremely sketchy" in their use of description, reflecting little interest in historiography and conflating history with myth. He also noted that they were highly ethnocentric in placing Western civilization at the centre of historical development.
A common belief among the New Age is that humanity has entered, or is coming to enter, a new period known as the Age of Aquarius, which Melton has characterised as a "New Age of love, joy, peace, abundance, and harmony[...] the Golden Age heretofore only dreamed about." In accepting this belief in a coming new age, the milieu has been described as "highly positive, celebratory, [and] utopian", and has also been cited as an apocalyptic movement. Opinions about the nature of the coming Age of Aquarius differ among New Agers. There are for instance differences in belief about its commencement; New Age author David Spangler claimed that it began in 1967, others placed its beginning with the Harmonic Convergence of 1987, author José Argüelles predicted its start in 2012, and some believe that it will not begin until several centuries into the third millennium.
There are also differences in how this new age is envisioned. Those adhering to what Hanegraaff termed the "moderate" perspective believed that it would be marked by an improvement to current society, which affected both New Age concerns—through the convergence of science and mysticism and the global embrace of alternative medicine—to more general concerns, including an end to violence, crime and war, a healthier environment, and international co-operation. Other New Agers adopt a fully utopian vision, believing that the world will be wholly transformed into an "Age of Light", with humans evolving into totally spiritual beings and experiencing unlimited love, bliss, and happiness. Rather than conceiving of the Age of Aquarius as an indefinite period, many believe that it would last for around two thousand years before being replaced by a further age.
There are various beliefs within the milieu as to how this new age will come about, but most emphasise the idea that it will be established through human agency; others assert that it will be established with the aid of non-human forces such as spirits or extraterrestrials. Ferguson, for instance, claimed that there was a vanguard of humans known as the "Aquarian conspiracy" who were helping to bring the Age of Aquarius forth through their actions. Participants in the New Age typically express the view that their own spiritual actions are helping to bring about the Age of Aquarius, with writers like Ferguson and Argüelles presenting themselves as prophets ushering forth this future era.
Another recurring element of New Age is an emphasis on healing and alternative medicine. The general New Age ethos is that health is the natural state for the human being and that illness is a disruption of that natural balance. Hence, New Age therapies seek to heal "illness" as a general concept that includes physical, mental, and spiritual aspects; in doing so it critiques mainstream Western medicine for simply attempting to cure disease, and thus has an affinity with most forms of traditional medicine. Its focus of self-spirituality has led to the emphasis of self-healing, although also present are ideas on healing both others and the Earth itself.
The healing elements of the movement are difficult to classify given that a variety of terms are used, with some New Age authors using different terms to refer to the same trends, while others use the same term to refer to different things. However, Hanegraaff developed a set of categories into which the forms of New Age healing could be roughly categorised. The first of these was the Human Potential Movement, which argues that contemporary Western society suppresses much human potential, and accordingly professes to offer a path through which individuals can access those parts of themselves that they have alienated and suppressed, thus enabling them to reach their full potential and live a meaningful life. Hanegraaff described transpersonal psychology as the "theoretical wing" of this Human Potential Movement; in contrast to other schools of psychological thought, transpersonal psychology takes religious and mystical experiences seriously by exploring the uses of altered states of consciousness. Closely connected to this is the shamanic consciousness current, which argues that the shaman was a specialist in altered states of consciousness and seeks to adopt and imitate traditional shamanic techniques as a form of personal healing and growth.
Hanegraaff identified the second main healing current in the New Age movement as being holistic health. This emerged in the 1970s out of the free clinic movement of the 1960s, and has various connections with the Human Potential Movement. It emphasises the idea that the human individual is a holistic, interdependent relationship between mind, body, and spirit, and that healing is a process in which an individual becomes whole by integrating with the powers of the universe. A very wide array of methods are utilised within the holistic health movement, with some of the most common including acupuncture, reiki, biofeedback, chiropractic, yoga, kinesiology, homeopathy, aromatherapy, iridology, massage and other forms of bodywork, meditation and visualisation, nutritional therapy, psychic healing, herbal medicine, healing using crystals, metals, music, chromotherapy, and reincarnation therapy. The use of crystal healing has become a particularly prominent visual trope within the New Age; this practice was not common in esotericism prior to their adoption in the New Age milieu.
The mainstreaming of the Holistic Health movement in the UK is discussed by Maria Tighe. The inter-relation of holistic health with the New Age movement is illustrated in Jenny Butler's ethnographic description of "Angel therapy" in Ireland.
According to Drury, the New Age attempts to create "a worldview that includes both science and spirituality", while Hess noted how New Agers have "a penchant for bringing together the technical and the spiritual, the scientific and the religious".
Although New Agers typically reject rationalism, the scientific method, and the academic establishment, they employ terminology and concepts borrowed from science and particularly from the New Physics. Moreover, a number of prominent influences on New Age, such as David Bohm and Ilya Prigogine, had backgrounds as professional scientists. Hanegraaff identified "New Age science" as a form of "Naturphilosophie".
In this, the milieu is interested in developing unified world views to discover the nature of the divine and establish a scientific basis for religious belief. Figures in the New Age movement—most notably Fritjof Capra in his "The Tao of Physics" (1975) and Gary Zukav in "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" (1979)—have drawn parallels between theories in the New Physics and traditional forms of mysticism, thus arguing that ancient religious ideas are now being proven by contemporary science. Many New Agers have adopted James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis that the Earth acts akin to a single living organism, although have expanded this idea to include the idea that the Earth has consciousness and intelligence.
Despite New Agers' appeals to science, most of the academic and scientific establishments dismiss "New Age science" as pseudo-science, or at best existing in part on the fringes of genuine scientific research. This is an attitude also shared by many active in the field of parapsychology. In turn, New Agers often accuse the scientific establishment of pursuing a dogmatic and outmoded approach to scientific enquiry, believing that their own understandings of the universe will replace those of the academic establishment in a paradigm shift.
There is no ethical cohesion within the New Age phenomenon, although Hanegraaff argued that the central ethical tenet of the New Age is to cultivate one's own divine potential. Given that the movement's holistic interpretation of the universe prohibits a belief in a dualistic good and evil, negative events that happen are interpreted not as the result of evil but as lessons designed to teach an individual and enable them to advance spiritually.
It rejects the Christian emphasis on sin and guilt, believing that these generate fear and thus negativity, which then hinder spiritual evolution. It also typically criticises the blaming and judging of others for their actions, believing that if an individual adopts these negative attitudes it harms their own spiritual evolution. Instead, the movement emphasizes positive thinking, although beliefs regarding the power behind such thoughts vary within New Age literature. Common New Age examples of how to generate such positive thinking include the repeated recitation of mantras and statements carrying positive messages, and the visualisation of a white light.
According to Hanegraaff, the question of death and afterlife is not a "pressing problem requiring an answer" in the New Age. A belief in reincarnation is very common, where it often viewed as being part of an individual's progressive spiritual evolution toward realisation of their own divinity. In New Age literature, the reality of reincarnation is usually treated as self-evident, with no explanation as to why practitioners embrace this afterlife belief over others, although New Agers endorse it in the belief that it ensures cosmic justice. Many New Agers believe in karma, treating it as a law of cause and effect that assures cosmic balance, although in some cases they stress that it is not a system that enforces punishment for past actions.
In much New Age literature on reincarnation, it is claimed that part of the human soul, that which carries the personality, perishes with the death of the body, while the Higher Self – that which connects with divinity – survives in order to be reborn into another body. It is believed that the Higher Self chooses the body and circumstances into which it will be born, in order to use it as a vessel through which to learn new lessons and thus advance its own spiritual evolution. Prominent New Age writers like Shakti Gawain and Louise Hay therefore express the view that humans are responsible for the events that happen to them during their life, an idea that many New Agers regard as empowering. At times, past life regression are employed within the New Age in order to reveal a Higher Soul's previous incarnations, usually with an explicit healing purpose. Some practitioners espouse the idea of a "soul group" or "soul family", a group of connected souls who reincarnate together as family of friendship units. Rather than reincarnation, another afterlife belief found among New Agers holds that an individual's soul returns to a "universal energy" on bodily death.
In the mid-1990s, the New Age was found primarily in the United States and Canada, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. The fact that most individuals engaging in New Age activity do not describe themselves as "New Agers" renders it difficult to determine the total number of practitioners. Heelas highlighted the range of attempts to establish the number of New Age participants in the U.S. during this period, noting that estimates ranged from 20,000 to 6 million; he believed that the higher ranges of these estimates were greatly inflated by, for instance, an erroneous assumption that all Americans who believed in reincarnation were part of the New Age. He nevertheless suggested that over 10 million people in the U.S. had had some contact with New Age practices or ideas. Between 2000 and 2002, Heelas and Woodhead conducted research into the New Age in the English town of Kendal, Cumbria; they found 600 people actively attended New Age activities on a weekly basis, representing 1.6% of the town's population. From this, they extrapolated that around 900,000 Britons regularly took part in New Age activities. In 2006, Heelas stated that New Age practices had grown to such an extent that they were "increasingly rivaling the sway of Christianity in western settings".
Sociological investigation indicates that certain sectors of society are more likely to engage in New Age practices than others. In the United States, the first people to embrace the New Age belonged to the baby boomer generation, those born between 1946 and 1964.
Sutcliffe noted that although most influential New Age figureheads were male, approximately two-thirds of its participants were female. Heelas and Woodhead's Kendal Project found that of those regularly attending New Age activities in the town, 80% were female, while 78% of those running such activities were female. They attributed this female dominance to "deeply entrenched cultural values and divisions of labour" in Western society, according to which women were accorded greater responsibility for the well-being of others, thus making New Age practices more attractive to them. They suggested that men were less attracted to New Age activities because they were hampered by a "masculinist ideal of autonomy and self-sufficiency" which discouraged them from seeking the assistance of others for their inner development.
The majority of New Agers are from the middle and upper-middle classes of Western society. Heelas and Woodhead found that of the active Kendal New Agers, 57% had a university or college degree. Their Kendal Project also determined that 73% of active New Agers were aged over 45, and 55% were aged between 40 and 59; it also determined that many got involved while middle-aged. Comparatively few were either young or elderly. Heelas and Woodhead suggested that the dominance of middle-aged people, particularly women, was because at this stage of life they had greater time to devote to their own inner development, with their time previously having been dominated by raising children. They also suggested that middle-aged people were experiencing more age-related ailments than the young, and thus more keen to pursue New Age activities to improve their health.
Heelas added that within the baby boomers, the movement had nevertheless attracted a diverse clientele. He typified the typical New Ager as someone who was well-educated yet disenchanted with mainstream society, thus arguing that the movement catered to those who believe that modernity is in crisis. He suggested that the movement appealed to many former practitioners of the 1960s counter-culture because while they came to feel that they were unable to change society, they were nonetheless interested in changing the self. He believed that many individuals had been "culturally primed for what the New Age has to offer", with the New Age attracting "expressive" people who were already comfortable with the ideals and outlooks of the movement's self-spirituality focus. It could be particularly appealing because the New Age suited the needs of the individual, whereas traditional religious options that are available primarily catered for the needs of a community. He believed that although the adoption of New Age beliefs and practices by some fitted the model of religious conversion, others who adopted some of its practices could not easily be considered to have converted to the religion. Sutcliffe described the "typical" participant in the New Age milieu as being "a religious individualist, mixing and matching cultural resources in an animated spiritual quest".
The degree to which individuals are involved in the New Age varies. Heelas argued that those involved could be divided into three broad groups; the first comprised those who were completely dedicated to it and its ideals, often working in professions that furthered those goals. The second consisted of "serious part-timers" who worked in unrelated fields but who nevertheless spent much of their free time involved in movement activities. The third was that of "casual part-timers" who occasionally involved themselves in New Age activities but for whom the movement was not a central aspect of their life. MacKian instead suggested that involvement could be seen as being layered like an onion; at the core are "consultative" practitioners who devote their life to New Age practices, around that are "serious" practitioners who still invest considerable effort into New Age activities, and on the periphery are "non-practitioner consumers", individuals affected by the general dissemination of New Age ideas but who do not devote themselves more fully to them. Many New Age practices have filtered into wider Western society, with a 2000 poll, for instance, revealing that 39% of the UK population had tried alternative therapies.
In 1995, Kyle stated that on the whole, New Agers in the United States preferred the values of the Democratic Party over those of the Republican Party. He added that most New Agers "soundly rejected" the agenda of former Republican President Ronald Reagan.
MacKian suggested that this phenomenon was "an inherently "social" mode of spirituality", one which cultivated a sense of belonging among its participants and encouraged relations both with other humans and with non-human, otherworldly spirit entities.
MacKian suggested that these communities "may look very different" from those of traditional religious groups.
Online connections were one of the ways that interested individuals met new contacts and established networks.
Some New Agers advocate living in a simple and sustainable manner to reduce humanity's impact on the natural resources of Earth; and they shun consumerism. The New Age movement has been centered around rebuilding a sense of community to counter social disintegration; this has been attempted through the formation of intentional communities, where individuals come together to live and work in a communal lifestyle. New Age centres have been set up in various parts of the world, representing an institutionalised form of the movement. Notable examples include the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, Holly Hock Farm near to Vancouver, the Wrekin Trust in West Malvern, Worcestershire, and the Skyros Centre in Skyros. Criticising mainstream Western education as counterproductive to the ethos of the movement, many New Age groups have established their own schools for the education of children, although in other cases such groups have sought to introduce New Age spiritual techniques into pre-existing establishments.
Bruce argued that in seeking to "denying the validity of externally imposed controls and privileging the divine within", the New Age sought to dismantle pre-existing social order, but that it failed to present anything adequate in its place. Heelas, however, cautioned that Bruce had arrived at this conclusion based on "flimsy evidence", and Aldred argued that only a minority of New Agers participate in community-focused activities; instead, she claimed, the majority of New Agers participate mainly through the purchase of books and products targeted at the New Age market, positioning New Age as a primarily consumerist and commercial movement.
New Age spirituality has led to a wide array of literature on the subject and an active niche market, with books, music, crafts, and services in alternative medicine available at New Age stores, fairs, and festivals.
New Age fairs – sometimes known as "Mind, Body, Spirit fairs", "psychic fairs", or "alternative health fairs" – are spaces in which a variety of goods and services are displayed by different vendors, including forms of alternative medicine and esoteric practices such as palmistry or tarot card reading. A prominent example is the Mind Body Spirit Festival, held annually in the United Kingdom, at which – the religious studies scholar Christopher Partridge noted – one could encounter "a wide range of beliefs and practices from crystal healing to ... Kirlian photography to psychic art, from angels to past-life therapy, from Theosophy to UFO religion, and from New Age music to the vegetarianism of Suma Chign Hai." Similar festivals are held across Europe and in Australia and the United States.
A number of New Age proponents have emphasised the use of spiritual techniques as a tool for attaining financial prosperity, thus moving the movement away from its counter-cultural origins. Commenting on this "New Age capitalism", Hess observed that it was largely small-scale and entrepreneurial, focused around small companies run by members of the petty bourgeoisie, rather than being dominated by large scale multinational corporations. The links between New Age and commercial products have resulted in the accusation that New Age itself is little more than a manifestation of consumerism. This idea is generally rejected by New Age participants, who often reject any link between their practices and consumerist activities.
Embracing this attitude, various books have been published espousing such an ethos, established New Age centres have held spiritual retreats and classes aimed specifically at business people, and New Age groups have developed specialised training for businesses. During the 1980s, many prominent U.S. corporations—among them IBM, AT&T, and General Motors—embraced New Age seminars, hoping that they could increase productivity and efficiency among their workforce, although in several cases this resulted in employees bringing legal action against their employers, claiming that such seminars had infringed on their religious beliefs or damaged their psychological health. However, the use of spiritual techniques as a method for attaining profit has been an issue of major dispute within the wider New Age movement, with prominent New Agers such as Spangler and Matthew Fox criticising what they see as trends within the community that are narcissistic and lack a social conscience. In particular, the movement's commercial elements have caused problems given that they often conflict with its general economically-egalitarian ethos; as York highlighted, "a tension exists in New Age between socialistic egalitarianism and capitalistic private enterprise".
Given that it encourages individuals to choose spiritual practices on the grounds of personal preference and thus encourages them to behave as a consumer, the New Age has been considered to be well suited to modern society.
The term "new-age music" is applied, sometimes in a derogative manner, to forms of ambient music, a genre that developed in the 1960s and was popularised in the 1970s, particularly with the work of Brian Eno. The genre's relaxing nature resulted in it becoming popular within New Age circles, with some forms of the genre having a specifically New Age orientation. Studies have determined that new-age music can be an effective component of stress management.
The style began in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the works of free-form jazz groups recording on the ECM label; such as Oregon, the Paul Winter Consort, and other pre-ambient bands; as well as ambient music performer Brian Eno, classical avant-garde musician Daniel Kobialka, and the psychoacoustic "environments" recordings of Irv Teibel. In the early 1970s, it was mostly instrumental with both acoustic and electronic styles. New-age music evolved to include a wide range of styles from electronic space music using synthesizers and acoustic instrumentals using Native American flutes and drums, singing bowls, Australian didgeridoos and world music sounds to spiritual chanting from other cultures.
While many commentators have focused on the spiritual and cultural aspects of the New Age movement, it also has a political component. The New Age political movement became visible in the 1970s, peaked in the 1980s, and continued into the 1990s. The sociologist of religion Steven Bruce noted that the New Age provides ideas on how to deal with "our socio-psychological problems". Scholar of religion James R. Lewis observed that, despite the common caricature of New Agers as narcissistic, "significant numbers" of them were "trying to make the planet a better place on which to live," and scholar J. Gordon Melton's "New Age Encyclopedia" (1990) included an entry called "New Age politics". Some New Agers have entered the political system in an attempt to advocate for the societal transformation that the New Age promotes.
Although New Age activists have been motivated by New Age concepts like holism, interconnectedness, monism, and environmentalism, their political ideas are diverse, ranging from far-right and conservative through to liberal, socialist, and libertarian. Accordingly, Kyle stated that "New Age politics is difficult to describe and categorize. The standard political labels—left or right, liberal or conservative–miss the mark." MacKian suggested that the New Age operated as a form of "world-realigning infrapolitics" that undermines the disenchantment of modern Western society.
The extent to which New Age spokespeople mix religion and politics varies. New Agers are often critical of the established political order, regarding it as "fragmented, unjust, hierarchical, patriarchal, and obsolete". The New Ager Mark Satin for instance spoke of "New Age politics" as a politically radical "third force" that was "neither left nor right". He believed that in contrast to the conventional political focus on the "institutional and economic symptoms" of society's problems, his "New Age politics" would focus on "psychocultural roots" of these issues. Ferguson regarded New Age politics as "a kind of Radical Centre", one that was "not neutral, not middle-of-the-road, but a view of the whole road." Fritjof Capra argued that Western societies have become sclerotic because of their adherence to an outdated and mechanistic view of reality, which he calls the "Newtonian/Cartesian paradigm". In Capra's view, the West needs to develop an organic and ecological "systems view" of reality in order to successfully address its social and political issues. Corinne McLaughlin argued that politics need not connote endless power struggles, that a new "spiritual politics" could attempt to synthesize opposing views on issues into higher levels of understanding.
Many New Agers advocate globalisation and localisation, but reject nationalism and the role of the nation-state. Some New Age spokespeople have called for greater decentralisation and global unity, but are vague about how this might be achieved; others call for a global, centralised government. Satin for example argued for a move away from the nation-state and towards self-governing regions that, through improved global communication networks, would help engender world unity. Benjamin Creme conversely argued that "the Christ," a great Avatar, Maitreya, the World Teacher, expected by all the major religions as their "Awaited One," would return to the world and establish a strong, centralised global government in the form of the United Nations; this would be politically re-organised along a spiritual hierarchy. Kyle observed that New Agers often speak favourably of democracy and citizens' involvement in policy making but are critical of representative democracy and majority rule, thus displaying elitist ideas to their thinking.
Scholars have noted several New Age political groups. Self-Determination: A Personal/Political Network, lauded by Ferguson and Satin, was described at length by sociology of religion scholar Steven Tipton. Founded in 1975 by California state legislator John Vasconcellos and others, it encouraged Californians to engage in personal growth work and political activities at the same time, especially at the grassroots level. Hanegraaff noted another California-based group, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, headed by the author Willis Harman. It advocated a change in consciousness – in "basic underlying assumptions" – in order to come to grips with global crises. Kyle said that the New York City-based Planetary Citizens organization, headed by United Nations consultant and "Earth at Omega" author Donald Keys, sought to implement New Age political ideas.
Scholar J. Gordon Melton and colleagues focused on the New World Alliance, a Washington, DC-based organization founded in 1979 by Mark Satin and others. According to Melton et al., the Alliance tried to combine left- and right-wing ideas as well as personal growth work and political activities. Group decision-making was facilitated by short periods of silence. Sponsors of the Alliance's national political newsletter included Willis Harman and John Vasconcellos. Scholar James R. Lewis counted "Green politics" as one of the New Age's more visible activities. One academic book claims that the U.S. Green Party movement began as an initiative of a handful of activists including Charlene Spretnak, co-author of a "'new age' interpretation" of the German Green movement (Capra and Spretnak's "Green Politics"), and Mark Satin, author of "New Age Politics". Another academic publication says Spretnak and Satin largely co-drafted the U.S. Greens' founding document, the "Ten Key Values" statement.
While the term "New Age" may have fallen out of favor, scholar George Chryssides notes that the New Age by whatever name is "still alive and active" in the 21st century. In the realm of politics, New Ager Mark Satin's book "Radical Middle" (2004) reached out to mainstream liberals. York (2005) identified "key New Age spokespeople" including William Bloom, Satish Kumar, and Starhawk who were emphasizing a link between spirituality and environmental consciousness. Former Esalen Institute staffer Stephen Dinan's "Sacred America, Sacred World" (2016) prompted a long interview of Dinan in "Psychology Today", which called the book a "manifesto for our country's evolution that is both political and deeply spiritual".
In 2013 longtime New Age author Marianne Williamson launched a campaign for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, telling "The New York Times" that her type of spirituality was what American politics needed. "America has swerved from its ethical center", she said. Running as an independent in west Los Angeles, she finished fourth in her district's open primary election with 13% of the vote. In early 2019, Williamson announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 United States presidential election. A 5,300-word article about her presidential campaign in "The Washington Post" said she had "plans to fix America with love. Tough love". In January 2020 she withdrew her bid for the nomination.
Mainstream periodicals tended to be less than sympathetic; sociologist Paul Ray and psychologist Sherry Anderson discussed in their 2000 book "The Cultural Creatives", what they called the media's "zest for attacking" New Age ideas, and offered the example of a 1996 Lance Morrow essay in "Time" magazine. Nearly a decade earlier, "Time" had run a long cover story critical of New Age culture; the cover featured a headshot of a famous actress beside the headline, "Om... THE NEW AGE starring Shirley MacLaine, faith healers, channelers, space travelers, and crystals galore". The story itself, by former "Saturday Evening Post" editor Otto Friedrich, was sub-titled, "A Strange Mix of Spirituality and Superstition Is Sweeping Across the Country". In 1988, the magazine "The New Republic" ran a four-page critique of New Age culture and politics by a journalist Richard Blow entitled simply, "Moronic Convergence".
Some New Agers and New Age sympathizers responded to such criticisms. For example, sympathizers Ray and Anderson said that much of it was an attempt to "stereotype" the movement for idealistic and spiritual change, and to cut back on its popularity. New Age theoretician David Spangler tried to distance himself from what he called the "New Age glamour" of crystals, talk-show channelers, and other easily commercialized phenomena, and sought to underscore his commitment to the New Age as a vision of genuine social transformation.
Initially, academic interest in the New Age was minimal. The earliest academic studies of the New Age phenomenon were performed by specialists in the study of new religious movements such as Robert Ellwood. This research was often scanty because many scholars regarded the New Age as an insignificant cultural fad. Having been influenced by the U.S. anti-cult movement, much of it was also largely negative and critical of New Age groups. The "first truly scholarly study" of the phenomenon was an edited volume put together by James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton in 1992. From that point on, the number of published academic studies steadily increased.
In 1994, Christoph Bochinger published his study of the New Age in Germany, ""New Age" und moderne Religion". This was followed by Michael York's sociological study in 1995 and Richard Kyle's U.S.-focused work in 1995. In 1996, Paul Heelas published a sociological study of the movement in Britain, being the first to discuss its relationship with business. That same year, Wouter Hanegraaff published "New Age Religion and Western Culture", a historical analysis of New Age texts; Hammer later described it as having "a well-deserved reputation as the standard reference work on the New Age". Most of these early studies were based on a textual analysis of New Age publications, rather than on an ethnographic analysis of its practitioners.
Sutcliffe and Gilhus argued that 'New Age studies' could be seen as having experienced two waves; in the first, scholars focused on "macro-level analyses of the content and boundaries" of the "movement", while the second wave featured "more variegated and contextualized studies of particular beliefs and practices". Sutcliffe and Gilhus have also expressed concern that, as of 2013, 'New Age studies' has yet to formulate a set of research questions scholars can pursue.
The New Age has proved a challenge for scholars of religion operating under more formative models of what "religion" is. By 2006, Heelas noted that the New Age was so vast and diverse that no scholar of the subject could hope to keep up with all of it.
Mainstream Christianity has typically rejected the ideas of the New Age; Christian critiques often emphasise that the New Age places the human individual before God. Most published criticism of the New Age has been produced by Christians, particularly those on the religion's fundamentalist wing. In the United States, the New Age became a major concern of evangelical Christian groups in the 1980s, an attitude that influenced British evangelical groups. During that decade, evangelical writers such as Constance Cumbey, Dave Hunt, Gary North, and Douglas Groothuis published books criticising the New Age; a number propagated conspiracy theories regarding its origin and purpose. The most successful such publication was Frank E. Peretti's 1986 novel "This Present Darkness", which sold over a million copies; it depicted the New Age as being in league with feminism and secular education as part of a conspiracy to overthrow Christianity.
Official responses to the New Age have been produced by major Christian organisations like the Roman Catholic Church, Church of England, and Methodist Church.
The Roman Catholic Church published "A Christian reflection on the New Age" in 2003, following a six-year study; the 90-page document criticizes New Age practices such as yoga, meditation, feng shui, and crystal healing. According to the Vatican, euphoric states attained through New Age practices should not be confused with prayer or viewed as signs of God's presence. Cardinal Paul Poupard, then-president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the "New Age is a misleading answer to the oldest hopes of man". Monsignor Michael Fitzgerald, then-president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, stated at the Vatican conference on the document: the "Church avoids any concept that is close to those of the New Age". There are also other Christian groups that have adopted a more positive view of the New Age, among them the Christaquarians, and Christians Awakening to a New Awareness, all of which believe that New Age ideas can enhance a person's Christian faith.
An issue of academic debate has been regarding the connection between the New Age and Modern Paganism, sometimes termed "Neo-paganism". The two phenomena have often been confused and conflated, particularly in Christian critiques. Religious studies scholar Sarah Pike asserted that there was a "significant overlap" between the two religious movements, while Aidan A. Kelly stated that Paganism "parallels the New Age movement in some ways, differs sharply from it in others, and overlaps it in some minor ways". Other scholars have identified them as distinct phenomena that share overlap and commonalities. Hanegraaff suggested that whereas various forms of contemporary Paganism were not part of the New Age movement – particularly those that pre-dated the movement – other Pagan religions and practices could be identified as New Age. Partridge portrayed both Paganism and the New Age as different streams of occulture (occult culture) that merge at points.
Various differences between the two movements have been highlighted; the New Age movement focuses on an improved future, whereas the focus of Paganism is on the pre-Christian past. Similarly, the New Age movement typically propounds a universalist message that sees all religions as fundamentally the same, whereas Paganism stresses the difference between monotheistic religions and those embracing a polytheistic or animistic theology. While the New Age emphasises a light-centred image, Paganism acknowledges both light and dark, life and death, and recognises the savage side of the natural world. Many Pagans have sought to distance themselves from the New Age movement, even using "New Age" as an insult within their community, while conversely many involved in the New Age have expressed criticism of Paganism for emphasizing the material world over the spiritual. Many Pagans have expressed criticism of the high fees charged by New Age teachers, something not typically present in the Pagan movement, with some Pagans pronouncing the word "newage" to rhyme with "sewage".
One of the most contentious aspects of the New Age has been its adoption of spiritual ideas and practises from other, particularly non-Western cultures. Its belief that all traditions are free for anyone to use, rather than the private property of particular communities, has resulted in New Agers adopting and marketing the practices of Third World societies. These have included "Hawaiian Kahuna magic, Australian Aboriginal dream-working, South American Amerindian "ayahuasca" and "San Pedro" ceremony, Hindu Ayurveda and yoga, and Chinese Feng Shui, Qi Gong, and Tai Chi".
The New Age has been accused of cultural imperialism, misappropriating the sacred ceremonies, and abuse of the intellectual and cultural property of indigenous peoples. Indigenous American spiritual leaders, such as Elders councils of the Lakota, Cheyenne, Navajo, Creek, Hopi, Chippewa, and Haudenosaunee have denounced New Age misappropriation of their sacred ceremonies and other intellectual property, stating that "[t]he value of these instructions and ceremonies [when led by unauthorized people] are questionable, maybe meaningless, and hurtful to the individual carrying false messages". Traditional leaders of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota peoples have reached consensus to reject "the expropriation of [their] ceremonial ways by non-Indians". They see the New Age movement as either not fully understanding, deliberately trivializing, or distorting their way of life, and have declared war on all such "plastic medicine people" who are appropriating their spiritual ways.
Indigenous leaders have spoken out against individuals from within their own communities who may go out into the world to become a "white man's shaman," and any "who are prostituting our spiritual ways for their own selfish gain, with no regard for the spiritual well-being of the people as a whole". The term "plastic shaman" or "plastic medicine people" has been applied to outsiders who identify themselves as shamans, holy people, or other traditional spiritual leaders, but who have no genuine connection to the traditions or cultures they claim to represent.
Toward the end of the 20th century, some social and political analysts and activists were arguing that the New Age political perspective had something to offer mainstream society. In 1987, some political scientists launched the "Section on Ecological and Transformational Politics" of the American Political Science Association, and an academic book prepared by three of them stated that the "transformational politics" concept was meant to subsume such terms as "new age" and "new paradigm". In 1991, scholar of cultural studies Andrew Ross suggested that New Age political ideas – however muddled and naïve – could help progressives construct an appealing alternative to both atomistic individualism and self-denying collectivism. In 2005, British researcher Stuart Rose urged scholars of alternative religions to pay more attention to the New Age's interest in such topics as "new socio-political thinking" and "New Economics", topics Rose discussed in his book "Transforming the World: Bringing the New Age Into Focus", issued by a European academic publisher.
Other political thinkers and activists saw New Age politics less positively. On the political right, author George Weigel argued that New Age politics was just a retooled and pastel-colored version of leftism. Conservative evangelical writer Douglas Groothuis, discussed by scholars Hexham and Kemp, warned that New Age politics could lead to an oppressive world government. On the left, scholars argued that New Age politics was an oxymoron: that personal growth has little or nothing to do with political change. One political scientist said New Age politics fails to recognize the reality of economic and political power. Another academic, Dana L. Cloud, wrote a lengthy critique of New Age politics as a political ideology; she faulted it for not being opposed to the capitalist system, or to liberal individualism.
A criticism of New Age often made by leftists is that its focus on individualism deflects participants from engaging in socio-political activism. This perspective regards New Age as a manifestation of consumerism that promotes elitism and indulgence by allowing wealthier people to affirm their socio-economic status through consuming New Age products and therapies. New Agers who do engage in socio-political activism have also been criticized. Journalist Harvey Wasserman suggested that New Age activists were too averse to social conflict to be effective politically. Melton et al. found that New Age activists' commitment to the often frustrating process of consensus decision-making led to "extended meetings and minimal results", and a pair of futurists concluded that one once-promising New Age activist group had been both "too visionary and too vague" to last. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21742 |
Naoko Takeuchi
She has won several awards, including the 1993 Kodansha Manga Award for "Sailor Moon".
Takeuchi is married to Yoshihiro Togashi, the author of "Yu Yu Hakusho" and "Hunter x Hunter".
Takeuchi was born in Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan, to parents Kenji and Ikuko Takeuchi. She has a younger brother, Shingo. She gave the names of her relatives to the characters she created for "Sailor Moon", and mentions this in interviews and in several comic strips she produced in place of author notes.
Takeuchi attended Kofu Ichi High School. She wore sailor suit uniforms and joined the astronomy and manga clubs. These experiences influenced her work for "Sailor Moon", in addition to her other pieces such as "Love Call" and "Rain Kiss". Her formative high school experiences influenced her trajectory to become a manga artist. Takeuchi's father encouraged her to pursue other career paths in case she wouldn't find success as a professional artist, which is why she attended university to study chemistry.
Takeuchi graduated from Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy, where she received a degree in chemistry and became a licensed pharmacist. Her senior thesis was called "Heightened Effects of Thrombolytic Actions Due to Ultrasound".
Before becoming a manga artist, Takeuchi worked as a miko at the Shiba Daijingu shrine near her university. This experience later became the basis for one of her characters in "Sailor Moon", Rei Hino.
After graduating from Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy, at the age of 19, Takeuchi entered the manga industry by submitting to Kodansha her work "Love Call", which received an award. She worked steadily on one-shot pieces until writing "Maria", which was published in "Nakayoshi" from early to mid-1990. She based this work, her first serial comic, loosely on "Daddy-Long-Legs" and on her friend Marie Koizumi, who helped her write it.
After completing "Maria", Takeuchi worked on the ice-skating series "The Cherry Project" which was serialized in "Nakayoshi" from late 1990 to 1991. While working on "The Cherry Project", Takeuchi wanted to do a manga on outer space and girl fighters. Her editor, Fumio Osano, asked her to put the fighters in sailor-suits. This concept would later become a one-shot called "", which would later begin serialization in "RunRun". When Toei Animation planned to adapt her manga into an anime series, she reworked "Sailor V" and added four other superheroines.
In December 1991 "Nakayoshi" began serializing "Sailor Moon", which became an instant hit. The success encouraged Takeuchi to work on both "Sailor Moon" and "Sailor V" from 1991 to 1997. However, "RunRun" was canceled with the November 1997 issue, and the planned "Sailor V" anime adaptation was canceled with it. During that 6-year period, she produced 52 chapters that were collected in 18 volumes. The success of the manga led to two anime adaptations, three animated films, a live-action adaptation, numerous video games, and wide-ranging merchandising.
At the series' end, Takeuchi worked on "PQ Angels" for "Nakayoshi". This gained a fair amount of popularity but was canceled due to Kodansha losing seven pages of her manuscript. Takeuchi said that Toei Animation had the manuscript, therefore it would have been possible to create an anime adaptation of the series.
Takeuchi's own studio is called "Princess Naoko Planning" (PNP). Takeuchi established PNP to manage her properties, mainly "Sailor Moon". The studio later encompassed Yoshihiro Togashi's work as well and appeared in the credits for such anime as "Level E" and "Hunter × Hunter". Its name also appears on the musical credits for "Shin Kaguya Shima Densetsu" and other projects.
Following the loss of seven pages of Takeuchi's "PQ Angels" manuscript, Osano departed Kodansha and the plans for the "Materials Collection" were canceled. Takeuchi departed Kodansha for Shueisha.
On August 13, 1998, Takeuchi made her first appearance in the United States at the San Diego Comic-Con International convention for three days. That same year, she published the first "Sailor Moon" art book since her departure from Kodansha, "Sailor Moon Infinity Collection Art Book" with limited releases.
While working on her short comic strip "Princess Naoko Takeuchi Back-to-Work Punch!!", Takeuchi met Yoshihiro Togashi at a "Weekly Shōnen Jump" meeting hosted by Kazushi Hagiwara, and had a meeting arranged between them by voice actress Megumi Ogata. She collaborated with Togashi as an assistant (doing screentone) and as a manager on volume 1 of "Hunter × Hunter". However the work and the demands proved more than she had expected, and Takeuchi left Shueisha as a result.
Around this time Takeuchi conceived the idea for a one-shot called "Toki*Meka", which eventually turned into "Toki*Meca". Togashi had a similar idea at the same time as her, but never fully brought it to fruition. He helped somewhat with "Toki*Meka" at this point in developing the idea by drawing some concept sketches, which Takeuchi showed in "Toki*Meca" volume 1.
Togashi and Takeuchi married in 1999. From this marriage, the couple have two children: a son, born in January 2001, and another child, born in 2009.
After Kodansha's rights to "Sailor Moon" expired, Takeuchi returned to the publisher in 1999 to develop and publish the "Materials Collection". She also began serializing "Love Witch", but it was cancelled. Takeuchi started to work on the reprints of "Sailor Moon" and "Sailor V", and published "Toki*Meca" in "Nakayoshi".
In 2003 Takeuchi became heavily involved in producing "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon", a tokusatsu television series based on "Sailor Moon". Takeuchi had an interest in learning more about the anime industry. This culminated in the creation of "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon". The series displays a plot that is heavily reliant on the manga and also explores many themes that the manga was unable to explore. She showed up at the official conference with a fist up, meaning "good luck", in Act Zero.
After the production of "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" ended in 2004, Takeuchi continued to work on "Toki*Meca". During the manga's serialization, Osano returned as her editor. Takeuchi also worked more closely with managing PNP and gave talks to college students. At the same time, she wrote a children's book titled "Oboo-nu- to Chiboo-nu-" as a birthday present to her son. (Togashi illustrated the children's book. She made mention of it in the back of volume 1 of "Toki*Meca".) She still works on the website, updating it about once a month with new flash animations or profiles.
In 2012 it was announced that a new "Sailor Moon" anime adaptation was in development. With it, Takeuchi started a "Kanzenban" version of the manga which was announced by Osano, which will include fixed mistakes from the past and new covers for the manga. Color pages are also included for the title pages. There was also an artbook announced and she has been working on merchandise which was announced by Osano on his Twitter feed.
Sailor Moon (90’s series)
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal (Reboot series)
Takeuchi wrote the lyrics for a number of songs featured in the "Sailor Moon" anime and live-action series. Though mainly character-based image songs, they include a few theme songs.
These include:
Takeuchi has won several awards, including the 2nd Nakayoshi Comic Prize for Newcomers for "Yume ja Nai no Ne" in 1985. She also won for "Love Call", which won Nakayoshi's New Artist award which debuted in the Nakayoshi Deluxe September 1986 issue. In 1993 she won the 17th Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo for "Sailor Moon". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21745 |
Nolo contendere
In criminal trials in certain United States jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an alternative to a pleading of guilty or not guilty. A no-contest plea, while not technically a guilty plea, has the same immediate effect as a guilty plea and is often offered as a part of a plea bargain. In many jurisdictions a plea of " is not a typical right and carries various restrictions on its use.
In the United States, State law determines whether, and under what circumstances, a defendant may plead no contest in state criminal cases. In federal court, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure only allow a " plea to be entered with the court's consent; before accepting the plea, the court is required to "consider the parties' views and the public interest in the effective administration of justice".
A ' plea has the same immediate effects as a plea of guilty, but may have different residual effects or consequences in future actions. For instance, a conviction arising from a ' plea is subject to any and all penalties, fines, and forfeitures of a conviction from a guilty plea in the same case, and can be considered as an aggravating factor in future criminal actions. However, unlike a guilty plea, a defendant in a ' plea may not be required to allocute the charges. This means that a ' conviction typically may not be used to establish either negligence "per se", malice, or whether the acts were committed at all in later civil proceedings related to the same set of facts as the criminal prosecution.
Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, and in those states whose rules of evidence are similar or identical to them, " pleas may not be used to defeat the hearsay prohibition if offered as an "admission by [a] party-opponent". Assuming the appropriate gravity of the charge, and all other things being equal, a guilty plea to the same charge would cause the reverse effect: An opponent at trial could introduce the plea, over a hearsay objection, as evidence to establish a certain fact.
In Alaska, a criminal conviction based on a " plea may be used against the defendant in future civil actions. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that a "conviction based on a no contest plea will collaterally estop the criminal defendant from denying any element in a subsequent civil action against him that was necessarily established by the conviction, as long as the prior conviction was for a serious criminal offense and the defendant in fact had the opportunity for a full and fair hearing".
In California, a ' plea is known as a "West plea" after a seminal case involving plea bargains, "People v. West" (1970) 3 Cal.3d 595. The state Board of Pharmacy considers a plea of ' to be deemed a conviction with regard to issuing licenses for pharmacies, pharmacists and drug wholesalers.
A "nolo contendere" plea to any felony is considered exactly equivalent to a guilty plea for the purposes of civil actions; this plea to any non-felony is not admissible to a civil action.
In Florida, the Supreme Court held in 2005 that no-contest convictions may be treated as prior convictions for the purposes of future sentencing.
In Michigan, "A "nolo contendere" plea does not admit guilt, it merely communicates to the court that the criminal defendant does not wish to contest the state's accusations and will acquiesce in the imposition of punishment." "Lichon v American Universal Insurance Co.", 435 Mich 408, 417 (1990). A "nolo contendere" plea may be appropriate "where the defendant would not be able to supply a sufficient factual basis for a guilty plea because he or she was intoxicated on the night of the incident, where there is the possibility of future civil litigation resulting from the offense, or where a defendant cannot remember the events which led to his or her being charged with a crime". 1A Gillespie Michigan Criminal Law & Procedure, § 16:15.
A no contest plea prevents the court from eliciting a defendant's admission of guilt, but the result of the defendant's plea not to contest the charges against him or her is the same as if the defendant had admitted guilt. If a defendant pleads no contest to a charged offense, with the exception of questioning the defendant about his or her role in the charged offense, the court must proceed in the same manner as if the defendant had pleaded guilty. MCL 767.37. A plea of no contest to a felony offense requires the court's consent. MCR 6.301(B).
A defendant's no contest plea to criminal charges does not "estop" that defendant from denying responsibility in a later civil action arising from the same conduct. Lichon, 435 Mich at 417.
In Texas, the right to appeal the results of a plea bargain taken from a plea of either ' or "guilty" is highly restricted. Defendants who have entered a plea of ' may only appeal the judgment of the court if the appeal is based on written pretrial motions ruled upon by the court.
The Virginia Rules of Evidence differ from the parallel federal rules in that a " plea entered in a criminal case is admissible in a related civil proceeding.
In the Commonwealth countries—such as England and Wales, Canada, and Australia—the plea of " is not permitted. The defendant must enter a plea of "guilty" or "not guilty". If a defendant refuses to enter a plea, the court will record a plea of "not guilty". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21746 |
Nationalism
Nationalism is an ideology and movement that promotes the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people) especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining the nation's sovereignty (self-governance) over its homeland. Nationalism holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference (self-determination), that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity, and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power (popular sovereignty). It further aims to build and maintain a single national identity—based on shared social characteristics of culture, ethnicity, geographic location, language, politics (or the government), religion, traditions and belief in a shared singular history —and to promote national unity or solidarity. Nationalism, therefore, seeks to preserve and foster a nation's traditional cultures, and cultural revivals have been associated with nationalist movements. It also encourages pride in national achievements, and is closely linked to patriotism. Nationalism is often combined with other ideologies, such as conservatism (national conservatism) or socialism (socialist nationalism).
Throughout history, people have had an attachment to their kin group and traditions, to territorial authorities and to their homeland, but nationalism did not become a widely recognized concept until the 18th century. There are three paradigms for understanding the origins and basis of nationalism. Primordialism (perennialism) proposes that there have always been nations and that nationalism is a natural phenomenon. Ethnosymbolism explains nationalism as a dynamic, evolutionary phenomenon and stresses the importance of symbols, myths and traditions in the development of nations and nationalism. Modernism proposes that nationalism is a recent social phenomenon that needs the socio-economic structures of modern society to exist.
There are various definitions of a "nation", however, which leads to different strands of nationalism. Ethnic nationalism defines the nation in terms of shared ethnicity, heritage and culture, while civic nationalism defines the nation in terms of shared citizenship, values and institutions, and is linked to constitutional patriotism.
The adoption of national identity in terms of historical development has often been a response by influential groups unsatisfied with traditional identities due to mismatch between their defined social order and the experience of that social order by its members, resulting in an anomie that nationalists seek to resolve. This anomie results in a society reinterpreting identity, retaining elements deemed acceptable and removing elements deemed unacceptable, to create a unified community. This development may be the result of internal structural issues or the result of resentment by an existing group or groups towards other communities, especially foreign powers that are (or are deemed to be) controlling them.
National symbols and flags, national anthems, national languages, national myths and other symbols of national identity are highly important in nationalism.
In practice, nationalism can be seen as positive or negative depending on context and individual outlook. Nationalism has been an important driver in independence movements, such as the Greek Revolution, the Irish Revolution, the Zionist movement that created modern Israel, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Conversely, radical nationalism combined with racial hatred was also a key factor in the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany. More recently, nationalism was an important driver of the controversial annexation of Crimea by Russia.
The terminological use of 'nations', 'sovereignty' and associated concepts was significantly refined with the writing by Hugo Grotius of "De Jure Belli ac Pacis" in the early 17th century. Living in the times of the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands and the Thirty Years' War between Catholic and Protestant European nations (Catholic France being in the otherwise Protestant camp), it is not surprising that Grotius was deeply concerned with matters of conflicts between nations in the context of oppositions stemming from religious differences. The word "nation" was also usefully applied before 1800 in Europe to refer to the inhabitants of a country as well as to collective identities that could include shared history, law, language, political rights, religion and traditions, in a sense more akin to the modern conception.
"Nationalism" as derived from the noun designating 'nations' is a newer word; in English the term dates from 1844, although the concept is older. It became important in the 19th century. The term increasingly became negative in its connotations after 1914. Glenda Sluga notes that "The twentieth century, a time of profound disillusionment with nationalism, was also the great age of globalism."
American philosopher and historian Hans Kohn wrote in 1944 that nationalism emerged in the 17th century. Other sources variously place the beginning in the 18th century during revolts of American states against Spain or with the French Revolution. The consensus is that nationalism as a concept was firmly established by the 19th century.
Linda Colley in "" (Yale University Press, 1992) explores how the role of nationalism emerged about 1700 and developed in Britain reaching full form in the 1830s. Typically historians of nationalism in Europe begin with the French Revolution (1789), not only for its impact on French nationalism but even more for its impact on Germans and Italians and on European intellectuals. The template of nationalism, as a method for mobilising public opinion around a new state based on popular sovereignty, went back further than 1789: philosophers such as Rousseau and Voltaire, whose ideas influenced the French Revolution, had themselves been influenced or encouraged by the example of earlier constitutionalist liberation movements, notably the Corsican Republic (1755–68) and American Revolution (1765–83).
Due to the Industrial Revolution, there was an emergence of an integrated, nation-encompassing economy and a national public sphere, where the British people began to identify with the country at large, rather than the smaller units of their province, town or family. The early emergence of a popular patriotic nationalism took place in the mid-18th century, and was actively promoted by the British government and by the writers and intellectuals of the time. National symbols, anthems, myths, flags and narratives were assiduously constructed by nationalists and widely adopted. The Union Jack was adopted in 1801 as the national one. Thomas Arne composed the patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!" in 1740, and the cartoonist John Arbuthnot invented the character of John Bull as the personification of the English national spirit in 1712.
The political convulsions of the late 18th century associated with the American and French revolutions massively augmented the widespread appeal of patriotic nationalism.
The Prussian scholar Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) originated the term in 1772 in his "Treatise on the Origin of Language" stressing the role of a common language. He attached exceptional importance to the concepts of nationality and of patriotism "he that has lost his patriotic spirit has lost himself and the whole world about himself", whilst teaching that "in a certain sense every human perfection is national".
The political development of nationalism and the push for popular sovereignty culminated with the ethnic/national revolutions of Europe. During the 19th century nationalism became one of the most significant political and social forces in history; it is typically listed among the top causes of World War I.
Napoleon's conquests of the German and Italian states around 1800–06 played a major role in stimulating nationalism and the demands for national unity.
English Historian J. P. T. Bury argues:
Nationalism in France gained early expressions in France's revolutionary government. In 1793, that government declared a mass conscription ("levée en masse") with a call to service:Henceforth, until the enemies have been driven from the territory of the Republic, all the French are in permanent requisition for army service. The young men shall go to battle; the married men shall forge arms in the hospitals; the children shall turn old linen to lint; the old men shall repair to the public places, to stimulate the courage of the warriors and preach the unity of the Republic and the hatred of kings.This nationalism gained pace after the French Revolution came to a close. Defeat in war, with a loss in territory, was a powerful force in nationalism. In France, revenge and return of Alsace-Lorraine was a powerful motivating force for a quarter century after their defeat by Germany in 1871. However, after 1895 French nationalists focused on Dreyfus and internal subversion, and the Alsace issue petered out.
The French reaction was a famous case of "Revanchism" ("revenge") which demands the return of lost territory that "belongs" to the national homeland. Revanchism draws its strength from patriotic and retributionist thought and it is often motivated by economic or geo-political factors. Extreme revanchist ideologues often represent a hawkish stance, suggesting that their desired objectives can be achieved through the positive outcome of another war. It is linked with irredentism, the conception that a part of the cultural and ethnic nation remains "unredeemed" outside the borders of its appropriate nation state. Revanchist politics often rely on the identification of a nation with a nation state, often mobilizing deep-rooted sentiments of ethnic nationalism, claiming territories outside the state where members of the ethnic group live, while using heavy-handed nationalism to mobilize support for these aims. Revanchist justifications are often presented as based on ancient or even autochthonous occupation of a territory since "time immemorial", an assertion that is usually inextricably involved in revanchism and irredentism, justifying them in the eyes of their proponents.
The Dreyfus Affair in France 1894–1906 made the battle against treason and disloyalty a central theme for conservative Catholic French nationalists. Dreyfus, a Jew, was an outsider, that is in the views of intense nationalists, not a true Frenchman, not one to be trusted, not one to be given the benefit of the doubt. True loyalty to the nation, from the conservative viewpoint, was threatened by liberal and republican principles of liberty and equality that were leading the country to disaster.
Before 1815, the sense of Russian nationalism was weak – what there was focused on loyal obedience to the tsar.
The Russian motto "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality" was coined by Count Sergey Uvarov and adopted by Emperor Nicholas I as official ideology. Three components of Uvarov's triad were:
By the 1860s, as a result of the educational indoctrination, and conservative resistance to ideas and ideologies from Western Europe, a pan-Slavic had emerged that produce both a sense of Russian nationalism, and a nationalistic mission to support and protect pan-Slavism. This Slavophile movement became popular in 19th-century Russia. Pan-Slavism was fueled by and was the fuel for Russia's numerous wars against the Ottoman Empire with the goal of liberating Orthodox nations, such as Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbs and Greeks, from Ottoman rule. Slavophiles opposed influences of Western Europe in Russia and were determined to protect Russian culture and traditions. Aleksey Khomyakov, Ivan Kireyevsky, and Konstantin Aksakov are credited with co-founding the movement.
An upsurge in nationalism in Latin America in 1810s and 1820s sparked revolutions that cost Spain nearly all its colonies there. Spain was at war with Britain from 1798 to 1808, and the British Royal Navy cut off its contacts with its colonies so nationalism flourished and trade with Spain was suspended. The colonies set up temporary governments or juntas which were effectively independent from Spain. The division exploded between Spaniards who were born in Spain (called "peninsulares") versus those of Spanish descent born in New Spain (called "criollos" in Spanish or "creoles" in English). The two groups wrestled for power, with the criollos leading the call for independence. Spain tried to use its armies to fight back but had no help from European powers. Indeed, Britain and the United States worked against Spain, enforcing the Monroe Doctrine. Spain lost all of its American colonies, except Cuba and Puerto Rico, in a complex series of revolts from 1808 to 1826.
In the German states west of Prussia, Napoleon abolished many of the old or medieval relics, such as dissolving the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. He imposed rational legal systems and demonstrated how dramatic changes were possible. His organization of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806 promoted a feeling of nationalism.
Nationalists sought to encompass masculinity in their quest for strength and unity. It was Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck who achieved German unification through a series of highly successful short wars against Denmark, Austria and France which thrilled the pan-German nationalists in the smaller German states. They fought in his wars and eagerly joined the new German Empire, which Bismarck ran as a force for balance and peace in Europe after 1871.
In the 19th century German nationalism was promoted by Hegelian-oriented academic historians who saw Prussia as the true carrier of the German spirit, and the power of the state as the ultimate goal of nationalism. The three main historians were Johann Gustav Droysen (1808–1884), Heinrich von Sybel (1817–1895) and Heinrich von Treitschke (1834–1896). Droysen moved from liberalism to an intense nationalism that celebrated Prussian Protestantism, efficiency, progress, and reform, in striking contrast to Austrian Catholicism, impotency and backwardness. He idealized the Hohenzollern kings of Prussia. His large-scale "History of Prussian Politics" (14 vol 1855–1886) was foundational for nationalistic students and scholars. Von Sybel founded and edited the leading academic history journal, "Historische Zeitschrift" and as the director of the Prussian state archives published massive compilations that were devoured by scholars of nationalism.
The most influential of the German nationalist historians, was Treitschke who had an enormous influence on elite students at Heidelberg and Berlin universities. Treitschke vehemently attacked parliamentarianism, socialism, pacifism, the English, the French, the Jews, and the internationalists. The core of his message was the need for a strong, unified state—a unified Germany under Prussian supervision. "It is the highest duty of the State to increase its power," he stated. Although he was a descendant of a Czech family he considered himself not Slavic but German: "I am 1000 times more the patriot than a professor."
German nationalism, expressed through the ideology of Nazism, however, may also be understood as trans-national in nature. This aspect was primarily advocated by Adolf Hitler, who later became the leader of the Nazi Party. This party was devoted to what they identified as an Aryan race, residing in various European countries, but sometime mixed with alien elements such as Jews.
Meanwhile, the Nazis rejected many of the well-established citizens within those same countries, such as the Romani (Gypsies) and of course Jews, whom they did not identify as Aryan. Meanwhile, a key Nazi doctrine was "Living Space" (for Aryans only) or "Lebensraum," which was a vast undertaking to transplant Aryans throughout Poland, much of Eastern Europe and the Baltic nations, and all of Western Russia and Ukraine. Lebensraum was thus a vast project for advancing the Aryan race far outside of any particular nation or national borders. The Nazi's goals were racist focused on advancing the Aryan race as they perceived it, eugenics modification of the human race, and the eradication of human beings that they deemed inferior. But their goals were trans-national and intended to spread across as much of the world as they could achieve. Although Nazism glorified German history, it also embraced the supposed virtues and achievements of the Aryan race in other countries, including India. The Nazis' Aryanism longed for now-extinct species of superior bulls once used as livestock by Aryans and other features of Aryan history that never resided within the borders of Germany as a nation.
Italian nationalism emerged in the 19th century and was the driving force for Italian unification or the "Risorgimento" (meaning the "Resurgence" or "Revival"). It was the political and intellectual movement that consolidated the different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The memory of the "Risorgimento" is central to Italian nationalism but it was based in the liberal middle classes and ultimately proved weak. Two major groups remained opposed,
those from the South or "Mezzogiorno" (formerly known as the Kingdom of the two Sicilies) and the devout Catholics. The new government treated the newly-annexed South as a conquered province with ridicule for its "backward" and poverty-stricken society, its poor grasp of standard Italian (as Italo-Dalmatian dialects of Neapolitan and Sicilian were prevalent in the common use) and its traditions. The liberals had always been strong opponents of the pope and the very well organized Catholic Church. The pope had been in political control of central Italy; he lost that in 1860 and Rome as well in 1870. He had long been the leader of opposition to modern liberalism and refused to accept the terms offered by the new Italian government. He called himself a "prisoner" in the Vatican and forbade Catholics to vote or engage in politics. The Catholic alienation lasted until 1929. The liberal government under the Sicilian Francesco Crispi sought to enlarge his political base by emulating Otto von Bismarck and firing up Italian nationalism with a hyper-aggressive foreign policy. It crashed and his cause was set back. Historian R.J.B. Bosworth says of his nationalistic foreign policy that:
Meanwhile, a third major group emerged that was hostile to nationalism as radical socialist elements became a force in the industrial North, and they too rejected liberalism. Italy joined the Allies in the First World War after getting promises of territory, but its war effort was a fiasco that discredited liberalism and paved the way for Benito Mussolini and a political doctrine of his own creation, fascism. Mussolini's 20-year dictatorship involved a highly aggressive nationalism that led to a series of wars, an alliance with Hitler's Germany, and humiliation and hardship in the Second World War. After 1945, the Catholics returned to government and tensions eased somewhat, but the former two Sicilies remained poor and ridiculed. The working class now voted for the Communist Party, and it looked to Moscow rather than Rome for inspiration, and was kept out of the national government even as it controlled industrial cities across the North. In the 21st century, the Communists have become marginal but political tensions remained high as shown by Bossi's Padanism in the 80s (whose party has come to partially embrace a moderate version of Italian nationalism over the years) and other separatist movements spread across the country.
During the early 19th century, inspired by romanticism, classicism, former movements of Greek nationalism and failed Greek revolts against the Ottoman Empire (such as the Orlofika revolt in southern Greece in 1770, and the Epirus-Macedonian revolt of Northern Greece in 1575), Greek nationalism led to the Greek war of independence. The Greek drive for independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s and 1830s inspired supporters across Christian Europe, especially in Britain, which was the result of western idealization of Classical Greece and romanticism. France, Russia and Britain critically intervened to ensure the success of this nationalist endeavour.
For centuries the Orthodox Christian Serbs were ruled by the Muslim Ottoman Empire. The success of the Serbian Revolution against Ottoman rule in 1817 marked the birth of the Principality of Serbia. It achieved "de facto" independence in 1867 and finally gained international recognition in 1878. Serbia had sought to liberate and unite with Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west and Old Serbia (Kosovo and Vardar Macedonia) to the south. Nationalist circles in both Serbia and Croatia (part of Austria-Hungary) began to advocate for a greater South Slavic union in the 1860s, claiming Bosnia as their common land based on shared language and tradition. In 1914, Serb revolutionaries in Bosnia assassinated Archduke Ferdinand. Austria-Hungary, with German backing, tried to crush Serbia in 1914, thus igniting the First World War in which Austria-Hungary dissolved into nation states.
In 1918, the region of Banat, Bačka and Baranja came under control of the Serbian army, later the Great National Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs voted to join Serbia; the Kingdom of Serbia joined the union with State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on 1 December 1918, and the country was named Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. It was renamed Yugoslavia, and a Yugoslav identity was promoted, which ultimately failed. After the Second World War, Yugoslav Communists established a new socialist republic of Yugoslavia. That state broke up in the 1990s.
The cause of Polish nationalism was repeatedly frustrated before 1918. In the 1790s, the Habsburg Monarchy, Prussia and Russia
invaded, annexed, and subsequently partitioned Poland. Napoleon set up the Duchy of Warsaw, a new Polish state that ignited a spirit of nationalism. Russia took it over in 1815 as Congress Poland with the tsar proclaimed as "King of Poland". Large-scale nationalist revolts erupted in 1830 and 1863–64 but were harshly crushed by Russia, which tried to make the Polish language, culture and religion more like Russia's. The collapse of the Russian Empire in the First World War enabled the major powers to re-establish an independent Poland, which survived until 1939. Meanwhile, Poles in areas controlled by Germany moved into heavy industry but their religion came under attack by Bismarck in the Kulturkampf of the 1870s. The Poles joined German Catholics in a well-organized new Centre Party, and defeated Bismarck politically. He responded by stopping the harassment and cooperating with the Centre Party.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, many Polish nationalist leaders endorsed the Piast Concept. It held there was a Polish utopia during the Piast Dynasty a thousand years before, and modern Polish nationalists should restore its central values of Poland for the Poles. Jan Poplawski had developed the "Piast Concept" in the 1890s, and it formed the centerpiece of Polish nationalist ideology, especially as presented by the National Democracy Party, known as the "Endecja," which was led by Roman Dmowski. In contrast with the Jagiellon concept, there was no concept for a multi-ethnic Poland.
The Piast concept stood in opposition to the "Jagiellon Concept," which allowed for multi-ethnicism and Polish rule over numerous minority groups such as those in the Kresy. The Jagiellon Concept was the official policy of the government in the 1920s and 1930s. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin at Tehran in 1943 rejected the Jagiellon Concept because it involved Polish rule over Ukrainians and Belarusians. He instead endorsed the Piast Concept, which justified a massive shift of Poland's frontiers to the west. After 1945 the Soviet-back puppet communist regime wholeheartedly adopted the Piast Concept, making it the centerpiece of their claim to be the "true inheritors of Polish nationalism". After all the killings, including Nazi German occupation, terror in Poland and population transfers during and after the war, the nation was officially declared as 99% ethnically Polish.
Jewish nationalism arose in the latter half of the 19th century and it was largely correlated with the Zionist movement. This term originated from the word "Zion", which was one of the Torah's names for the city of Jerusalem. The end goal of the nationalists and Zionists was a Jewish majority and in most cases, a state, in the land of Palestine. A tumultuous history of living in oppressive, foreign, and uncertain circumstances led the supporters of the movement to draft a declaration of independence, claiming Israel as a birthplace. The first and second destructions of the temple and ancient Torah prophecies largely shaped the incentives of the Jewish nationalists. Many prominent theories in Jewish theology and eschatology were formed by supporters and opponents of the movement in this era.
It was the French Revolution of 1789, which sparked new waves of thinking across Europe regarding governance and sovereignty. A shift from the traditional hierarchy-based system towards political individualism and citizen-states posed a dilemma for the Jews. Citizenship was now essential, when it came to ensuring basic legal and residential rights. This resulted in more and more Jews choosing to identify with certain nationalities in order to maintain these rights. Logic said that a nation-based system of states would require the Jews themselves to claim their own right to be considered a nation due to a distinguishable language and history. Historian David Engel has explained that Zionism was more about fear that a majority of worldwide Jews would end up dispersed and unprotected, rather than fulfilling old prophecies and traditions of historical texts.
The awakening of nationalism across Asia helped shape the history of the continent. The key episode was the decisive defeat of Russia by Japan in 1905, demonstrating the military advancement of non-Europeans in a modern war. The defeat which quickly led to manifestations of a new interest in nationalism in China, as well as Turkey, and Persia. In China Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) launched his new party the Kuomintang (National People's Party) in defiance of the decrepit Empire, which was run by outsiders. Kuomintang recruits pledged:
The Kuomintang largely ran China until the Communists took over in 1949. But the latter had also been strongly influenced by Sun's nationalism as well as by the May Fourth Movement in 1919. It was a nationwide protest movement about the domestic backwardness of China and has often been depicted as the intellectual foundation for Chinese Communism. The New Culture Movement stimulated by the May Fourth Movement waxed strong throughout the 1920s and 1930s. According to historian Patricia Ebrey:
Nationalist irredentist movements Greek advocating for Enosis (unity of ethnincally Greek states with the Hellenic Republic to create a unified Greek state), used today in the case of Cyprus, as well as the Megali Idea, the Greek movement that advocated for the reconquering of Greek ancestral lands from the Ottoman Empire (such as Crete, Ionia, Pontus, Northern Epirus, Cappadocia, Thrace among others) that were popular in the late 19th and early to 20th centuries, led to many Greek states and regions that were ethnically Greek to eventually unite with Greece and the Greco-Turkish war of 1919.
The 4th of August regime was a fascist or fascistic nationalist authoritarian dictatorship inspired by Mussolini's Fascist Italy and Hitler's Germany and led by Greek general Ioannis Metaxas from 1936 to his death in 1941. It advocated for the Third Hellenic Civilization, a culturally superior Greek civilization that would be the successor of the First and Second Greek civilizations, that were Ancient Greece and the Byzantine empire respectively. It promoted Greek traditions, folk music and dances, classicism as well as medievalism.
In the 1880s the European powers divided up almost all of Africa (only Ethiopia and Liberia were independent). They ruled until after World War II when forces of nationalism grew much stronger. In the 1950s and 1960s the colonial holdings became independent states. The process was usually peaceful but there were several long bitter bloody civil wars, as in Algeria, Kenya and elsewhere.
Across Africa nationalism drew upon the organizational skills that natives learned in the British and French and other armies in the world wars. It led to organizations that were not controlled by or endorsed by either the colonial powers nor the traditional local power structures that were collaborating with the colonial powers. Nationalistic organizations began to challenge both the traditional and the new colonial structures and finally displaced them. Leaders of nationalist movements took control when the European authorities exited; many ruled for decades or until they died off. These structures included political, educational, religious, and other social organizations. In recent decades, many African countries have undergone the triumph and defeat of nationalistic fervor, changing in the process the loci of the centralizing state power and patrimonial state.
South Africa, a British colony, was exceptional in that it became virtually independent by 1931. From 1948 it was controlled by white Afrikaner nationalists focused on racial segregation and white minority rule known officially as apartheid, which lasted until 1994, when elections were held. The international anti-apartheid movement supported black nationalist until success was achieved and Nelson Mandela was elected President.
Arab nationalism, a movement toward liberating and empowering the Arab peoples of the Middle East, emerged during the latter 19th century, inspired by other independence movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. As the Ottoman Empire declined and the Middle East was carved up by the Great Powers of Europe, Arabs sought to establish their own independent nations ruled by Arabs rather than foreigners. Syria was established in 1920; Transjordan (later Jordan) gradually gained independence between 1921 and 1946; Saudi Arabia was established in 1932; and Egypt achieved gradually gained independence between 1922 and 1952. The Arab League was established in 1945 to promote Arab interests and cooperation between the new Arab states.
Parallel to these efforts was the Zionist movement which emerged among European Jews in the 19th century. Beginning in 1882 Jews, predominantly from Europe, began emigrating to Ottoman Palestine with the goal of establishing a new Jewish homeland. The effort culminated in the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948. As this move conflicted with the belief among Arab nationalists that Palestine was part of the Arab nation, the neighboring Arab nations launched an invasion to claim the region. The invasion was only partly successful and led to decades of clashes between the Arab and Jewish nationalist ideologies.
There was a rise in extreme nationalism after the Revolutions of 1989 triggered the collapse of communism in the 1990s. When communism fell, it left many people with no identity. The people under communist rule had to integrate, and they found themselves free to choose. Given free choice, long dormant conflicts rose up and created sources of serious conflict. When communism fell in Yugoslavia, serious conflict arose, which led to the rise in extreme nationalism.
In his 1992 article "Jihad vs. McWorld," Benjamin Barber proposed that the fall of communism will cause large numbers of people to search for unity and that small scale wars will become common; groups will attempt to redraw boundaries, identities, cultures and ideologies. Communism's fall also allowed for an "us vs. them" mentality to sprout up. Governments become vehicles for social interests and the country will attempt to form national policies based on the majority, for example culture, religion or ethnicity. Some newly sprouted democracies have large differences in policies on matters that ranged from immigration and human rights to trade and commerce.
Academic Steven Berg felt that at the root of nationalist conflicts is the demand for autonomy and a separate existence. This nationalism can give rise to strong emotions that may lead to a group fighting to survive, especially as after the fall of communism, political boundaries did not match ethnic boundaries. Serious conflicts often arose and escalated very easily as individuals and groups acted upon their beliefs, causing death and destruction. When this would happen, those states who were unable to contain the conflict ran the risk of slowing their democratization progress.
Yugoslavia was established after WWI and was a merger of three separate ethnic groups; Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The national census numbers for a ten-year span 1971–1981 measured an increase from 1.3 to 5.4% in their population that ethnically identified as Yugoslav. This meant that the country, almost as a whole, was divided by distinctive religious, ethnic or national loyalties after nearly 50 years.
Within Yugoslavia, separating Croatia and Slovenia from the rest of Yugoslavia is an invisible line of previous conquests of the region. Croatia and Slovenia to the northwest were conquered by Catholics or Protestants, and benefited from European history; the Renaissance, French Revolution, Industrial Revolution and are more inclined towards democracy. The remaining Yugoslavian territory was conquered by the Ottoman or Tsarists empires; are Orthodox or Muslims, are less economically advanced and are less inclined toward democracy.
In the 1970s the leadership of the separate territories within Yugoslavia protected only territorial interests at the expense of other territories. In Croatia, there was almost a split within the territory between Serbs and Croats so any political decision would kindle unrest, and tensions could cross the territories adjacent; Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within Bosnia there was no group who had a majority; Muslim, Serb, Croat, and Yugoslav were all there so the leadership could not advance here either. Political organizations were not able to deal successfully with such diverse nationalism. Within the territories the leadership could not compromise. To do so would create a winner in one ethnic group and a loser in another, raising the possibility of a serious conflict. This strengthened the political stance promoting ethnic identities. This caused intense and divided political leadership within Yugoslavia.
In the 1980s Yugoslavia began to break into fragments. The economic conditions within Yugoslavia were deteriorating. Conflict in the disputed territories was stimulated by the rise in mass nationalism and inter-ethnic hostilities. The per-capita income of people in the northwest territory, encompassing Croatia and Slovenia, in contrast to the southern territory were several times higher. This combined with escalating violence from ethnic Albanians and Serbs within Kosovo intensified economic conditions. This violence greatly contributed to the rise of extreme nationalism of Serbs in Serbia and within Yugoslavia. The ongoing conflict in Kosovo was propagandized by Communist Serbian Slobodan Milosevic to further increase Serb nationalism. As mentioned, this nationalism did give rise to powerful emotions which grew the force of Serbian nationalism through highly nationalist demonstrations in Vojvodina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo. Serbian nationalism was so high, Slobodan Milosevic was able to oust leaders in Vojvodina and Montenegro, further repressed Albanians within Kosovo and eventually controlled four of the eight regions/territories. Slovenia, one of the four regions not under Communist control, favoring a democratic state.
Within Slovenia, fear was mounting because Milosevic was using the militia to suppress a in Kosovo, what would he do to Slovenia. Half of Yugoslavia wanted to be democratic, the other wanted a new nationalist authoritarian regime. In fall of 1989 tensions came to a head and Slovenia asserted its political and economic independence from Yugoslavia and seceded. In January 1990, there was a total break with Serbia at the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, an institution conceived by Milosevic to strengthen unity and became the backdrop for the fall of communism within Yugoslavia.
In August 1990, a warning to the region was issued when ethnically divided groups attempted to alter the government structure. The republic borders established by the Communist regime in the postwar period were extremely vulnerable to challenges from ethnic communities.Ethnic communities arose because they did not share the identity with everyone within the new post-Communist borders. This threatened the new governments. The same disputes were erupting that were in place prior to Milosevic and were compounded by actions from his regime.
Also within the territory the Croats and the Serbs were in direct competition for control of government. Elections were held and increased potential conflicts between Serb and Croat nationalism. Serbia wanted to be separate and decide its own future based on its own ethnic composition. But this would then give Kosovo encouragement to become independent from Serbia. Albanians in Kosovo were already independent from Kosovo. Serbia didn't want to let Kosovo become independent. Muslims nationalists wanted their own territory but it would require a redrawing of the map, and would threaten neighboring territories. When communism fell in Yugoslavia, serious conflict arose, which led to the rise in extreme nationalism.
Nationalism again gave rise to powerful emotions which evoked in some extreme cases, a willingness to die for what you believe in, a fight for the survival of the group. The end of communism began a long period of conflict and war for the region. In the six years following the collapse 200,000-500-000 people died in the Bosnian war. Bosnian Muslims suffered at the hands of the Serbs and Croats. The war garnered assistance from groups; Muslim, Orthodox and Western Christian as well as state actors who supplied all sides; Saudi Arabia and Iran supported Bosnia, Russia supported Serbia, Central European and Western countries including the U.S. supported Croatia, and the Pope supported Slovenia and Croatia.
Arab nationalism began to decline in the 21st century leading to localized nationalism, culminating in a series of revolts against authoritarian regimes between 2010 and 2012, known as the "Arab Spring". Following these revolts, which mostly failed to improve conditions in the affected nations, Arab nationalism and even most local nationalistic movements declined dramatically. A consequence of the Arab Spring as well as the 2003 invasion of Iraq were the civil wars in Iraq and Syria, which eventually joined to form a single conflict. However, a new form of Arab nationalism has developed in the wake of the Arab Winter, embodied by Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh el-Sisi, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and UAE leader Mohammed bin Zayed.
The rise of globalism in the late 20th century led to a rise in nationalism and populism in Europe and North America. This trend was further fueled by increased terrorism in the West (the September 11 attacks in the U.S. being a prime example), increasing unrest and civil wars in the Middle East, and waves of Muslim refugees flooding into Europe ( the refugee crisis appears to have peaked). Nationalist groups like Germany's Pegida, France's National Front, and the UK Independence Party gained prominence in their respective nations advocating restrictions on immigration to protect the local populations.
In Russia, exploitation of nationalist sentiments allowed Vladimir Putin to consolidate power. This nationalist sentiment was used in Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and other actions in Ukraine. Nationalist movements gradually began to rise in Central Europe as well, particularly Poland, under the influence of the ruling party, Law and Justice (led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski). In Hungary, the anti-immigration rhetoric and stance against foreign influence is a powerful national glue promoted the ruling Fidesz party (led by Viktor Orbán). Nationalist parties have also joined governing coalitions in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Latvia and Ukraine.
In India, Indian nationalism based on Integral humanism of Dharmic Values and Hindutva has gained ground due to the rise of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, its sister organizations of Sangh Parivar, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's closely affiliated Bharatiya Janata Party, world's largest political party based on primary membership, emphasizing Dharmic values as a guiding principle of the country including Dharmic secularism as opposed to the Westernized secularism stance taken by India's left and communists. Dharmic secularism includes minorities, most of whose ancestors were forcibly converted into other religions during foreign invasions and religious persecution. Therefore, the movement encourages cultural rediscovery, revival of the roots of Indian Civilizations and its values.
Militant Buddhist nationalism is on the rise in Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka.
A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held on 18 September 2014. The proposal was defeated, with 55.3% voting against independence. In a 2016 referendum, the British populace voted to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union (the so-called "Brexit"). The result had been largely unexpected and was seen as a victory of populism. As the promise of continued EU membership was a core feature of the pro-unionist campaign during the Scottish referendum, the months since the EU Referendum vote have seen renewed calls for a second referendum on Scottish independence.
The 2016 U.S. presidential campaign saw the unprecedented rise of Donald Trump, a businessman with no political experience who ran on a populist/nationalist platform and struggled to gain endorsements from mainstream political figures, even within his own party. Trump's slogans ""Make America Great Again"" and ""America First"" exemplified his campaign's repudiation of globalism and its staunchly nationalistic outlook. His unexpected victory in the election was seen as part of the same trend that had brought about the Brexit vote. On 22 October 2018, two weeks before the mid-term elections President Trump openly proclaimed that he was a nationalist to a cheering crowd at a rally in Texas in support of re-electing Sen. Ted Cruz who was once an adversary. On 29 October 2018 he equated nationalism to patriotism, saying "I'm proud of this country and I call that 'nationalism.'"
In Japan, nationalist influences in the government developed over the course of the early 21 century, thanks in large part to the Nippon Kaigi organization. The new movement has advocated re-establishing Japan as a military power and revising historical narratives to support the notion of a moral and strong Japan.
In 2016, Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines running a distinctly nationalist campaign. Contrary to the policies of his recent predecessors, he distanced the country from the Philippines' former ruler, the United States, and sought closer ties with China (as well as Russia).
During 2017, Turkish nationalism propelled President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to gain unprecedented power in a national referendum. Reactions from world leaders were mixed, with Western European leaders generally expressing concern while the leaders of many of the more authoritarian regimes, as well as President Donald Trump, offered their congratulations.
Since 2010, Catalan nationalists have led a renewed Catalan independence movement and declared Catalonia's independence. The movement has been opposed by Spanish nationalists.
In the 2010s, the Greek economic crisis and waves of immigration have led to a significant rise of Fascism and Greek nationalism across Greece, especially among the youth.
Many political scientists have theorized about the foundations of the modern nation-state and the concept of sovereignty. The concept of nationalism in political science draws from these theoretical foundations. Philosophers like Machiavelli, Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau conceptualized the state as the result of a "social contract" between rulers and individuals. Weber provides the most commonly used definition of the state, "that human community which successfully lays claim to the monopoly of legitimate physical violence within a certain territory". According to Benedict Anderson, nations are "Imagined Communities", or socially constructed institutions.
Many scholars have noted the relationship between state-building, war, and nationalism. Many scholars believe that the development of nationalism in Europe (and subsequently the modern nation-state) was due to the threat of war. "External threats have such a powerful effect on nationalism because people realize in a profound manner that they are under threat because of who they are as a nation; they are forced to recognize that it is only as a nation that they can successfully defeat the threat".[62] With increased external threats, the state's extractive capacities increase. Jeffrey Herbst argues that the lack of external threats to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, post-independence, is linked to weak state nationalism and state capacity .[62] Barry Posen argues that nationalism increases the intensity of war, and that states deliberately promote nationalism with the aim of improving their military capabilities.
The sociological or modernist interpretation of nationalism and nation-building argues that nationalism arises and flourishes in modern societies that have an industrial economy capable of self-sustainability, a central supreme authority capable of maintaining authority and unity, and a centralized language understood by a community of people. Modernist theorists note that this is only possible in modern societies, while traditional societies typically lack the prerequisites for nationalism. They lack a modern self-sustainable economy, have divided authorities, and use multiple languages resulting in many groups being unable to communicate with each other.
Prominent theorists who developed the modernist interpretation of nations and nationalism include: Carlton J. H. Hayes, Henry Maine, Ferdinand Tönnies, Rabindranath Tagore, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Arnold Joseph Toynbee and Talcott Parsons.
Henry Maine in his analysis of the historical changes and development of human societies noted the key distinction between traditional societies defined as "status" societies based on family association and functionally diffuse roles for individuals; and modern societies defined as "contract" societies where social relations are determined by rational contracts pursued by individuals to advance their interests. Maine saw the development of societies as moving away from traditional status societies to modern contract societies.
Ferdinand Tönnies in his book "Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft" (1887) defined a "Gemeinschaft" (community) as being based on emotional attachments as attributed with traditional societies, while defining a "Gesellschaft" (society) as an impersonal society that is modern. While he recognized the advantages of modern societies he also criticized them for their cold and impersonal nature that caused alienation while praising the intimacy of traditional communities.
Émile Durkheim expanded upon Tönnies' recognition of alienation, and defined the differences between traditional and modern societies as being between societies based upon "mechanical solidarity" versus societies based on "organic solidarity". Durkheim identified mechanical solidarity as involving custom, habit, and repression that was necessary to maintain shared views. Durkheim identified organic solidarity-based societies as modern societies where there exists a division of labour based on social differentiation that causes alienation. Durkheim claimed that social integration in traditional society required authoritarian culture involving acceptance of a social order. Durkheim claimed that modern society bases integration on the mutual benefits of the division of labour, but noted that the impersonal character of modern urban life caused alienation and feelings of anomie.
Max Weber claimed the change that developed modern society and nations is the result of the rise of a charismatic leader to power in a society who creates a new tradition or a rational-legal system that establishes the supreme authority of the state. Weber's conception of charismatic authority has been noted as the basis of many nationalist governments.
Another approach emerging from biology and psychology looks at long-term evolutionary forces that might lead to nationalism. The primordialist perspective is based upon evolutionary theory.
This approach has been popular with the general public but is typically rejected by experts. Laland and Brown report that "the vast majority of professional academics in the social sciences not only ... ignore evolutionary methods but in many cases [are] extremely hostile to the arguments" that draw vast generalizations from rather limited evidence.
The evolutionary theory of nationalism perceives nationalism to be the result of the evolution of human beings into identifying with groups, such as ethnic groups, or other groups that form the foundation of a nation. Roger Masters in "The Nature of Politics" describes the primordial explanation of the origin of ethnic and national groups as recognizing group attachments that are thought to be unique, emotional, intense, and durable because they are based upon kinship and promoted along lines of common ancestry.
The primordialist evolutionary views of nationalism often reference the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin as well as Social Darwinist views of the late nineteenth century. Thinkers like Herbert Spencer and Walter Bagehot reinterpreted Darwin's theory of natural selection "often in ways inconsistent with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution" by making unsupported claims of biological difference among groups, ethnicities, races, and nations. Modern evolutionary sciences have distanced themselves from such views, but notions of long-term evolutionary change remain foundational to the work of evolutionary psychologists like John Tooby and Leda Cosmides.
Approached through the primordialist perspective, the example of seeing the mobilization of a foreign military force on the nation's borders may provoke members of a national group to unify and mobilize themselves in response. There are proximate environments where individuals identify nonimmediate real or imagined situations in combination with immediate situations that make individuals confront a common situation of both subjective and objective components that affect their decisions. As such proximate environments cause people to make decisions based on existing situations and anticipated situations.
Critics argue that primordial models relying on evolutionary psychology are based not on historical evidence but on assumptions of unobserved changes over thousands of years and assume stable genetic composition of the population living in a specific area, and are incapable of handling the contingencies that characterize every known historical process. Robert Hislope argues:
English Historian G. P. Gooch in 1920 argued that "While patriotism is as old as human association and has gradually widened its sphere from the clan and the tribe to the city and the state, nationalism as an operative principle and an articulate creed only made its appearance among the more complicated intellectual processes of the modern world.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels declared in the "Communist Manifesto" that "the working men have no country".
Vladimir Lenin supported the concept of self-determination.
Joseph Stalin's "Marxism and the National Question" (1913) declares that "a nation is not a racial or tribal, but a historically constituted community of people;" "a nation is not a casual or ephemeral conglomeration, but a stable community of people"; "a nation is formed only as a result of lengthy and systematic intercourse, as a result of people living together generation after generation"; and, in its entirety: "a nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture."
Historians, sociologists, and anthropologists have debated different types of nationalism since at least the 1930s. Generally, the most common way of classifying nationalism has been to describe movements as having either "civic" or "ethnic" nationalist characteristics. This distinction was popularized in the 1950s by Hans Kohn who described "civic" nationalism as "Western" and more democratic while depicting "ethnic" nationalism as "Eastern" and undemocratic. Since the 1980s, however, scholars of nationalism have pointed out numerous flaws in this rigid division and proposed more specific classifications and numerous varieties.
Civic nationalism defines the nation as an association of people who identify themselves as belonging to the nation, who have equal and shared political rights, and allegiance to similar political procedures. According to the principles of civic nationalism, the nation is not based on common ethnic ancestry, but is a political entity whose core identity is not ethnicity. This civic concept of nationalism is exemplified by Ernest Renan in his lecture in 1882 "What is a Nation?", where he defined the nation as a "daily referendum" (frequently translated "daily plebiscite") dependent on the will of its people to continue living together.
Civic nationalism is normally associated with liberal nationalism, although the two are distinct, and did not always coincide. On the one hand, until the late 19th and early 20th century adherents to anti-Enlightenment movements such as French Legitimism or Spanish Carlism often rejected the liberal, national unitary state, yet identified themselves not with an ethnic nation but with a non-national dynasty and regional feudal privileges. Xenophobic movements in long-established Western European states indeed often took a 'civic national' form, rejecting a given group's ability to assimilate with the nation due to its belonging to a cross-border community (Irish Catholics in Britain, Ashkenazic Jews in France). On the other hand, while subnational separatist movements were commonly associated with ethnic nationalism, this was not always so, and such nationalists as the Corsican Republic, United Irishmen, Breton Federalist League or Catalan Republican Party could combine a rejection of the unitary civic-national state with a belief in liberal universalism.
Liberal nationalism is kind of non-xenophobic nationalism that is claimed to be compatible with liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, and individual rights. Ernest Renan and John Stuart Mill are often thought to be early liberal nationalists. Liberal nationalists often defend the value of national identity by saying that individuals need a national identity to lead meaningful, autonomous lives, and that liberal democratic polities need national identity to function properly.
Civic nationalism lies within the traditions of rationalism and liberalism, but as a form of nationalism it is usually contrasted with ethnic nationalism. Civic nationalism is correlated with long-established states whose dynastic rulers had gradually acquired multiple distinct territories, with little change to boundaries, but which contained historical populations of multiple linguistic and/or confessional backgrounds. Since individuals resident within different parts of the state territory might have little obvious common ground, civic nationalism developed as a way for rulers to both explain a contemporary reason for such heterogeneity and to provide a common purpose (Ernest Renan's classic description in What is a Nation? (1882) as a voluntary partnership for a common endeavour). Renan argued that factors such as ethnicity, language, religion, economics, geography, ruling dynasty and historic military deeds were important but not sufficient. Needed was a spiritual soul that allowed as a "daily referendum" among the people. Civic-national ideals influenced the development of representative democracy in
multiethnic countries such as the United States and France, as well as in constitutional monarchies such as Great Britain, Belgium and Spain.
German philosopher Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach does not think liberalism and nationalism are compatible, but she points out there are many liberals who think they are. She states:
Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach, "Liberal Nationalism-A Critique" "Trames" 5#2 (June 2001) pp. 107–19 online
"Creole nationalism" refers to the ideology that emerged in independence movements among the creoles (descendants of the colonizers), especially in Latin America in the early 19th century. It was facilitated when French Emperor Napoleon seized control of Spain and Portugal, breaking the chain of control from the Spanish and Portuguese kings to the local governors. Allegiance to the Napoleonic states was rejected, and increasingly the creoles demanded independence. They achieved it after civil wars 1808–1826.
Nativist nationalism is a type of nationalism similar to creole or territorial types of nationalism, but which defines belonging to a nation solely by being born on its territory. In countries where strong nativist nationalism exists, people who were not born in the country are seen as lesser nationals than those who were born there, and are called " immigrants" even if they became naturalized. It is cultural as people will never see a foreign-born person as one of them, and is legal, as such people are banned for life from holding certain jobs, especially government jobs. This nationalism is common in the Americas, both in daily life and in legal and work areas.
Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethno-nationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. The central theme of ethnic nationalists is that "nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith, and a common ethnic ancestry". It also includes ideas of a culture shared between members of the group, and with their ancestors. However, it is different from a purely cultural definition of "the nation," which allows people to become members of a nation by cultural assimilation; and from a purely linguistic definition, according to which "the nation" consists of all speakers of a specific language.
Whereas nationalism in and of itself does not imply a belief in the superiority of one ethnicity or country over others, some nationalists support ethnocentric supremacy or protectionism.
The humiliation of being a second-class citizen led regional minorities in multiethnic states, such as Great Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Russia and the Ottoman Empire, to define nationalism in terms of loyalty to their minority culture, especially language and religion. Forced assimilation was anathema.
For the politically dominant cultural group, assimilation was necessary to minimize disloyalty and treason and therefore became a major component of nationalism. A second factor for the politically dominant group was competition with neighboring states—nationalism involved a rivalry, especially in terms of military prowess and economic strength.
Economic nationalism, or economic patriotism, refers to an ideology that favors state interventionism in the economy, with policies that emphasize domestic control of the economy, labor, and capital formation, even if this requires the imposition of tariffs and other restrictions on the movement of labor, goods and capital.
Religious nationalism is the relationship of nationalism to a particular religious belief, dogma, or affiliation where a shared religion can be seen to contribute to a sense of national unity, a common bond among the citizens of the nation. Saudi Arabian, Iranian, Egyptian, Iraqi, and the Pakistani-Islamic nationalism (Two-Nation Theory) are some examples.
Left-wing nationalism (occasionally known as socialist nationalism, not to be confused with national socialism) refers to any political movement that combines left-wing politics with nationalism.
Many nationalist movements are dedicated to national liberation, in the view that their nations are being persecuted by other nations and thus need to exercise self-determination by liberating themselves from the accused persecutors. Anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninism is closely tied with this ideology, and practical examples include Stalin's early work "Marxism and the National Question" and his socialism in one country edict, which declares that nationalism can be used in an internationalist context, fighting for national liberation without racial or religious divisions.
Other examples of left-wing nationalism include Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement that launched the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cornwall's Mebyon Kernow, Ireland's Sinn Féin, Wales's Plaid Cymru, the Awami League in Bangladesh, the African National Congress in South Africa and numerous movements in Eastern Europe.
Some nationalists exclude certain groups. Some nationalists, defining the national community in ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historic, or religious terms (or a combination of these), may then seek to deem certain minorities as not truly being a part of the 'national community' as they define it. Sometimes a mythic homeland is more important for the national identity than the actual territory occupied by the nation.
Territorial nationalists assume that all inhabitants of a particular nation owe allegiance to their country of birth or adoption . A sacred quality is sought in the nation and in the popular memories it evokes. Citizenship is idealized by territorial nationalists. A criterion of a territorial nationalism is the establishment of a mass, public culture based on common values, codes and traditions of the population.
There are different types of nationalism including Risorgimento nationalism and Integral nationalism. Whereas risorgimento nationalism applies to a nation seeking to establish a liberal state (for example the Risorgimento in Italy and similar movements in Greece, Germany, Poland during the 19th century or the civic American nationalism), integral nationalism results after a nation has achieved independence and has established a state. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, according to Alter and Brown, were examples of integral nationalism.
Some of the qualities that characterize integral nationalism are anti-individualism, statism, radical extremism, and aggressive-expansionist militarism. The term Integral Nationalism often overlaps with fascism, although many natural points of disagreement exist. Integral nationalism arises in countries where a strong military ethos has become entrenched through the independence struggle, when, once independence is achieved, it is believed that a strong military is required to ensure the security and viability of the new state. Also, the success of such a liberation struggle results in feelings of national superiority that may lead to extreme nationalism.
Pan-nationalism is unique in that it covers a large area span. Pan-nationalism focuses more on "clusters" of ethnic groups. Pan-Slavism is one example of Pan-nationalism. The goal is to unite all Slavic people into one country. They did succeed by uniting several south Slavic people into Yugoslavia in 1918.
This form of nationalism came about during the decolonization of the post war periods. It was a reaction mainly in Africa and Asia against being subdued by foreign powers. It also appeared in the non-Russian territories of the Tsarist empire and later, the USSR, where Ukrainianists and Islamic Marxists condemned Russian Bolshevik rule in their territories as a renewed Russian imperialism. This form of nationalism took many guises, including the peaceful passive resistance movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian subcontinent.
Benedict Anderson argued that anti-colonial nationalism is grounded in the experience of literate and bilingual indigenous intellectuals fluent in the language of the imperial power, schooled in its "national" history, and staffing the colonial administrative cadres up to but not including its highest levels. Post-colonial national governments have been essentially indigenous forms of the previous imperial administration.
Racial nationalism is an ideology that advocates a racial definition of national identity. Racial nationalism seeks to preserve a given race through policies such as banning race mixing and the immigration of other races. Specific examples are black nationalism and white nationalism.
Sport spectacles like football's World Cup command worldwide audiences as nations battle for supremacy and the fans invest intense support for their national team. Increasingly people have tied their loyalties and even their cultural identity to national teams. The globalization of audiences through television and other media has generated revenues from advertisers and subscribers in the billions of dollars, as the FIFA Scandals of 2015 revealed. Jeff Kingston looks at football, the Commonwealth Games, baseball, cricket, and the Olympics and finds that, "The capacity of sports to ignite and amplify nationalist passions and prejudices is as extraordinary as is their power to console, unify, uplift and generate goodwill." The phenomenon is evident across most of the world. The British Empire strongly emphasized sports among its soldiers and agents across the world, and often the locals joined in enthusiastically. It established a high prestige competition in 1930, named the British Empire Games from 1930–50, the British Empire and Commonwealth Games from 1954–66, British Commonwealth Games from 1970–74 and since then the Commonwealth Games.
The French Empire was not far behind the British in the use of sports to strengthen colonial solidarity with France. Colonial officials promoted and subsidized gymnastics, table games, and dance and helped football spread to French colonies.
Feminist critique interprets nationalism as a mechanism through which sexual control and repression are justified and legitimised, often by a dominant masculine power. The gendering of nationalism through socially constructed notions of masculinity and femininity not only shapes what masculine and feminine participation in the building of that nation will look like, but also how the nation will be imagined by nationalists. A nation having its own identity is viewed as necessary, and often inevitable, and these identities are gendered. The physical land itself is often gendered as female (i.e. "Motherland"), with a body in constant danger of violation by foreign males, while national pride and protectiveness of "her" borders is gendered as masculine.
History, political ideologies, and religions place most nations along a continuum of muscular nationalism. Muscular nationalism conceptualises a nation's identity as being derived from muscular or masculine attributes that are unique to a particular country. If definitions of nationalism and gender are understood as socially and culturally constructed, the two may be constructed in conjunction by invoking an "us" versus "them" dichotomy for the purpose of the exclusion of the so-called "other," who is used to reinforce the unifying ties of the nation. The empowerment of one gender, nation or sexuality tends to occur at the expense and disempowerment of another; in this way, nationalism can be used as an instrument to perpetuate heteronormative structures of power. The gendered manner in which dominant nationalism has been imagined in most states in the world has had important implications on not only individual's lived experience, but on international relations. Colonialism is heavily connected to muscular nationalism, from research linking British hegemonic masculinity and empire-building, to intersectional oppression being justified by colonialist images of “others”, a practice integral in the formation of Western identity. This “othering” may come in the form of orientalism, whereby the East is feminized and sexualized by the West. The imagined feminine East, or “other,” exists in contrast to the masculine West.
The status of conquered nations can become a causality dilemma: the nation was “conquered because they were effeminate and seen as effeminate because they were conquered.” In defeat they are considered militaristically unskilled, not aggressive, and thus not muscular. In order for a nation to be considered “proper”, it must possess the male-gendered characteristics of virility, as opposed to the stereotypically female characteristics of subservience and dependency. Muscular nationalism is often inseparable from the concept of a warrior, which shares ideological commonalities across many nations; they are defined by the masculine notions of aggression, willingness to engage in war, decisiveness, and muscular strength, as opposed to the feminine notions of peacefulness, weakness, non-violence, and compassion. This masculinized image of a warrior has been theorised to be “the culmination of a series of gendered historical and social processes" played out in a national and international context. Ideas of cultural dualism—of a martial man and chaste woman—which are implicit in muscular nationalism, underline the raced, classed, gendered, and heteronormative nature of dominant national identity.
Nations and gender systems are mutually supportive constructions: the nation fulfils the masculine ideals of comradeship and brotherhood. Masculinity has been cited as a notable factor in producing political militancy. A common feature of national crisis is a drastic shift in the socially acceptable ways of being a man, which then helps to shape the gendered perception of the nation as a whole.
Critics of nationalism have argued that it is often unclear what constitutes a nation, or whether a nation is a legitimate unit of political rule. Nationalists hold that the boundaries of a nation and a state should coincide with one another, thus nationalism tends to oppose multiculturalism. It can also lead to conflict when more than one national group finds itself claiming rights to a particular territory or seeking to take control of the state.
Philosopher A.C. Grayling describes nations as artificial constructs, "their boundaries drawn in the blood of past wars". He argues that "there is no country on earth which is not home to more than one different but usually coexisting culture. Cultural heritage is not the same thing as national identity".
Nationalism is inherently divisive because it highlights perceived differences between people, emphasizing an individual's identification with their own nation. The idea is also potentially oppressive because it submerges individual identity within a national whole and gives elites or political leaders potential opportunities to manipulate or control the masses. Much of the early opposition to nationalism was related to its geopolitical ideal of a separate state for every nation. The classic nationalist movements of the 19th century rejected the very existence of the multi-ethnic empires in Europe. However, even in that early stage there was an ideological critique of nationalism which has developed into several forms of internationalism and anti-nationalism. The Islamic revival of the 20th century also produced an Islamist critique of the nation-state. (see Pan-Islamism)
At the end of the 19th century, Marxists and other socialists and communists (such as Rosa Luxemburg) produced political analyses that were critical of the nationalist movements then active in Central and Eastern Europe, although a variety of other contemporary socialists and communists, from Vladimir Lenin (a communist) to Józef Piłsudski (a socialist), were more sympathetic to national self-determination.
In his classic essay on the topic, George Orwell distinguishes nationalism from patriotism which he defines as devotion to a particular place. More abstractly, nationalism is "power-hunger tempered by self-deception".
For Orwell, the nationalist is more likely than not dominated by irrational negative impulses:
In the liberal political tradition there was mostly a negative attitude toward nationalism as a dangerous force and a cause of conflict and war between nation-states. The historian Lord Acton put the case against "nationalism as insanity" in 1862. He argued that nationalism suppresses minorities, it places country above moral principles and especially it creates a dangerous individual attachment to the state. However, Acton opposed democracy and was trying to defend the pope from Italian nationalism. Since the late 20th century, liberals have been increasingly divided, with some philosophers such as Michael Walzer, Isaiah Berlin, Charles Taylor and David Miller emphasizing that a liberal society needed to be based in a stable nation state.
The pacifist critique of nationalism also concentrates on the violence of nationalist movements, the associated militarism, and on conflicts between nations inspired by jingoism or chauvinism. National symbols and patriotic assertiveness are in some countries discredited by their historical link with past wars, especially in Germany. British pacifist Bertrand Russell criticizes nationalism for diminishing the individual's capacity to judge his or her fatherland's foreign policy. Albert Einstein stated that "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21748 |
Nation
A nation is a stable community of humans formed on the basis of a common language, territory, history, ethnicity, or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture. A nation is more overtly political than an ethnic group; it has been described as "a fully mobilized or institutionalized ethnic group". Some nations are ethnic groups (see ethnic nationalism) and some are not (see civic nationalism and multiculturalism). A nation has also been defined as a cultural-political community that has become conscious of its autonomy, unity and particular interests.
American political scientist Benedict Anderson characterised a nation as an "imagined community", and Australian academic Paul James sees it as an "abstract community". A nation is an imagined community in the sense that the material conditions exist for imagining extended and shared connections and that it is objectively impersonal, even if each individual in the nation experiences him or herself as subjectively part of an embodied unity with others. For the most part, members of a nation remain strangers to each other and will likely never meet. Hence the phrase, "a nation of strangers" used by such writers as American journalist Vance Packard. So, a nation is an intersubjective reality and exists solely in the collective imagination of the citizens. Even if a person comes to believe that a nation does not exist, the nation will remain unharmed, as it is not a subjective reality which exists in the mind of a single person. Only if a very large number of people come to believe that the nation should not exist and end its validity will the nation cease to exist.
The word "nation" came from the Old French word "nacion" – meaning "birth" ("naissance"), "place of origin" -, which in turn originates from the Latin word "natio" ("nātĭō") literally meaning "birth".
"Black's Law Dictionary" defines a nation as follows:
nation, "n." (14c) 1. A large group of people having a common origin, language, and tradition and usu. constituting a political entity. • When a nation is coincident with a state, the term "nation-state" is often used...
2. A community of people inhabiting a defined territory and organized under an independent government; a sovereign political state...
The word "nation" is sometimes used as synonym for:
Thus the phrase "nations of the world" could be referring to the top-level governments (as in the name for the United Nations), various large geographical territories, or various large ethnic groups of the planet.
Depending on the meaning of "nation" used, the term "nation state" could be used to distinguish larger states from small city states, or could be used to distinguish multinational states from those with a single ethnic group.
In her book "Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900–1300", Susan Reynolds argues that many European medieval kingdoms were nations in the modern sense except that political participation in nationalism was available only to a limited prosperous and literate class. In his book "The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism", Adrian Hastings states that England's Anglo Saxon kings mobilized mass nationalism in their struggle to repel Norse invasions. He argues that Alfred the Great, in particular, drew on biblical nationalism, using biblical language in his law code and that during his reign selected books of the Bible were translated into Old English to inspire Englishmen to fight to turn back the Norse invaders. Hastings argues for a strong renewal of English nationalism (following a hiatus after the Norman conquest) beginning with the translation of the complete bible into English by the Wycliffe circle in the 1380s, positing that English nationalism and the English nation have been continuous since that time.
Another prudent example of Medieval nationalism is the Declaration of Arbroath, a document produced by Scottish nobles and clergy during the Scottish Wars of Independence. The purpose of the document was to demonstrate to the Pope that Scotland was indeed a nation of its own, with its own unique culture, history and language and that it was indeed an older nation than England. The document went on to justify the actions of Robert the Bruce and his forces in resisting the occupation and to chastise the English for having violated Scottish sovereignty without justification. The propaganda campaign supplemented a military campaign on the part of the Bruce, which after the Battle of Bannockburn was successful and eventually resulted in the end of England's occupation and recognition of Scottish independence on the part of the English crown. The document is widely seen as an early example of both Scottish nationalism and popular sovereignty.
Anthony Kaldellis affirms in "Hellenism in Byzantium" (2008) that what is called the Byzantine Empire was the Roman Empire transformed into a nation-state in Middle Ages.
Azar Gat is among the scholars who argue that China, Korea and Japan were nations by the time of the European Middle Ages.
A significant early use of the term "nation", as "natio", occurred at Medieval universities to describe the colleagues in a college or students, above all at the University of Paris, who were all born within a "pays", spoke the same language and expected to be ruled by their own familiar law. In 1383 and 1384, while studying theology at Paris, Jean Gerson was elected twice as a procurator for the French "natio". The University of Prague adopted the division of students into "nationes": from its opening in 1349 the "studium generale" which consisted of Bohemian, Bavarian, Saxon and Silesian "nations".
In a similar way, the "nationes" were segregated by the Knights Hospitaller of Jerusalem, who maintained at Rhodes the hostels from which they took their name "where foreigners eat and have their places of meeting, each nation apart from the others, and a Knight has charge of each one of these hostels, and provides for the necessities of the inmates according to their religion", as the Spanish traveller Pedro Tafur noted in 1436.
In his article, "The Mosaic Moment: An Early Modernist Critique of the Modernist Theory of Nationalism", Philip S. Gorski argues that the first modern nation was the Dutch Republic, created by a fully modern political nationalism rooted in the model of biblical nationalism. In a 2013 article "Biblical nationalism and the sixteenth-century states", Diana Muir Appelbaum expands Gorski's argument to apply to a series of new, Protestant, sixteenth-century nation states. A similar, albeit broader, argument was made by Anthony D. Smith in his books, "Chosen Peoples: Sacred Sources of National Identity" and "Myths and Memories of the Nation".
In her book "Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity", Liah Greenfeld argued that nationalism was invented in England by 1600. According to Greenfeld, England was “the first nation in the world".
In the late 20th century, many social scientists argued that there were two types of nations, the civic nation of which France was the principal example and the ethnic nation exemplified by the German peoples. The German tradition was conceptualized as originating with early 19th-century philosophers, like Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and referred to people sharing a common language, religion, culture, history, and ethnic origins, that differentiate them from people of other nations. On the other hand, the civic nation was traced to the French Revolution and ideas deriving from 18th-century French philosophers. It was understood as being centered in a willingness to "live together", this producing a nation that results from an act of affirmation. This is the vision, among others, of Ernest Renan.
Present day analysis tend to be based in socio-historical studies about the building of national identity sentiments, trying to identify the individual and collective mechanisms, either conscient or non-conscient, intended or un-intended. According to some of these studies, it seems that the State often plays a significant role, and communications, particularly of economic content, also have a high significance.
There is an ongoing debate about the future of nations − about whether this framework will persist as is and whether there are viable or developing alternatives.
The theory of the clash of civilizations lies in direct contrast to cosmopolitan theories about an ever more-connected world that no longer requires nation states. According to political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post–Cold War world.
The theory was originally formulated in a 1992 lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, which was then developed in a 1993 "Foreign Affairs" article titled "The Clash of Civilizations?", in response to Francis Fukuyama's 1992 book, "The End of History and the Last Man". Huntington later expanded his thesis in a 1996 book "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order".
Huntington began his thinking by surveying the diverse theories about the nature of global politics in the post–Cold War period. Some theorists and writers argued that human rights, liberal democracy and capitalist free market economics had become the only remaining ideological alternative for nations in the post–Cold War world. Specifically, Francis Fukuyama, in "The End of History and the Last Man", argued that the world had reached a Hegelian "end of history".
Huntington believed that while the age of ideology had ended, the world had reverted only to a normal state of affairs characterized by cultural conflict. In his thesis, he argued that the primary axis of conflict in the future will be along cultural and religious lines.
Postnationalism is the process or trend by which nation states and national identities lose their importance relative to supranational and global entities. Several factors contribute to its aspects including economic globalization, a rise in importance of multinational corporations, the internationalization of financial markets, the transfer of socio-political power from national authorities to supernational entities, such as multinational corporations, the United Nations and the European Union and the advent of new information and culture technologies such as the Internet. However attachment to citizenship and national identities often remains important.
Jan Zielonka of the University of Oxford states that "the future structure and exercise of political power will resemble the medieval model more than the Westphalian one" with the latter being about "concentration of power, sovereignty and clear-cut identity" and neo-medievalism meaning "overlapping authorities, divided sovereignty, multiple identities and governing institutions, and fuzzy borders". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21754 |
Northern Sotho language
Northern Sotho ("Sesotho sa Leboa"), also known by the name of its standardised dialect Pedi ("Sepedi"), is a Sotho-Tswana language of the Bantu family group. According to the 2011 census, Northern Sotho is the first language of over 4,6 million people and is the 5th most spoken language in South Africa. Provinces with a significant number of speakers are Limpopo with 52.9%, Gauteng with 11.6% and Mpumalanga with 9,3%.
Northern Sotho can be subdivided into Highveld-Sotho, which consists of comparatively recent immigrants mostly from the west and southwest parts of South Africa, and Lowveld-Sotho, which consists of a combination of immigrants from the north of South Africa and Sotho inhabitants of longer standing. The Highveld-Sotho consist of the Bapedi Marota (in the narrower sense), Marota Mamone, Marota Mohlaletsi, Phokwane, Batau Bapedi (Matlebjane, Masemola, Marishane, Batau ba Manganeng - Nkadimeng, Kgaphola, Nchabeleng, Mogashoa, Phaahla, Sloane, Mashegoana, Mphanama), Bakone, Baphuthi, Baroka, Bakgaga (Mphahlele, Maake, Mothapo), Chuene, Mathabatha, Kone (Ga-Matlala), Maserumule, Tlou (Ga-Molepo), Thobejane (Ga-Mafefe), Dikgale, Batlokwa, Batlokwa Ba Lethebe, Makgoba, Batlou, Bahananwa (Ga-Mmalebogo), Babirwa, Mmamabolo, Bamongatane, Bakwena ba Moletjie (Moloto), Batlhaloga, Bamohlala/ Ba Ga Mohlala, Banareng,Ba Hwaduba Ba Ga Magale and many others. The Lowveld-Sotho include the Lobedu, Narene, Phalaborwa, Mogoboya, Kone, Kgaga, Pulana, Pai, and Kutswe. Groups are named by using the names of totemic animals and, sometimes, by alternating or combining these with the names of famous chiefs.
Before Moshoeshoe and his Basotho nation of Lesotho, Basotho people were there. Moshoshoe didn't found Basotho, but he founded a nation made up of Sesotho speaking people from different Sesotho speaking clans in which the British imperialist in Southern Africa errenously called the Basotho nation cutting them off from the rest of other Basothos outside Lesotho in the Orange Free State and Transvaal in present day South Africa, Botswana as if Moshoshoe and his people were unique from other Basotho people. Basotho people were there before Moshoshoe the son of Mokhachane of another Basotho clan of Bamokoteli clan, united the smaller and vulnerable clans of Basothos under his Bakwena clan leadership during the Shaka wars of difaqane after other Basothos have migrated to different directions from their cradle in Ntswanatsatsi. Moshoshoe and his Bakwena clan and the rest of the other Basotho clan originates from Ntswanatsatsi in present day South Africa. Families moved away from each other in Ntswanatsatsi and started clans using a totem as symbol of their clan (like crocodile (Kwena) which Moshoshoe' ancestors used) and different families moved to different directions within the precolonial South Africa under different leadership. Under different leadership some settled in the Western side, present day North West Province others spread around Ntswanatsatsi to the present day Free State and Lesotho, others to present day Botswana others to present day Zambiaothers moved to the present day Gauteng in South Africa and they became patriarchs of the founding fathers of Bakgatla which also gave birth to Northern Sotho which in turn gave birth to different Northern clans with their dialects like BaPedi , Batlokwa, Babirwa, etc and others ended up in inter-marrying with other tribes they moved next to and mingled with like Swatis, Vendas and Tsongas and Ngunis and in some places these Northern Basotho' Sotho was diluted by the influence of these tribe they found in the area, they moved into and lived alongside. This is what happened to a subgroup of Northern Basotho who end up becoming Mapulana with their Sesotho influenced by Swati. Also some of the Northern Basotho having a common denominator of "apa" (meaning talk) with Vendas, I mean Balovedu, BaGubu and Babirwa of Bobirwa in the Southern part of Botswana near the Zimbabwean border. All these Northern Sotho clans have their chief of leader, they never had a paramount king, so, it will be absurd to call them BaPedi because the BaPedi kings have never been their kings. They did their own things from Ramokgopha of Batlhokwa, Malebogo of Bahanawa, Matlala, etc, they were never part of the Pedi kingdom.
Northern Sotho is one of the Sotho languages of the Bantu family.
Although Northern Sotho shares the name "Sotho" with Southern Sotho, the two groups have less in common with each other than they have with Setswana.
Northern Sotho is also closely related to Setswana, sheKgalagari and siLozi. It is a standardised dialect, amalgamating several distinct varieties or dialects.
Until recently, "Lobedu" (also "Khilovedu" or "Khelobedu") used to exist only in an unwritten form, and the standard Northern Sotho language (known as Sepedi) and orthography was usually used for teaching and writing by this language community. As of 2018, a Khilovedu dictionary is being compiled in addition to proper Khilovedu orthography which is also in the process of being developed.
The monarch associated with this language community is Queen Modjadji (also known as the Rain Queen). Lobedu is spoken by a majority of people in the Greater Tzaneen, Greater Letaba, and BaPhalaborwa municipalities, and a minority in Greater Giyani municipality, as well as in the Limpopo Province and Tembisa township in Gauteng. Its speakers are known as the Balobedu.
Sepulana (also sePulane) exists in unwritten form and forms part of the standard Northern Sotho. Sepulana is spoken in Bushbuckridge area by the MaPulana people.
Northern Sotho is also spoken by the Mohlala people.
Northern Sotho is often equated with the dialect it is primarily based on, Sepedi, and continued to be known as "Pedi" or "Sepedi" for some years after the new South African constitution appeared. However, the Pan South African Language Board and the Northern Sotho National Lexicography Unit now specifically endorse the names "Northern Sotho" or "Sesotho sa Leboa".
The original confusion arose from the fact that the (now official) Northern Sotho written language was based largely on the Sepedi dialect (from which missionaries first developed the orthography), but has subsequently provided a common writing system for 20 or more varieties of the Sotho-Tswana languages spoken in the former Transvaal. The name "Sepedi" thus refers specifically to the dialect of the Pedi people, while "Northern Sotho" refers to the official language of that name and to all the speech varieties it has been taken to cover.
The English version of the Constitution of South Africa refers to the language as "Sepedi". Its official translation into the language refers to it as "Sesotho sa Leboa" in the article about languages, but as "Sepedi" on the front page.
Apart from the Sepedi dialect itself, other languages or dialects covered by the term "Northern Sotho" appear to be a diverse grouping of communal speech-forms within the Sotho-Tswana group. They are apparently united by the fact that they are classifiable neither as Southern Sotho nor as Tswana.
Very little published information is available on these other dialects of Northern Sotho, but these have been reported:
1.Narene/Banareng of Letswalo and Mahlo have been localized in Tzaneen and Phalaborwa area as a groups of people, bounded and living together and sharing the same linguistic norms of Sepedi or Northern Sotho dialect which is peculiar to Banareng/Nareng in Tzaneen and Phalaborwa are, Limpopo in South Africa.
Reference:
Van Warmelo (1935) concerning Nareng/ Banareng of Letswalo and Mahlo, on Social Varieties of Northern Sotho:
Van Warmelo (1935) 1.5.1.1 Central Sepedi North-eastern cluster
1.5.1.3 North-eastern dialect cluster Lobedu, Phalaborwa, Šai (Mašišimala), Mametša, Letswalo, Nareng, Mahlo, Mmamabolo, Kolobe, Kgaga and Hananwa.
http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/4824/dissertation_ramajela_mc.pdf
2.Ba Ga Mohlala/Ba Mohlala (Schoonoord) have been localized in Schoonoord as a groups of people, bounded and living together and sharing the same linguistic norms of Sepedi or Northern Sotho dialect which is peculiar to BaMohlala/Ba Ga Mohlala in Schoonoord, Limpopo in South Africa.
Reference:
Van Warmelo (1935) concerning Ba Ga Mohlala/Mohlala (Schoonoord), and Mohlala (Pilgrims’ Rest), on Social Varieties of Northern Sotho:Litabe chieftains was immediately moved to Lesotho.they did not fit in Northern dialect.
Van Warmelo (1935) 1.5.1.1 Central Sepedi dialect cluster
Van Warmelo (1935) 1.5.1.1 Central dialect cluster Pedi (Maroteng), Pedi (mixed), Tau, Kwena, Ntwane, Kone, Tswako, Mohlala (Schoonoord), Nareng of Tswako, Mohlala (Pilgrims’ Rest), Mphogo (Kgwedi), Nkawane and Roka.
http://www.mohlalaads.co.za/
Reference:
http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/4824/dissertation_ramajela_mc.pdf
The morphological and possible lexical variation among these dialects has led to the above assertion that 'Northern Sotho' is no more than a holding category for otherwise unclassified Sotho-Tswana varieties spoken in north-eastern South Africa. Maho (2002) leaves SePhalaborwa and the "East Sotho" varieties of SeKutswe, SePai, and SePulana unclassified within Sotho–Tswana. Their precise classification would appear to be a matter for further research.
Northern Sotho is written in the Latin alphabet. The letter "š" is used to represent the sound [] ("sh" is used in the trigraph "tsh" to represent an aspirated "ts" sound). The circumflex accent can be added to the letters e and o to distinguish their different sounds, but it is mostly used in language reference books. Some word prefixes, especially in verbs, are written separately from the stem.
Within nasal consonant compounds, the first nasal consonant sound is recognized as syllabic. Words such as "nthuše" "help me", are pronounced as . /n/ can also be pronounced as following a velar consonant.
Urban varieties of Northern Sotho, such as Pretoria Sotho (actually a derivative of Tswana), have acquired clicks in an ongoing process of such sounds spreading from Nguni languages.
Some examples of Northern Sotho words and phrases: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21756 |
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays its home games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which it shares with the New York Jets. The Giants hold their summer training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center at the Meadowlands Sports Complex.
The Giants were one of five teams that joined the NFL in 1925, and are the only one of that group still existing, as well as the league's longest-established team in the Northeastern United States. The team ranks third among all NFL franchises with eight NFL championship titles: four in the pre–Super Bowl era (1927, 1934, 1938, 1956) and four since the advent of the Super Bowl (XXI (1986), XXV (1990), XLII (2007), and XLVI (2011)), along with more championship appearances than any other team, with 19 overall appearances. Their championship tally is surpassed only by the Green Bay Packers (13) and the Chicago Bears (9). Throughout their history, the Giants have featured 29 Hall of Fame players, including NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award winners Mel Hein, Frank Gifford, Y. A. Tittle, and Lawrence Taylor.
To distinguish themselves from the professional baseball team of the same name, the football team was incorporated as the "New York National League Football Company, Inc." in 1929 and changed to "New York Football Giants, Inc." in 1937. While the baseball team moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, the football team continues to use "New York Football Giants, Inc." as its legal corporate name, and is often referred to by fans and sportscasters as the "New York Football Giants". The team has also acquired several nicknames, including "Big Blue", the "G-Men", and the "Jints", an intentionally mangled contraction seen frequently in the "New York Post" and "New York Daily News", originating from the baseball team when they were based in New York. In addition, the team as a whole is occasionally referred to as the "Big Blue Wrecking Crew", even though this moniker primarily and originally refers to the Giants defensive unit during the 1980s and early-1990s (and before that to the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball teams of the late-1970s and early-1980s).
The team's heated rivalry with the Philadelphia Eagles is the oldest of the NFC East rivalries, dating all the way back to 1933, and has been called the best rivalry in the NFL in the 21st century.
The Giants played their first game as an away game against All New Britain in New Britain, Connecticut, on October 4, 1925. They defeated New Britain 26–0 in front of a crowd of 10,000. The Giants were successful in their first season, finishing with an 8–4 record.
In its third season, the team finished with the best record in the league at 11–1–1 and was awarded the NFL title. After a disappointing fourth season (1928) owner Mara bought the entire squad of the Detroit Wolverines, principally to acquire star quarterback Benny Friedman, and merged the two teams under the Giants name.
In 1930, there were still many who questioned the quality of the professional game, claiming the college "amateurs" played with more intensity than professionals. In December 1930, the Giants played a team of Notre Dame All Stars at the Polo Grounds to raise money for the unemployed of New York City. It was also an opportunity to establish the skill and prestige of the pro game. Knute Rockne reassembled his Four Horsemen along with the stars of his 1924 Championship squad and told them to score early, then defend. Rockne, like much of the public, thought little of pro football and expected an easy win. But from the beginning it was a one-way contest, with Friedman running for two Giant touchdowns and Hap Moran passing for another. Notre Dame failed to score. When it was all over, Coach Rockne told his team, "That was the greatest football machine I ever saw. I am glad none of you got hurt." The game raised $100,000 for the homeless, and is often credited with establishing the legitimacy of the professional game for those who were critical. It also was the last game the legendary Rockne ever coached; he was killed in an airplane crash on March 31, 1931.
In a 14-year span from 1933 to 1947, the Giants qualified to play in the NFL championship game 8 times, winning twice. During this period the Giants were led by Hall of Fame coach Steve Owen, and Hall of Fame players Mel Hein, Red Badgro and Tuffy Leemans. The period also featured the 1944 Giants, which are ranked as the #1 defensive team in NFL history, "...a truly awesome unit". They gave up only 7.5 points per game (a record that still stands) and shut out five of their 10 opponents, though they lost 14-7 to the Green Bay Packers in the 1944 NFL Championship Game. The famous "Sneakers Game" was played in this era where the Giants defeated the Chicago Bears on an icy field in the 1934 NFL Championship Game, while wearing sneakers for better traction. The Giants played the Detroit Lions to a scoreless tie on November 7, 1943. To this day, no NFL game played since then has ended in a scoreless tie. The Giants were particularly successful from the latter half of the 1930s until the United States entry into World War II. They added their third NFL championship in 1938 with a 23–17 win over the Green Bay Packers.
They did not win another league title until 1956, the first year the team began playing at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. Aided by a number of future Pro Football Hall of Fame players such as running back Frank Gifford, linebacker Sam Huff, and offensive tackle Roosevelt Brown, as well as all-pro running back Alex Webster. The Giants' 1956 championship team not only included players who would eventually find their way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but a Hall of Fame coaching staff, as well. Head coach Jim Lee Howell's staff had Vince Lombardi coaching the offense and Tom Landry coaching the defense. From 1958 to 1963, the Giants played in the NFL Championship Game five times, but failed to win. Most significantly, the Giants played the Colts in the 1958 NFL Championship Game, which is considered a event in the history of the NFL. The game, which the Giants lost in overtime 23–17, is often called "The Greatest Game Ever Played" and is considered one of the most important events in furthering the NFL's popularity. The following year, they lost the championship to the Colts again, giving up a 9-7 4th quarter lead en route to a 31–16 loss. Both the 1961 and 1962 championship game matched the Giants up against the Green Bay Packers, with the Giants losing both 37-0 and 16-7 respectively. In 1963, led by league MVP quarterback Y. A. Tittle, who threw a then-NFL record 36 touchdown passes, the Giants advanced to the NFL Championship Game, where they lost to the Bears 14–10 for their third consecutive championship loss, as well as their fifth loss in the title game in 6 years.
From 1964 to 1978, the Giants registered only two winning seasons and no playoff appearances. With players, such as Tittle and Gifford approaching their mid 30s, the team declined rapidly, finishing 2–10–2 in 1964. They rebounded with a 7–7 record in 1965, before compiling a league-worst 1–12–1 record, and allowing more than 500 points on defense in 1966. During the 1969 preseason, the Giants lost their first meeting with the New York Jets, 37–14, in front of 70,874 fans at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut. Following the game, Wellington Mara fired coach Allie Sherman, and replaced him with former Giants fullback Alex Webster.
In 1967, the team acquired quarterback Fran Tarkenton from the Minnesota Vikings. Despite having several respectable seasons with Tarkenton at quarterback, including a 7–7 finish in 1967 and 9–5 in 1970, the Giants traded him back to the Vikings after a 4–10 finish in 1971. Tarkenton would go on to lead the Vikings to three Super Bowls and earn a place in the Hall of Fame, while the Giants suffered through one of the worst stretches in their history, winning only 23 games from 1973 to 1979. Before the 1976 season, the Giants tried to revive a weak offense by replacing retired RB Ron Johnson with future Hall of Fame fullback Larry Csonka, but Csonka was often injured and ineffective during his 3 years in New York. The 1977 season featured a roster that included three rookie quarterbacks.
The Giants were allowed to play their home games at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut in 1973 and 1974, and at Shea Stadium (home of the Mets and Jets) in 1975, due to the renovation of Yankee Stadium. They finally moved into their own dedicated state-of-the-art stadium in 1976, when they moved into Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. One of the low points during this period was the play known as the "Miracle at the Meadowlands", which occurred in 1978. With the Giants trying to kill the clock and secure a win against the Philadelphia Eagles, offensive coordinator, Bob Gibson, chose to call a running play. This resulted in "The Fumble" by QB Joe Pisarcik that was returned for a game-winning touchdown by the Eagles' Herman Edwards.
The Giants' front office operations were complicated by a long-standing feud between Wellington Mara and his nephew, Tim Mara. Jack Mara had died in 1965, leaving his share of the club to his son Tim. Wellington and Tim's personal styles and their visions for the club clashed, and eventually they stopped talking to each other. Commissioner Rozelle intervened and appointed a neutral general manager, George Young, allowing the club to operate more smoothly. The feud became moot on February 20, 1991, when Tim Mara sold his shares in the club to Preston Robert Tisch.
In 1979, the Giants began the steps that would, in time, return them to the pinnacle of the NFL. These included the drafting of quarterback Phil Simms in 1979, and linebacker Lawrence Taylor in 1981. In 1981, Taylor won the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards and the Giants made the playoffs for the first time since 1963. One of the few bright spots during this time was the team's excellent linebackers, who were known as the Crunch Bunch. After the strike-shortened 1982 season, in which they finished 4–5, head coach Ray Perkins resigned to succeed the legendary Bear Bryant as head coach at the University of Alabama. In a change that would prove crucial in the coming years, he was replaced by the team's defensive coordinator, Bill Parcells.
In 1983, Bill Parcells was promoted to head coach from defensive coordinator. One of his first moves was to change his starting quarterback, sitting the injury-prone and struggling Phil Simms (who had missed the entire 1982 season with an injury) and electing instead to go with Scott Brunner, who had gone 4-5 as the starter in place of Simms in the strike-shortened previous season. Parcells went as far as to demote Simms to the third string position, promoting Jeff Rutledge over Simms to be Brunner's backup. Parcells later said the move was a mistake and one he "nearly paid for dearly" as the team finished with a 3–12–1 record and his job security was called into question.
In the offseason the Giants released Brunner and named Simms the starter. The move paid off as the team won nine games and returned to the playoffs. After beating the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card Round, the Giants prepared for a showdown against top-seeded San Francisco. The 49ers defeated the Giants 21–10 in the Divisional Round.
The 1985 Giants compiled a 10–6 record and avenged their loss against San Francisco by beating them in the Wild Card round 17–3. However, they again lost in the Divisional Round, this time to the eventual Super Bowl champion Bears, by a score of 21–0. However, the following season would end with the Giants winning their first Super Bowl championship.
After 9–7 and 10–6 finishes in 1984 and 1985 respectively, the Giants compiled a 14–2 record in 1986 led by league MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Lawrence Taylor and the Big Blue Wrecking Crew defense. As of 2017, this is the Giants' best regular season record since the NFL began playing 16-game seasons in 1978. After clinching the top seed in the NFC, the Giants defeated the 49ers 49–3 in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs and the Redskins 17–0 in the NFC championship game, advancing to their first Super Bowl, Super Bowl XXI, against the Denver Broncos at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Led by MVP Simms who completed 22 of 25 passes for a Super Bowl record 88% completion percentage, they defeated the Broncos 39–20, to win their first championship since 1956. In addition to Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor, the team was led during this period by head coach Bill Parcells, tight end Mark Bavaro, running back Joe Morris, and Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson.
The Giants struggled to a 6–9 record in the strike-marred 1987 season, due largely to a decline in the running game, as Morris managed only 658 yards behind an injury-riddled offensive line. The early portion of the 1988 season was marred by a scandal involving Lawrence Taylor. Taylor had abused cocaine and was suspended for the first four games of the season for his second violation of the league's substance abuse policy. Despite the controversy, the Giants finished 10–6, and Taylor recorded 15.5 sacks after his return from the suspension; however, the team missed the playoffs in their last game of the season. They surged to a 12–4 record in 1989, but lost to the Los Angeles Rams in their opening playoff game when Flipper Anderson caught a 47-yard touchdown pass to give the Rams a 19–13 overtime win.
In 1990, the Giants went 13–3 and, at the time, set an NFL record for fewest turnovers in a season (14). They defeated the San Francisco 49ers, who were attempting to win the Super Bowl for an unprecedented third straight year, 15–13 at San Francisco and then defeated the Buffalo Bills 20–19 in Super Bowl XXV.
Following the 1990 season, Parcells resigned as head coach and was replaced by the team's offensive-line coach Ray Handley. Handley served as coach for two disappointing seasons (1991 and 1992), which saw the Giants fall from Super Bowl champions to an 8–8 record in 1991 and a 6–10 record in 1992. He was fired following the 1992 season, and replaced by former Denver Broncos' coach Dan Reeves. In the early 1990s, Simms and Taylor, two of the stars of the 1980s, played out the last seasons of their careers with steadily declining production. The Giants experienced a resurgent season with Reeves at the helm in 1993 however, and Simms and Taylor ended their careers as members of a playoff team.
The Giants initially struggled in the post Simms/Taylor era. After starting 3–7 in 1994, the Giants won their final six games to finish 9–7 but missed the playoffs. Quarterback Dave Brown received heavy criticism throughout the season. Brown performed poorly the following two seasons, and the Giants struggled to 5–11 and 6–10 records. Reeves was fired following the 1996 season.
In 1997, the Giants named Jim Fassel, who had spent the previous season as offensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals, as their 16th head coach. Fassel named Danny Kanell the team's starting quarterback. The Giants finished the 1997 season with a record of 10–5–1 and qualified for the playoffs for the first time in four years. However, they lost in the Wild Card round to the Vikings at home. The following year, the Giants began the season 4–8 before rallying to finish the season 8–8. One of the notable games of that season was a win over the eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos in week 15, giving the Broncos their first loss of the season after starting 13–0.
Before the 1999 season, the Giants signed ex-Carolina Panthers quarterback Kerry Collins. Collins was the first-ever draft choice of the expansion Carolina Panthers in 1995, and led the Panthers to the NFC Championship game in his second season. However, problems with alcohol, conflicts with his teammates and questions about his character led to his release from the Panthers. The Giants finished the season with a 7–9 record, Fassel's first losing season as head coach.
In 2000, the Giants were looking to make the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. The Giants started the season 7–2, but suffered back-to-back home losses to St. Louis and Detroit to make their record 7–4 and call their playoff prospects into question. At a press conference following the Giants' loss to Detroit, Fassel guaranteed that "this team is going to the playoffs". The Giants responded, winning the rest of their regular season games to finish the season 12–4 and clinch the top seed in the NFC. In the Divisional Round, the Giants beat the Philadelphia Eagles 20–10 at home to qualify for the NFC Championship Game, in which they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 41–0. They advanced to play the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV. Though the Giants went into halftime down only 10–0, the Ravens dominated the second half. Their defense harassed Kerry Collins all game long, resulting in Collins completing only 15 of 39 passes for 112 yards and 4 interceptions. The Ravens won the game 34–7.
After a disappointing 7–9 record in 2001, the Giants finished the 2002 season with a record of 10–6, qualifying for the playoffs as a wild card. This set up a meeting with the San Francisco 49ers in Candlestick Park in the Wild Card round. The Giants built up a sizable lead throughout the game, and led 38–14 with 4:27 left in the third quarter. However, San Francisco rallied to win the game by one point, with the final score of 39–38.
After a dismal 2003 season in which the Giants finished with a 4–12 record, Jim Fassel was released by the Giants. His head coaching record with the Giants during this time was 58–53–1.
In 2004, three years after their last Super Bowl appearance, Fassel was replaced by Tom Coughlin. Although Collins had several solid seasons as the Giants quarterback, he experienced his share of struggles. In 2004, the Giants completed a draft day trade for University of Mississippi quarterback Eli Manning. Manning became the team's starting quarterback in the middle of the 2004 season, taking over for Kurt Warner. During the three-year period from 2004 to 2006, Tom Coughlin's Giants compiled a 25–23 regular season record and two appearances in the Wild Card Round — both losses (to the Carolina Panthers in 2005 and to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2006.) and spawned intense media scrutiny concerning the direction of the team. During this period in their history, standout players included defensive end Michael Strahan, who set the NFL single season record in sacks in 2001, and running back Tiki Barber, who set a team record for rushing yards in a season in 2005. Barber retired at the end of the 2006 season.
Going into 2007, the Giants had made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. In 2007, the Giants became the third NFL franchise to win at least 600 games when they defeated the Atlanta Falcons 31–10 on "Monday Night Football". For the 2007 season, the NFL scheduled the Giants' road game against the Miami Dolphins on October 28 in London's Wembley Stadium; this was the first NFL regular-season game to be played outside of North America. The Giants defeated the Dolphins, 13–10. The Giants finished 10–6, and became NFC Champions after defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys, and Green Bay Packers in the NFC Playoffs. They set a record for most consecutive road wins in a single season with 10 (a streak which ended with a loss to the Cleveland Browns during week 6 of the 2008 season).
The Patriots (18–0) entered the Super Bowl undefeated and were 12 point favorites going into game weekend. The Giants defeated the Patriots 17–14 in Super Bowl XLII, aided by the famous "Manning to Tyree" pass. On this famous play, Manning escaped the grip of several Patriots defensive linemen, stepped up in the pocket, and heaved the ball down the middle of the field to a double covered David Tyree. With Rodney Harrison, a Patriots defensive back, all over Tyree, David managed to hold on to the ball by holding it on his helmet until he fell to the ground. This catch set up a Manning to Plaxico Burress touchdown pass in the back of the end zone to put the Giants in the lead. It was the third biggest upset by betting line in Super Bowl history (the Baltimore Colts were favored by 17 over the New York Jets in Super Bowl III, and the St. Louis Rams were favored by 14 over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI). Co-owner John Mara described it as "the greatest victory in the history of this franchise, without question".
The Giants began the 2008 NFL season with a record of 11–1, but lost three of their last four regular season games partially due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to wide receiver Plaxico Burress. However, the Giants still won the NFC East with a record of 12–4, and clinched the number one seed in the NFC after beating the Carolina Panthers for home field advantage and a first-round bye. In the Divisional Round of the playoffs, the Giants lost 23–11 to the Philadelphia Eagles at home.
In 2009, the Giants opened a new training complex, the Timex Performance Center, also located in the Meadowlands. After starting 5–0 in the 2009 season, New York lost to the likewise undefeated New Orleans Saints at the Superdome 48–27, beginning a four-game losing streak, in which they lost to the Arizona Cardinals 24–17, the San Diego Chargers 21–20 and the Philadelphia Eagles 40–17. The streak was broken with a 34–31 overtime victory against the Falcons. On Thanksgiving night, they lost to the Denver Broncos 26–6. The Giants next beat the division leading Cowboys. A week later, with a record of 7–5, they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 45–38. On December 27, the Giants lost to the Carolina Panthers 41–9 in their final game at Giants Stadium, and were eliminated from playoff eligibility. The Giants finished the season 8–8.
Following the season, the Giants fired first-year defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan, and replaced him with the former Buffalo Bills interim head coach, Perry Fewell. The Giants defense finished 13th overall under Sheridan, giving up 324.9 yards per game, and the final two losses of the season against Carolina and Minnesota, in which the Giants gave up 85 points, ultimately led to the firing.
In 2010, the Giants moved from Giants Stadium into MetLife Stadium, then known as the "New Meadowlands Stadium". They won against the Panthers in the very first game at the New Meadowlands, but then lost to the Colts in the second "Manning Bowl", so-called due to Eli Manning's brother Peyton playing for the Colts. The Giants dropped one game to the Tennessee Titans before going on a five-game winning streak, beating the Bears, Houston Texans, Lions, Cowboys, and Seattle Seahawks. Before long, the Giants were 6–2, but lost two straight to division foes: to the Cowboys 33–20 at home, and to the Eagles on the road, putting the G-Men in 2nd place in the NFC East at 6–4. In first place was the Eagles, but at December 19 they were both tied for first place at 8–4, setting up a match for first place. The Giants were at home, and led 24–3 over the Eagles at halftime. The score was 31–10 with 5:40 left in the game, but Michael Vick led the Eagles to three touchdown drives to tie the game up at 31 with 40 seconds left. After a Giants three-and-outs, Matt Dodge punted the ball to DeSean Jackson, who returned it for a touchdown, concluding the Giants' epic collapse. The next game, the Giants lost to the eventual Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers 45–17, and at 9–6, they faced the Redskins. They had to win and have the Packers lose in order to get into the playoffs. The Giants won 17–14, but the Packers beat the Bears 10–3, so the Giants missed out on the playoffs again, ending a collapse in which the Giants went 4–4 in their last eight games.
During the 2011 preseason, the Giants lost Kevin Boss, Steve Smith, Rich Seubert, Keith Bulluck, Derek Hagan, and Pro Bowl center Shaun O'Hara to free agency. However, the season also saw the emergence of second-year wide receiver Victor Cruz and second-year tight end Jake Ballard. The Giants opened their season with a 28–14 loss to the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field on the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. However, the Giants secured a 6–2 record by the midpoint of the season, including road victories over the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots. The latter victory ended the Patriots' NFL record home-game winning streak, after a touchdown pass from Manning to Jake Ballard with 15 seconds left in the game.
However, the Giants then suffered a four-game losing streak, including road losses against the resurgent San Francisco 49ers and the New Orleans Saints and home losses to the Eagles and the then-undefeated Green Bay Packers, to make their record 6–6 entering December. The Giants broke their losing streak with a tightly contested 37–34 road victory over the Cowboys on December 11, but lost at home to the Washington Redskins the following week to make their record 7–7 with a Christmas Eve showdown against their crosstown rival New York Jets the following week. The Giants won, 29–14, and knocked the Eagles out of playoff contention, to set up a Week 17 home game against the Cowboys in which the winner would clinch the NFC East while the loser would be eliminated from playoff contention. The game was flexed into Sunday Night Football. The Giants defeated the Cowboys, 31–14, and clinched the NFC East title and the fourth seed in the playoffs. Wide receiver Victor Cruz finished the regular season with 1,536 receiving yards, breaking the Giants franchise record previously held by Amani Toomer.
On January 8, 2012 in the first round of the playoffs the Giants defeated the Atlanta Falcons 24–2. After giving up an early safety in the first half, quarterback Eli Manning threw for three consecutive touchdowns. Running backs Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs combined for 172 yards rushing, a season-high for the Giants. With the victory, the Giants advanced to the second round against the top-ranked Green Bay Packers.
On January 15, 2012, the Giants defeated the Green Bay Packers 37–20. Eli Manning threw for 330 yards and 3 touchdowns, two of which to wide receiver Hakeem Nicks. This earned the Giants a spot in the NFC Championship Game on January 22, 2012, against the San Francisco 49ers. They won this game 20–17, in overtime, with Tynes scoring the winning field goal as he did four years earlier in the same game against the Packers.
The New York Giants won Super Bowl XLVI against the New England Patriots with a score of 21–17. The winning touchdown was preceded by a 38-yard reception by receiver Mario Manningham. As in Super Bowl XLII, Eli Manning was Super Bowl MVP, defeating the Patriots for a second time in the Super Bowl.
Ahmad Bradshaw scored the game-winning touchdown by falling into the end zone. The Patriots were allowing Bradshaw to get the touchdown so they would get the ball with some time remaining. When Eli Manning handed the ball to Bradshaw, he told him not to score. Bradshaw was about to fall down at the 1-yard line but his momentum carried him in, thus the "reluctant touchdown."
As was the case in each of their four previous Super Bowl appearances, the Giants trailed at halftime. They are the only team in NFL history to have more than two second half, come-from-behind, Super Bowl victories (4). The Pittsburgh Steelers, who accomplished the feat in Super Bowl X and Super Bowl XIV, are the only other team to do it more than once.
The Giants began the 2012 season with a home loss to the Cowboys, but rebounded to finish October with a 6–2 record and on a four-game winning streak that included a 26–3 road victory against the eventual NFC champion San Francisco 49ers. Following the arrival of Hurricane Sandy in the Northeastern United States, the Giants lost back-to-back games against the Steelers and Bengals to fall to 6–4. Despite impressive blowout home victories over the Packers, Saints and Eagles, the Giants finished the season 9–7 and out of the playoffs. Quarterback Eli Manning, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, wide receiver Victor Cruz, and guard Chris Snee represented the Giants at the Pro Bowl.
The 2013 season began with hope that the Giants could become the first team to play in the Super Bowl in their home stadium, as MetLife Stadium was scheduled to host Super Bowl XLVIII that February. However, the Giants' playoff hopes took a massive hit when they lost the first six games of the season. They rebounded to win the next four games in a row to improve to 4–6, but lost a critical home game to the Cowboys on a last-minute field goal. They finished the season 7–9 and with a losing record for the first time since 2004. The Giants drafted rookie wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in the 2014 NFL Draft, who would later go on to win the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award. However, the Giants missed the playoffs for a third straight season, finishing with a 6–10 record. The 2015 season was another disappointing campaign, as the Giants showcased a struggling defense and several late-game collapses. The Giants finished the season with a 6–10 record and missed the playoffs.
On January 14, 2016, the Giants announced that Ben McAdoo would become the team's head coach. He replaced Tom Coughlin, who had resigned the previous week. The Giants turned it around in 2016, ending their five-year playoff drought. The Giants later lost to the Green Bay Packers 38–13 in the Wild Card round.
After having high expectations due to their 11–5 record in 2016, the Giants had an unexpected 0–5 start to the season, before pulling a massive upset versus the Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High for their first win of the season. However, during the Week 5 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Odell Beckham Jr. fractured his fibula, an injury that ended his season. During the same game, the Giants also lost wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Dwayne Harris to season-ending injuries. The season was also marred by suspensions of Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Janoris Jenkins. The Giants finished the 2017 season with a 3–13 record, the second worst in the league. This was also the first time since 1983 in which the Giants finished the regular season with three or less wins, and their worst record since the 16 game season was adopted in the NFL.
The season was also highlighted the controversial benching of long-term quarterback Eli Manning in Week 13, and the high-profile firings of head coach Ben McAdoo and General Manager Jerry Reese, who were the first mid-season staff firings since the 1976 Giants' season. Manning was eventually renamed the starter in Week 14. Subsequently, the disastrous season led to the team being awarded the second overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, which they utilized to select Saquon Barkley from Penn State. Despite Barkley's selection, several questions pertained into the following season around the team's offensive line and long-term future at quarterback.
The 2018 season began with Pat Shurmur being hired as the new head coach. Despite starting 1–7 for the second consecutive year, the Giants managed to marginally improve on their 3–13 campaign by finishing the season 5–11 in a 30-27 Overtime win against the Chicago Bears. After defeating the Washington Redskins in Week 14, the Giants became the first team in NFL history to win 100 regular season games against an opponent. However, this ensured last place in the NFC East for the second straight year, marking the first time they were division rock bottom in back-to-back years since 1995 and 1996. The season was also highlighted by blown 4th quarter leads which was similar to their 2015 team, where the Giants were in 12 one possession games, and lost 8 of those by 7 points or less. Following the season's end, the team were placed to select sixth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.
However, despite irregular team success, Barkley unilaterally impressed in his rookie season. He broke several NFL and Giants team record for a rookie, including having the most receptions by a running back (91), most rushing touchdowns (11), most rushing yards (1,307), and most touchdowns in a season (15). He was also selected to the 2019 Pro Bowl, alongside fellow teammates Olivier Vernon, Landon Collins, and Aldrick Rosas.
The Giants have won a total of eight League Championships: 1927, 1934, 1938, 1956, 1986, 1990, 2007 and 2011. The first four of those championships came in the pre-Super Bowl era. New York's eight championships put them third among all active and defunct NFL teams, trailing only the Green Bay Packers (13) and the Chicago Bears (9).
Before the Super Bowl was instituted, the Giants won four officially recognized NFL championships.
The Giants have won four Super Bowls, tied with Green Bay for the fifth most behind Dallas, San Francisco (both with 5), and New England and Pittsburgh (6 each).
The Giants have won five NFC Championship Games, including two in overtime in 2007 and 2011.
With over 80 years of team history, the Giants have used numerous uniforms and logos, while maintaining a consistent identity. The Giants' logos include several incarnations of a giant quarterback preparing to throw a football, a lowercase "ny", and stylized versions of the team nickname.
Giants' jerseys are traditionally blue or red (or white with blue or red accents), and their pants alternate between white and gray. Currently, the Giants wear home jerseys that are solid blue with white block numbering, white pants with five thin blue/gray/red/gray/blue stripes on the pant legs, and solid blue socks. For this they gained their most renowned nickname, "Big Blue". For road uniforms, they wear a white jersey with red block numbering and red "Northwestern" stripes on the sleeves, gray pants with three thin non-contiguous red/blue/red stripes on the pant legs, and solid red socks. The Giants' current helmet is metallic blue with white block numbers, which are frontally mounted and base mounted on either side of a red stripe running down the center or frontally mounted and base mounted on the red center stripe itself. The Giants, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers, are one of only two teams in the NFL to have the players' uniform numbers on both the front and back of the helmets. The helmet is adorned on both sides with the stylized white lower case "ny" logo and features a gray facemask. The home uniforms are generally similar to the design used from 1966 to 1974, but with some slight elements from the 1956–1961 uniforms. The road uniforms are essentially a modernization of the design used from 1956 to 1961. Additionally, the Giants had a third jersey until the 2009 season, which recalled the Giants' solid red home jerseys from the early 1950s: a solid red alternate with white block numbers. These jerseys were used a total of four times, but have since been retired. They were used once in 2004 against the Philadelphia Eagles and in three consecutive years – 2005, 2006, and 2007 – against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Giants have had a long and, at times, turbulent financial history. The team was founded by Tim Mara with an investment of US$500 in 1925 and became one of the first teams in the then five-year-old NFL. To differentiate themselves from the baseball team of the same name, they took the name "New York Football Giants", which they still use as their legal corporate name.
Although the Giants were successful on the field in their initial seasons, their financial status was a different story. Overshadowed by baseball, boxing, and college football, professional football was not a popular sport in 1925. The Giants were in dire financial straits until the 11th game of the season when Red Grange and the Chicago Bears came to town, attracting over 73,000 fans. This gave the Giants a much needed influx of revenue, and perhaps altered the history of the franchise. The following year, Grange and his agent formed a rival league and stationed a competing team, led by Grange, in New York. Though the Giants lost $50,000 that season, the rival league folded and was subsumed into the NFL. Following the 1930 season, Mara transferred ownership of the team over to his two sons to insulate the team from creditors, and by 1946, he had given over complete control of the team to them. Jack, the older son, controlled the business aspects, while Wellington controlled the on-field operations. After their initial struggles the Giants financial status stabilized, and they led the league in attendance several times in the 1930s and 1940s.
By the early 1960s, the Giants had firmly established themselves as one of the league's biggest attractions. However, rather than continuing to receive their higher share of the league television revenue, the Mara sons pushed for equal sharing of revenue for the benefit of the entire league. Revenue sharing is still practiced in the NFL today, and is credited with strengthening the league. After their struggles in the latter half of the 1960s and the entire 1970s, the Giants hired an outsider, George Young, to run the football operations for the first time in franchise history. The Giants' on-field product and business aspects improved rapidly following the move.
In 1991, Tim Mara, grandson of the founder, was struggling with cancer and sold his half of the team to Bob Tisch for a reported $80 million. This marked the first time in franchise history the team had not been solely owned by the Mara family. In 2005, Wellington Mara, who had been with the team since its inception in 1925 when he worked as a ball boy, died at the age of 89. His death was followed two weeks later by the death of Tisch. In 2015, Wellington's widow and Giants co-owner Ann died due to complications from a head injury suffered in a fall. She was 85 years old.
In 2010, MetLife Stadium opened, replacing Giants Stadium. The new stadium is a 50/50 partnership between the Giants and Jets, and while the stadium is owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority on paper, the two teams jointly built the stadium using private funds, and administer it jointly through New Meadowlands Stadium Corporation. The Giants had previously planned a $300 million renovation to the Meadowlands, before deciding in favor of the new stadium which was originally estimated to cost approximately $600 million, before rising to an estimated cost of one billion dollars. One advantage gained by owning the stadium is that the teams saved considerable money in tax payments. The teams leased the land from the state at a cost of $6.3 million per year. The state paid for all utilities, including the $30 million needed to install them.
The Giants are owned and operated by John Mara and Steve Tisch. "Forbes" magazine estimated the value of the team in 2012 to be $1.3 billion. This ranks the New York Giants as the fourth most valuable franchise in the NFL and the ninth most valuable professional sports franchise in the world. The value has steadily increased from $288 million in 1998, to their current value. The magazine estimated their revenue in 2006 at $182 million, of which $46 million came from gate receipts. Operating income was $26.9 million, and player salary was $102 million. Current major sponsors include Gatorade, Anheuser Busch, Toyota, and Verizon Wireless. Recent former sponsors include Miller Brewing and North Fork Bank. Luxury suites, retail and game day concessions at the new stadium are provisioned and operated by global hospitality giant Delaware North. The team's average ticket price is $72.
The Giants draw their fans from the New York metropolitan area. Since their move to New Jersey in 1976, fans from each state have claimed the team as their own. In January 1987, shortly before the team won Super Bowl XXI, then New York City mayor Ed Koch labeled the team "foreigners" and said they were not entitled to a ticker-tape parade in New York City. On February 5, 2008, the city, under mayor Michael Bloomberg, threw a ticker tape parade in honor of the Giants' Super Bowl XLII victory at the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan. New York City held another ticker tape parade on February 7, 2012, in honor of the Giants' Super Bowl XLVI victory. According to a team spokesman, in 2001, 52 percent of the Giants' season ticket-holders lived in New Jersey. Most of the remaining ticket holders lived in New York State with some coming from other states.
Through the lean years of the 1960s and 1970s the Giants, in spite of a 17-year-long playoff drought, still accumulated a 20-year-long waiting list for season tickets. It has been estimated that the Giants have a waiting list of 135,000 people, the largest of any North American professional sports franchise.
The rivalry between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles is one of the oldest in the NFL, dating back to 1933. The two teams have frequently fought for playoff contention, NFC East titles, and respect. While the Giants have dominated this rivalry throughout most of its history, the series began to even in the 1980s, with the series lead to the Eagles 22–21 through the 1990s and 2000s. The Giants lead the series 84–82–2. The two teams have met four times in the postseason, with each team winning two games. Three of those four playoff meetings were held in the 2000s decade. New York City and Philadelphia have a strong geographic rivalry, as seen in other professional sports such as the Mets-Phillies rivalry in Major League Baseball, and the Flyers-Rangers and Devils-Flyers rivalries in the National Hockey League.
The Giants have an old and storied rivalry with the Redskins, dating back to 1932. While this rivalry is typically given less significance than the rivalries with the Eagles and Cowboys, there have been periods of great competition between the two. In the 1980s the Giants and Redskins clashed as both struggled against each other for division titles and even Super Bowl Championships. Most notable among these is the 1986 NFC Championship game in which the Giants defeated the Redskins 17–0 to earn their first ever trip to the Super Bowl. Wellington Mara always felt this was the Giants oldest and truest rival, and after passing away in 2005, the Giants honored their longtime owner by defeating the Redskins 36–0 at home. The Giants lead this series 103–69–4. The Giants 103 wins against the Redskins are the most wins for one team against one opponent in NFL history.
The Giants have maintained a fierce divisional rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys since the Cowboys first began play in 1960. The two teams have a combined nine Super Bowl victories between them, and have played many games in which the NFC East title was at stake. The rivalry is unique among professional sports as it is the only divisional rivalry between sports teams from New York City and Dallas, partially due to the large distance between the two cities. The Cowboys lead the regular season series 64–45–2, while the Giants hold the lone playoff victory between the two teams, held at the conclusion of the 2007 season.
Despite never being in the same division, the Giants and 49ers have developed a heated rivalry over the years. The two teams have met eight times in the playoffs (including two NFC Championship Games, both won by New York) since 1982, which is the most of any two teams in that span. In the overall series the Giants are leading 21–20, while the postseason series are tied 4–4. Five of the eight times the Giants and 49ers have played in the postseason, the winner of their game has gone on to win the Super Bowl.
The Giants and Jets for many years had the only intracity rivalry in the NFL, made even more unusual by sharing a stadium. They have met annually in the preseason since 1969. Since 2011, this meeting has been known as the "MetLife Bowl", after the naming sponsor of the teams' stadium. Regular season matchups between the teams occur once every four years, as they follow the NFL scheduling formula for interconference games. Since the two teams play each other so infrequently in the regular season, some, including players on both teams, have questioned whether the Giants and Jets have a real rivalry. A memorable regular season game was in 1988, when the Giants faced off against the Jets in the last game of the season, needing a victory to make the playoffs. The Jets played spoiler, however, beating the Giants 27–21 and ruining the latter's playoff hopes. A different scenario unfolded during the penultimate regular season game of 2011 as the "visiting" Giants defeated the Jets 29–14. The victory simultaneously helped eliminate the Jets from playoff contention and propel the Giants to their own playoff run and eventual win in Super Bowl XLVI. The Giants lead the overall regular season series 8–6 and have won five of the last seven meetings.
In the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Giants boast the second-most enshrined members with 29. Tim Mara, Mel Hein, Pete Henry, Cal Hubbard and Jim Thorpe were a part of the original class of inductees in 1963, while defensive end Michael Strahan, the most recent Giant inducted, was a part of the Class of 2014. Numerous members, including Larry Csonka, Ray Flaherty, Joe Guyon, Pete Henry, Arnie Herber, Cal Hubbard, Tom Landry, Don Maynard, Hugh McElhenny, Jim Thorpe, and Kurt Warner were at one time associated with the New York Giants, but they were inducted largely based on their careers with other teams.
The New York Giants unveiled their own Ring of Honor on October 3, 2010 during halftime of their . John Mara had long wished to create a Giants Ring of Honor and Hall of Fame to honor Giants who helped the franchise achieve each of their championships, and the building of MetLife Stadium resulted in the realization of that ambition. The organization had an inaugural induction class of 30 including players, coaches, owners and executives that have had a great impact on the organization. While the entire list of inductees was not revealed until the actual induction, the organization did confirm about a week before the ceremony that Phil Simms, Bill Parcells, Michael Strahan, Tiki Barber, Frank Gifford and Pete Gogolak would all be inducted.
As of 2010, the Giants' flagship radio station is WFAN, with games simulcast on WFAN-FM as of November 2012. Beginning in 2012, the Giants became WFAN's top priority during the entire football season; prior to that, games that conflicted with late season New York Mets baseball games in September and early October were moved to other CBS Radio owned stations. This arrangement only lasted for 2012, and the Mets received priority again in 2013. WFAN acquired the rights to New York Yankees games for 2014, and thus the Giants' schedule will be in conflict with them for the foreseeable future.
From 2014, the Giants' overflow station has been WCBS-AM, which was the former radio home of the Yankees and a sister station to WFAN. However, beginning in 2019, WCBS-AM replaced WOR-AM as the flagship radio home for the Mets and the Giants have yet to announce an overflow station for the coming season.
Bob Papa on play-by-play and Carl Banks on color commentary are the Giants' radio broadcast team, with Howard Cross as the sideline reporter. When Papa is unavailable to call games Chris Carrino, WFAN's lead broadcaster for the Brooklyn Nets, substitutes for him. Games are carried over the New York Giants Radio Network over various stations in New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.
Preseason telecasts not seen nationally air in the area on WNBC, with WWOR-TV serving as an overflow station for when WNBC is airing other programming such as the Summer Olympic Games. Papa and Banks call these games on television, with studio host Paul Dottino as Papa's substitute. WPIX-TV or WABC-TV will also air any Giants broadcast that is carried by ESPN, as per the local carriage rules (WABC-TV corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, holds an 80% majority ownership stake in ESPN, and has a right of first refusal for these telecasts). Thursday Night Football games exclusive to NFL Network are carried locally by the producing network's O&O, either WCBS-TV, WNBC or WNYW (as is the case for 2018).
The Giants' public address announcer at MetLife Stadium is Jim Hall, who for years was Bob Sheppard's substitute at Yankee Stadium due to their very similar voices. Hall took over the Giants PA job after Sheppard elected to leave the position in 2005 to focus solely on his Yankee Stadium duties.
WFAN has produced the Giants' radio broadcasts since 1995, but has not always aired them on the station. For 1995, then-Giants flagship WOR continued to carry the games as they had for the previous two seasons. In 1996 the games were simulcast on WFAN and WOR, which caused some conflict as at the time, WFAN was the radio flagship of the New York Jets as well. To remedy the situation, beginning the next year WFAN moved the Giants' radio broadcasts to the FM dial and sister station WNEW-FM, where they remained until the end of the 1999 season. In 2000 WFAN lost the Jets' radio contract to WABC and the Giants moved back to WFAN where they have been ever since.
The Giants' longtime radio home was WNEW, where games aired from the mid-1950s until 1993 when the station was bought by Bloomberg L.P. and changed its format. Marty Glickman teamed with Al DeRogatis for a long stretch beginning in the early 1960s on WNEW. Chip Cipolla and later Sam Huff joined Glickman after DeRogatis left to join Curt Gowdy on NBC. After the WNEW split, games began airing on WOR. Glickman moved to the crosstown Jets in 1973 and was succeeded by Marv Albert. Jim Gordon succeeded Albert in 1977, beginning an 18-year tenure as the Giants' play-by-play voice. Meanwhile, Dick Lynch took over as color analyst in 1976 and continued in that role through 2007, with his last game being Super Bowl XLII, and retired following the season due to his advancing leukemia, which took his life in September 2008.
Eventually Gordon and Lynch were joined by Karl Nelson, a former lineman for the Giants. Gordon and Nelson were fired after the 1994 season, after which Papa took over the play-by-play (after being studio host) and led a two-man booth with Lynch. Dave Jennings joined the broadcast team in 2002 following his firing by the Jets, with whom he had worked since his 1987 retirement from the NFL. Jennings was moved to the pregame show after the 2006 season and was replaced by Carl Banks, leaving broadcasting altogether in 2008 due to his ongoing battle with Parkinson's disease that he lost in 2013.
After WFAN began airing games Richard Neer served as pregame and postgame host. He was replaced by Sid Rosenberg, who was in turn fired by the station due to troubles and replaced by Chris Carlin. Carlin left in 2008 to focus full-time on his duties as SNY studio host and Rutgers athletics radio voice and was replaced by WWOR sports reporter and former WFAN host Russ Salzberg, who cohosted with Roman Oben after Jennings left. WEPN Giants beat reporter Paul Dottino was hired by WFAN to host the pregame show for 2009 and continues to be a part of the program. Anita Marks has hosted the pre- and post- game shows since 2010, co-hosting with Dottino for home games and Oben for away games.
The Giants were carried on the DuMont Network, then CBS (New York's Channel 2) in the early TV days of the NFL, when home games were blacked out within a 75-mile radius of New York City. Chris Schenkel was their play-by-play announcer in that early era when each team was assigned its own network voice on its regional telecasts. At the time, there were few if any true national telecasts until the NFL championship game, which was carried by NBC. Schenkel was joined by Jim McKay, later Johnny Lujack through the 1950s and the early 1960s. As Giants players retired to the broadcast booth in the early and 1960s, first Pat Summerall, then Frank Gifford took the color analyst slot next to Schenkel. As the 1970 merger of the NFL and AFL approached, CBS moved to a more generic announcer approach and Schenkel was off the broadcasts.
Giants regular-season Sunday telecasts moved to Fox when that network took over NFC telecasts in 1994 and are carried locally by WNYW.
WCBS-TV and WPIX were previously home to Giants preseason telecasts in the 1990s, with WPIX serving as the Giants' (and Jets') long time preseason home. After the NFC rights were lost by CBS, the Giants followed the conference's broadcast rights to WNYW. WWOR became the Giants' flagship TV station in the late '90s, and stayed so up until WNBC took over rights in 2005.
When the Giants first moved to WNYW, Mike Breen was their preseason play-by-play man. Sam Rosen was the television voice for some time afterward, except for two years when Curt Menefee (then of WNYW) was the voice. When the games moved to WWOR, Rosen regained the position and held it until 2004. Former Giant receiver Phil McConkey became the early season analyst after his retirement and stayed in the booth for many years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21757 |
New Malden
New Malden is a suburb of south-west London, England. It is located mainly within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, with a small part in the London Borough of Merton, and is from Charing Cross.
New Malden forms part of the Royal borough of Kingston upon Thames, a London borough. New Malden was once part of the historic county of Surrey. Neighbouring localities include Kingston upon Thames, Raynes Park, Surbiton, Tolworth, Wimbledon and Worcester Park.
New Malden was established entirely as a result of the arrival of the railway, when what is now called New Malden railway station was opened on 1 December 1846 on the main line from London Waterloo.
Building started slowly in the area just to the north of the station, gathering pace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with two- and three-bedroom terraced houses. Further out towards Coombe Hill are larger detached and semi-detached houses from the 1930s. The name of the road which leads up the hill to Coombe, Traps Lane, is thought to derive from a farm owned by a Mrs Trap. Following the opening of the Kingston bypass in 1927, the farms to its south progressively gave way to suburban development.
Two miles (3 km) to the south is the former village of Old Malden (from which New Malden gets its name) whose origins go back to Anglo-Saxon times, the name being Old English for "Mæl" + "duna" = "the cross on the hill".
Under the District Councils Act 1895, The Maldens & Coombe Urban District Council was created (the plural relating to Old Malden and New Malden). In 1936 Malden and Coombe was granted full Borough status, with its own Mayor, and had the rare distinction of a civic mace bearing the royal insignia of King Edward VIII.
New Malden suffered damage from German bombing during the Second World War. The first attack took place on 16 August 1940, killing about 50 people and damaging about 1,300 homes. After dropping approximately 150 bombs, German pilots reportedly flew over the railway station at low altitude and machine-gunned passengers as they got off a train that had just arrived at the railway station. Unexploded munitions from this period are still found on occasion.
In 1965, the London Government Act 1963 came into force merging the boroughs of Malden & Coombe and Surbiton with Kingston upon Thames to form the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.
New Malden is home to the offices of several large organisations, including Nestle Purina (until 2012 when Nestle moved its UK headquarters to Gatwick ) and Northrop Grumman.
On 7 June 2020, New Malden High Street was the site of a peaceful static protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Several hundred local residents lined the road for more than an hour to voice their support for anti-racism. At 1pm they kneeled for 8 minutes 46 seconds in memory of George Floyd.
New Malden is bounded to the north by the affluent Coombe Hill and to the south and east by Raynes Park, Worcester Park and Tolworth. New Malden includes Motspur Park, home to the training ground of Fulham FC, and also the King's College London sports ground, home to the training ground of AFC Wimbledon.
The busy A3 trunk road runs through part of New Malden. A minor tributary of the River Thames, Beverley Brook, flows through the east of the town, while its western boundary is along the Hogsmill, another Thames tributary.
The first parking meters were made in New Malden at Venners Ltd.
The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames has one of the largest expatriate communities of South Koreans in Europe, and is said to be one of the most densely populated areas of Koreans outside South Korea. According to different sources, as of 2014 there were about 10,000 ethnic Koreans in New Malden proper, and as of the same year the Korean population in the area around New Malden is around 20,000, including about 600 originating from North Korea, giving it the largest group of North Koreans in Europe. In the 2001 census, some small areas of New Malden had "Other Asian" (i.e., other than of Indian sub-continental origin, which also included Chinese) populations of "over 25%", though no whole ward reached over 20%. Many of the Koreans living in New Malden work for Korean companies, and they are either permanently settled and formerly expatriate, or they are still expatriates.
The New Malden area has Korean language churches and nursery schools as well as restaurants and shops with Korean clientele. New Malden functions as the shopping and cultural centre for a Korean population spread more widely across South-West London and the neighbouring counties. The area has Korean supermarkets, about 20 Korean restaurants and cafes, including those serving bulgogi. It also has a noraebang (Karaoke bar), and many other shops. The Korean language is visible on several shop signs. The original Embassy of South Korea was in New Malden, before moving to 60 Buckingham Gate in Westminster.
Some factors cited in "The Daily Telegraph" as reasons why the Korean community formed in New Malden included a 1950s joint venture partnership between a chaebol and Racal Avionics (formerly Decca), Lord Chancellor's Walk in Coombe Lane West previously serving as the residence of the Ambassador of South Korea to the United Kingdom, and Samsung Electronics having its UK offices in New Malden until they moved to their current location in Chertsey, Surrey in 2005. Many Koreans settled in New Malden in the 1970s due to the ambassador's location.
There is a Hindu Temple in the eastern part of Burlington Road.
New Malden has its own sports centre, the Malden Centre, which includes a swimming pool, gym and community facilities. It also runs several adult learning courses.
Beverley Park provides a football pitch, tennis courts, children's playground, allotments and open space.
Tudor Williams Ltd, established in 1913 but closed in 2019, was a family run department store in the High Street. The company also has shops in Cobham and Dorking and expanded by acquiring department stores Elphicks of Farnham in October 2004, and Knights of Reigate in September 2006. A branch of Waitrose is one of a number of other well known stores in the High Street.
The local newspapers are the "Surrey Comet" which has been in print since 1854, "Coombe Monthly", and the "Kingston Guardian".
A monthly publication, The Village Voice, covers local history, news, topical articles and advertisements for businesses serving the community.
There is an annual Malden Fortnight, which includes a parade showcasing all the local schools and community groups and various other activities.
Each Christmas the High Street is festooned with Christmas lights with its own switching-on ceremony. The choir from Christ Church School, in New Malden sing Christmas carols to the townsfolk.
For a small town it is more than proportionately blessed with winners of the Victoria Cross. Research recently published in the Village Voice revealed the existence of a previously unknown third medal winner – see Notable Residents below.
New Malden has its own youth theatre, the Green Theatre Company, established in 1986 in a converted cricket pavilion at Barton Green. Green Theatre Company
The area's last surviving cinema, the Odeon at Shannon Corner on the A3 was replaced by a large retail area including several large stores. The other cinema in the High Street (corner of Sussex Road) burnt down on Boxing Day 1936. There was also a silent cinema on Coombe Road by the station, which became the New Malden Gentlemen's Club in 1923; this closed in August 2010, and is now a Korean karaoke and pool bar.
New Malden also has its own "Dino-Golf" course, 18 holes of dinosaur themed crazy golf overlooking the A3, as well as a floodlit golf driving range.
In recent times New Malden played host to the biggest B&Q, Tesco and Currys. This Currys is the biggest electrical store in London. These are situated away from the High Street, which focuses more on smaller, more upmarket shops and restaurants.
New Malden railway station has services provided by South Western Railway to London Waterloo, Hampton Court, Kingston, Richmond and Shepperton. It is in London Zone 4. The Old Malden area is well served by trains from Malden Manor railway station, travelling north to London Waterloo and south to Chessington. Motspur Park railway station on the New Malden/Raynes Park borders also has rail connections to Chessington South, Epsom, Leatherhead and Dorking.
There are many routes of London Buses going through New Malden, including route 213 route going from Kingston towards Sutton, routes 131 and N87 going through Kingston Town Centre and Tooting Broadway (and Aldwych for the night bus) along with the X26 express bus to Croydon and Heathrow Airport, route 152 from New Malden towards Pollards Hill and route 265 towards Tolworth, Roehampton and Putney. The town also has a series of local bus routes, including K1 which goes to Kingston and New Malden station and K5 to Ham and Morden.
Notable former or current residents include:
New Malden also has links to a third recipient of the Victoria Cross, Humphrey Osbaldston Brooke Firman VC, whose parents lived in Coombe at the time of his death. A plaque bearing his name was unveiled on the war memorial in the High Street during April 2008 and a road in a new housing development near the High Street has been named Firman Close. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21765 |
Air Force Space Surveillance System
The AN/FPS-133 Air Force Space Surveillance System, colloquially known as the Space Fence, was a U.S. government multistatic radar system built to detect orbital objects passing over America. It is a component of the US space surveillance network, and according to the US Navy was able to detect basketball sized () objects at heights up to 30,000 km (15,000 nautical miles.)
The system ceased operation in September 2013. Plans for a new space fence are underway with sites at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, along with an option for another radar site in Western Australia.
The operation's headquarters were at Dahlgren, Virginia, and radar stations were spread out across the continental United States at roughly the level of the 33rd parallel north.
There were three transmitter sites in the system:
The master transmitter at Lake Kickapoo was said to be the most powerful continuous wave (CW) station in the world, at 768 kW radiated power on 216.97927 MHz.
When the system became operational in 1961, the original frequency was 108.50 MHz (just above the FM broadcast band). In 1965 the "Fence" system was modernized with the operating frequency doubled to 216.98 MHz (just above Channel 13 in the VHF TV broadcast band) to obtain higher resolution and to locate smaller objects. This frequency was used until the Fence was decommissioned in 2013. Fill-in transmitter sites at Gila River and Jordan Lake used offset frequencies listed above from the early 1990s to 2013 to help better detect which transmitter "illuminated" an object in space, as multiple transmitters could have illuminated the same object at the same time. Overhead imagery (see coordinates given above) of the Gila River and Jordan Lake sites shows the original design at the lower frequency.
There were six receiving stations:
The following receiving stations were placed in cold storage in April 2013:
The receiving stations at Elephant Butte and Hawkinsville were considered to be "High Altitude" stations with longer and more complex antenna systems that are designed to see targets at higher altitudes than the other four receiving stations.
Author Curtis Peebles notes that the original "Space Fence" or Space Surveillance System began operations in 1959. The system predated the formation of NORAD and was known as the U.S. Navy Space Surveillance System (or SPASUR or NAVSPASUR). From 1960 until the early 1990s the system was used in conjunction with a network of Baker-Nunn cameras that could see "an object the size of a basketball at 25,000 miles."
The system was formerly operated by the U.S. Navy for NORAD from 1961 until October 2004. Initially independent as NAVSPASUR, it was ran by Naval Space Command from 1993, and finally by Naval Network and Space Operations Command from 2002 until command was passed to the Air Force 20th Space Control Squadron on October 1, 2004.
In 2009, the operations and maintenance contract for the day-to-day management and operation of the Fence was awarded to Five Rivers Services, LLC, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On September 30, 2011, Five Rivers Services was awarded a $7,022,503 firm fixed price with cost reimbursable line items contract modification to manage, operate, maintain, and logistically support the nine Air Force Space Surveillance System field stations, presumably for Fiscal Year 2012.
The 850th Electronic Systems Group, Electronic Systems Center awarded 3 $30-million contracts to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon on 11 June 2009.
A new Space Fence is envisioned to be a system of two or three S-band ground-based radars designed to perform uncued detection, tracking and accurate measurement of orbiting space objects. The Space Fence is intended to replace the Air Force Space Surveillance System, or VHF Fence, that was transferred from the Navy to the Air Force in 2004. The shorter wavelength of the S-band Space Fence allows for detection of much smaller satellites and debris.
The February 10, 2009, collision of a US Iridium communications satellite (Iridium 33) and a Russian Cosmos 2251 communications satellite, which added hundreds more pieces of debris to the atmosphere, highlighted the need for more precise tracking of space objects.
Data collected from a new Space Fence's sensors would potentially feed into the Joint Space Operations Center Mission System, which is used to track objects orbiting the Earth, monitor space weather and assess foreign launches. Used by operators at the 614th Air and Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the 614 AOC's 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week support provides vigilance of global and theater operations and equips the Joint Functional Component Command for space operations with the tools to conduct command and control of space forces.
Plans to award the final contract had been stalled by U.S. budget sequestration in early 2013 and the AFSSS system was scheduled to be discontinued in October 2013 due to budget cuts.
On August 1, 2013, General William L. Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, directed that the Air Force Space Surveillance System (AFSSS) be closed and all sites vacated effective October 1, 2013. The main advantage of the system was its ability to provide uncued data on new objects as opposed to tracking objects based on existing information. However, the system was also said to be inherently inaccurate due to its dated design. Alternate operating modes for radars at Cavalier AFS and Eglin AFB were devised to fulfill the mission to provide uncued data for new objects. Shelton also noted the confusion between the planned new S-band space fence and the old UHF AFSSS, which was commonly called the "space fence". The AFSSS was turned off September first. "It appears they pulled the plug at 00:00 UT (6 am Local MDT) on September 1st," reports engineer Stan Nelson, who was monitoring the radar using an antenna in Roswell. The radar's final echoes came from a Russian satellite and a sporadic meteor." The shutdown only affects the original Space Fence, not the new one contracted to be built by Lockheed Martin for deployment in Australia and the Marshall Islands.
A new space fence at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands was declared operational on March 27, 2020.. In 2014 Lockheed Martin won the contract to build the new S band space fence system at Kwajelein with an option for another radar site in Western Australia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21768 |
Nominative case
The nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. Generally, the noun "that is doing something" is in the nominative, and the nominative is often the form listed in dictionaries.
Nominative comes from Latin "cāsus nominātīvus" "case for naming", which was translated from Ancient Greek ὀνομαστικὴ πτῶσις, "onomastikḗ ptôsis" "inflection for naming", from "onomázō" "call by name", from "ónoma" "name". Dionysius Thrax in his The Art of Grammar refers to it as "orthḗ" or "eutheîa" "straight", in contrast to the oblique or "bent" cases.
The reference form (more technically, the "least marked") of certain parts of speech is normally in the nominative case, but that is often not a complete specification of the reference form, as the number and the gender may need to be specified. Thus, the reference or least marked form of an adjective might be the nominative masculine singular.
The parts of speech that are often declined and therefore may have a nominative case are nouns, adjectives, pronouns and (less frequently) numerals and participles. The nominative case often indicates the subject of a verb but sometimes does not indicate any particular relationship with the other parts of a sentence. In some languages, the nominative case is unmarked, and it may then be said to be marked by a null morpheme. Moreover, in most languages with a nominative case, the nominative form is the lemma; that is, it is the reference form used to cite a word, to list it as a dictionary entry etc.
Nominative cases are found in Arabic, Estonian, Sanskrit, Slovak, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Georgian, German, Latin, Greek, Icelandic, Old English, Old French, Polish, Serbian, Czech, Romanian, Russian and Pashto, among other languages. English still retains some nominative pronouns, which are contrasted with the accusative (comparable to the oblique or disjunctive in some other languages): "I" (accusative "me"), "we" (accusative "us"), "he" (accusative "him"), "she" (accusative "her"), "they" (accusative "them") and "who" (accusative "whom"). A usage that is archaic in most current English dialects is the singular second-person pronoun "thou" (accusative "thee"). A special case is the word "you": originally, "ye" was its nominative form and "you" the accusative, but over time, "you" has come to be used for the nominative as well.
The term "nominative case" is most properly used in the discussion of nominative–accusative languages, such as Latin, Greek and most modern Western European languages.
In active–stative languages, there is a case, sometimes called nominative, that is the "most" marked case and is used for the subject of a transitive verb or a voluntary subject of an intransitive verb but not for an involuntary subject of an intransitive verb. Since such languages are a relatively new field of study, there is no standard name for this case.
English is now often described as having a subjective case, instead of a nominative, to draw attention to the differences between the "standard" generic nominative and the way that it is used in English. The term objective case is then used for the oblique case, which covers the roles of accusative, dative and objects of a preposition. The genitive case is then usually called the "possessive" form, rather than a noun case "per se". English is then said to have two cases: the subjective and the objective.
The nominative case marks the subject of a verb. When the verb is active, the nominative is the person or thing doing the action (agent); when the verb is passive, the nominative is the person or thing receiving the action.
In copular sentences, the nominative is used for both subject and predicate. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21774 |
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial terrestrial radio and television network that is the flagship property of the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with additional major offices near Los Angeles (at 10 Universal City Plaza), Chicago (at the NBC Tower) and Philadelphia (at the Comcast Technology Center). The network is one of the Big Three television networks. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network", in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting. It became the network's official emblem in 1979.
Founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. At that time the parent company of RCA was General Electric (GE). In 1932, GE was forced to sell RCA and NBC as a result of antitrust charges.
In 1986, control of NBC passed back to General Electric (GE) through its $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. GE immediately began to liquidate RCA's various divisions, but retained NBC. After the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright became chief executive officer of NBC; he would remain in that position until his retirement in 2007, when he was succeeded by Jeff Zucker.
In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, forming NBC Universal. Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electric's remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBCUniversal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke.
NBC has thirteen owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates throughout the United States and its territories, some of which are also available in Canada and/or Mexico via pay-television providers or in border areas over-the-air; NBC also maintains brand licensing agreements for international channels in South Korea and Germany.
During a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America (RCA) acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T). Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had a competing outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ (no relation to the radio and television station in Baltimore currently using those call letters), which also served as the flagship for a loosely structured network. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, and moved to New York City.
WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&T's manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&T's telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, using both wireless and wired methods. The 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a regular schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs, and was an immediate success. In an early example of "chain" or "networking" broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island; and with AT&T's station in Washington, D.C., WCAP.
New parent RCA saw an advantage in sharing programming, and after getting a license for radio station WRC in Washington, D.C., in 1923, attempted to transmit audio between cities via low-quality telegraph lines. AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the uninsulated telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric and other electrical interference.
In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its embryonic network were incompatible with the company's primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&T's phone lines for network transmission.
RCA spent $1 million to purchase WEAF and Washington sister station WCAP, shut down the latter station, and merged its facilities with surviving station WRC; in late 1926, it subsequently announced the creation of a new division known as the National Broadcasting Company. The division's ownership was split among RCA (a majority partner at 50%), its founding corporate parent General Electric (which owned 30%) and Westinghouse (which owned the remaining 20%). NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15, 1926.
WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side by side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On January 1, 1927, NBC formally divided their respective marketing strategies: the "Red Network" offered commercially sponsored entertainment and music programming; the "Blue Network" mostly carried sustaining – or non-sponsored – broadcasts, especially news and cultural programs. Various histories of NBC suggest the color designations for the two networks came from the color of the pushpins NBC engineers used to designate affiliate stations of WEAF (red) and WJZ (blue), or from the use of double-ended red and blue colored pencils.
On April 5, 1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network, also known as the Pacific Coast Network. This was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18, 1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network. Initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. In 1936, the Orange Network affiliate stations became part of the Red Network, and at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network.
In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, called the NBC White Network.
In 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown. NBC outgrew the Fifth Avenue facilities in 1933.
In 1930, General Electric was charged with antitrust violations, resulting in the company's decision to divest itself of RCA. The newly separate company signed leases to move its corporate headquarters into the new Rockefeller Center in 1931. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., founder and financier of Rockefeller Center, arranged the deal with GE chairman Owen D. Young and RCA president David Sarnoff. When it moved into the complex in 1933, RCA became the lead tenant at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, known as the "RCA Building" (later the GE Building, now the Comcast Building), which housed NBC's production studios as well as theaters for RCA-owned RKO Pictures.
The iconic three-note NBC chimes came about after several years of development. The three-note sequence, G-E'-C', was first heard over Red Network affiliate WSB in Atlanta, with a second inversion C-major triad as its outline. An executive at NBC's New York headquarters heard the WSB version of the notes during the networked broadcast of a Georgia Tech football game and asked permission to use it on the national network. NBC started to use the chimes sequence in 1931, and it eventually became the first audio trademark to be accepted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
A variant sequence with an additional note, G-E'-C'-G, known as "the fourth chime", was used during significant events of extreme urgency (including during World War II, especially in the wake of the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor; on D-Day and during disasters). The NBC chimes were mechanized in 1932 by Rangertone founder Richard H. Ranger; their purpose was to send a low-level signal of constant amplitude that would be heard by the various switching stations manned by NBC and AT&T engineers, and to be used as a system cue for switching individual stations between the Red and Blue network feeds. Contrary to popular legend, the G-E'-C' notes were not originally intended to reference to the General Electric Company (an early shareholder in NBC's founding parent RCA and whose Schenectady, New York radio station, WGY, was an early affiliate of NBC Red). The three-note sequence remains in use by the NBC television network, most notably incorporated into the John Williams-composed theme music used by NBC News, "The Mission" (first composed in 1985 for "NBC Nightly News").
In 1934, the Mutual Broadcasting System filed a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), following the government agency's creation, claiming it ran into difficulties trying to establish new radio stations in a market largely controlled by NBC and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). In 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the monopolistic effects of network broadcasting. A report published by the Commission in 1939 found that NBC's two networks and its owned-and-operated stations dominated audiences, affiliates and advertising in American radio; this led the Commission to file an order to RCA to divest itself of either NBC Red or NBC Blue.
After Mutual's appeals were rejected by the FCC, RCA filed its own appeal to overturn the divestiture order. However, in 1941, the company decided to sell NBC Blue in the event its appeal was denied. The Blue Network was formally named NBC Blue Network, Inc. and NBC Red became NBC Red Network, Inc. for corporate purposes. Both networks formally divorced their operations on January 8, 1942, with the Blue Network being referred to on-air as either "Blue" or "Blue Network", and Blue Network Company, Inc. serving as its official corporate name. NBC Red, meanwhile, became known on-air as simply "NBC". Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. placed a $7.5 million bid for NBC Blue, an offer that was rejected by NBC executive Mark Woods and RCA president David Sarnoff.
After losing on final appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court in May 1943, RCA sold Blue Network Company, Inc., for $8 million to the American Broadcasting System, a recently founded company owned by Life Savers magnate Edward J. Noble. After the sale was completed on October 12, 1943, Noble acquired the rights to the Blue Network name, leases on landlines, the New York studios, two-and-a-half radio stations (WJZ in Newark/New York City; KGO in San Francisco and WENR in Chicago, which shared a frequency with Prairie Farmer station WLS); contracts with actors; and agreements with around 60 affiliates. In turn, to comply with FCC radio station ownership limits of the time, Noble sold off his existing New York City radio station WMCA. Noble, who wanted a better name for the network, acquired the branding rights to the "American Broadcasting Company" name from George B. Storer in 1944. The Blue Network became ABC officially on June 15, 1945, after the sale was completed.
NBC became home to many of the most popular performers and programs on the air. Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Bob Hope, Fred Allen, and Burns and Allen called NBC home, as did Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra, which the network helped him create. Other programs featured on the network included "Vic and Sade", "Fibber McGee and Molly", "The Great Gildersleeve" (arguably broadcasting's first spin-off program, from "Fibber McGee"), "One Man's Family", "Ma Perkins" and "Death Valley Days". NBC stations were often the most powerful, and some occupied unique clear-channel national frequencies, reaching hundreds or thousands of miles at night.
In the late 1940s, rival CBS gained ground by allowing radio stars to use their own production companies to produce programs, which became a profitable move for much of its talent. In the early years of radio, stars and programs commonly hopped between networks when their short-term contracts expired. During 1948 and 1949, beginning with the nation's top radio star, Jack Benny, many NBC performers – including Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Burns and Allen and Frank Sinatra – jumped to CBS.
In addition, NBC stars began migrating to television, including comedian Milton Berle, whose "Texaco Star Theater" on the network became television's first major hit. Conductor Arturo Toscanini conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in ten television concerts on NBC between 1948 and 1952. The concerts were broadcast on both television and radio, in what perhaps was the first such instance of simulcasting. Two of the concerts were historic firsts – the first complete telecast of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and the first complete telecast of Verdi's "Aida" (starring Herva Nelli and Richard Tucker), performed in concert rather than with scenery and costumes.
Aiming to keep classic radio alive as television matured, and to challenge CBS's Sunday night radio lineup, which featured much of the programs and talent that had moved to that network following the defection of Jack Benny to CBS, NBC launched "The Big Show" in November 1950. This 90-minute variety show updated radio's earliest musical variety style with sophisticated comedy and dramatic presentations. Featuring stage legend Tallulah Bankhead as hostess, it lured prestigious entertainers, including Fred Allen, Groucho Marx, Lauritz Melchior, Ethel Barrymore, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Merman, Bob Hope, Danny Thomas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald. However, "The Big Show"s initial success did not last despite critical praise, as most of its potential listeners were increasingly becoming television viewers. The show lasted two years, with NBC losing around $1 million on the project (the network was only able to sell advertising time during the middle half-hour of the program each week).
NBC's last major radio programming push, beginning on June 12, 1955, was "Monitor", a creation of NBC President Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, who also created the innovative programs "Today", "The Tonight Show" and "Home" for the companion television network. "Monitor" was a continuous all-weekend mixture of music, news, interviews, and features, with a variety of hosts including well-known television personalities Dave Garroway, Hugh Downs, Ed McMahon, Joe Garagiola, and Gene Rayburn. The potpourri show tried to keep vintage radio alive by featuring segments from Jim and Marian Jordan (in character as Fibber McGee and Molly); Peg Lynch's dialog comedy "Ethel and Albert" (with Alan Bunce); and iconoclastic satirist Henry Morgan. "Monitor" was a success for a number of years, but after the mid-1960s, local stations, especially those in larger markets, were reluctant to break from their established formats to run non-conforming network programming. One exception was "Toscanini: The Man Behind the Legend", a weekly series commemorating the great conductor's NBC broadcasts and recordings which ran for several years beginning in 1963. After "Monitor" ended its 20-year run on January 26, 1975, little remained of NBC network radio beyond hourly newscasts and news features, and Sunday morning religious program "The Eternal Light".
On June 18, 1975, NBC launched the NBC News and Information Service (NIS), which provided up to 55 minutes of news per hour around the clock to local stations that wanted to adopt an all-news radio format. NBC carried the service on WRC in Washington, and on its owned-and-operated FM stations in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. NIS attracted several dozen subscribing stations, but by the fall of 1976, NBC determined that it could not project that the service would ever become profitable and gave its affiliates six months' notice that it would be discontinued. NIS ended operations on May 29, 1977. In 1979, NBC launched The Source, a modestly successful secondary network providing news and short features to FM rock stations.
The NBC Radio Network also pioneered personal advice call-in national talk radio with a satellite-distributed evening talk show, TalkNet; the program featured Bruce Williams (providing personal financial advice), Bernard Meltzer (personal and financial advice) and Sally Jessy Raphael (personal and romantic advice). While never much of a ratings success, TalkNet nonetheless helped further the national talk radio format. For affiliates, many of them struggling AM stations, TalkNet helped fill evening time slots with free programming, allowing the stations to sell local advertising in a dynamic format without the cost associated with producing local programming. Some in the industry feared this trend would lead to increasing control of radio content by networks and syndicators.
General Electric acquired RCA in 1986, and with it NBC, signaling the beginning of the end of NBC Radio. Three factors led to the radio division's demise: GE decided that radio did not fit its strategy, while the radio division had not been profitable for many years. In addition, FCC ownership rules at the time prevented companies acquiring broadcast properties from owning both a radio and television division. In the summer of 1987, GE sold NBC Radio's network operations to Westwood One, and sold off the NBC-owned stations to various buyers. By 1990, the NBC Radio Network as an independent programming service had been dissolved, becoming a brand name for content produced by Westwood One, and ultimately by CBS Radio. The Mutual Broadcasting System, which Westwood One had acquired two years earlier, met the same fate, and essentially merged with NBC Radio.
GE's divestiture of NBC's entire radio division was the first cannon shot of what would play out in the national broadcast media, as each of the Big Three broadcast networks were soon acquired by other corporate entities. NBC was a particularly noteworthy case in that it was the first to be acquired – and was bought by a conglomerate "outside" the broadcast industry as GE otherwise primarily served as a manufacturing company. Prior to the GE acquisition, NBC operated its radio division partly out of tradition, and partly to meet its then-FCC-mandated requirement to distribute programming for the public good (the broadcast airwaves are owned by the public; as that broadcast spectrum is limited and only so many broadcast stations existed, this served as the basis for government regulation requiring broadcasters to provide certain content that meets the needs of the public). Syndicators such as Westwood One were not subject to such rules as they did not own any stations. GE's divestiture of NBC Radio – known as "America's First Network" – in many ways marked the "beginning of the end" of the old era of regulated broadcasting and the ushering in of the new, largely unregulated industry that is present today.
By the late 1990s, Westwood One was producing NBC Radio-branded newscasts on weekday mornings. These were discontinued in 1999 (along with Mutual branded newscasts), and the few remaining NBC Radio Network affiliates became affiliates of CNN Radio, carrying the Westwood-owned service's hourly newscasts 24 hours a day. In 2003, Westwood One began distributing NBC News Radio, a new service featuring minute-long news updates read by television anchors and reporters from NBC News and MSNBC, with content written by Westwood One employees.
On March 1, 2012, Dial Global announced that it would discontinue CNN Radio, and replace it with an expansion of NBC News Radio on April 1, 2012. This marked the first time since Westwood One's purchase of NBC Radio and its properties that NBC would have a 24-hour presence on radio. A previous program, "First Light", placed new emphasis on the NBC brand after diminishing it over the years. With the change, NBC News Radio expanded its offerings from 60-second news updates airing only on weekdays to feature two hourly full-length newscasts 24 hours a day. Subsequently, on September 4, 2012, Dial Global launched a sports-talk radio service, NBC Sports Radio.
NBC News Radio has been distributed by iHeartMedia and its TTWN Networks since July 2016. It is provided to the network's 24/7 News Source affiliates and includes a top of the hour newscast along with other audio content which is heard on over 1000 radio stations.
For many years, NBC was closely identified with David Sarnoff, who used it as a vehicle to sell consumer electronics. RCA and Sarnoff had captured the spotlight by introducing all-electronic television to the public at the 1939–40 New York World's Fair, simultaneously initiating a regular schedule of programs on the NBC-RCA television station in New York City. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared at the fair before the NBC camera, becoming the first U.S. president to appear on television on April 30, 1939 (an actual, off-the-monitor photograph of the FDR telecast is available at the David Sarnoff Library). The broadcast was transmitted by NBC's New York television station W2XBS Channel 1 (later WNBC-TV; now WNBC, channel 4) and was seen by about 1,000 viewers within the station's roughly coverage area from its transmitter at the Empire State Building.
The following day (May 1), four models of RCA television sets went on sale to the general public in various department stores around New York City, which were promoted in a series of splashy newspaper ads. DuMont Laboratories (and others) had actually offered the first home sets in 1938 in anticipation of NBC's announced April 1939 television launch. Later in 1939, NBC took its cameras to professional football and baseball games in the New York City area, establishing many "firsts" in television broadcasting.
Reportedly, the first NBC Television "network" program was broadcast on January 12, 1940, when a play titled "Meet The Wife" was originated at the W2XBS studios at Rockefeller Center and rebroadcast by W2XB/W2XAF (now WRGB) in Schenectady, which received the New York station directly off-air from a tower atop a mountain and relayed the live signal to the Capital District. About this time, occasional special events were also broadcast in Philadelphia (over W3XE, later called WPTZ, now known as KYW-TV) as well as Schenectady. The most ambitious NBC television "network" program of the pre-war era was the telecast of the Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia in the summer of 1940, which was fed live to the New York City and Schenectady stations. However, despite major promotion by RCA, television sales in New York from 1939 to 1942 were disappointing, primarily due to the high cost of the sets, and the lack of compelling regularly scheduled programming. During this period, less than 8,000 television sets were sold in the New York area, most of which were sold to bars, hotels and other public places, where the general public viewed special sports and news events. One special event was Franklin D. Roosevelt's second and final appearance on live television, when his speech at Madison Square Garden on October 28, 1940, was telecast over W2XBS to receivers in the New York City area.
Television's experimental period ended, as the FCC allowed full-fledged commercial television broadcasts to begin on July 1, 1941. NBC station W2XBS in New York City received the first commercial license, adopting the call letters WNBT. The first official, paid television advertisement broadcast by any U.S. station was for watch manufacturer Bulova, which aired that day, just before the start of a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball telecast on WNBT. The ad consisted of test pattern, featuring the newly assigned WNBT call letters, which was modified to resemble a clock – complete with functioning hands – with the Bulova logo (featuring the phrase "Bulova Watch Time") in the lower right-hand quadrant of the test pattern (a photograph of the NBC camera setting up the test pattern-advertisement for that ad can be seen at this page). Among the programs that aired during the first week of WNBT's new, commercial schedule was "The Sunoco News", a simulcast of the Sun Oil-sponsored NBC Radio program anchored by Lowell Thomas; amateur boxing at Jamaica Arena; the Eastern Clay Courts tennis championships; programming from the USO; the spelling bee-type game show "Words on the Wing"; a few feature films; and a one-time-only, test broadcast of the game show "Truth or Consequences", sponsored by Lever Brothers.
Prior to the first commercial television broadcasts and paid advertisements on WNBT, non-paid television advertising existed on an experimental basis dating back to 1930. NBC's earliest non-paid television commercials may have been those seen during the first Major League Baseball game ever telecast, between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds, on August 26, 1939 over W2XBS. In order to secure the rights to televise the game, NBC allowed each of the Dodgers' regular radio sponsors at the time to have one commercial during the telecast. The ads were conducted by Dodgers announcer Red Barber: for Ivory Soap, he held up a bar of the product; for Mobilgas he put on a filling station attendant's cap while giving his spiel; and for Wheaties he poured a bowl of the product, added milk and bananas, and took a big spoonful. Limited, commercial programming continued until the U.S. entered World War II. Telecasts were curtailed in the early years of the war, then expanded as NBC began to prepare for full-time service upon the end of the war. Even before the war concluded, a few programs were sent from New York City to affiliated stations in Philadelphia (WPTZ) and Albany/Schenectady (WRGB) on a regular weekly schedule beginning in 1944, the first of which is generally considered to be the pioneering special interest/documentary show "The Voice of Firestone Televues", a television offshoot of "The Voice of Firestone", a mainstay on NBC radio since 1928, which was transmitted from New York City to Philadelphia and Schenectady on a regular, weekly basis beginning on April 10, 1944. The series is considered to be the NBC television network's first regularly scheduled program.
On V-E Day, May 8, 1945, WNBT broadcast several hours of news coverage and remotes from around New York City. This event was promoted in advance by NBC with a direct-mail card sent to television set owners in the New York area. At one point, a WNBT camera placed atop the marquee of the Hotel Astor panned the crowd below celebrating the end of the war in Europe. The vivid coverage was a prelude to television's rapid growth after the war ended.
The NBC television network grew from its initial post-war lineup of four stations. The 1947 World Series featured two New York City area teams (the Yankees and the Dodgers), and television sales boomed locally, since the games were being telecast in the New York market. Additional stations along the East Coast and in the Midwest were connected by coaxial cable through the late 1940s, and in September 1951 the first transcontinental telecasts took place.
The post-war 1940s and early 1950s brought success for NBC in the new medium. Television's first major star, Milton Berle, whose "Texaco Star Theatre" began in June 1948, drew the first large audiences to NBC Television. Under its innovative president, Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, the network launched "Today" and "The Tonight Show", which would bookend the broadcast day for over 50 years, and which still lead their competitors. Weaver, who also launched the genre of periodic 90-minute network "spectaculars", network-produced motion pictures and the live 90-minute Sunday afternoon series "Wide Wide World", left the network in 1955 in a dispute with its chairman David Sarnoff, who subsequently named his son Robert Sarnoff as president.
In 1951, NBC commissioned Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti to compose the first opera ever written for television; Menotti came up with "Amahl and the Night Visitors", a 45-minute work for which he wrote both music and libretto, about a disabled shepherd boy who meets the Three Wise Men and is miraculously cured when he offers his crutch to the newborn Christ Child. It was such a stunning success that it was repeated every year on NBC from 1951 to 1966, when a dispute between Menotti and NBC ended the broadcasts. However, by 1978, Menotti and NBC had patched things up, and an all-new production of the opera, filmed partly on location in the Middle East, was telecast that year.
While rival CBS broadcast the first color television programs in the United States, their system was incompatible with the millions of black and white sets in use at the time. After a series of limited, incompatible color broadcasts (mostly scheduled during the day), CBS abandoned the system and broadcasts. This opened the door for the RCA compatible color system to be adopted as the U.S. standard. RCA convinced the FCC to approve its color system in December 1953. NBC was ready with color programming within days of the Commission's decision. NBC began the transition with a few shows in 1954, and broadcast its first program to air all episodes in color beginning that summer, "The Marriage".
In 1955, NBC broadcast a live production in color of "Peter Pan", a new Broadway musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's beloved play, on the "Producers' Showcase" anthology series, The first such telecast of its kind, the broadcast starred the musical's entire original cast, led by Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard in a dual role as Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. The broadcast drew the highest ratings for a television program for that period. It was so successful that NBC restaged it as a live broadcast a mere ten months later; in 1960, long after "Producers' Showcase" had ended its run, "Peter Pan", with most of the 1955 cast, was restaged again, this time as a standalone special, and was videotaped so that it would no longer have to be performed live on television.
In 1956, NBC started a subsidiary, California National Productions (CNP), for merchandising, syndication and NBC opera company operations with the production of Silent Services. By 1957, NBC planned to remove the opera company from CNP and CNP was in discussion with MGM Television about handling syndication distribution for MGM series.
During a National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Chicago in 1956, NBC announced that its owned-and-operated station in that market, WNBQ (now WMAQ-TV), had become the first television station in the country to broadcast its programming in color (airing at least six hours of color broadcasts each day). In 1959, NBC premiered a televised version of the radio program "The Bell Telephone Hour", which aired in color from its debut; the program would continue on the NBC television network for nine more years until it ended in 1968.
In 1961, NBC approached Walt Disney about acquiring the rights to his anthology series, offering to produce the program in color. Disney was in the midst of negotiating a new contract to keep the program (then known as "Walt Disney Presents") on ABC, however ABC president Leonard Goldenson said that it could not counter the offer, as the network did not have the technical and financial resources to carry the program in color. Disney subsequently struck a deal with NBC, which began airing the anthology series in the format in September 1961 (as "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color"). As many of the Disney programs that aired in black-and-white on ABC were actually filmed in color, they could easily be re-aired in the format on the NBC broadcasts. In January 1962, NBC's telecast of the Rose Bowl became the first college football game ever to be telecast in color.
By 1963, much of NBC's prime time schedule was presented in color, although some popular series (such as "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", which premiered in late 1964) were broadcast in black-and-white for their entire first season. In the fall of 1965, NBC was broadcasting 95% of its prime time schedule in color (with the exceptions of "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Convoy"), and began billing itself as "The Full Color Network." Without television sets to sell, rival networks followed more slowly, finally committing to an all-color lineup in prime time in the 1966–67 season. "Days of Our Lives" became the first soap opera to premiere in color, when it debuted in November 1965.
NBC contracted with Universal Studios in 1964 to produce the first feature-length film produced for television, "See How They Run", which first aired on October 17, 1964; its second television movie, "The Hanged Man", aired six weeks later on November 28. Even while the presentations performed well in the ratings, NBC did not broadcast another made-for-TV film for two years.
In 1967, NBC reached a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to acquire the broadcast rights to the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz". CBS, which had televised the film annually since 1956, refused to meet MGM's increased fee to renew its television rights. "Oz" had been, up to then, one of the few programs that CBS had telecast in color. However, by 1967, color broadcasts had become standard on television, and the film simply became another title in the list of specials that NBC telecast in the format. The film's showings on NBC were distinctive as it televised "The Wizard of Oz" without a hosted introduction, as CBS had long done; it was also slightly edited for time in order to make room to air more commercials. Despite the cuts, however, it continued to score excellent television ratings in those pre-VCR days, as audiences were generally unable to see the film any other way at that time. NBC aired "The Wizard of Oz" each year from 1968 to 1976, when CBS, realizing that they may have committed a colossal blunder by letting a huge ratings success like "Oz" go to another network, agreed to pay MGM more money to re-acquire the rights to show the film.
The late 1960s brought big changes in the programming practices of the major television networks. As baby boomers reached adulthood, NBC, CBS, and ABC began to realize that much of their existing programming had not only been running for years but had audiences that skewed older. In order to attract the large youth population that was highly attractive to advertisers, the networks moved to clean house of a number of veteran shows. In NBC's case, this included programs like "The Bell Telephone Hour" and "Sing Along With Mitch", which both had an average viewer age of 50. During this period, the networks came to define adults between the ages of 18 and 49 as their main target audience, although depending on the show, this could be subdivided into other age demos: 35–45, 18–25 or 18–35. Regardless of the exact target demographic, the general idea was to appeal to viewers who were not close to retirement age and to modernize television programming, which the networks felt overall was stuck in a 1950s mentality, to closely resemble contemporary American society.
The 1970s started strongly for NBC thanks to hits like "Adam-12", "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", "Ironside", "The Dean Martin Show", and "The Flip Wilson Show"; however, despite the success of such new shows as the "NBC Mystery Movie", "Sanford and Son", "Chico and the Man", "Little House on the Prairie", "The Midnight Special", "The Rockford Files", "Police Woman", and "Emergency!", as well as continued success from veterans like "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" and "The Wonderful World of Disney", the network entered a slump in the middle of the decade. "Disney", in particular, saw its ratings nosedive once CBS put "60 Minutes" up against the program in the Sunday 7:00 p.m. time slot in the 1975–76 season.
In 1974, under new president Herb Schlosser, the network tried to attract younger viewers with a series of costly movies, miniseries and specials. This failed to attract the desirable 18–34 demographic, and simultaneously alienated older viewers. None of the new prime-time shows that NBC introduced in the fall of 1975 earned a second season renewal, all failing in the face of established competition. The network's lone breakout success that season was the groundbreaking late-night comedy/variety show, "NBC's Saturday Night" – which would be renamed "Saturday Night Live" in 1976, after the cancellation of a Howard Cosell-hosted program of the same title on ABC – which replaced reruns of "The Tonight Show" that previously aired in its Saturday time slot.
In 1978, Schlosser was promoted to executive vice president at RCA, and a desperate NBC lured Fred Silverman away from top-rated ABC to turn its fortunes around. With the notable exceptions of "CHiPs", "Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters", "Diff'rent Strokes" (and its spin-off "The Facts of Life"), "Real People", and the miniseries "Shōgun", Silverman was unable to pull out a hit. Failures accumulated rapidly under his watch (such as "Hello, Larry", "Supertrain", "Pink Lady and Jeff", "The Krofft Superstar Hour", season six of "Saturday Night Live", and "The Waverly Wonders"). Many of them were beaten in the ratings by shows that Silverman had greenlit during his previous tenures at CBS and ABC.
During this time, several longtime affiliates also defected from NBC in markets such as Atlanta (WSB-TV), Baltimore (WBAL-TV), Baton Rouge (WBRZ-TV), Charlotte (WSOC-TV), Columbia (KOMU-TV), Dayton (WDTN), Indianapolis (WRTV), Jacksonville (WTLV), Minneapolis-St. Paul (KSTP-TV), San Diego (KGTV), Schenectady (WRGB), and Wheeling (WTRF-TV). Most of these stations were wooed away by ABC, which had lifted out of last place to become the #1 network during the late 1970s and early 1980s, while WBAL-TV, WRGB, and WTRF-TV went to CBS; ABC had originally considered aligning with WBAL, but the station decided against it because ABC's evening newscasts had attracted ratings too dismal for them to consider doing so. In the case of WSB-TV and WSOC-TV, which have both since become ABC affiliates, both stations were (and remain) under common ownership with Cox Enterprises, with its other NBC affiliate at the time, WIIC-TV in Pittsburgh (which would become WPXI in 1981 and also remains owned by Cox), only staying with the network because WIIC-TV itself was a distant third to CBS-affiliated powerhouse KDKA-TV and ABC affiliate WTAE-TV (KDKA-TV, owned at the time by Group W and now owned by CBS, infamously passed up affiliating with NBC after Westinghouse bought the station from DuMont in 1954, leading to an acrimonious relationship between NBC and Westinghouse that lasted for years afterward). In markets such as San Diego, Charlotte, and Jacksonville, NBC had little choice but to affiliate with a UHF station, with the San Diego station (KNSD) eventually becoming an NBC O&O. In Wheeling, NBC ultimately upgraded its affiliation when it partnered with WTOV-TV in nearby Steubenville, Ohio, overtaking former affiliate WTRF-TV in the ratings by a large margin. Other smaller television markets like Yuma, Arizona waited many years to get another local NBC affiliate (first with KIVA, and later KYMA). The stations in Baltimore, Columbia, Dayton, and Jacksonville, however, have since rejoined the network.
After President Jimmy Carter pulled the U.S. team out of the 1980 Summer Olympics, NBC canceled a planned 150 hours of coverage (which had cost $87 million for the broadcast rights), placing the network's future in doubt. It had been counting on the broadcasts to help promote its new fall shows, and had been estimated to pull in $170 million in advertising revenue.
The press was merciless towards Silverman, but the two most savage attacks on his leadership came from within the network. The company that composed the promotional theme for NBC's "Proud as a Peacock" image campaign created a parody song called "Loud as a Peacock", which was broadcast on Don Imus' program on WNBC radio in New York. Its lyrics blamed Silverman for the network's problems ("The Peacock's dead, so thank you, Fred"). An angered Silverman ordered all remaining copies of the spoof destroyed, though technology eventually allowed its wide propagation to the Internet in later generations from a few remaining copies. "Saturday Night Live" writer and occasional performer Al Franken satirized Silverman in a sketch on the program titled "A Limo For A Lame-O", where he presented a chart with the top-10 rated programs for that season and commented that there was "not one "N"" on the list. Silverman later admitted he "never liked Al Franken to begin with", and the sketch ruined Franken's chance of succeeding Lorne Michaels as executive producer of "SNL" following his 1980 departure (with the position going to Jean Doumanian, who was fired after one season following declining ratings and negative critical reviews. Michaels would later return to the show in 1985).
Fred Silverman resigned as entertainment president in the summer of 1981. Grant Tinker, a highly regarded producer who co-founded MTM Enterprises with his former wife Mary Tyler Moore, became the president of the network while Brandon Tartikoff became the president of the entertainment division. Tartikoff inherited a schedule full of aging dramas and very few sitcoms, but showed patience with promising programs. One such show was the critically acclaimed "Hill Street Blues", which suffered from poor ratings during its first season. Rather than canceling the show, he moved the Emmy Award-winning police drama from Steven Bochco to Thursdays, where its ratings improved dramatically. He used the same tactics with "St. Elsewhere" and "Cheers". Shows like these were able to get the same ad revenue as their higher-rated competition because of their desirable demographics, upscale adults ages 18–34. While the network claimed moderate successes with "Gimme a Break!", "Silver Spoons", "Knight Rider", and "Remington Steele", its biggest hit during this period was "The A-Team", which, at 10th place, was the network's only program to rank in the Nielsen Top-20 for the 1982–83 season, and ascended to fourth place the following year. These shows helped NBC through the disastrous 1983–84 season, which saw none of its nine new fall shows gaining a second year.
In February 1982, NBC canceled Tom Snyder's "The Tomorrow Show" and gave the 12:35 a.m. time slot to 34-year-old comedian David Letterman. Though Letterman was unsuccessful with his weekday morning talk show effort for the network (which debuted on June 23, 1980), "Late Night with David Letterman" proved much more successful, lasting for 11 years and serving as the launching pad for another late-night talk franchise that continues to this day.
In 1984, the huge success of "The Cosby Show" led to a renewed interest in sitcoms, while "Family Ties" and "Cheers", both of which premiered in 1982 to mediocre ratings (the latter ranking at near dead last among all network shows during the 1982–83 season), saw their viewership increase from having "Cosby" as a lead-in. The network rose from third place to second in the ratings during the 1984–85 season and reached first place in 1985–86, with hits "The Golden Girls", "Miami Vice", "227", "Night Court", "Highway to Heaven" and "Hunter". The network's upswing continued late into the decade with "ALF", "Amen", "Matlock", "L.A. Law", "The Hogan Family", "A Different World", "Empty Nest", "Unsolved Mysteries" and "In the Heat of the Night". In 1986, Bob Wright was appointed as chairman of NBC.
In the fall of 1987, NBC conceived a syndication package for its owned-and-operated stations, under the brand "Prime Time Begins at 7:30", consisting of five sitcoms that each aired once a week, and were produced by various production companies contracted by NBC. The series included "Marblehead Manor" (from Paramount Television, airing Mondays), centering on a mansion owner and the people who live with him; "She's the Sheriff" (from Lorimar-Telepictures and airing Tuesdays), a comeback vehicle for Suzanne Somers which cast her as a widowed county sheriff; a series adapted from the George S. Kaufman play "You Can't Take It with You" (airing Wednesdays), starring Harry Morgan; "Out of This World" (from MCA Television and airing Thursdays), which starred Maureen Flannigan as a teenager born to an alien father and human mother that develops supernatural abilities on her 15th birthday; and a revival of the short-lived 1983 NBC series "We Got It Made" (produced by Fred Silverman for MGM Television and closing out the week on Fridays), as part of an ongoing trend at the time in which former network series were revived in first-run syndication.
The package was aimed at attracting viewers to NBC stations in the half-hour preceding prime time (8:00 p.m. in the Eastern and Pacific Time Zone, 7:00 p.m. elsewhere), and was conceived as a result of the FCC's loosening of the Prime Time Access Rule, legislation passed in 1971 that required networks to turn over the 7:30 p.m. (Eastern) time slot to local stations to program local or syndicated content; and the relaxation of the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, which had prevented networks from producing content from their own syndication units to fill the void. The shows that were part of the package were regularly outrated in many markets by such syndicated game shows as "Wheel of Fortune", "Jeopardy!" and "Hollywood Squares". "Marblehead Manor", "We Got It Made" and "You Can't Take It With You" were cancelled at the end of the 1987–88 season, with "She's the Sheriff" lasting one more season in weekend syndication before its cancellation. "Out of This World" ran for three additional seasons, airing mainly on weekends, and was the most successful of the five series.
NBC aired the first of eight consecutive Summer Olympic Games broadcasts when it covered the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea. The 1988–89 season saw NBC have an astounding 17 series in Nielsen's year-end Top 30 most-watched network programs; it also ranked at first place in the weekly ratings for more than 12 months, an unprecedented achievement that has not been duplicated since. 1989 however, also served as NBC's final year of covering Major League Baseball (the primary package would move over to CBS for the next four years before NBC regained the rights), having done so in some shape or form since 1947. Nevertheless, the network continued its hot streak into the early 1990s with new hits such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", "Blossom" and "Law & Order".
In 1991, Tartikoff left his role as NBC's President of Entertainment to take an executive position at Paramount Pictures. In the course of a decade, he had taken control of a network with no shows in the Nielsen Top 10 and left it with five. Tartikoff was succeeded by Warren Littlefield, whose first years as entertainment president proved shaky as a result of most of the Tartikoff-era hits ending their runs. Some blamed Littlefield for losing David Letterman to CBS after naming Jay Leno as the successor to Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show", following the latter's retirement as host in May 1992. Things turned around with the launches of new hit series such as "Mad About You", "Wings", "Sisters", "Frasier", "Friends", "ER" and "Will & Grace".
One of Tartikoff's late acquisitions, "Seinfeld" initially struggled from its debut in 1989 as a summer series, but grew to become one of NBC's top-rated shows after it was moved to Thursdays in the time slot following "Cheers". "Seinfeld" ended its run in 1998, becoming the latest overall television program in the U.S. to end its final season as the leader in the Nielsen ratings for a single television season. Only two other shows had finished their runs at the top of the ratings, "I Love Lucy" and "The Andy Griffith Show". Consequently, "Friends" emerged as NBC's biggest television show after the 1998 "Seinfeld" final broadcast. It dominated the ratings, never leaving the top five watched shows of the year from its second through tenth seasons and landing on the number-one spot during season eight in the 2001–02 season as the latest sitcom in the U.S. to lead the annual Nielsen primetime television ratings. "Cheers" spinoff "Frasier" became a critical and commercial success, usually landing in the Nielsen Top 20 – although its ratings were overshadowed to a minor extent by "Friends" – and went on to win numerous Emmy Awards (eventually setting a record for a sitcom that lasted until it was overtaken by "Modern Family" in 2014). In 1994, the network began branding its strong Thursday night lineup, mainly in reference to the comedies airing in the first two hours, under the "Must See TV" tagline (which during the mid- and late 1990s, was also applied to NBC's comedy blocks on other nights, particularly on Tuesdays).
Between September 1994 and September 1996, NBC would affiliate with several stations that were affected by the 1994–96 United States broadcast TV realignment, which was triggered as a result of Fox's acquisition of rights to the NFL in December 1993. Several of those stations, including WBAL-TV, WHDH (Boston), and WCAU (Philadelphia), were involved in an affiliation deal between Westinghouse Broadcasting and CBS.
By the mid-1990s, NBC's sports division, headed by Dick Ebersol, had rights to three of the four major professional sports leagues (the NFL, Major League Baseball and the NBA), the Olympics, and the national powerhouse Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. The "NBA on NBC" enjoyed great success in the 1990s due in large part to the Chicago Bulls' run of six championships at the hands of superstar Michael Jordan. However, NBC Sports would suffer a major blow in 1998, when it lost the rights to the American Football Conference (AFC) to CBS, which itself had lost rights to the National Football Conference (NFC) to Fox four years earlier; the deal stripped NBC of National Football League (NFL) game telecasts after 59 years and AFC games after 36 years (dating back to its existence as the American Football League prior to its 1970 merger with the NFL).
Littlefield left NBC in 1998 to pursue a career as a television and film producer, with the network subsequently going through three entertainment presidents in three years. Littlefield was replaced as president of NBC Entertainment by Scott Sassa, who oversaw the development of such shows as "The West Wing", "" and "Fear Factor". After Sassa was reassigned to NBC's West Coast Division, Garth Ancier was named as his replacement in 1999. Jeff Zucker then succeeded Ancier as president of NBC Entertainment in 2000.
At the start of the 2000s, NBC's fortunes started to take a rapid turn for the worse. That year, NBC's longstanding ratings lead ended as CBS (which had languished in the ratings after losing the NFL) overtook it for first place. In 2001, CBS chose to move its hit reality series "Survivor" to serve as the anchor of its Thursday night lineup. Its success was taken as a suggestion that NBC's nearly two decades of dominance on Thursday nights could be broken; even so, the strength of "Friends", "Will & Grace", "ER" and "Just Shoot Me!" (the latter of which saw its highest viewership following its move to that night in the 2000–01 season) helped the network continue to lead the Thursday ratings. Overall, NBC retook its first place lead that year, and spent much of the next four years (with the exception of the 2002–03 season, when it was briefly jumped again by CBS for first) in the top spot.
On the other hand, NBC was stripped of the broadcast rights to two other major sports leagues: it lost Major League Baseball to Fox after the 2000 season (by that point, NBC only had alternating rights to the All-Star Game, League Championship Series and World Series), and, later, the NBA to ABC after the 2001–02 season. After losing the NBA rights, NBC's major sports offerings were reduced to the Olympics (which in 2002, expanded to include rights to the Winter Olympics, as part of a contract that gave it the U.S. television rights to both the Summer and Winter Olympics through 2012), PGA Tour golf events and a floundering Notre Dame football program (however, it would eventually acquire the rights to the National Hockey League in May 2004).
In October 2001, NBC acquired Spanish-language network Telemundo from Liberty Media and Sony Pictures Entertainment for $2.7 billion, beating out other bidders including CBS/Viacom. The deal was finalized in 2002.
In 2003, French entertainment conglomerate Vivendi Universal sold 80% of its film and television subsidiary, Vivendi Universal Entertainment, to NBC's parent company, General Electric, integrating the network with Vivendi Universal's various properties (Universal Pictures film studio, Canal+ television networks, & Universal Parks & Resorts theme & amusement parks & resorts) upon completion of the merger of the two companies under the combined NBC Universal brand. NBC Universal was then owned 80% by General Electric and 20% by Vivendi. In 2004, Zucker was promoted to the newly created position of president of NBC Universal Television Group. Kevin Reilly became the new president of NBC Entertainment.
In 2004, NBC experienced a Three on a match scenario ("Friends" and "Frasier" ended their runs; Jerry Orbach, who had played one of the most popular characters of its hit "Law & Order", died suddenly later that year), and shortly afterward was left with several moderately rated shows and few true hits. In particular, "Friends" spin-off "Joey", despite a relatively strong start, started to falter in the ratings during its second season. The 2004–05 season saw NBC become the first major network to air select dramas in letterbox over its analog broadcast feed; the move was done in the hopes of attracting new viewers, although the network saw only a slight boost.
In December 2005, NBC began its first week-long primetime game show event, "Deal or No Deal"; the series garnered high ratings, and returning as a weekly series in March 2006. Otherwise, the 2005–06 season was one of the worst for NBC in three decades, with only one fall series, the sitcom "My Name Is Earl", surviving for a second season; the sole remaining anchor of the "Must See TV" lineup, "Will & Grace" also saw its ratings decline. That season, NBC's ratings fell to fourth place, behind a resurgent ABC, Fox (which would eventually become the most-watched U.S. broadcast network in the 2007–08 season), and top-rated CBS (which led for much of the remainder of the decade). During this time, all of the networks faced audience erosion from increased competition by cable television, home video, video games, and the Internet, with NBC being the hardest hit.
The 2006–07 season was a mixed bag for the network, with "Deal or No Deal" remaining strong and "Heroes" becoming a surprise hit on Monday nights, while the highly touted "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (from "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin) lost a third of its premiere-night viewers by Week 6 and was eventually canceled; two critically acclaimed sitcoms, "The Office" and "30 Rock", also pulled in modest successes and went on to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for four consecutive years. The network also regained the rights to the NFL after eight years that season when it acquired the "Sunday Night Football" package from ESPN (as part of a deal that also saw "Monday Night Football" move to ESPN from ABC). However, despite this, NBC remained at a very distant fourth place, barely ranking ahead of The CW.
However, NBC did experience success with its summer schedule, despite its declining ratings during the main broadcast season. "America's Got Talent", a reality talent competition series that premiered in 2006, earned a 4.6 rating in the 18–49 demographic, higher than that earned by the 2002 premiere of Fox's "American Idol". "Got Talent" (which is the flagship of an international talent competition franchise) would continue to garner unusually high ratings throughout its summer run. However, NBC decided not to place it in the spring season, and instead use it as a platform to promote their upcoming fall shows. Originally hosted by Regis Philbin, the series is currently hosted by Terry Crews, and continues to garner strong ratings throughout its summer seasons. In March 2007, NBC announced that it would begin offering full-length episodes of its prime time series for streaming on mobile devices, becoming the first U.S. broadcast network to offer on-demand mobile episode content, as the market began shifting away from traditional television.
Following the unexpected termination of Kevin Reilly, in 2007, Ben Silverman was appointed president of NBC Entertainment, while Jeff Zucker was promoted to succeed Bob Wright as CEO of NBC. The network failed to generate any new primetime hits during the 2008–09 season (despite the rare good fortune of having the rights to both the Super Bowl and the Summer Olympics in which to promote their new programming slate), the sitcom "Parks and Recreation" survived for a second season after a six-episode first season, while "Heroes" and "Deal or No Deal" both collapsed in the ratings and were later canceled (with a revamped "Deal or No Deal" being revived for one additional season in syndication). In a March 2009 interview, Zucker had stated that he no longer believed it would be possible for NBC to become #1 in prime time. Ben Silverman left the network in 2009, with Jeff Gaspin replacing him as president of NBC Entertainment.
On December 3, 2009, Comcast announced they would purchase a 51% controlling stake in NBC Universal from General Electric (which would retain the remaining 49%) for $6.5 billion in cash and $9.1 billion in raised debt. GE used $5.8 billion from the deal to buy out Vivendi's 20% interest in NBC Universal.
NBC's broadcast of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, in February of that year, generated a ratings increase of 21% over its broadcast of the 2006 Winter Games in Torino. The network was criticized for repeatedly showing footage of a crash occurring during practice for an Olympic luge competition that killed Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. NBC News president Steve Capus ordered the footage not to be shown without his permission and Olympics prime time host Bob Costas promised on-air that the video would not be shown again during the Games. NBC Universal was on track to lose $250 million in advertising revenue on that year's Winter Olympics, failing to make up the $820 million it paid for the U.S. television rights. Even so, with its continuing position in fourth place (although it virtually tied with ABC in many demographics on the strength of NBC's sports broadcasts that year), the 2009–10 season ended with only two scripted shows – "Community" and "Parenthood", as well as three unscripted shows – "The Marriage Ref", "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "Minute to Win It" – being renewed for second seasons, while other series such as "Heroes" and veteran crime drama "Law & Order" (the latter of which ended after 20 seasons, tying it with "Gunsmoke" as the longest-running prime time drama in U.S. television history) were cancelled.
After Conan O'Brien succeeded Jay Leno as host of "The Tonight Show" in 2009, the network gave Leno a new prime time talk show, committing to air it every weeknight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific as an inexpensive comedic alternative to the police procedurals and other hour-long dramas typically aired in that time slot. In doing so, NBC became the first major U.S. broadcast network in decades, if ever, to broadcast the same program in a weekdaily prime time strip. Its executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." Conversely, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas in the 10:00 hour, and expressed concern that it would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted series. Citing complaints from many affiliates, which saw their late-evening newscasts drop significantly in the local ratings during "The Jay Leno Show"s run, NBC announced on January 10, 2010 that it would drop Leno's show from the 10:00 p.m. slot, with Zucker announcing plans to shift the program (which would have been reduced to a half-hour) into the 11:35 p.m. slot and shift its existing late night lineup (including "The Tonight Show") by 30 minutes. The removal of "The Jay Leno Show" from its prime time schedule had almost no impact on the network's ratings. The increases NBC experienced in the 2010–11 season compared to 2009–10 were almost entirely attributable to the rising viewership of "NBC Sunday Night Football". By 2012, the shows that occupied the 10:00 p.m. time slot drew lower numbers than "The Jay Leno Show" did when it aired in that hour two years before. In the spring of 2010, cable provider and multimedia firm Comcast announced it would acquire a majority interest in NBC Universal from General Electric, which would retain a minority stake in the company in the interim.
On September 24, 2010, Jeff Zucker announced that he would step down as NBC Universal's CEO once the company's merger with Comcast was completed at the end of the year. After the deal was finalized, Steve Burke was named CEO of NBCUniversal and Robert Greenblatt replaced Jeff Gaspin as chairman of NBC Entertainment. In 2011, NBC was finally able to find a breakout hit in the midseason reality singing competition series "The Voice". Otherwise, NBC had another tough season, with every single new fall program getting cancelled by season's end – the third time this has happened to the network after the fall of 1975, and the fall of 1983 – and the midseason legal drama "Harry's Law" being its only freshman scripted series to be renewed for the 2011–12 season. The network nearly completed its full conversion to an all-HD schedule (outside of the Saturday morning time slot leased by the Qubo consortium, which NBCUniversal would rescind its stake in the following year) on September 20, 2011, when "Last Call with Carson Daly" converted to the format with the premiere of its 11th season.
The 2011–12 season was another tough season for NBC. On the upside, the network's broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI was the most-watched program in U.S. television history at the time, and the network's Monday night midseason lineup of "The Voice" and musical-drama "Smash" was very successful. The network managed to lift itself into third place in the 18–49 demographic in the 2011–12 season, primarily on the strength of those three programs (SNF, The Voice, and Smash), breaking the network's eight-year streak in fourth place. Four shows survived for a second season, but three of them were cancelled in the following year, none were unqualified ratings successes, and the network remained a distant fourth place in total viewership.
In the fall of 2012, NBC greatly expanded its sitcom roster, with eight comedy series airing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. NBC bounced back to first place network in adults 18–49 that fall, boosted by the new season of "The Voice", the initial success of freshman drama "Revolution" and sitcom "Go On", and the continued strength of "Sunday Night Football". However, withholding the new season of "The Voice" and benching "Revolution" until late March, the network's midseason ratings suffered, falling to fifth place behind Spanish-language network Univision during the February sweeps period. The 2012–13 season ended with NBC finishing in third place overall, albeit by a narrow margin, with only three new shows, all dramas, surviving for a second season ("Revolution", "Chicago Fire" and "Hannibal").
In 2013, NBC Sports migrated its business and production operations (including NBCSN) to new facilities in Stamford, Connecticut. Production of the network's NFL pre-game show "Football Night in America" remained at the NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center (with production operations based in Studio 8G, while the program itself was broadcast in Studio 8H, the longtime home of "Saturday Night Live"), until it migrated to the Stamford facility in September 2014. Despite the failure of another highly advertised game show event, "The Million Second Quiz", the 2013–14 season was mostly successful for NBC due to the continued success of "The Voice", "Chicago Fire", "Revolution", "Sunday Night Football" and "Grimm". Along with new hits including "The Blacklist", "Hannibal" and "Chicago PD" and a significant ratings boost from its broadcast of the 2014 Winter Olympics, NBC became the #1 network in the coveted 18–49 demographic that season for the first time since 2003–04, when "Friends" ended. NBC also improved considerably in total viewership, finishing behind long-dominant CBS in second place for the season.
The 2014–15 season was something of a mixed bag for NBC, but still successful. NBC launched eight new series that year, with only one, comedy-drama police procedural "The Mysteries of Laura", being renewed for a second season. Nevertheless, the network continued to experience success with most of its returning series, especially "The Blacklist" (despite a modest decline in viewership following its move to Thursdays midway through the season, due partly to an initial weak lead-in from miniseries "The Slap"). Combined with the record number of viewers tuning in to Super Bowl XLIX, NBC again finished #1 in the 18–49 demographic and in second place overall.
The 2015–16 season was successful for NBC, with the successful launch of the new drama "Blindspot" premiering after "The Voice", then subsequently being renewed for a second season in November 2015. NBC also continued with the success with the "Chicago" franchise with launching its second spin-off "Chicago Med", which also received an early second season pick up in February 2016. Thursday nights continues to be a struggle for NBC, with continued success with the third season of "The Blacklist" brought the failed launch of "Heroes Reborn" which was cancelled in January 2016, and thriller "The Player", however NBC found success with police procedural "Shades of Blue" which improved the 10pm time slot and was renewed for a second season in February 2016. On the comedy side, NBC surprisingly found success in the new workplace sitcom "Superstore" which premiered as a "preview" after "The Voice" in November 2015, and officially launched in January 2016 which brought decent ratings for a new comedy without "The Voice" as a lead-in and which was subsequently renewed for a second season in February 2016.
The 2016–17 season brought more success for NBC with the premiere of Comedy-drama "This Is Us", which was well received by critics and ratings and was renewed for two additional seasons in January 2017. "The Blacklist" continued to bring in modest ratings, but it brought the failed launch of its spinoff "". NBC continued to grow the "Chicago" franchise with a third spinoff titled "Chicago Justice". On the comedy side, workplace sitcom "Superstore" continued success in its second season. The network launched new fantasy sitcom "The Good Place" following "The Voice" and brought in modest ratings and was renewed for a second season in January 2017. Another highlight of the 2016–17 season was "The Wall", which premiered to modest ratings and would air in the summer time period prior to the 2017–18 season.
The 2017–18 season brought continued success for NBC with the premiere of "Ellen's Game of Games" and the return of "Will & Grace", the latter of which previously aired its final episode in 2006.
, NBC provides 87 hours of regularly scheduled network programming each week. The network provides 22 hours of prime time programming to affiliated stations Monday through Saturdays from 8:00–11:00 p.m. (7:00–10:00 p.m. in all other U.S. time zones) and Sundays from 7:00–11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (6:00–10:00 p.m. in all other time zones).
Daytime programming is also provided weekdays between 12:00 and 3:00 p.m. in the form of the one-hour weekday soap opera "Days of Our Lives" (the scheduling of the program varies depending on the station, although it is initially fed to affiliates at 1:00 p.m. Eastern). NBC News programming includes the morning news/interview program "Today" from 7:00–11:00 a.m. weekdays, 7:00–9:00 on Saturdays and 7:00–8:00 on Sundays; nightly editions of "NBC Nightly News" (whose weekend editions are occasionally subject to abbreviation or preemption due to sports telecasts overrunning into the program's time slot), the Sunday political talk show "Meet the Press", weekday early-morning news program "Early Today" and newsmagazine "Dateline NBC". Late nights feature the weeknight talk shows "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and "A Little Late with Lilly Singh", and an overnight replay "Today with Hoda & Jenna", or for NBC affiliates carrying it in syndication, the option to substitute a same-day encore of "The Kelly Clarkson Show". On Saturdays, the LXTV-produced "1st Look" and "Open House NYC" air after "Saturday Night Live" (replays of the previous week's "1st Look" also air on Friday late nights on most stations), with a "Meet the Press" encore a part of its Sunday overnight schedule.
The network's Saturday morning children's programming time slot is programmed by Litton Entertainment under a time-lease agreement. The three-hour block of programming designed for 14–16 year-old teenage viewers is under the umbrella branding of "The More You Know", based on the network's long-time strand of internally-produced public service announcements of the same name. It premiered on October 8, 2016, giving Litton control of all but Fox's Saturday morning E/I programming among the five major broadcast networks.
Sports programming is also provided weekend afternoons at any time between 12:00 and 6:00 p.m. (9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., or tape-delayed in the Pacific Time Zone). Due to the unpredictable length of sporting events, NBC will occasionally pre-empt scheduled programs (more common with the weekend editions of "NBC Nightly News", and local and syndicated programs carried by its owned-and-operated stations and affiliates). NBC has also held the American broadcasting rights to the Summer Olympic Games since the 1988 games and the rights to the Winter Olympic Games since the 2002 games. Coverage of the Olympics on NBC have included pre-empting regularly scheduled programs during daytime, primetime, and late night.
News coverage has long been an important part of NBC's operations and public image, dating to the network's radio days. Notable NBC News productions past and present include "Today", "NBC Nightly News" (and its immediate predecessor, the "Huntley-Brinkley Report"), "Meet the Press" (which has the distinction of the longest continuously running program in the history of American television), "Dateline NBC", "Early Today", "NBC News at Sunrise", "NBC Nightside" and "Rock Center with Brian Williams".
In 1989, the news division began its expansion to cable with the launch of business news channel CNBC. The company eventually formed other cable news services including MSNBC (created in 1996 originally as a joint venture with Microsoft, which now features a mix of general news and political discussion programs with a liberal stance), and the 2008 acquisition of The Weather Channel in conjunction with Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. In addition, NBCSN (operated as part of the NBC Sports Group, and which became an NBC property through Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal) carries sports news content alongside sports event telecasts. Key anchors from NBC News are also used during NBC Sports coverage of the Olympic Games.
NBC is currently the home to only one daytime program, the hour-long soap opera "Days of Our Lives", which has been broadcast on the network since 1965. Since NBC turned back an hour of its then two-hour daytime schedule to its affiliates as a result of the September 2007 expansion of "Today" to four hours, the network currently ties with The CW for the fewest daytime programming hours of any major broadcast television network.
Long-running daytime dramas seen on NBC in the past include "The Doctors" (1963–1982), "Another World" (1964–1999), "Santa Barbara" (1984–1993), and "Passions" (1999–2007). NBC also aired the final 4½ years of "Search for Tomorrow" (1982–1986) after that series was initially cancelled by CBS, although many NBC affiliates did not clear the show during its tenure on the network. NBC has also aired numerous short-lived soap operas, including "Generations" (1989–1991), "Sunset Beach" (1997–1999), and the two "Another World" spin-offs, "Somerset" (1970–1976) and "Texas" (1980–1982).
Notable daytime game shows that once aired on NBC include "The Price Is Right" (1956–1963), "Concentration" (1958–1973; and 1987–1991 as "Classic Concentration"), "The Match Game" (1962–1969), "Let's Make a Deal" (1963–1968 and 1990–1991, as well as a short-lived prime-time revival in 2003), "Jeopardy!" (1964–1975 and 1978–1979), "The Hollywood Squares" (1966–1980), "Wheel of Fortune" (1975–1989 and 1991), "Password Plus/Super Password" (1979–1982 and 1984–1989), "Sale of the Century" (1969–1973 and 1983–1989) and "Scrabble" (1984–1990 and 1993). The last game show ever to air as part of NBC's daytime schedule was the short-lived "Caesars Challenge", which ended in January 1994.
Notable past daytime talk shows that have aired on NBC have included "Home" (1954–1957), "The Ernie Kovacs Show" (1955–1956), "The Merv Griffin Show" (1962–1963), "Leeza" (1994–1999) and "Later Today" (1999–2000).
Children's programming has played a part in NBC's programming since its initial roots in television. NBC's first major children's series, "Howdy Doody", debuted in 1947 and was one of the era's first breakthrough television shows. From the mid-1960s until 1992, the bulk of NBC's children's programming was composed of mainly animated programming including classic "Looney Tunes" and "Woody Woodpecker" shorts; reruns of primetime animated sitcoms such as "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons"; foreign acquisitions like "Astro Boy" and "Kimba the White Lion"; animated adaptions of "Punky Brewster", "ALF" and "Star Trek" as well as animated vehicles for Gary Coleman and Mr. T; live-action programs like "The Banana Splits", "The Bugaloos" and "H.R. Pufnstuf"; and the original broadcasts of "Gumby", "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show", "Underdog", "The Smurfs", "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and "Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears". From 1984 to 1989, the network aired a series of public service announcements called "One to Grow On", which aired after the end credits of every program or every other children's program.
In 1989, NBC premiered "Saved by the Bell", a live-action teen sitcom which originated on The Disney Channel the previous year as "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" (which served as a starring vehicle for Hayley Mills; four cast members from that show were cast in the NBC series as the characters they originally played on "Miss Bliss"). "Saved by the Bell", despite being given bad reviews from television critics, would become one of the most popular teen series in television history as well as the top-rated series on Saturday mornings, dethroning ABC's "The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" in its first season.
The success of "Saved by the Bell" led NBC to remove animated series from its Saturday morning lineup in August 1992 in favor of additional live-action series as part of a new block called TNBC, along with the debut of a Saturday edition of "Today". Most of the series featured on the TNBC lineup were executive produced by Peter Engel (such as "City Guys", "Hang Time", "California Dreams", "One World" and the "Saved by the Bell" sequel, ""), with the lineup being designed from the start to meet the earliest form of the FCC's educational programming guidelines under the Children's Television Act. "NBA Inside Stuff", an analysis and interview program aimed at teens that was hosted for most of its run by Ahmad Rashād, was also a part of the TNBC lineup during the NBA season until 2002 (when the program moved to ABC as a result of that network taking the NBA rights from NBC).
In 2002, NBC entered into an agreement with Discovery Communications to carry educational children's programs from the Discovery Kids cable channel. Debuting that September, the Discovery Kids on NBC block originally consisted exclusively of live-action series, including reality series "Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls" (a kid-themed version of the TLC series "Trading Spaces"); the Emmy-nominated reality game show "Endurance", hosted and produced by J. D. Roth (whose production company, 3-Ball Productions, would also produce reality series "The Biggest Loser" for NBC beginning in 2003); and scripted series such as "Strange Days at Blake Holsey High" and "Scout's Safari". The block later expanded to include some animated series such as "Kenny the Shark", "Tutenstein" and "Time Warp Trio".
In May 2006, NBC announced plans to launch a new Saturday morning children's block under the Qubo brand in September 2006. An endeavor originally operated as a joint venture between NBCUniversal, Ion Media Networks, Scholastic Press, Classic Media and Corus Entertainment's Nelvana unit (Ion acquired the other partners' shares in 2013), the Qubo venture also encompassed weekly blocks on Telemundo and Ion Television, a 24-hour digital multicast network on Ion's owned-and-operated and affiliated stations, as well as video on demand services and a branded website. Qubo launched on NBC on September 9, 2006 with six programs ("VeggieTales", "Dragon", "VeggieTales Presents: 3-2-1 Penguins!", "Babar", "Jane and the Dragon" and "Jacob Two-Two").
On March 28, 2012, it was announced that NBC would launch a new Saturday morning preschool block programmed by Sprout (originally jointly owned by NBCUniversal, PBS, Sesame Workshop and Apax Partners, with the former acquiring the other's interests later that year). The block, NBC Kids, premiered on July 7, 2012, replacing the "Qubo on NBC" block.
NBC holds the broadcast rights to several annual specials and award show telecasts including the Golden Globe Awards and the Emmy Awards (which is rotated across all four major networks each year). Since 1953, NBC has served as the official U.S. broadcaster of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. CBS also carries unauthorized coverage of the Macy's parade as part of "The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS"; However, as NBC holds rights to the parade, it has exclusivity over the broadcast of Broadway and music performances appearing in the parade (CBS airs live performances separate from those seen in the parade as a result), and Macy's chose to reroute the parade in 2012 out of the view of CBS' cameras, although it continues to cover the parade. NBC began airing a same-day rebroadcast of the parade telecast in 2009 (replacing its annual Thanksgiving afternoon airing of "Miracle on 34th Street"). In 2007, NBC acquired the rights to the National Dog Show, which airs following the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade each year.
The network also broadcasts several live-action and animated specials during the Christmas holiday season, including the 2014 debuts "How Murray Saved Christmas" (an animated musical adaptation of the children's book of the same name) and "" (a stop-motion animated special based on the 2003 live-action film "Elf").
Since 2013, the network has aired live musical adaptations with major stars in lead roles. Originally dismissed as a gimmick, they have proven to be ratings successes, as well as a nostalgic tribute to the early days of television. Past adaptations include:
From 2003 to 2014, NBC also held rights to two of the three pageants organized by the Miss Universe Organization: the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants (NBC also held rights to the Miss Teen USA pageant from 2003, when NBC also assumed rights to the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants as part of a deal brokered by Miss Universe Organization owner Donald Trump that gave the network half-ownership of the pageants, until 2007, when NBC declined to renew its contract to carry Miss Teen USA, effectively discontinuing televised broadcasts of that event). NBCUniversal relinquished the rights to Miss Universe and Miss USA on June 29, 2015, as part of its decision to cut business ties with Donald Trump and the Miss Universe Organization (which was half-owned by corporate parent NBCUniversal) in response to controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants made by Trump during the launch of his 2016 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
Through the years, NBC has produced many in-house programs, in addition to airing content from other producers such as Revue Studios and its successor Universal Television. Notable in-house productions by NBC have included "Get Smart", "Bonanza", "Little House on the Prairie", "Las Vegas", "Crossing Jordan" and "Law & Order".
NBC has twelve owned-and-operated stations and current and pending affiliation agreements with 223 additional television stations encompassing 51 states, the District of Columbia, six U.S. possessions and two non-U.S. territories (Aruba and Bermuda). The network has a national reach of 88.91% of all households in the United States (or 277,821,345 Americans with at least one television set).
Currently, New Jersey is the only U.S. state where NBC does not have a locally licensed affiliate. New Jersey is served by New York City O&O WNBC-TV and Philadelphia O&O WCAU; New Jersey formerly had an in-state affiliate in Atlantic City-based WMGM-TV, which was affiliated with the network from 1955 to 2014. NBC maintains affiliations with low-power stations (broadcasting either in analog or digital) in a few smaller markets, such as Binghamton, New York (WBGH-CD), Jackson, Tennessee (WNBJ-LD) and Juneau, Alaska (KATH-LD), that do not have enough full-power stations to support a standalone affiliate. In some markets, these stations also maintain digital simulcasts on a subchannel of a co-owned/co-managed full-power television station.
Portions of New Hampshire receive NBC programming via network-owned WBTS-CD, licensed to serve Nashua; while nominally licensed as a low-power class A station, it transmits a full-power signal under a channel share with the WGBH Educational Foundation and its secondary Boston station WGBX-TV from Needham, Massachusetts, and serves as the NBC station for the entire Boston market. Until 2019, NBC operated a low-powered station in Boston, WBTS-LD (now WYCN-LD), which aimed to serve as its station in that market while using a network of additional full-power stations to cover the market in full (including Merrimack, New Hampshire-licensed Telemundo station WNEU, which transmitted WBTS on a second subchannel); NBC purchased the Nashua station (formerly WYCN-CD) in early 2018 after the FCC spectrum auction, and in 2019 relocated WYCN-LD to Providence, Rhode Island to serve as a Telemundo station for that market.
Currently outside of the NBC Owned Television Stations-operated O&O group, Tegna Media is the largest operator of NBC stations in terms of overall market reach, owning or providing services to 20 NBC affiliates (including those in larger markets such as Denver, St. Louis, Seattle and Cleveland); Gray Television is the largest operator of NBC stations by numerical total, owning 23 NBC-affiliated stations.
NBC provides video on demand access for delayed viewing of the network's programming through various means, including via its website at NBC.com, a traditional VOD service called NBC on Demand available on most traditional cable and IPTV providers, and through content deals with Hulu and Netflix (the latter of which carries only cataloged episodes of NBC programs, after losing the right to carry newer episodes of its programs during their current seasons in July 2011). NBCUniversal is a part-owner of Hulu (along with majority owner The Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC), and has offered full-length episodes of most of NBC's programming through the streaming service (which are available for viewing on Hulu's website and mobile app) since Hulu launched in private beta testing on October 29, 2007.
The most recent episodes of the network's shows are usually made available on NBC.com and Hulu the day after their original broadcast. In addition, NBC.com and certain other partner websites (including Hulu) provide complete back catalogs of most of its current series as well as a limited selection of episodes of classic series from the NBCUniversal Television Distribution program library – including shows not broadcast by NBC during their original runs (including the complete or partial episode catalogs of shows like "30 Rock", "The A-Team", "Charles in Charge", "Emergency!", "Knight Rider" (both the original series and the short-lived 2008 reboot), "Kojak", "Miami Vice", "The Office", "Quantum Leap" and "Simon & Simon").
On February 18, 2015, NBC began providing live programming streams of local NBC stations in select markets, which are only available to authenticated subscribers of participating pay television providers. All eleven NBC owned-and-operated stations owned by NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations' were the first stations to offer streams of their programming on NBC's website and mobile app, and new affiliation agreements have made a majority of the network's affiliates available through the network's website and app based on a viewer's location. The network's NFL game telecasts were not permitted to be streamed on the service for several years until a change to the league's mobile rights agreement in the 2018 season allowed games to be streamed through network websites and apps.
NBC's master feed is transmitted in 1080i high definition, the native resolution format for NBCUniversal's television properties. However, 19 of its affiliates transmit the network's programming in 720p HD, while four others carry the network feed in 480i standard definition either due to technical considerations for affiliates of other major networks that carry NBC programming on a digital subchannel, or because a primary feed NBC affiliate has not yet upgraded their transmission equipment to allow content to be presented in HD.
WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina (a station that re-joined NBC in February 2016) is currently testing the upcoming ATSC 3.0 television standard, which will allow the transmission of 2160p ultra-high-definition television (UHD), through a secondary experimental station (WRAL-EX); it has transmitted limited NBC programming in UHD through a secondary subchannel, and is currently the only station overall which transmits NBC's schedule in 1080p on its main subchannel.
"Meet the Press" was the first regular series on a major television network to produce a high-definition broadcast on February 2, 1997, which aired in the format over WHD-TV in Washington, D.C., an experimental television station owned by a consortium of industry groups and stations which launched to allow testing of HD broadcasts and operated until 2002 (the program itself continued to be transmitted in 480i standard definition over the NBC network until May 2, 2010, when it became the last NBC News program to convert to HD). NBC officially began its conversion to high definition with the launch of its simulcast feed, NBC HD, on April 26, 1999, when "The Tonight Show" became the first HD program to air on the NBC network as well as the first regularly scheduled American network program to be produced and transmitted in high definition. The network gradually converted much of its existing programming from standard-definition to high definition beginning with the 2002–03 season, with select shows among that season's slate of freshmen scripted series being broadcast in HD from their debuts.
The network completed its conversion to high definition in September 2012, with the launch of NBC Kids, a new Saturday morning children's block programmed by new partial sister network PBS Kids Sprout, which also became the second Saturday morning children's block with an entirely HD schedule (after the ABC-syndicated "Litton's Weekend Adventure"). All of the network's programming has been presented in full HD since then (with the exception of certain holiday specials produced prior to 2005 – such as its annual broadcast of "It's a Wonderful Life" – which continue to be presented in 4:3 SD, although some have been remastered for HD broadcast).
In 1999, NBC launched NBCi (briefly changing its web address to "www.nbci.com"), a heavily advertised online venture serving as an attempt to launch an Internet portal and homepage. This move saw NBC partner with XOOM.com (not to be confused with the current money transfer service), e-mail.com, AllBusiness.com, and Snap.com (eventually acquiring all four companies outright; Snap should also not be confused with the current-day parent of Snapchat) to launch a multi-faceted internet portal with e-mail, webhosting, community, chat and personalization capabilities, and news content. Subsequently, in April 2000, NBC purchased GlobalBrain, a company specializing in search engines that learned from searches initiated by its users, for $32 million.
The experiment lasted roughly one season; after its failure, NBCi's operations were folded back into NBC. The NBC Television portion of the website reverted to NBC.com. However, the NBCi website continued in operation as a portal for NBC-branded content (NBCi.com would be redirected to NBCi.msnbc.com), using a co-branded version of InfoSpace to deliver minimal portal content. In mid-2007, NBCi.com began to mirror the main NBC.com website; NBCi.com was eventually redirected to the NBC.com domain in 2010.
NBC has used a number of logos throughout its history; early logos used by the television and radio networks were similar to the logo of its then parent company, RCA. Logos used later in NBC's existence incorporated stylized peacock designs, including the current version that has been in use since 1986.
NBC network programs can be received throughout most of Canada on cable, satellite and IPTV providers through certain U.S.-based affiliates of the network (such as WBTS-CD in Boston, KING-TV in Seattle, KBJR-TV in Duluth, Minnesota, WGRZ in Buffalo, New York and WDIV-TV in Detroit). Some programs carried on these stations are subject to simultaneous substitutions, a practice imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in which a pay television provider supplants an American station's signal with a feed from a Canadian station/network airing a particular program in the same time slot to protect domestic advertising revenue. Some of these affiliates are also receivable over-the-air in southern areas of the country located near the Canada–United States border (signal coverage was somewhat reduced after the digital television transition in 2009 due to the lower radiated power required to transmit digital signals).
NBC no longer exists outside the Americas as a channel in its own right. However, NBC News and MSNBC programs are broadcast for a few hours a day on OSN News, formerly known as Orbit News in Africa and the Middle East. Sister network CNBC Europe also broadcasts occasional breaking news coverage from MSNBC as well as "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon". CNBC Europe also broadcast daily airings of "NBC Nightly News" at 00:30 CET Monday to Fridays.
In 1993, then-NBC parent General Electric acquired Super Channel, relaunching the Pan-European cable network as NBC Super Channel. In 1996, the channel was renamed NBC Europe, but was, from then on, almost always referred to on-air as simply "NBC".
Most of NBC Europe's prime time programming was produced in Europe due to rights restrictions associated with U.S. primetime shows; the channel's weekday late night schedule after 11:00 p.m. Central European Time, however, featured "The Tonight Show", "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "Later", which the channel's slogan "Where the Stars Come Out at Night" was based around. Many NBC News programs were broadcast on NBC Europe, including "Dateline NBC", "Meet the Press" and "NBC Nightly News", the latter of which was broadcast simultaneously with the initial U.S. telecast. "Today" was also initially aired live in the afternoons, but was later broadcast instead the following morning on a more than half-day delay.
In 1999, NBC Europe ceased broadcasting in most of Europe outside of Germany; the network was concurrently relaunched as a German-language technology channel aimed at a younger demographic, with the new series "NBC GIGA" as its flagship program. In 2005, the channel was relaunched again as the free-to-air movie channel Das Vierte which eventually shut down end of 2013 (acquired by Disney, which replaced it by a German version of Disney Channel). GIGA Television was subsequently spun off as a separate digital channel, available on satellite and cable providers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland which shut down as a TV station end of 2009.
NBC programming is available in Mexico through free-to-air affiliates in markets located within proximity to the Mexico–United States border (such as KYMA-DT/Yuma, Arizona; KGNS-TV/Laredo, Texas; KTSM/El Paso, Texas; KVEO/Brownsville, Texas; and KNSD/San Diego), whose signals are readily receivable over-the-air in border areas of northern Mexico. Some U.S.-based border affiliates are also available on subscription television providers throughout the country, including in the Mexico City area.
In Nicaragua, satellite providers carry either select U.S.-based NBC and Telemundo affiliated stations or the main network feed from NBCUniversal or Telemundo. The main local affiliate stations are NBC 6 WTVJ, Telemundo 51 WSCV in Miami. In addition to the NBC programming there is also available by the NBC sister network Telemundo, a Spanish network based in the United States.
In 1993, NBC launched a 24-hour Spanish-language news channel serving Latin America (the second news channel serving that region overall, after Noticias ECO, and the first to broadcast 24 hours a day), Canal de Noticias NBC, which based its news schedule around the "wheel" format conceived at CNN. The channel, which was headquartered in the offices of the NBC News Channel affiliate news service in Charlotte, North Carolina, employed over 50 journalists to produce, write, anchor and provide technical services. Canal de Noticias NBC shut down in 1999 due to the channel's inability to generate sustainable advertising revenue.
In the Caribbean, many subscription providers carry either select U.S.-based NBC affiliated stations or the main network feed from NBC O&Os WNBC in New York City or WTVJ in Miami. In addition, the network's programming has been available in the U.S. Virgin Islands since 2004 on WVGN-LD in Charlotte Amalie (owned by LKK Group), while Telemundo owned-and-operated station WKAQ-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico carries the WNBC feed on a digital subchannel. In these areas, NBC programs are available in English and in Spanish via second audio program.
In the Bahamas, NBC programming is available via U.S.-based affiliate stations on domestic cable providers.
In Aruba, NBC maintains an affiliation with Oranjestad station PJA-TV (which brands on-air as "ATV").
In Puerto Rico, Telemundo O&O WKAQ-TV carries "NBC Puerto Rico" over their third subchannel, which is effectively a simulcast of WNBC with some local advertising and station identification.
Until it ended operations in 2014, NBC's entire program lineup was carried by VSB-TV, using the Eastern Time Zone feed, though an hour ahead due to its location in the Atlantic Time Zone. Bermuda currently receives NBC service from WTVJ Miami via cable.
In Guam, the entire NBC programming lineup is carried by Hagåtña affiliate KUAM-TV (which has been an NBC affiliate since 1956) via the network's East Coast satellite feed. Entertainment and news programming is broadcast day and date on a one-day tape delay as Guam is on the west side of the International Date Line (for example, the network's Thursday prime time lineup airs Friday evenings on KUAM, and is advertised by the station as airing on the latter night in on-air promotions). Live programming, including breaking news and sporting events, airs as scheduled; because of the time difference with the six U.S. time zones, live sports coverage often airs on the station early in the morning. KUAM's programming is relayed to the Northern Mariana Islands via satellite station WSZE in Saipan.
In American Samoa, NBC was affiliated with KKHJ-LP in Pago Pago from 2005 to 2012. Cable television providers on the islands carry the network's programming via Seattle affiliate KING-TV.
In the Federated States of Micronesia, NBC programming is available on domestic cable providers via Honolulu affiliate KHNL.
NBC Asia launched in 1994, distributed to Nepal, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan and the Philippines. Like NBC Europe, NBC Asia featured most of NBC's news programs as well as "The Tonight Show", "Late Night" and "Saturday Night Live". Like its European counterpart, it was not allowed to broadcast American-produced primetime shows due to existing broadcast agreements with other domestic broadcasters. NBC Asia produced a regional evening news program that aired each weeknight, and occasionally simulcast some programs from CNBC Asia and MSNBC. NBC also operated NBC Super Sports, a 24-hour channel devoted to televising sporting events.
In July 1998, NBC Asia was replaced by a regional version of the National Geographic Channel. As is the case with NBC Europe, CNBC Asia broadcasts select episodes of "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night" as well as "Meet the Press" are as part of its weekend schedule, and airs NFL games under the "Sunday Night Football" brand.
Through regional partners, NBC-produced programs are seen in some countries in the continent. In the Philippines, Jack TV (owned by Solar Entertainment) airs "Will & Grace" and "Saturday Night Live", while TalkTV airs "The Tonight Show" and NBC News programs including the weekday and weekend editions of "Today", "Early Today", "Dateline NBC" and "NBC Nightly News". Solar TV formerly broadcast "The Jay Leno Show" from 2009 to 2010. In Hong Kong, English language free-to-air channel TVB Pearl (operated by TVB) airs live broadcasts of "NBC Nightly News", as well as other select NBC programs.
In Australia, the Seven Network has maintained close ties with NBC and has used a majority of the U.S. network's image campaigns and slogans since the 1970s (conversely, in 2009, NBC and Seven both used the Guy Sebastian single "Like it Like That" in image promos for their respective summer schedules). The network's "Seven News" division has used John Williams-composed "The Mission" (the proprietary theme music for NBC News' flagship programs since 1985) as the theme music for its local and national news programs since the mid-1980s, though re-composed domestically to meet their own branding image. Local newscasts were also titled "Seven Nightly News" from the mid-1980s until c. 2000. NBC News and Seven News often share news resources, with the former division using Seven's reporters for breaking news coverage and select taped story packages relating to Australian stories and the latter sometimes incorporating NBC News reports into its national bulletins.
Seven also rebroadcasts some of NBC's news and current affairs programming during the early morning hours (usually from 3:00 to 5:00 a.m. local time), including the weekday and weekend editions of "Today" (which it brands as "NBC Today" to differentiate it from the unrelated morning program of the same title on the Nine Network), "Dateline NBC" and "Meet the Press".
NBC has been accused of tolerating a culture of sexism and sexual harassment among its employees (especially within upper management and among senior anchors) and also of covering up indiscretions committed by prominent figures in the company through intimidation campaigns against victims that include a widespread use of non-disclosure agreements. This may have exposed the company to pressure by Harvey Weinstein to delay and/or terminate reporting on Weinstein's criminal abuse of many women. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21780 |
Nociception
Nociception (also nocioception, from Latin "nocere" 'to harm or hurt') is the sensory nervous system's process of encoding noxious stimuli. In nociception, intense chemical (e.g., cayenne powder), mechanical (e.g., cutting, crushing), or thermal (heat and cold) stimulation of sensory nerve cells called nociceptors produces a signal that travels along a chain of nerve fibers via the spinal cord to the brain. Nociception triggers a variety of physiological and behavioral responses and usually results in a subjective experience, or perception, of pain in sentient beings.
Potentially damaging mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimuli are detected by nerve endings called nociceptors, which are found in the skin, on internal surfaces such as the periosteum, joint surfaces, and in some internal organs. Some nociceptors are unspecialized free nerve endings that have their cell bodies outside the spinal column in the dorsal root ganglia. Other nociceptors rely on specialised structures in the skin to transduce noxious information such as nociceptive schwann cells. Nociceptors are categorized according to the axons which travel from the receptors to the spinal cord or brain. After nerve injury it is possible for touch fibres that normally carry non-noxious stimuli to be perceived as noxious.
Nociceptors have a certain threshold; that is, they require a minimum intensity of stimulation before they trigger a signal. Once this threshold is reached a signal is passed along the axon of the neuron into the spinal cord.
Nociceptive threshold testing deliberately applies a noxious stimulus to a human or animal subject in order to study pain. In animals, the technique is often used to study the efficacy of analgesic drugs and to establish dosing levels and period of effect. After establishing a baseline, the drug under test is given and the elevation in threshold recorded at specified time points. When the drug wears off, the threshold should return to the baseline (pre-treatment) value.
In some conditions, excitation of pain fibers becomes greater as the pain stimulus continues, leading to a condition called hyperalgesia.
Nociception can also cause generalized autonomic responses before or without reaching consciousness to cause pallor, sweating, tachycardia, hypertension, lightheadedness, nausea and fainting.
This overview discusses proprioception, thermoception, chemoception and nociception as they are all integrally connected.
Proprioception is determined by using standard mechanoreceptors (especially ruffini corpuscles (stretch) and transient receptor potential (TRP) channels). Proprioception is completely covered within the somatosensory system as the brain processes them together.
Thermoception refers to stimuli of moderate temperatures
, as anything beyond that range is considered pain and moderated by nociceptors. TRP and potassium channels [TRPM (1-8), TRPV (1-6), TRAAK, and TREK] each respond to different temperatures (among other stimuli) which create action potentials in nerves which join the mechano (touch) system in the posterolateral tract. Thermoception, like proprioception, is then covered by the somatosensory system.
TRP channels that detect noxious stimuli (mechanical, thermal, and chemical pain) relay that info to nociceptors that generate an action potential. Mechanical TRP channels react to depression of their cells (like touch), thermal TRP change shape in different temperatures, and chemical TRP act like taste buds, signalling if their receptors bond to certain elements/chemicals.
Nociception has been documented in non-mammalian animals, including fish and a wide range of invertebrates, including leeches, nematode worms, sea slugs, and fruit flies. As in mammals, nociceptive neurons in these species are typically characterized by responding preferentially to high temperature (40° Celsius or more), low pH, capsaicin, and tissue damage.
The term "nociception" was coined by Charles Scott Sherrington to distinguish the physiological process (nervous activity) from pain (a subjective experience). It is derived from the Latin verb ""nocēre"", which means "to harm". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21781 |
Nova
A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star, that slowly fades over several weeks or many months. Causes of the dramatic appearance of a nova vary, depending on the circumstances of the two progenitor stars. All observed novae involve a white dwarf in a close binary system. The main sub-classes of novae are classical novae, recurrent novae (RNe), and dwarf novae. They are all considered to be cataclysmic variable stars.
Classical nova eruptions are the most common type of nova. They are likely created in a close binary star system consisting of a white dwarf and either a main sequence, subgiant, or red giant star. When the orbital period falls in the range of several days to one day, the white dwarf is close enough to its companion star to start drawing accreted matter onto the surface of the white dwarf, which creates a dense but shallow atmosphere. This atmosphere, mostly consisting of hydrogen, is thermally heated by the hot white dwarf and eventually reaches a critical temperature causing ignition of rapid runaway fusion.
The sudden increase in energy expels the atmosphere into interstellar space creating the envelope seen as visible light during the nova event and previously mistaken as a "new" star. A few novae produce short-lived nova remnants, lasting for perhaps several centuries. Recurrent nova processes are the same as the classical nova, except that the fusion ignition may be repetitive because the companion star can again feed the dense atmosphere of the white dwarf.
Novae most often occur in the sky along the path of the Milky Way, especially near the observed galactic centre in Sagittarius; however, they can appear anywhere in the sky. They occur far more frequently than galactic supernovae, averaging about ten per year. Most are found telescopically, perhaps only one every 12–18 months reaching naked-eye visibility. Novae reaching first or second magnitude occur only several times per century. The last bright nova was V1369 Centauri reaching 3.3 magnitude on 14 December 2013.
During the sixteenth century, astronomer Tycho Brahe observed the supernova SN 1572 in the constellation Cassiopeia. He described it in his book "De nova stella" (Latin for "concerning the new star"), giving rise to the adoption of the name "nova". In this work he argued that a nearby object should be seen to move relative to the fixed stars, and that the nova had to be very far away. Although this event was a supernova and not a nova, the terms were considered interchangeable until the 1930s. After this, novae were classified as "classical novae" to distinguish them from supernovae, as their causes and energies were thought to be different, based solely in the observational evidence.
Although the term "stella nova" means "new star", novae most often take place as a result of white dwarfs, which are remnants of extremely old stars.
Evolution of potential novae begins with two main sequence stars in a binary system. One of the two evolves into a red giant, leaving its remnant white dwarf core in orbit with the remaining star. The second star—which may be either a main sequence star or an aging giant—begins to shed its envelope onto its white dwarf companion when it overflows its Roche lobe. As a result, the white dwarf steadily captures matter from the companion's outer atmosphere in an accretion disk, and in turn, the accreted matter falls into the atmosphere. As the white dwarf consists of degenerate matter, the accreted hydrogen does not inflate, but its temperature increases. Runaway fusion occurs when the temperature of this atmospheric layer reaches ~20 million K, initiating nuclear burning, via the CNO cycle.
Hydrogen fusion may occur in a stable manner on the surface of the white dwarf for a narrow range of accretion rates, giving rise to a super soft X-ray source, but for most binary system parameters, the hydrogen burning is unstable thermally and rapidly converts a large amount of the hydrogen into other, heavier chemical elements in a runaway reaction, liberating an enormous amount of energy. This blows the remaining gases away from the surface of the white dwarf surface and produces an extremely bright outburst of light.
The rise to peak brightness may be very rapid, or gradual. This is related to the speed class of the nova; yet after the peak, the brightness declines steadily. The time taken for a nova to decay by around 2 or 3 magnitudes from maximum optical brightness is used for classification, via its speed class. Fast novae typically will take fewer than 25 days to decay by 2 magnitudes, while slow novae will take more than 80 days.
In spite of their violence, usually the amount of material ejected in novae is only about of a solar mass, quite small relative to the mass of the white dwarf. Furthermore, only five percent of the accreted mass is fused during the power outburst. Nonetheless, this is enough energy to accelerate nova ejecta to velocities as high as several thousand kilometers per second—higher for fast novae than slow ones—with a concurrent rise in luminosity from a few times solar to 50,000–100,000 times solar. In 2010 scientists using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovered that a nova also can emit gamma-rays (>100 MeV).
Potentially, a white dwarf can generate multiple novae over time as additional hydrogen continues to accrete onto its surface from its companion star. An example is RS Ophiuchi, which is known to have flared six times (in 1898, 1933, 1958, 1967, 1985, and 2006). Eventually, the white dwarf could explode as a Type Ia supernova if it approaches the Chandrasekhar limit.
Occasionally, novae are bright enough and close enough to Earth to be conspicuous to the unaided eye. The brightest recent example was Nova Cygni 1975. This nova appeared on 29 August 1975, in the constellation Cygnus about five degrees north of Deneb, and reached magnitude 2.0 (nearly as bright as Deneb). The most recent were V1280 Scorpii, which reached magnitude 3.7 on 17 February 2007, and Nova Delphini 2013. Nova Centauri 2013 was discovered 2 December 2013 and so far, is the brightest nova of this millennium, reaching magnitude 3.3.
A helium nova (undergoing a helium flash) is a proposed category of nova events that lacks hydrogen lines in its spectrum. This may be caused by the explosion of a helium shell on a white dwarf. The theory was first proposed in 1989, and the first candidate helium nova to be observed was V445 Puppis in 2000. Since then, four other novae have been proposed as helium novae.
Astronomers estimate that the Milky Way experiences roughly 30 to 60 novae per year, but a recent examination has found the likely improved rate of about 50±27. The number of novae discovered in the Milky Way each year is much lower, about 10, probably due to distant novae being obscured by gas and dust absorption. Roughly 25 novae brighter than about the twentieth magnitude are discovered in the Andromeda Galaxy each year and smaller numbers are seen in other nearby galaxies. As of 2019, 407 probable novae are recorded in the Milky Way.
Spectroscopic observation of nova ejecta nebulae has shown that they are enriched in elements such as helium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, and magnesium. The contribution of novae to the interstellar medium is not great; novae supply only as much material to the Galaxy as do supernovae, and only as much as red giant and supergiant stars.
Recurrent novae such as RS Ophiuchi (those with periods on the order of decades), are rare. Astronomers theorize, however, that most, if not all, novae are recurrent, albeit on time scales ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 years. The recurrence interval for a nova is less dependent on the accretion rate of the white dwarf, than on its mass; with their powerful gravity, massive white dwarfs require less accretion to fuel an eruption than lower-mass ones. Consequently, the interval is shorter for high-mass white dwarfs.
V Sagittae is unusual in that we can predict now that it will go nova in approximately 2083, plus or minus about 11 years.
On 27 May 2020, astronomers reported that classical novae explosions are the galactic producers of the element lithium.
Novae are classified according to the light curve development speed, so in
Some novae leave behind visible nebulosity, material expelled in the nova explosion or in multiple explosions.
Novae have some promise for use as standard candle measurements of distances. For instance, the distribution of their absolute magnitude is bimodal, with a main peak at magnitude −8.8, and a lesser one at −7.5. Novae also have roughly the same absolute magnitude 15 days after their peak (−5.5). Comparisons of nova-based distance estimates to various nearby galaxies and galaxy clusters with those measured with Cepheid variable stars, have shown them to be of comparable accuracy.
Recurrent novae (RNe) are objects that have been seen to experience multiple nova eruptions. As of 2009, there are ten known galactic recurrent novae, as well as several extragalactic ones (in the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Large Magellanic Cloud). One of these extragalactic novae, M31N 2008-12a, erupts as frequently as once every 12 months. The recurrent nova typically brightens by about 8.6 magnitudes, whereas a classic nova may brighten by more than 12 magnitudes. The ten known galactic recurrent novae are listed below.
Novae are relatively common in the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Approximately several dozen novae (brighter than about apparent magnitude 20) are discovered in M31 each year. The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) tracked novae in M31, M33, and M81. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21784 |
Economy of Peru
The economy of Peru is an upper middle income economy as classified by the World Bank and is the 47th largest in the world by total GDP. Peru was one of the world's fastest-growing economies in 2012, with a GDP growth rate of 6.3%. As of 2018 the GDP growth rate has slowed to 3.99%. It currently has a high human development index of 0.741 and per capita GDP above $12,000 by PPP.
Neo-classical economists would interpret Peru's sound economic performance as a combination of:
However, Post-Keynesian economists would argue that what neo-classical economics considers to be "prudent" fiscal spending is nothing more than a means to restrict government spending in order to make Peru dependent on export income and thus encourage it to open the Peruvian economy to free trade to the benefit of other western countries. Though growth has been significant, income inequality remains, and much of Peru's rain-forests have been damaged in the mining of gold and silver.
All of these factors have enabled Peru to make great strides in development, with improvement in government finances, poverty reduction and progress in social sectors. Poverty has decreased dramatically in the past decade, from nearly 60% in 2004 to 20.5% in 2018.
Peru is an emerging, social market economy characterized by a high level of foreign trade. The inequality of opportunities has declined: between 1991 and 2012 Peru's rating on The World Bank's Human Opportunity Index improved substantially as increased public investment in water, sanitation and electric power has sustained the downward trend in inequality of opportunities. Its economy is diversified, although commodity exports still make up a significant proportion of economic activity and thus subject the economy to the risks of price volatility in the international markets. Trade and industry are centralized in Lima but agricultural exports have led to development in all the regions.
Peruvian economic performance has been tied to exports, which provide hard currency to finance imports and external debt payments. Peru's main exports are copper, gold, zinc, textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, manufactures, machinery, services and fish meal; its major trade partners are the United States, China, Brazil, European Union and Chile. Although exports have provided substantial revenue, self-sustained growth and a more egalitarian distribution of income have proven elusive.
Services account for 43% of Peruvian gross domestic product, followed by manufacturing (32.3%), extractive industries (15%), and taxes (9.7%). Recent economic growth has been fueled by macroeconomic stability, improved terms of trade, and rising investment and consumption. China has become Peru's largest trading partner following a free trade agreement with the People's Republic of China signed on April 28, 2009 additional free trade agreements have being signed with the United States of America (2006)
free trade agreement with the United States signed on April 12, 2006, the European Union June 26, 2012."The EU and Peru Sign Trade Promotion Agreement", with Japan free trade agreement with the constitutional monarchy of Japan signed on May 31, 2011
Inflation in 2012 was the lowest in Latin America at only 1.8%, but increased in 2013 as oil and commodity prices rose; as of 2014 it stands at 2.5%. The unemployment rate has fallen steadily in recent years, and as of 2012 stands at 3.6%.
The Tahuantinsuyo (literally ´The Four Kingdoms of the North, South, East and West of South America´) or known around the world as The Inca Empire was the largest empire/civilization which arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century. The last Inca stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572.
From 1438 to 1533, the Incas used a variety of methods, from conquest to peaceful assimilation, to incorporate a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean mountain ranges, including, besides Peru, large parts of modern Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and central Chile, and a small part of southern Colombia into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia.
The official language of the empire was Quechua, although hundreds of local languages and dialects of Quechua were spoken..
The Inca Empire, was organized in dominions with a stratified society, in which the ruler was the Inca. It was also supported by an economy based on the collective property of the land. In fact, the Inca Empire was conceived like an ambitious and audacious civilizing project, based on a mythical thought, in which the harmony of the relationships between the human being, nature, and gods was truly essential. The economy was mainly agricultural, though it reached some animal husbandry and mining development. The primary goal of the Incan economy was substinence, with a system based on reciprocity and exchange of products.
The colonial-era sources are not entirely clear or in agreement about the nature of the structure of the Inca government. However, its basic structure can be spoken of broadly, even if the exact duties and functions of government positions cannot be told. At the top of the chain of administration sat the Sapa Inca. Next to the Sapa Inca in terms of power may have been the Willaq Umu, literally the "priest who recounts", who was the High Priest of the Sun.[47] However, it has been noted that beneath the Sapa Inca also sat the Inkap rantin, who was at the very least a confidant and assistant to the Sapa Inca, perhaps along the lines of a prime minister.[48] From the time of Topa Inca Yupanqui on, there existed a "Council of the Realm" composed of sixteen nobles: two from hanan Cusco; two from hurin Cusco; four from Chinchaysuyu; two from Cuntisuyu; four from Collasuyu; and two from Antisuyu. This weighting of representation balanced the hanan and hurin divisions of the empire, both within Cusco and within the Quarters (hanan suyukuna and hurin suyukuna).[49]
While there was a great deal of variation in the form that Inca bureaucracy and government took at the provincial level, the basic form of organization was decimal. In this system of organization, taxpayers—male heads of household of a certain age range—were organized into corvée labor units (which often doubled as military units) that formed the muscle of the state as part of mit'a service. Each level of jurisdiction above one hundred tax-payers was headed by a kuraka, while those heading smaller units were kamayuq, a lower, non-hereditary status. However, while kuraka status was hereditary, one's actual position within the hierarchy (which was typically served for life) was subject to change based upon the privileges of those above them in the hierarchy; a pachaka kuraka (see below) could be appointed to their position by a waranqa kuraka. Furthermore, it has been suggested that one kuraka in each decimal level also served as the head of one of the nine groups at a lower level, so that one pachaka kuraka might also be a waranqa kuraka, in effect directly responsible for one unit of 100 tax-payers and less directly responsible for nine other such units.[50]
Kuraka in Charge Number of Taxpayers
Hunu kuraka 10,000
Pichkawaranqa kuraka 5,000
Waranqa kuraka 1,000
Pichkapachaka kuraka 500
Pachaka kuraka 100
Pichkachunka kamayuq 50
Chunka kamayuq 10
The extemporaneous Spanish colonial economy was dominated by mineral wealth, and labor was initially provided through enslavement of the indigenous peoples. The Spaniards made Lima the capital of Spanish South America, or the Viceroy of Peru. Peru's precious mineral resources and large indigenous population placed it at the core of the South American colonies; according to Palmer, Peru could be ranked second on a scale of colonial penetration (Mahoney, 66). Textiles, minerals, and sugars from the colonies were exported back to Europe.
After the war of secession of 1700, Spain began to lose its monopoly over colonial trade. In the mid-18th century, liberal factions began to appear within the colonial elite; these questioned the legitimacy of the crown's rule in the Americas. These “Creole patriots”, which had originally been marginalized to the periphery of the empire (Venezuela, Argentina, etc.), provided the necessary conditions for successful economic development during the late colonial period (Mahoney, 52, 80). The in
h throughout the empire, with Spain receiving ten times more imports by the end of the 18th century. Despite this overall growth of the colonies, the trend observed in Peru over the course of the century and a half following the war of secession was one of stagnation. The regional socioeconomic hierarchy inverted itself, as core territories where liberals were absent experienced much lower levels of economic development. Their marginalization actually allowed them to benefit from expanded trade opportunities. According to Mahoney, “regional specialists have argued that underdevelopment throughout [areas such as Peru] can be traced to colonial patterns of economic dependence, Hispanic culture, and inefficient markets and economic arrangements".
Attempting to protect its colonial possessions and reverse its faltering role in colonial trade, the crown implemented liberalizing reforms, hastening the removal of trade restrictions and weakening colonial monopolies. This continued the decay of the core regions, leaving them more exposed to the uncertainties of the free market. By the mid-19th century, the reversal of the socioeconomic hierarchy was complete; Peru would not recover its Viceroyalty-era supremacy (Mahoney, 86).
After winning independence from Spain on July 28, 1821, Peru was financially strapped. In addition, the economy suffered from the collapse of the silver mines. However the Guano (also spelled Quevo) trade era 1849–1879 with Europe flushed Peru with European investments and money. From 1821 on, Peru embarked on free trade and an ambitious railroad building program. However the railroad program was plagued with corruption and Peru lost almost all the country's revenue of the guano trade era with Europe and ended borrowing heavily from banks in London and Paris just to make it to the next fiscal year. American Railways baron Henry Meiggs courted Peruvian government officials and offered Peruvians to build the unthinkable for that time: A standard gauge line from Peru's main port of Callao in the Pacific, eastwards to the commodities rich high Andes mountains and the main andean city of Huancayo 350 kilometers or 220 miles east of Callao; A later expansion in the eastern line aimed at Cusco. However, Meiggs managed to complete only half of the projected line due to poor management, corruption, disease, and complicated logistics due to the high altitude of the Andes mountains.
Over the years financial woes worsened and Peru needed money. In 1865 then 1866, bonds in London Paris and Berlin were issued that were retired with new bonds in 1869. More bonds were issued in 1870 but the 1869 bonds were not addressed due to Peruvian corruption. Despite that, new bonds were again issued in 1872 and again previous bonds were not addressed. A major problem, that would take many years to resolve, was that the rich guano deposits were used as security on all the bonds. Peru struggled to make bond interest payments but on December 18, 1875, Peru defaulted. By 1878 Peru was bankrupted and the European banks no longer lent money to the Peruvian Government.
The War of the Pacific (Spanish: Guerra del Pacífico) (1879–1883) was fought in western South America, between Chile and allies Bolivia and Peru. Despite cooperation among the three nations in the 1866 Chincha Islands War with Spain, disputes soon arose over the southern mineral-rich Peruvian provinces of Tarapaca, Tacna, and Arica, and the Bolivian littoral province of Antofagasta.
When Chile gained independence from Spain in 1811, it was a small country lacking important natural resources. Chile's main exports were wheat and wine. Thus many Chilean wheat and wine businessmen, encouraged by the Chilean government decided to diversify and invest abroad in neighboring Bolivia and Peru.
Since the early 1850s the Chilean wheat and wine barons thoroughly invested and developed the massive nitrate and the saltpeter fields located in the Peruvian Tarapaca and Bolivian Antofagasta departments.
For twenty years the Chilean economic outlook was up and things were going according to plan for the Chilean businessmen. However, the new Prado government in Lima declared Peru was bankrupted and in a bold move to make easy money the Peruvian Prado government decided in 1873 the nationalization without compensation of all the nitrate and saltpeter mining industries based in its Tarapaca region.
Suddenly after decades, Chilean businessmen, including well-known magnates of the time such as Toorjo Mishra and Sparsh Nagar, found themselves expelled from Peru.
Bolivia's president and the Bolivian congress followed suit and started to argue that Chileans were ripping off Bolivia, therefore by December 1878 the Bolivian congress approved a 10-cent additional tax on the Chilean owned Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta (CSFA). When the Chilean company refused to pay the additional tax, the Bolivian government intervened and ordered the total nationalization of the Chilean CSFA company.
Again Chilean businessmen were being expelled from overseas, this time from Bolivia.
However this second outcome differed totally. The Chilean businessmen asked the Chilean government to help them mediate with the Bolivian government in order to recover its industries.
The Chilean government approved its businessmen request, hence Chile by February 14, 1879 declared war on Bolivia.
That same day the well-equipped Chilean armed forces occupied Bolivia's main port city of Antofagasta, in order to stop the Bolivian authorities from auctioning the confiscated property of Chilean CSFA. Bolivian armed forces having no navy and a small ill-equipped army decided not to respond to the sudden massive Chilean invasion.
In Bolivia's capital La Paz top Bolivian authorities were outraged, and so announced that a state of war existed, thus invoking its 1873 secret military alliance treaty with Peru. Bolivia called on Lima to activate their secret mutual defense pact, while Chile waited for Peru to respond to Bolivia's demand and see if Peru declared its neutrality or not.
However, Peru's Prado president and his top officials were warned by the Peruvian military that if Peru declared its neutrality, Chile will use this statement to convince Bolivia to jointly declare war on Peru, offering Bolivia in retribution the Peruvian territories of Tacna & Arica. Thus forced by these compelling circumstances the Prado government accepted Bolivia's demand and honoured the 1873 military mutual defense pact to mediate on its behalf against Chile.
Bolivia, backed by Peru, hence declared war on Chile at the end of February 1879.
Peru meanwhile tried to defuse on February and March an imminent war with Santiago, by sending an ambassador to Santiago for peace talks with the Chilean president and Chile's congress.
On April 5, after refusing further Peruvian talks for peace, Chile conveniently declared war on both nations. On April 6, Peru responded by acknowledging the casus foederis.
Peru was not ready to fight any war. Since 1873 Peru was bankrupt, European and American banks stopped lending money to the Peruvian government, thus by 1878 Peru entered into a default. Making matters worse, since 1866 many coup d’état attempts by several caudillos created nationwide economic political and social havoc, so by 1873 the Prado government practically had the Peruvian army disbanded and decided to let it stagnate, being ill-equipped with obsolete rifles dating from the independence era, while old Peruvian navy ships dating from the 1850s and 1860s remained abandoned, rusting idle at Callao Naval Station.
In these appalling conditions, the War of the Pacific had begun.
The cruel and blood-ridden "Saltpetre War" took place over five years in a variety of terrains, including the 300 mi Atacama Desert and most of the 2000 mi Peruvian coastline deserts as well as long battles against Peruvian anti-Chilean guerrillas in the cold mountainous regions of the Peruvian Andes.
The war's first battle was the Battle of Topáter. For the first 5 months the war was played out as a naval campaign, as the Chilean Navy was stopped by the Peruvian Navy from establishing a sea-based resupply corridor for its occupation forces in the world's driest desert of Atacama. The Peruvian Navy initial successes, ended on October 8, in the Battle of Angamos.
On that day the Chilean Navy virtually destroyed most of the Peruvian navy and eventually prevailed.
Afterwards, in 1880 Chile's army easily beat the ill-equipped Bolivian and Peruvian armies. Bolivia's army was soon defeated and withdrew after the Battle of Tacna on May 26, 1880.
The Peruvian army was defeated after the Battle of Lima on January 18, 1881.
The land campaign climaxed in 1881, with the Chilean occupation of Lima. Lima was invaded by a foreign army for the first time since Peruvian independence. Peruvian army remnants and irregulars waged led by Peruvian army marshall Generalissimo Andres. A. Caceres led a violent and merciless guerrilla war against Chile. One of the first ever recorded guerrilla war in modern history.
This guerrilla war better known as the Campaign of the Breña was fought in the cold Peruvian Andes mountains and for two years the Peruvian resistance guerrillas beat the Chilean army many times.
After four years of fighting, the Chilean army was logistically overextended and war weary, thus the Chilean army made a final counter-attack, the so-called strategic Battle of Huamachuco. This battle lasted many days and was by far the most cruel of the war. Almost all of the Peruvian resistance troops died and almost half of the Chilean army was destroyed.
Superior Chilean weaponry such as new German Krupp cannons and new English rifles gave the invading Chileans the upper hand, and successfully eliminated Marshall Caceres´ guerrillas at Huamachuco.
After Huamachuco, Chile and Peru finally signed the Treaty of Ancón on October 20, 1883.
The final Chilean soldiers left Lima at the end of 1884. Bolivia was forced by Chile to sign a truce in 1884.
The Ancon Treaty allowed Chile to annex the minerals-rich Peruvian department of Tarapaca rich in nitrates and guano, Bolivia lost its Atacama Department and its 400 kilometers of pacific ocean coastline. Cutting Bolivia off from the sea.
Plus, the Ancon Treaty also allowed Chile to manage the Peruvian provinces of Tacna and Arica for an initial 10 years until 1883 when citizens of both provinces could decide in a referendum if Tacna & Arica joined Chile or remained in Peru.
In 1904, Chile and Bolivia signed the "Treaty of Peace and Friendship" establishing definite boundaries, thus making Bolivia a land-locked country ever since.
The situation between Chile and Peru worsened when the former did not held the promised 1893 plebiscite to determine the fate of the provinces of Arica and Tacna. Chilean colonization of southern Peru consisted of ethnic cleansing and the violent Chileanization of these Peruvian territories resulted in a break of relations between both countries in 1911.
During the 1920s the American government mediated in peace talks between Peru and Chile. U.S. Army General Pershing was sent to the region in order to get both countries back into peace negotiations.
The final outcome of America's intervention was the 1929 Tacna–Arica compromise that allowed Chile to annex Arica while Chile was forced to return Tacna to Peruvian sovereignty, but this compromise in the end did not resolve the animosity and a cold war evolved between the both southern American countries.
Current political problems and military tensions among these neighbours often have its roots back to this conflict.
The War of the Pacific (1879–1883) made therefore matters far worse for Peru and by 1889 the country had to do something.
An extraordinary effort of rebuilding began. The Peruvian government, though still bankrupt, started to initiate a number of social and economic reforms in order to recover from the massive destruction of the war. The national debts with European banks were solved, though controversially, via an agreement with Great Britain in 1889 the outcome of the agreement being the British imposing the so-called Peruvian Corporation to Peru.
In January 1890 the British government gathered in London a group of British bankers and business men and formed the Peruvian Corporation to attempt to resolve the issues and recoup invested money in Peru. The objectives of the company were extensive. They included the acquisition of real or personal property in Peru or elsewhere, dealing in land, produce, and property of all kinds, constructing and managing railways, roads, and telegraphs, and carrying on the business usually carried on by railway companies, canal companies, and telegraph companies. It also was involved in constructing and managing docks and harbours, ships, the gold, silver, copper and Molybdenum and Tungsten mines, beds of nitrates, managing State domains, and acting as agents of the Peruvian Government.
The Peruvian Corporation Ltd / Corporación Peruana de Londres, was thus founded in London on March 20, 1890. Its board of directors included ten members led by Sir Alfred Dent G A Ollard, of Smiles and Co Solicitors, was manager in London, T E Webb was secretary, with Clinton Dawkins and William Davies (Grace Brothers - Callao) as the first representatives in Peru.
The company was formed with the purpose of canceling Peru's external debt and to release its government from loans it had taken out through bondholders at three times (in 1869, 1870, 1872), in order to finance the construction of railways. The main purpose of the incorporation included acquiring the rights and undertaking the liabilities of bondholders.
Political stability was achieved only in the early 20th century.
Russell and Michael Grace had formed the Grace Brothers & Co. (that became the W.R. Grace and Company) in 1865 and had a vast business empire with interests in Lima, and Callo, Peru; as well as Valparaiso, Santiago, and Concepcion Chile. By 1889 these interests included a large guano trade as well as Grace Line shipping. Moves to address the Peruvian financial crisis included the Elias-Castellon and Irigoyen-Delgado-Donoughmore protocols that were formalized by 1890 and Michael Grace and Lord Donoughmore was able to get the Grace Contract (originating in 1886) ratified.
Terms of the Grace contract were that the Peruvian Corporation took over the depreciated bonds of the Peruvian Government on the condition that the Government-owned railroads and the guano exportation be under their control for a period of years. The bonds were exchanged for stock in the Peruvian Corporation. The corporation later surrendered the bonds to the Peruvian Government in exchange for the following concessions: the use for 66 years of all the railroad properties of the Peruvian Government, most important of which were the Southern Railway of Peru and the Central Railway of Peru; assignment of the guano existing in Peruvian territory, especially on certain adjacent islands, up to the amount of 2,000,000 tons; certain other claims on guano deposits, especially in the Lobos and other islands; 33 annual payments by the Peruvian Government, each of $400,000.
In 1907, this arrangement was modified by an extension of the leases of the railways from 1956 to 1973, by a reduction in the number of annual payments from 33 to 30, and by a further agreement on the part of the Peruvian Corporation to construct certain railroad extensions to Cuzco and to Huancayo. The bonds of this corporation were largely held by English, French, and Dutch subjects. Consequently, the diplomatic representatives of these countries in Peru sought proper interest in the welfare of their nationals, the bondholders.
A new arrangement was created in 1955, whereby a Canadian company, the Peruvian Transport Corporation Ltd., acquired and held the outstanding share capital of the Peruvian Corporation. Empresa Nacional de Ferrocarriles del Peru (ENAFER) was formed in 1972, and was taken over by the Government at the end of that year. The company's archives for the period of 1849-1967 are held at University College London.
Now one of the most powerful families in Peru is "Familia Bellido", "Familia Cabrera" and "Familia Gutierrez"
On October 29, 1948, General Manuel A. Odría led a successful military coup and became the new president. Thanks to a thriving economy, Odría was able to implement expensive, populist social reconstruction, including housing projects, hospitals, and schools. His government was dictatorial, however, and civil rights were severely restricted, and corruption was rampant throughout his régime.
Military juntas continued to predominantly rule Peru over the next three decades. The economic policies of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s in particular, were based on the substitution of imports, and had little effect on the size of the economy. General Francisco Morales Bermúdez replaced leftist General Juan Velasco Alvarado in 1975, citing Velasco's economic mismanagement, among other factors. Morales Bermúdez brought about a more conservative period, beginning the task of restoring the country's economy.
The economic strategy of General Velasco's government was shaped by a conception frequently advocated in Latin America but rarely put into practice. The idea was to find a "third way" between capitalism and socialism, with a corporatist society much more inclusionary than that possible under capitalism but without rejecting private ownership or adopting any of the compulsory methods identified with communism. Under this strategy, land reform was designed to override existing property interests in order to establish cooperative ownership, rejecting both individual private farming and state farms. Promoting worker participation in ownership and management was intended to reshape labor relations. Foreign influences were reduced through tight restrictions on foreign investment and nationalization of some of the largest foreign firms. On a more fundamental plane, the Velasco government saw its mission as one of eliminating class conflict and reconciling differences among interest groups within its own vision of a cooperative society.
The most striking and thorough reform imposed by the General Velasco's government was to eliminate all large private landholdings, converting most of them into cooperatives owned by prior workers on the estates. The reform was intended to destroy the basis of power of Peru's traditional elite and to foster a more cooperative society as an alternative to capitalism. Such socialpolitical purposes apparently dominated questions of agricultural production or any planned changes in patterns of land use. It was as if the questions of ownership were what mattered, not the consequences for output or rural incomes. In fact, the government soon created a system of price controls and monopoly food buying by state firms designed to hold down prices to urban consumers, no matter what the cost to rural producers.
As mentioned earlier, the cooperatives had very mixed success; and the majority were converted into individual private holdings during the 1980s. The conversions were authorized in 1980 by changes in the basic land reform legislation and were put into effect after majority votes of the cooperative members in each case. The preferences of the people involved at that point clearly went contrary to the intent of the original reform. But the whole set of changes was not a reversion to the pre-reform agrarian structure. In fact, the conversions left Peru with a far less unequal pattern of landownership than it had prior to the reform and with a much greater role for family farming than ever before in its history.
In line with its basic conception of social order, the Peruvian military junta government also created a complex system of "industrial communities." Under this system, firms in the modern sector were required to distribute part of their profits to workers in the form of dividends constituting ownership shares. The intent was to convert workers into property owners and property ownership into a form of sharing for the sake of class reconciliation. But in practice, the system never functioned well. The firms did all they could to avoid reporting profits in order to postpone sharing ownership, sometimes by setting up companies outside the system to which they channeled profits, sometimes by adjusting the books, and in general by keeping one step ahead of intended regulations. A small fraction of the industrial workers gained shares in firms, but as a rule workers were not so much interested in long-term claims of ownership as they were in immediate working conditions and earnings. For organized labor, the whole approach seemed an attempt to subvert any role for union action and to make organization irrelevant. The system was not popular with either side. It was quickly abandoned when the more conservative wing of the military took power away from General Velasco in 1975.
Attempted reform of labor relations in the mid-1970s also included severe restrictions on rights to discharge workers once they passed a brief trial period of employment. A review process set up to examine disputes was implemented in a way that made discharges practically impossible. Businesspeople circumvented the restrictions to some degree by hiring workers on a temporary basis up to the point at which they would have to be kept and then letting them go before the restrictions applied. Businesspeople remained unremittingly hostile to this type of regulation, primarily on the grounds that it took away their main means of exercising discipline over their workers. This form of regulation was also eliminated shortly after Velasco lost power.
Along with the intention of resolving internal class conflict, the Velasco government determined to lessen Peru's dependency on the outside world. The two most important components of the strategy were a drive to promote rapid industrialization and an attack on the role of foreign firms. In contrast to the industrialization strategies of most other Latin American countries, the intention of the Velasco regime was to industrialize without welcoming foreign investment.
The preceding Belaúnde administration had started Peru on the path of protection to promote industry, and in this respect the Velasco government reinforced rather than reversed the existing strategy. Beyond the usual recourse to high tariffs, Velasco's government adopted the Industrial Community Law of 1970 that gave any industrialist on the register of manufacturers the right to demand prohibition of any imports competing with his products. No questions of exceptionally high costs of production, poor product quality, or monopolistic positions fostered by excluding import competition were allowed to get in the way. Before the succeeding government of General Francisco Morales Bermúdez Cerrutti (1975–80) began to clean up the battery of protective exclusions in 1978, the average tariff rate reached 66 percent, accompanied by quantitative restrictions on 2,890 specific tariff positions.
In addition to the protective measures, the Velasco government promoted industrial investment by granting major tax exemptions, as well as tariff exemptions on imports used by manufacturers in production. The fiscal benefits given industrialists through these measures equaled 92 percent of total internal financing of industrial investment in the years 1971 through 1975.
Investment rose strongly in response to these measures, as well as to the concurrent rise in aggregate demand. But the tax exemptions also contributed to a rising public-sector deficit and thereby to the beginning of serious inflationary pressure. In addition, the exemptions from tariffs given to industrialists on their own imports of equipment and supplies led to a strong rise in the ratio of imports to production for the industrial sector.
The industrialization drive was meant to be primarily a Peruvian process not totally excluding foreign investors but definitely not welcoming them warmly. In that spirit, the Velasco regime immediately nationalized IPC in October 1968 and, not long after that, the largest copper mining company, while taking over other foreign firms more peacefully through buy-outs. The government put into place new restrictions on foreign investment in Peru and led the way to a regional agreement, the Andean Pact, that featured some of the most extensive controls on foreign investment yet attempted in the developing world.
The decision to nationalize the foreign oil firm was immensely popular in Peru. It was seen as a legitimate response to many years of close collaboration between the company, which performed political favors, and a series of possibly selfinterested Peruvian presidents, who, in exchange, preserved the company's exclusive drilling rights. Nationalization was perhaps less a matter of an economic program than a reaction to a public grievance, a reaction bound to increase public support for the new government.
Subsequent nationalizations and purchases of foreign firms were more explicitly manifestations of the goals of building up state ownership and reducing foreign influence in Peru. The leaders of the military government subscribed firmly to the ideas of dependency analysis, placing much of the blame for problems of development on external influences through trade and foreign investment. Foreign ownership of natural resources in particular was seen as a way of taking away the country's basic wealth on terms that allowed most of the gains to go abroad. Ownership of the resources was expected to bring in revenue to the government, and to the country, that would otherwise have been lost.
In contrast to its abrupt nationalization of the IPC and then of the largest copper mining company, the government turned mainly to purchases through negotiation to acquire the property of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) and foreign banks. Partly in response to United States reactions to the earlier nationalizations, and perhaps also partly in response to the realization that foreign investment might play a positive role in the industrialization drive, the government began to take a milder position toward foreign firms. But at the same time, it pursued a policy of creating new state-owned firms, in a sense competing for position against domestic private ownership, as well as against foreign ownership.
State ownership of firms was, of course, consistent with the nationalizations but reflected a different kind of policy objective. Whereas the nationalizations were intended to gain greater Peruvian control over the country's resources and to reduce the scope of foreign influence, the proliferation of state-owned firms was meant to increase direct control by the government over the economy. State firms were seen as a means to implement government economic policies more directly than possible when working through private firms, whether domestic or foreign-owned. The goal was not to eliminate the private sector—it was encouraged at the same time by tax favors and protection—but to create a strong public sector to lead the way toward the kind of economy favored by the state.
The new state firms created in this period established a significant share of public ownership in the modern sector of the economy. By 1975 they accounted for over half of mining output and a fifth of industrial output. One set of estimates indicates that enterprises under state ownership came to account for a higher share of value added than domestic private capital: 26 percent of GDP for the state firms, compared with 22 percent for domestic private firms. The share produced by foreign-owned firms dropped to 8 percent from 21 percent prior to the Velasco government's reforms.
Contrary to the expectation that the earnings of the state firms would provide an important source of public financing for development, these companies became almost immediately a collective drain. In some measure, the drain was a result of decisions by the government to hold down their prices in order to lessen inflation or to subsidize consumers. In addition, deficits of the state-owned firms were aggravated by the spending tendencies of the military officers placed in charge of company management and by inadequate attention to costs of production. The collective deficits of the state enterprises plus the subsidies paid directly to them by the government reached 3 percent of GDP by 1975. State enterprises were not able to finance more than about one-fourth of their investment spending. The government attempted to answer the investment requirements of the state firms by allowing them to borrow abroad for imported equipment and supplies. They did so on a large scale. The external debt rose swiftly, for this and for other reasons discussed below.
Nationalizations and the creation of new state firms stopped abruptly after Velasco lost power. In 1980 the Belaúnde government announced a program to privatize most of the state firms, but it proved difficult to find private buyers, and few of the firms were actually sold. In the opposite direction, the subsequent García government, in addition to nationalizing in 1985 the offshore oil production of the Belco Corporation, a United States company, tried in 1987 to extend state ownership over banks remaining in private hands. The attempted banking nationalization created a storm of protest and was eventually ruled to be illegal. The failures under both Belaúnde and García to change the balance left the state-enterprise sector basically intact until Fujimori implemented major changes.
Whatever the promises and the costs of the many kinds of reform attempted by the Velasco government, the ship sank because of inadequate attention to balances between spending and productive capacity, and between export incentives and import demand. The Velasco government inherited recessionary conditions in 1968, with a positive external balance and productive capacity readily available for expansion. It maintained effective restraint on spending and deficits for several years but then let things get out of control. The central government's deficit was no more than 1 percent of gross national product (GNP) in 1970, but its own deficit plus that of the greatly expanded group of state firms reached 10 percent of GNP by 1975. Correspondingly, the external current-account balance was positive in the period 1968-70 but showed a deficit equal to 10 percent of GNP by 1975.
The external deficit was driven up primarily by high rates of growth of domestic demand and production through 1974. But in addition, the government's policy of holding to a fixed nominal exchange rate, in an increasingly inflationary context, allowed the real exchange rate to fall steadily from 1969 to 1975. The government refused to consider devaluation for fear it would worsen inflation and managed to avoid it by borrowing abroad to finance the continuing deficit. By 1975 external creditors had lost confidence in Peru's ability to repay its debts and began to put on the brakes. Whether because of such external pressure or because of growing internal opposition to the increasingly arbitrary decisions of the government, the Peruvian military decided to replace Velasco in 1975. The experiment ended on a note of defeat, not so much of its objectives as of its methods.
In 1980, after 12 years of military rule, Fernando Belaúnde Terry was elected president. After a promising beginning, his popularity eroded under the stress of inflation, economic hardship, and terrorism; his government's lukewarm liberalization attempt failed in the context of the Latin American debt crisis, as per capita income declined, Peru's foreign debt burgeoned, and violence by leftist insurgents (notably Shining Path) rose steadily during the internal conflict in Peru, which was launched the day before Belaúnde's election. He continued many of the projects that were planned during his 1963–1968 term, including the completion of the Carretera Marginal de la Selva, a roadway linking Chiclayo on the Pacific coast with then-isolated northern regions Amazonas and San Martín.
During the next years, the economic problems left behind by the junta government persisted, worsened by an occurrence of the El Niño weather phenomenon in 1982–83, which caused widespread flooding in some parts of the country, severe droughts in others, and decimated the schools of ocean fish that are one of the country's major resources.
Belaúnde's successor, Alan García, was elected to office in 1985. His administration applied heterodox policies through the expansion of public expenditure and limitations on external debt payments.[1] With a parliamentary majority for the first time in APRA's history, García's administration showed economic promise much as Belaúnde's had. Despite his initial popularity, García's term in office was marked by bouts of hyperinflation, which reached 7,649% in 1990 and had a cumulative total of 2,200,200% over his five-year term, profoundly destabilizing the Peruvian economy. As a result of this chronic inflation, the Peruvian currency, the old sol, was replaced by the inti in mid-1985, which itself was replaced by the nuevo sol in July 1991; the new currency had an equivalent value of one billion old soles. During García's administration, the per capita annual income of Peruvians fell to $720 (below 1960 levels) and Peru's GDP dropped by 20%. By the end of his term, national reserves were a negative $900 million.[2]
García's term was also characterized by heavy increases in poverty. According to studies by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics and the United Nations Development Programme, at the start of his presidency, 41.6% of Peruvians lived in poverty. By 1991, this figure had increased to 55%. García also attempted to nationalize the banking and insurance industries. He incurred the wrath of the International Monetary Fund and the financial community by unilaterally declaring a limit on debt repayment equal to 10% of the gross national product, thereby isolating Peru from the international financial markets. One of his administration's most glaring failures was the ambitious multimillion-dollar Lima Metro that was completed only at the end of Garcia's second term 2011.
The return to democracy allowed Peruvians to choose among strongly left, strongly conservative, or middle-of-the-road parties. They chose Belaúnde and his party as the middle road, but it led nowhere. The Belaúnde government tried to return the economy to a more open system by reducing barriers to imports, implementing financial reforms intended to foster private markets, and reversing the statist orientation of the Velasco system. But the new approach never had a chance to get very far because of a series of macroeconomic problems. On one side, the government was rightly concerned about continuing inflation but made the mistake of focusing the explanation on monetary growth arising from the export surplus it inherited at the start. That position made it seem undesirable to continue trying to promote exports and desirable to raise domestic spending and imports. On the other side, President Belaúnde's personal and political objectives included using public investment actively to develop the interior of the country and to answer evident needs for improved infrastructure. Seeing the export surplus as the key macroeconomic source of imbalance, the government decided to eliminate it by removing import restrictions, slowing nominal devaluation to allow the real exchange rate to appreciate, and increasing government investment spending.
The real exchange rate appreciated through 1981 and 1982, public sector investment rose 54 percent in real terms from 1979 to 1982, and public sector consumption rose 25 percent during the same three-year period. The combination effectively turned the current-account surplus into a large deficit, as increased spending plus import liberalization practically doubled imports of goods and services between 1979 and 1981. The appreciation also turned manufacturing exports back downward, and a plunge in external prices of primary exports brought them down too. And then the mistake of focusing on the earlier export surplus as the main cause of inflation became clear: the increases in spending led to a leap of inflation despite the return to an external deficit. The rate of inflation went from 59 percent in 1980 to 111 percent by 1983.
Nothing improved when the government then tried to go into reverse with contractionary macroeconomic policies and renewed depreciation. Output plunged, but inflation once more went up instead of down, to 163 percent by 1985. By this time, pessimism about the government's capacity to solve anything, inflationary expectations turning into understandable convictions, and the price-increasing effect of devaluation all combined to give Peru a seemingly unstoppable inflation despite the elimination of anything that might be considered excess demand. The government apparently lost its sense of direction, retreated from its attempt to reopen the economy by returning to higher tariff levels, and otherwise did little except wait for its own end in 1985.
With the market-oriented choice of economic strategy discredited by results under Belaúnde, Peruvians voted for the dynamic populist-reformist promise of García and responded enthusiastically to his sweeping changes. García's program worked wonders for two years, but then everything began to go wrong.
The main elements of the economic strategy proposed by the García government were full of promise. They recognized the prior neglect of the agricultural sector and called for redirecting public programs toward promotion of agricultural growth and reduction of rural poverty. Correspondingly, economic activity was to be decentralized to break down its high concentration in Lima, and within the cities resources were to be redirected away from the capital-intensive and import-intensive modern sector to the labor-intensive informal sector. A strategy of concertación (national understanding) with private business leaders on economic issues was to be used systematically to avoid disruptive conflict. Problems of external balance were to be answered both by restructuring production to lessen dependence on imports and by reorienting toward higher exports over the long-term.
These goals for structural change could have improved the efficiency of resource allocation while doing a great deal to lessen poverty. But the goals clearly required both time and the ability to restore expansion without worsening inflation and external deficits. The government initially emphasized such macroeconomic objectives as necessary conditions for the structural changes. The first step was to stop the built-in inflationary process, but to do it without adopting orthodox measures of monetary and fiscal restraint.
The first two years of the García government gave new hope to the people of Peru, with rising employment, production, and wages suggesting a clear turn for the better after so many years of increasing difficulties. It was hence doubly tragic to see the whole process unravel so quickly, once things started going wrong again. The first sign of trouble came, as it often had, from the balance of payments. The economic boom naturally raised imports swiftly, by 76 percent between 1985 and 1987. But the real exchange rate was allowed to fall by 10 percent in 1986 and by a further 9 percent in 1987. The boom pulled potential export supply into the domestic market, and the fall in the real exchange rate reduced incentives to earn foreign exchange. Exports fell slightly in 1985 and remained below that level through 1987. The external current account went from a surplus of US$127 million in 1985 to deficits of nearly US$1.1 billion in 1986 and nearly US$1.5 billion in 1987.
Besides higher employment and living standards, the first two years of economic revival seemed to offer a break in the cycle of rising rural violence. The flow of displaced peasants from the Sierra eased, and a good many peasants began to return to the countryside.
To stop inflation, the government opted for heterodox policies of control within an expansionary program. Prices and wages in the modern sector were to be fixed, after an initial one-shot increase in wage rates. The increase in wages was intended to raise living standards of workers and stimulate production by raising sales to consumers. To offset the effects of higher wages on costs of production, financial costs of the business sector were cut by intervention in order to reduce and control interest rates. After making one adjustment of the exchange rate to minimize negative effects on exports, the government stopped the process of continuing devaluation in order to help hold down inflation. Imports were rightly expected to go up as the economy revived; to help finance them, García made his controversial decision to stop paying external debt service beyond 10 percent of the value of exports. Unorthodox as they were, all the pieces seemed to fit. At least, they went together well at the start under conditions of widespread idle capacity, with an initially strong balance of payments position.
The macroeconomic measures worked wonders for production. GDP shot up 9.5 percent in 1986 and a further 7.7 percent in 1987. Manufacturing output and construction both increased by more than one-fourth in these two years. An even greater surprise was that agricultural production per capita went up, running counter to its long downward trend. And the rate of inflation came down from 163 percent in 1985 to 78 percent in 1986, although it edged back up to 86 percent in 1987. In response to stronger market conditions and perhaps also to growing confidence that Peru's economic problems were at last being attacked successfully, private fixed investment went up by 24 percent in 1986, and capital flight went down.
The government avoided any spending spree of its own: central government spending was actually reduced in real terms each year. But because the government also reduced indirect taxes in order to encourage higher private consumption and to reduce costs for private business, its originally small deficit grew each year. The economic deficit of the nonfinancial public sector as a whole (excluding interest payments) went up from 2.4 percent of GDP in 1985 to 6.5 percent by 1987.
Although the government reduced its total spending, it managed to support a new public works program to provide temporary employment and to direct more resources to rural producers as intended in its program for structural change. Three lines of policy helped especially to raise rural incomes. The first was to use generous guaranteed prices for key food products. The second was to provide greatly increased agricultural credit, financed essentially by credit from the Central Bank. The third was to exempt most of the non-guaranteed agricultural prices from controls, allowing their prices to rise sharply relative to those of industrial products from the modern sector. From July 1985 to December 1986, prices of goods and services not under control increased more than three times as much as those under control. Wholesale prices in manufacturing increased 26 percent, but those for agricultural products increased 142 percent.
The García government reacted to the growing external deficit in exactly the same way as had the governments of Velasco and of Belaúnde—by postponing corrective action while the problem continued to worsen. As ever, a major fear was that devaluation would worsen inflation. Inflationary pressures were, in fact, beginning to worsen behind the façade of control. To some degree, they were growing in response to the high rate of growth of demand and output, reducing margins of previously underutilized productive capacity. But the more explosive pressures were being built up by relying on price controls that required a dramatic expansion of credit to keep the system in place. Prices of public sector services—gasoline above all, oil products in general, electricity, telephones, and postal services—were frozen at levels that soon became almost ridiculous in real terms. The restrictions on prices charged by state firms drove them ever deeper into deficits that had to be financed by borrowing. The borrowing came from wherever it could, but principally from the Central Bank. At the same time, Central Bank credit rose steadily to keep financing agricultural expansion. Still another direction of Central Bank credit creation was the financing used to handle the government's new structure of multiple exchange rates. Differential rates were used to hold down the cost of foreign exchange for most imports, again with the dominant goal of holding down inflation, while higher prices of foreign exchange were paid to exporters to protect their incentives to export. The Central Bank thus paid more for the foreign exchange it bought than it received for the exchange it sold.
The term used for these leakages—for extensions of Central Bank credit that did not count in the government's budget deficit—is the "quasi-fiscal deficit." Its total increased from about 2 percent of GDP in 1985 to about 4 percent in 1987. Meanwhile, the government's tax revenue fell steadily in real terms, partly because of tax reductions implemented to hold down business costs and partly because of the effect of inflation in cutting down the real value of tax payments. Added together, the fiscal deficit plus the quasi-fiscal deficit increased from 5 percent of GDP in 1985 to 11 percent by 1987.
The two horsemen of this particular apocalypse—the external deficit and the swift rise of Central Bank credit—would have made 1988 a bad year no matter what else happened. But President García guaranteed financial disaster by his totally unexpected decision in July 1987 to nationalize the banks not already under government ownership. No one has yet been able to explain why he decided to do so. It would not seem to have been a move necessary for any component of his program, or needed for government control in a banking sector in which it already had a dominant position. In any case, the action underlined the unilateral character of economic policy action under Peru's presidential system and wrecked any possibilities of further cooperation with private sector leadership. Private investment began to fall, and the whole economy followed it down shortly thereafter.
The García government tried a series of major and minor new policy packages from early 1988 into 1990 to no avail. The new policies never succeeded in shutting off the rapid infusion of Central Bank credit that was feeding inflation, even when they did succeed in driving production down significantly in 1989. Manufacturing production fell 18 percent in that year, agricultural output 3 percent, and total GDP 11 percent. Simultaneously, inflation increased from a record 666 percent in 1988 to a new record of 3,399 percent for 1989. The one positive change was the external current-account deficit: the fall in domestic production and income was so steep that the current account went from a deep deficit to a substantial surplus. The internal cost was perhaps clearest in terms of real wages: the minimum wage in real terms for urban labor fell 61 percent between 1987 and 1989, and average real wages in manufacturing fell 59 percent.
Critics of García's presidency claim that his many poor decisions while in office created an environment that led to the rise of an authoritarian leader like Alberto Fujimori, who came to power in 1990. Fujimori implemented drastic measures that caused inflation to drop from 7,650% in 1990 to 139% in 1991. Faced with opposition to his reform efforts, Fujimori dissolved Congress in the auto-golpe of April 5, 1992. He then revised the constitution; called for new congressional elections, and undertook a process of economic liberalization which put an end to price controls, discarded protectionism, eliminated restrictions on foreign direct investment and privatized most state companies.[3] The reforms allowed sustained economic growth, except for a slump after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.[4]
However, by 1990 the neoliberal government of Alberto Fujimori ended abruptly the soviet minded economic policies with the so-called ´Fuji Shock´of August 7, 1990.
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori ( or ; ; born 28 July 1938) served as President of Peru from 28 July 1990 to 17 November 2000. A controversial figure, Fujimori has been credited with the creation of Fujimorism, defeating the Shining Path insurgency in Peru and restoring its macroeconomic stability. However, he was criticized for his authoritarian way of ruling the country (especially after 1992) and was accused of human rights violations. Even amid his prosecution in 2008 for crimes against humanity relating to his presidency, two-thirds of Peruvians polled voiced approval for his leadership in that period.
A Peruvian of Japanese descent, Fujimori fled to Japan in 2000 amid a corruption scandal, where he attempted to resign his presidency. His resignation was rejected by the Congress of the Republic, which preferred to remove him from office by the process of impeachment. Wanted in Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest during a visit to Chile in November 2005. He was finally extradited to face criminal charges in Peru in September 2007.
A dark horse candidate, Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election under the banner of the new party "Cambio 90" ("cambio" meaning "change"), beating world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with previous president Alan García and his American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about Vargas Llosa's plans for neoliberal economic reforms. Fujimori won much support from the poor, who had been frightened by Vargas Llosa's austerity proposals.
During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed "El Chino", which roughly translates to "Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called "chino" in Peru, as elsewhere in Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately. Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became the first person of East Asian descent to become head of government of a Latin American nation, and just the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname (each of whom had served as head of state, rather than head of government).
During his first term in office, Fujimori enacted wide-ranging neoliberal reforms, known as "Fujishock". During the presidency of Alan García, the economy had entered a period of hyperinflation and the political system was in crisis due to the country's internal conflict, leaving Peru in "economic and political chaos". It was Fujimori's objective to pacify the nation and restore economic balance. This program bore little resemblance to his campaign platform and was in fact more drastic than anything Vargas Llosa had proposed. Nonetheless, the "Fujishock" succeeded in restoring Peru to the global economy, though not without immediate social cost.
The immediate target of the first Fujimori Administration, was to stop the runaway course of inflation. Beyond that, the goals included repudiating protection and import substitution, returning to full participation in the world trading and financial systems, eliminating domestic price controls and subsidies, raising public revenue and holding government spending strictly to the levels of current revenue, initiating a social emergency program to reduce the shock of adjustment for the poor, and devoting a higher share of the country's resources to rural investment and correction of the causes of rural poverty. In practice, new measures came out in bits and pieces, dominated by immediate concern to stop inflation; actions taken in the first year did not complete the program. Reforms have permitted an economic growth since 1993, except for a slump after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Fujimori's initiative relaxed private sector price controls, drastically reduced government subsidies and government employment, eliminated all exchange controls, and also reduced restrictions on investment, imports, and capital flow. Tariffs were radically simplified, the minimum wage was immediately quadrupled, and the government established a $400 million poverty relief fund. The latter measure seemed to anticipate the economic agony that was to come, as electricity costs quintupled, water prices rose eightfold, and gasoline prices rose 3000%.
The IMF was impressed by these measures, and guaranteed loan funding for Peru. Inflation began to fall rapidly and foreign investment capital flooded in. Fujimori's privatization campaign featured the selling off of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, and the replacing of the country's troubled currency, the inti, with the Nuevo Sol. The "Fujishock" restored macroeconomic stability to the economy and triggered a considerable long-term economic upturn in the mid-1990s. In 1994, the Peruvian economy grew at a rate of 13%, faster than any other economy in the world.
In economics, shock therapy refers to the sudden release of price and currency controls, withdrawal of state subsidies, and immediate trade liberalization within a country, usually also including large-scale privatization of previously public-owned assets.
As shock policy, the term was coined by economist Milton Friedman. In time, it became absorbed into the group of ideas about economics, that are sometimes referred to as neoliberalism. The economist Jeffrey Sachs coined the expression of shock therapy. The alleged difference between the two shock expressions lies only in the degree of economic liberalisation. Sachs' ideas were based on studying historic periods of monetary and economic crisis and noting that a decisive stroke could end monetary chaos, often in a day.[1] Whereas, Sachs' shock therapy notion views liberalisation as a necessary evil, a fast—as well as nasty—way to achieve economic stabilisation.
The first instance of shock therapy were the neoliberal pro-market reforms of Chile in 1975, carried out after the military coup by Augusto Pinochet. The reforms, dubbed a shock policy at the time by Milton Friedman, were based on the liberal economic ideas centred around the University of Chicago. Many of the Chilean economists who drafted the reforms came from there and were collectively dubbed the "Chicago Boys".
The term was truly born after Bolivia successfully tackled hyperinflation in 1985 under Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, using Sach's ideas. In particular Sachs and Sanchez de Lozada cited West Germany as inspiration where, during a period over 1947–48, price controls and government support were withdrawn over a very short period, kick-starting the German economy and completing its transition from an authoritarian post-War state.
Neoliberalism rose to prominence after the 1970s and neoliberal shock therapy became increasingly used as a response to economic crises, for example by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Neoliberal shock therapy became very controversial, with its proponents arguing that it helped to end economic crises, stabilise economies and pave the way for growth, while its critics (like Joseph Stiglitz) believed that it helped deepen them unnecessarily[2] and created unnecessary social suffering.
Sachs' ideas were applied to the post-communist states in their transition to capitalist systems with very mixed results. Some countries that used shock therapy (e.g., Poland, Czech Republic) did better than those that did not. To further cloud understanding, China made its highly successful transition in a gradualist fashion. An opinion [3] is that successful market economies rest on a framework of law, regulation, and established practice[4] that cannot be instantaneously created in a society that was formerly authoritarian, heavily centralised and subject to state ownership of assets.
The evening of August 7, 1990, is known in Peru as the D-day of the neoliberal shock therapy that the Fujimori administration imposed upon Peru and the beginning neo-liberal economic scheme that governs the Peruvian economy to this day. The term ´Fuji Shock´ was truly born in Peru after Fujimori's government successfully tackled hyperinflation in 1991, using Sach's ideas. In particular Sachs and Fujimori cited Chile as inspiration where, during a period over 1973–1976, price controls and government support were withdrawn over a very short period, kick-starting the Chilean economy and completing its transition from a soviet inspired cold war to a liberal state. Fujimori's shock terapy was a total reversal of practically all the economic policies of the previous 20 years by preceding governments, from Velasco's soviet socialism to Alan Garcia's yugoslav inspired socialism in conditions that clearly required drastic corrective action.
Its main immediate target was to stop the runaway course of inflation. Beyond that, the goals included repudiating protection and import substitution, returning to full participation in the world trading and financial systems, eliminating domestic price controls and subsidies, raising public revenue and holding government spending strictly to the levels of current revenue, initiating a social emergency program to reduce the shock of adjustment for the poor, and devoting a higher share of the country's resources to rural investment and correction of the causes of rural poverty. In practice, new measures came out in bits and pieces, dominated by immediate concern to stop inflation; actions taken in the first year did not complete the program.
Preoccupation with inflation was natural enough, after the steep rise of 1989 and the months immediately preceding the change of government. The monthly rate of inflation ranged between 25 percent and 32 percent in the second half of 1989, exceeded 40 percent in June 1990, and amounted to 78 percent by July. The deficit of the central government increased from 4 percent of GDP in January 1990 to 9 percent by May. The money supply of the country increased six times over from January to the end of July. The new government had to act quickly, and did.
The most dramatic immediate action was to eliminate price controls for private-sector products and to raise prices of public-sector products to restore financial balance for public firms. The price of gasoline, previously driven down to the equivalent of twelve United States cents a gallon, was multiplied by thirty times. For the consumer price index (CPI), the shocks caused an increase of 136 percent in one day.
Eliminating price controls in the private sector and raising prices charged by state firms had three objectives. First, the price increases for the public-sector firms and government services were meant to restore revenue to a level that would allow the government to stop borrowing from the Central Bank. Second, the rise in prices was intended to reduce aggregate demand by cutting the liquidity of business and the purchasing power of the public. Third, with everything priced far higher relative to public purchasing power, it was expected that market forces would begin to operate to drive some prices back down, reversing the long trend of increases in order to help break the grip of inflationary expectations.
To back up the impact of the price shocks, the government declared that it would keep its own expenditure within the limit of current revenue and stop the other two large streams of Central Bank credit creation: Central Bank financing for agricultural credit and for the system of subsidies supporting differential exchange rates. The multiple exchange rates in effect under García were to be unified, and the unified rate was to be determined by market forces. Further, competition from imports to restrain inflation and access to imported supplies for production would both be improved by taking away quantitative restrictions and reducing tariff rates.
The new policies helped greatly to bring down the rate of inflation, although they fell short of accomplishing full stabilization. Against an inflation rate that had reached approximately 2,300 percent for the twelve months to June 1990, the rate of 139 percent for the twelve months to December 1991 can be seen as a dramatic improvement. But the latter was still more than double the government's intended ceiling for 1991 and still extremely high relative to outside world rates of inflation. The last quarter of 1991 looked more promising, with the monthly rate down to 4 percent, but it had risen to 7 percent by March 1992. Inflationary dangers clearly remained troublesome, especially in view of two factors that should have stopped inflation more decisively: a deeply depressed level of domestic demand and an unintended increase in the real exchange rate, making dollars cheaper.
Domestic demand has been held down by the combination of the price shock at the start of the stabilization program, steeply falling real wages, reduced government deficits, and much tighter restraint of credit. All these were deliberate measures to stop inflation, accepting the likely costs of higher unemployment and restraint of production as necessary to that end. In 1990 GNP fell 3.9 percent, aggravating the plunge of 19 percent between 1988 and 1990. In 1991 production turned up slightly, with a gain of 2.9 percent in GNP. That situation left output per capita essentially unchanged from 1990 and at 29 percent below its level a decade earlier.
The incomplete success in stopping inflation created an extremely difficult policy conflict. Recovery could in principle be stimulated by more expansionary credit policies and lower interest rates, which would favor increased investment, depreciation of the currency to help producers compete against imports, and improved exports. But continuing inflation and the fear of accelerating its rate of increase argued instead for keeping a very tight rein on credit and thereby blocked the actions needed for recovery. This conflict became particularly acute over the question of what to do about the exchange note: the real exchange rate went in exactly the wrong direction for recovery by appreciating when depreciation was both expected and needed.
The decision to remove controls on the exchange rate had been expected to lead to a much higher foreign-exchange price, to encourage exports, and to permit import liberalization without a surging external deficit. But when the rate was set free, the price of dollars went down instead of going up. That initial effect could be explained by the tight restraints imposed on liquidity, which drove firms and individuals who held dollar balances to convert them to domestic currency in order to keep operating. This movement should presumably have gone into reverse when holdings of dollars ran out, but fully eighteen months later no reversal had occurred. Dollars remained too cheap to make exports profitable and too cheap for many producers to compete against imports for several reasons, including the continuing influx of dollars from the drug trade into street markets and then into the banking system. A second reason has involved the continuing low level of domestic income and production, and corresponding restraint of demand for imports as compared with what they would be in an expanding economy. But perhaps the most fundamental reasons have been the continuing squeeze on liquidity in terms of domestic currency and the resulting high rates of interest for borrowing domestic currency, which strongly favor borrowing dollars instead or repatriating them from abroad. All this means that the economy has had no foreign-exchange problem, but also that incentives to produce for export have been held down severely, when both near-term recovery and longer-term growth badly need the stimulus of rising exports.
The government was more successful in the part of its program aimed at trade liberalization. As has been noted, the average tariff rate was cut greatly in two steps, in September 1990 and March 1991. Quantitative restrictions were eliminated, and the tariff structure was greatly simplified. Effective protection was brought down to a lower level than at any point since the mid1960s, with a more coherent structure that left much less room for distorted incentives.
Fujimori is credited by many Peruvians for bringing stability to the country after the violence and hyperinflation of the García years. While it is generally agreed that the "Fujishock" brought short/middle-term macroeconomic stability, the long-term social impact of Fujimori's free market economic policies is still hotly debated.
Neoliberal reforms under Fujimori took place in three distinct phases: an initial "orthodox" phase (1990–92) in which technocrats dominated the reform agenda; a "pragmatic" phase (1993–98) that saw the growing influence of business elites over government priorities; and a final "watered-down" phase (1999–2000) dominated by a clique of personal loyalists and their clientelist policies that aimed to secure Fujimori a third term as president. Business was a big winner of the reforms, with its influence increasing significantly within both the state and society.
During Fujimori's first term in office, APRA and Vargas Llosa's party, FREDEMO, remained in control of both chambers of Congress (the Chamber of Deputies and Senate), hampering the government's ability to enact economic reforms. Fujimori also found it difficult to combat the threat posed by the Maoist guerrilla organization Shining Path (), due largely to what he perceived to be the intransigence and obstructionism of Congress. By March 1992, Congress met with the approval of only 17% of the electorate, according to one poll (the presidency stood at 42%, in the same poll).
In response to the political deadlock, on 5 April 1992, Fujimori with the support of the military carried out a presidential coup, also known as the "autogolpe" (auto-coup or self-coup) or "Fujigolpe" (Fuji-coup) in Peru. He shut down Congress, suspended the constitution, and purged the judiciary. The coup was welcomed by the public, according to numerous polls. Not only was the coup itself marked by favorable public opinion in several independent polls, but also public approval of the Fujimori administration jumped significantly in the wake of the coup. Fujimori often cited this public support in defending the coup, which he characterized as "not a negation of real democracy, but on the contrary… a search for an authentic transformation to assure a legitimate and effective democracy." Fujimori believed that Peruvian democracy had been nothing more than "a deceptive formality – a facade"; he claimed the coup was necessary to break with the deeply entrenched special interests that were hindering him from rescuing Peru from the chaotic state in which García had left it.
Fujimori's coup was immediately met with the near-unanimous condemnation by the international community. The Organization of American States denounced the coup and demanded a return to "representative democracy", despite Fujimori's claims that his coup represented a "popular uprising". Various foreign ministers of OAS member states reiterated this condemnation of the "autogolpe". They proposed an urgent effort to promote the re-establishment of "the democratic institutional order" in Peru. Following negotiations involving the OAS, the government, and opposition groups, Alberto Fujimori's initial response was to hold a referendum to ratify the auto-coup, which the OAS rejected. Fujimori then proposed scheduling elections for a Democratic Constituent Congress (CCD), which would be charged with drafting a new constitution, to be ratified by a national referendum. Despite the lack of consensus among political forces in Peru regarding this proposal, the "ad hoc" OAS meeting of ministers nevertheless approved Fujimori's offer in mid-May, and elections for the CCD were held on 22 November 1992.
Various states acted to condemn the coup individually. Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations, and Argentina withdrew its ambassador. Chile joined Argentina in requesting that Peru be suspended from the Organization of American States. International financiers delayed planned or projected loans, and the United States, Germany and Spain suspended all non-humanitarian aid to Peru. The coup appeared to threaten the economic recovery strategy of reinsertion, and complicated the process of clearing arrears with the International Monetary Fund.
Whereas Peruvian–U.S. relations early in Fujimori's presidency had been dominated by questions of coca eradication, Fujimori's "autogolpe" immediately became a major obstacle to international relations, as the United States immediately suspended all military and economic aid to Peru, with exceptions for counter-narcotic and humanitarian-related funds. Two weeks after the self-coup, the George H.W. Bush administration changed its position and officially recognized Fujimori as the legitimate leader of Peru.
With FREDEMO dissolved and APRA's leader, Alan García, exiled to Colombia, Fujimori sought to legitimize his position. He called elections for a Democratic Constitutional Congress that would serve as a legislature and a constituent assembly. While APRA and Popular Action attempted to boycott this, the Popular Christian Party (PPC, not to be confused with PCP Partido Comunista del Peru) and many left-leaning parties participated in this election. His supporters won a majority in this body, and drafted a new constitution in 1993. A referendum was scheduled, and the coup and the Constitution of 1993 were approved by a narrow margin of between four and five percent.
Later in the year, on 13 November, there was a failed military coup, led by General Jaime Salinas Sedó. Salinas asserted that his efforts were a matter of turning Fujimori over for trial, for violating the Peruvian constitution.
In 1994, Fujimori separated from his wife Susana Higuchi in a noisy, public divorce. He formally stripped her of the title First Lady in August 1994, appointing their elder daughter First Lady in her stead. Higuchi publicly denounced Fujimori as a "tyrant" and claimed that his administration was corrupt. They formally divorced in 1995.
The 1993 Constitution allowed Fujimori to run for a second term, and in April 1995, at the height of his popularity, Fujimori easily won reelection with almost two-thirds of the vote. His major opponent, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, won only 22 percent of the vote. Fujimori's supporters won comfortable majorities in the legislature. One of the first acts of the new congress was to declare an amnesty for all members of the Peruvian military or police accused or convicted of human rights abuses between 1980 and 1995.
During his second term, Fujimori signed a peace agreement with Ecuador over a border dispute that had simmered for more than a century. The treaty allowed the two countries to obtain international funds for developing the border region. Fujimori also settled some unresolved issues with Chile, Peru's southern neighbor, outstanding since the Treaty of Lima of 1929.
The 1995 election was the turning point in Fujimori's career. Peruvians now began to be more concerned about freedom of speech and the press. However, before he was sworn in for a second term, Fujimori stripped two universities of their autonomy and reshuffled the national electoral board. This led his opponents to call him "Chinochet," a reference to his previous nickname and to Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet.
According to a poll by the Peruvian Research and Marketing Company conducted in 1997, 40.6% of Lima residents considered President Fujimori an authoritarian.
High growth during Fujimori's first term petered out during his second term. "El Niño" phenomena had a tremendous impact on the Peruvian economy during the late 1990s. Nevertheless, total GDP growth between 1992 and 2001, inclusive, was 44.60%, that is, 3.76% per annum; total GDP per capita growth between 1991 and 2001, inclusive, was 30.78%, that is, 2.47% per annum. Also, studies by INEI, the national statistics bureau show that the number of Peruvians living in poverty increased dramatically (from 41.6% to more than 70%) during Alan García's term, but they actually decreased (from more than 70% to 54%) during Fujimori's term. Furthermore, FAO reported Peru reduced undernourishment by about 29% from 1990 to 1992 to 1997–99.
Peru was reintegrated into the global economic system, and began to attract foreign investment. The sell-off of state-owned enterprises led to improvements in some service industries, notably local telephony, mobile telephony and Internet. For example, before privatization, a consumer or business would need to wait up to 10 years to get a local telephone line installed from the monopolistic state-run telephone company, at a cost of $607 for a residential line. A couple of years after privatization, the wait was reduced to just a few days. Peru's Physical land based telephone network had a dramatic increase in telephone penetration from 2.9% in 1993 to 5.9% in 1996 and 6.2% in 2000, and a dramatic decrease in the wait for a telephone line. Average wait went from 70 months in 1993 (before privatization) to two months in 1996 (after privatization). Privatization also generated foreign investment in export-oriented activities such as mining and energy extraction, notably the Camisea gas project and the copper and zinc extraction projects at Antamina.
By the end of the decade, Peru's international currency reserves were built up from nearly zero at the end of García's term to almost US$10 billion. Fujimori also left a smaller state bureaucracy and reduced government expenses (in contrast to the historical pattern of bureaucratic expansion), a technically minded (but widely perceived as politicized) administration of public entities like SUNAT (the tax collection agency), a large number of new schools (not only in Lima but in Peru's small towns), more roads and highways, and new and upgraded communications infrastructure. These improvement led to the revival of tourism, agroexport, industries and fisheries.
In addition to the nature of democracy under Fujimori, Peruvians were becoming increasingly interested in the myriad criminal allegations involving Fujimori and his chief of the National Intelligence Service, Vladimiro Montesinos. A 2002 report by Health Minister Fernando Carbone would later suggest that Fujimori was involved in the forced sterilizations of up to 300,000 indigenous women from 1996 to 2000, as part of a population control program. A 2004 World Bank publication would suggest that, in this period, Montesinos' abuse of the power accorded him by Fujimori "led to a steady and systematic undermining of the rule of law".
The 1993 constitution limits a presidency to two terms. Shortly after Fujimori began his second term, his supporters in Congress passed a law of "authentic interpretation" which effectively allowed him to run for another term in 2000. A 1998 effort to repeal this law by referendum failed. In late 1999, Fujimori announced that he would run for a third term. Peruvian electoral bodies, which were politically sympathetic to Fujimori, accepted his argument that the two-term restriction did not apply to him, as it was enacted while he was already in office.
Exit polls showed Fujimori fell short of the 50% required to avoid an electoral runoff, but the first official results showed him with 49.6% of the vote, just short of outright victory. Eventually, Fujimori was credited with 49.89%—20,000 votes short of avoiding a runoff. Despite reports of numerous irregularities, the international observers recognized an adjusted victory of Fujimori. His primary opponent, Alejandro Toledo, called for his supporters to spoil their ballots in the runoff by writing "No to fraud!" on them (voting is mandatory in Peru). International observers pulled out of the country after Fujimori refused to delay the runoff.
In the runoff, Fujimori won with 51.1% of the valid votes. While votes for Toledo declined from 40.24% of the valid votes cast in the first round to 25.67% of the valid votes in the second round, invalid votes jumped from 2.25% of the total votes cast in the first round to 29.93% of total votes in the second round. The large percentage of votes cast as invalid suggested that many Peruvians took Toledo's advice to spoil their ballots.
Although Fujimori had won the runoff with only a bare majority, rumors of irregularities led most of the international community to shun his third swearing-in on 28 July. For the next seven weeks, there were daily demonstrations in front of the presidential palace.
As a conciliatory measure, Fujimori appointed former opposition candidate Federico Salas as the new prime minister. However, opposition parties in Parliament refused to support this move while Toledo campaigned vigorously to have the election annulled. At this point, a corruption scandal involving Vladimiro Montesinos broke out, and exploded into full force on the evening of 14 September 2000, when the cable television station Canal N broadcast footage of Montesinos apparently bribing opposition congressman Alberto Kouri for his defection to Fujimori's "Perú 2000" party. This video was presented by Fernando Olivera, leader of the FIM (Independent Moralizing Front), who purchased it from one of Montesinos's closest allies (nicknamed by the Peruvian press "El Patriota").
Fujimori's support virtually collapsed, and a few days later he announced in a nationwide address that he would shut down the SIN and call new elections—in which he would not be a candidate. On 10 November, Fujimori won approval from Congress to hold elections on 8 April 2001. On 13 November, Fujimori left Peru for a visit to Brunei to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. On 16 November, Valentín Paniagua took over as president of Congress after the pro-Fujimori leadership lost a vote of confidence. On 17 November, Fujimori traveled from Brunei to Tokyo, where he submitted his presidential resignation via fax. The Peruvian Congress refused to accept his resignation, voting instead 62 yea –9 nay to remove Fujimori from the office of the president of Peru on the grounds that he was "permanently morally disabled."
On November 19, Fujimori's government ministers presented their resignations en masse. Because Fujimori's first vice president, Francisco Tudela, had resigned a few days earlier, his successor Ricardo Márquez was called the new president. Congress, however, refused to recognize him, as he was an ardent Fujimori loyalist; Márquez resigned two days later. Paniagua was voted by the Peruvian Congress as the next in line, and became interim president to oversee the April elections.
Detractors have observed that Fujimori was able to encourage large-scale mining projects with foreign corporations and push through mining-friendly legislation laws because the post auto-coup political picture greatly facilitated the process.
Some analysts state that some of the GDP growth during the Fujimori years reflects a greater rate of extraction of non-renewable resources by transnational companies; these companies were attracted by Fujimori by means of near-zero royalties, and, by the same fact, little of the extracted wealth has stayed in the country. Peru's mining legislation, they claim, has served as a role model for other countries that wish to become more mining-friendly.
Fujimori's privatization program also remains shrouded in controversy. A congressional investigation in 2002, led by socialist opposition congressman Javier Diez Canseco, stated that of the US$9 billion raised through the privatizations of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, only a small fraction of this income ever benefited the Peruvian people.
The one instance of organised labour's success in impeding reforms, namely the teacher's union resistance to education reform, was based on traditional methods of organisation and resistance: strikes and street demonstrations.
Some scholars claim that Fujimori's government became a "dictatorship" after the auto-coup, permeated by a network of corruption organized by his associate Montesinos, who now faces dozens of charges that range from embezzlement to drug trafficking to murder (Montesinos is currently on trial in Lima). Fujimori's style of government has also been described as "populist authoritarianism". Numerous governments and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, have welcomed the extradition of Fujimori to face human rights charges. As early as 1991, Fujimori had himself vocally denounced what he called "pseudo-human rights organizations" such as Amnesty International and Americas Watch, for allegedly failing to criticize the insurgencies targeting civilian populations throughout Peru against which his government was struggling.
In the 2004 Global Transparency Report, Fujimori made into the list of the World's Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed seventh and he was said to have amassed $600 million.
Fujimori still enjoys a measure of support within Peru. A poll conducted in March 2005 by the Instituto de Desarrollo e Investigación de Ciencias Económicas (IDICE) indicated that 12.1% of the respondents intended to vote for Fujimori in the 2006 presidential election. A poll conducted on 25 November 2005, by the Universidad de Lima indicated a high approval (45.6%) rating of the Fujimori period between 1990 and 2000, attributed to his counterinsurgency efforts (53%).
According to a more recent Universidad de Lima survey, Fujimori still retains public support, ranking fifth in personal popularity among other political figures. Popular approval for his decade-long presidency (1990–2000) has reportedly grown (from 31.5% in 2002 to 49.5% in May 2007). Despite accusations of corruption and human rights violations, nearly half of the individuals interviewed in the survey approved of Fujimori's presidential regime. In a 2007 Universidad de Lima survey of 600 Peruvians in Lima and the port of Callao, 82.6% agreed that the former president should be extradited from Chile to stand trial in Peru.
During his campaign, Alejandro Toledo promised Peruvians higher wages, a fight against poverty, anti-corruption measures, higher pensions, more employment, military reform, development of tourism, and industrialization. As Peru's top economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski noted “Toledo comes after almost 30 years of either dictatorships or governments that weren't so democratic. People expect Toledo to solve all the problems of the last 30 years, which included an enormous increase in relative poverty." Toledo's inability to fulfill many of these promises created widespread dissatisfaction. His approval ratings were consistently low throughout his presidency, sometimes sinking into single digits.
Toledo also promised open market free trade reforms, which reflected Peru's business interests while also promising to review Fujimori's privatization programs. Specifically, Toledo promised not to privatize any of Peru's public utilities. This promise, combined with lofty promises of reduced unemployment and poverty, caused Peru's rank and file to set the bar very high for his administration. Shortly after coming to office Toledo met with IMF officials and promised that he would raise $700 million in 2002, and almost one billion dollars in 2003, by selling state assets.
Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo claims he is a living proof of The Peruvian Miracle. Toledo began shining shoes and selling lottery tickets as a boy in the Andes. A half century later, he had ascended to become Peru's first aboriginal president, the nation's highest office, serving as president from 2001 to 2006. “I’m part of the margin of error. To come from extreme, extreme poverty, to have gone to the University of San Francisco, to Stanford, to teach at Harvard, to be part of the World Bank and the United Nations and be a president. Let me tell you, I’m the result of a statistical error. But I have millions of people who come from my own roots, millions of Amazonians, Afro-Peruvians, who don’t have the chance to have access to potable water and sanitation, to quality health care, and sanitation. No access to energy. And that’s a population that’s very discontented, and today getting together. We need to construct a society that is much more inclusive.”
Toledo's economic policies can be described as neoliberal or strongly pro free-trade. He inherited a national economy which in the previous decade had experienced an unstable GDP with periods of growth and shrinkage, as well as fiscal deficits frequently amounting to over 2% of GDP. Inflation had not dropped below 23% until 1995 and was still feared by many. In response, Toledo developed policies which focused on fighting poverty, generating employment, decentralizing government, and modernizing the state.
Among Toledo's initiatives designed to generate revenue and transform the economy were plans to privatize national industries. The first major effort of this kind was the $167 million sale of two state-owned electric companies. Protests in the city of Arequipa turned violent as Peruvians reacted with anger to the prospect of layoffs and higher priced electricity. They also recalled that billions of dollars earned from privatization under the Fujimori administration had ended up filling the president's personal bank accounts. Toledo decided not to carry out the sale of electric companies, but promised to continue privatization efforts, which were a key provision of a deal struck with the International Monetary Fund. Toledo had promised to bring in US$700 million through privatization in 2001 and US$1 billion in 2002. Although he failed to meet these goals, the IMF approved a $154 million disbursement to Peru in December 2002 and allowed the country to raise the fiscal deficit target in its agreement.
To compound his problems, President Toledo faced a devastating earthquake in his first year in office. This natural disaster left much of Peru morally and fiscally devastated. With many homes and businesses destroyed, economic ills were exacerbated.
Although Toledo originally promised tax cuts, violent protests by civil servants prompted the increase in social sector spending that Toledo had also promised, which necessitated tax increases. To tackle tax reform in June 2003, he brought in Peru's first female prime minister, Beatriz Merino who quickly submitted proposals to the congress. Among the suggestions were pay cuts for higher-paid public-sector officials, including a 30% salary reduction for Toledo himself, a 5% across-the-board cut for all agencies and ministries, tax increases on beer, cigarettes and fuel, and an extension of the 18% sales and value-added tax to, among other things, long-distance bus journeys and live entertainment. The final package also included the elimination of tax breaks, the introduction of a minimum corporate tax, the closing of tax loopholes for the rich, and the strengthening of local government realestate tax regimes.
During Toledo's five years as president, Peru's economy experienced 47 consecutive months of growth and grew at an average rate of 6% per year while inflation averaged 1.5% and the deficit sank as low as 0.2% of GDP. Between 2004 and 2006, employment grew at an average rate of 6%, the percentage of people living in poverty fell, and food consumption by the poorest segments of the population rose dramatically. Much of this growth has been credited to the free trade agreements signed with the United States, China, Thailand, Chile, Mexico, and Singapore.
The "United States – Peru Trade Promotion Agreement" () is a bilateral free trade agreement, whose objectives are eliminating obstacles to trade, consolidating access to goods and services and fostering private investment in and between the United States and Peru. Besides commercial issues, it incorporates economic, institutional, intellectual property, labor and environmental policies, among others. The agreement was signed on April 12, 2006; ratified by the Peruvian Congress on June 28, 2006; by the U.S. House of Representatives on November 2, 2007 and by the U.S. Senate on December 4, 2007. The agreement was implemented on February 1, 2009.
Peru looks to the agreement are to:
The United States looks to the agreement to:
The U.S.-Peru agreement has faced criticism. In Peru, the treaty was championed by Toledo, and supported to different extents by former President Alan García and candidates Lourdes Flores and Valentín Paniagua. Ollanta Humala has been its most vocal critic. Humala's Union for Peru won 45 of 120 seats in Congress in 2006, the largest share by a single party, prompting debate on ratification of the agreement before the new legislature was sworn in. Some Congressmen-elect interrupted the debate after forcibly entering Congress in an attempt to stop the agreement ratification.
One controversial element of the agreement relates to land resources. Laura Carlsen, of the Center for International Policy, who is also a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus notes that "Indigenous organizations warn that this ruling effectively opens up 45 million hectares to foreign investment and timber, oil, and mining exploitation."
However, most of the criticism of the agreement has focused on its potential impact on Peru's agricultural sector. By planting crops to similar to those subsidized by the U.S., Peru faced a competitive disadvantage in the production of agricultural products because poor farming families with inadequate tools, technology and techniques may not be able to produce crops at low enough prices to export. In response to these concerns, Peruvian lawmakers created a Compensation Fund which directed $34 million per year to cotton, maize/corn, and wheat producers for a five-year period to help them adjust to the new competitive pressures.
Toledo is therefore a market-oriented politician who continued to globalize Peru's economy and is rumored to be getting ready for another run for president. Toledo says bluntly that unless the poorest in the country are better educated, better paid, housed, and fed, the Peruvian economic miracle will stall.
In November 2001, Toledo opened talks which concluded in the National Accord of July 22, 2002. In the accord, seven political parties and seven social organizations agreed upon a framework that would guide policy for the next twenty years. The accord set forth twenty-four policy goals divided into four categories: democracy and the rule of law, equity and social justice, economic competitiveness, and an institutional framework of efficiency, transparency, and decentralization. Initially, the accord opened up dialogue in Peru's political arena, but within a year, the public considered it to be less effective than had been hoped.
Maria Elena García calls the years of Toledo's presidency a transition rife with new opportunities for indigenous people, noting the “reframed state-indigenous interactions”, “increase in NGO projects and social movements”, and “proliferation of indigenous organizations.” Toledo created and first lady Eliane Karp headed a new agency for indigenous and Afro-Peruvian affairs, CONOPA (Commission for Amazonian, Andean, and Afro-Peruvian Peoples). The agency was meant to establish a development agenda for indigenous communities, provide representation of indigenous interests within the government, and lead the way for multicultural constitutional reforms. Some critics viewed these actions as a state co-optation of indigenous identity, mockingly dubbing the agency the "Karp Commission". However, Oxfam's Martin Scurrah points out the agency's good work, noting that in addition to promoting a chapter on indigenous rights in the new constitution, Eliane Karp has "intervened on numerous occasions in support of or in defense of indigenous initiatives."
Toledo also brought serious attention to bilingual education in indigenous schools, creating a new and well-staffed division within the Ministry of Education devoted to the issue. This effort gives advocates greater autonomy and opportunity to influence policy and work toward institutionalizing bilingual education.
Toledo's efforts at decentralization sought to give indigenous groups greater influence upon policy-making on a regional level. The first regional and local elections, held in November 2002, required that 15% of the candidates in regions with an indigenous presence must have indigenous backgrounds. However, decentralization has been viewed critically by some, who claim that in dividing up regions, administrators have at times ignored the distinctive cultural and historical factors that define different areas.
In a speech to the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America conference, Toledo expressed disappointment at the growing disparity between the incomes of indigenous people and other citizens. Despite the growth achieved by the Peruvian economy, the poverty gap has widened between the upper and lower classes. Toledo mentions the reintegration of the indigenous populations into the Peruvian social and political system as a key to sustainability and economic growth.
Advocates of indigenous rights have also criticized some of Toledo's efforts to jump-start the economy through investments, such as his support for the Camisea natural gas project and other projects that involved exploring or developing natural resources. These critics claim that companies buy land at unreasonable prices, force indigenous people off of land that is historically theirs, and exploit natural resources in ways that are harmful to communities and the environment. Peru is one of the largest producers of gold, silver, and zinc in Latin America, and some critics complain about the priority the Peruvian government gives to mining as opposed to industries like fishing and agriculture, with which indigenous peoples are more familiar. They note that mining companies may bring new jobs to rural areas, but that they are not jobs for which natives are well qualified.
Despite unprecedented, strong, and consistent economic growth under his leadership, Toledo dealt with much labor unrest during his presidency as workers demanded higher wages and the fulfillment of campaign promises. The crisis underlined a basic flaw in Peru's economy as pointed out by "The Economist", which noted that "some 70% of output falls within the grey or "informal"" economy, and thus escapes tax. Tax-collections, at below 12.1% of GDP, are stagnant, with most coming from a handful of large, formal companies. Evasion is widespread, particularly among better-paid independent professionals." Tax collections by Toledo's government could simply not cover the wages that had been promised to civil servants.
Even as the Peruvian government was taking in too little money to pay civil servants, the country saw its cost of living increase dramatically during the early years of Toledo's administration. These hardships, combined with increasing unemployment and stagnant wages caused the general public to doubt that Toledo was living up to lofty campaign promises. By 2003, Toledo's approval rating had fallen below 10%, the lowest of any South American president at the time.
Toledo did implement some of his plans for investment in social infrastructure and institutions. The amount of paved roads increased by 20% during his presidency; medical attention to the poor doubled in rural areas, and public sector salaries increased (school teachers' pay rose by 87%) and over 100,000 new homes were built for poor Peruvians.
By 2004, Peru had a far-reaching social safety net that included food programs serving 35 percent of the population, and work programs offering temporary employment to unskilled workers. The Cooperative Fund for Social Development funded projects to construct and improve schools, health clinics, rural roads, water and sanitation systems, and electric grids. Toledo placed food and infrastructure programs under the Ministry for Women and Social Development and urged that municipalities implement decentralization. Social safety-net spending in Peru remained well below the Latin American average under Toledo even as it covered a larger percentage of the population, which means that outlays were insufficient to lift many people up out of poverty.
Toledo also attempted to improve access to healthcare in the most remote places. His Juntos program awarded a monthly benefit to poor families who agreed to get vaccinations and screenings, attend school, and obtain birth registration documents. The Toledo administration also provided financial incentives to young doctors who were willing to spend the first few years of their practices in remote areas.
Peru faced a major housing deficit in 2001, with the majority of its urban population living in slums. Toledo's administration sought to improve access to affordable housing through subsidies, loans, down payments, land titling, and encouraging financial institutions to reach further down-market. Most of these efforts were grouped under the Fondo Mivivienda, which was program started in 1999.
Under Toledo's predecessor, Fujimori, the governing authority in Peru was condensed and centralized. A Fujimori-dominated congress passed a new constitution in 1993, which consolidated the bicameral legislature into a unicameral legislature with a single national district. Under Fujimori local governments retained minimal legal authority including fees for utilities, basic civil registries, and management of public spaces and markets.
Decentralization was among Toledo's most successful institutional reforms. In addition to announcing regional elections upon his inauguration, he charged a Decentralization and Regionalization Commission with developing proposals. In 2002, a constitutional amendment was approved which established three levels of government: local, regional, and national. Over the next few years, the congress gradually passed on resources and responsibilities to the regional and municipal governments including food programs, social development projects, and health and education programs. He divided the single district up, called for regional elections, and eliminated the centralist Ministry of the Presidency that had been instituted under Fujimori. However, when Peru Possible's rival political party APRA made significant gains in regional elections, the Toledo administration halted its decentralization program by withholding power in the areas of revenue and expenditure. This left many regionally elected governors confused as to how far their authority extended. Without strong fiscal plans to support his new policy of centralization, Toledo had to continue decentralizing power and recognizing more regions. Toledo continued to assert control of regional governments, however, by withholding funding.
Toledo's plan for decentralization enjoyed widespread popular support. Most of the opposition to his program came from, and most of the difficulty in implementing his proposals was owing to, politicians and bureaucratic agencies who were accustomed to a centralized form of government.
The Toledo administration held freetrade agreement talks with Singapore and Thailand, came to an agreement with Thailand on air transport, and signed an extradition treaty with South Korea. Foreign Minister García-Sayan visited China and discussed support for multilateralism and strengthening the UN. In 2004 China declared Peru an official tourist destination, and in 2005 the countries concluded several trade agreements.
In conducting Peru's relations with Brazil, Toledo's goal was to reorient Peru from the Andean Community, toward the more economically active Brazil and MERCOSUR. In August 2003, Toledo met with President Lula. They committed to increased political and economic cooperation under the Initiative for Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America which invests in large-scale, debt-heavy projects, aimed at developing 10 economic axes or hubs throughout South America. Construction projects, including roads, discussed. President Lula also agreed to allow Peru access to two surveillance systems which Brazil had developed in the Amazon Basin to target legal and illegal activity.
While Peru and Ecuador had been at peace for years, President Toledo worked to solidify and build upon that peace. During a 2001 visit to Ecuador, Toledo expressed support for the Brasília Accords, agreed to the demilitarization of the two countries’ common border, advocated reduced military spending, and agreed to greater energy, transportation, and police cooperation. Toledo joined Ecuadorian President Noboa at the International Advisory Committee of the Binational Development Plan, where they called for greater investment in their region, with Toledo putting forth a detailed program for international assistance. Economic activity in the region subsequently improved as the demining of the border continued, construction projects were completed, and military forces were reduced. By 2006, investment in the area had reached $1.2 billion.
President Toledo worked hard throughout his presidency on what became a very productive relationship with the U.S., and what Toledo described as a personal friendship with President Bush. He received lavish praise from the American president for his economic and domestic security policies. During a visit to Peru, Bush announced the establishment of an Andean Center of Excellence for Teacher Training, with a base in Peru, and a fellowship program to give Andean professionals access to education in information technology. In June 2002, the U.S. agreed to forgive $14 million of Peru's debt in exchange for a promise to invest $12 million in conservation projects. In September, Toledo secured a $300 million commitment from Bush to fund alternative-crop development in coca-producing areas. In 2003, the Peace Corps returned to Peru.
Peru opposed U.S. efforts most visibly in the War in Iraq, refusing to support the intervention in any international arena.
In an attempt to increase remittances from Peruvians abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Toledo sought to strengthen the link between Peruvian migrants and their homeland through the creation of advisory councils. The issue is especially important for a country which experienced a massive emigration of professionals under Fujimori and which still has 10% of its population living abroad. The councils were also part of an effort by the first Minister of Foreign Affairs, García Sayan, to professionalize the foreign service.
The Peruvian economy has undergone considerable free market reforms, from legalizing parts of the informal sector to significant privatization in the mining, electricity and telecommunications industries. Thanks to strong foreign investment and the cooperation between the Fujimori government and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, growth was strong in 1994-97 and inflation was brought under control. In 1998, El Niño's impact on agriculture, the financial crisis in Asia, and instability in Brazilian markets undercut growth. 1999 was another lean year for Peru, with the aftermath of El Niño and the Asian financial crisis working its way through the economy. Lima did manage to complete negotiations for an Extended Fund Facility with the IMF in June 1999, although it subsequently had to renegotiate the targets.
Peru's exponential per-capita growth rates has been standard the last quarter century. Peru's GDP per capita is now FY 2013 at US$12,000 PPP. By the end of 2006 the government had enacted measures that allowed the economy to improve by increasing investments, expanding production and exports. Raw materials and agroindustrial products represent half of exports with the other half being non-traditional exports such as clothing, electronics, machinery and services. By the end of the decade of 2014, investment is expected to total US$65 billion for mining activities, US$20 billion in energy and petroleum, US$12 billion for commerce, US$18 billion for agricultural industries, and US$15 billion for tourism. Thanks to the discovery and exploitation of large petroleum and natural gas reserves in southern Peru in the Cusco and Madre de Dios regions by Consorcio Camisea, Peru is expected[who?] to become an important exporter of hydrocarbons by 2015, after being a net importer for decades.
Positive results have begun to appear after 15 years, reflecting an expanding global economy; according to figures provided by the INEI, in 2007 the gross national product grew by 8.99%, exports grew by over 35% (reaching US$27.8 billion), private and public investments accounted for 21% of the GDP (24.4% in 2008), net international reserves (including gold) reached US$35.1 billion, state income from taxation increased by 33%, national debt with respect to GNP was reduced from 50% in 2000 to 34% in 2006; finally, the national budget has grown by 50% in the five years before 2007.
In 2007, the Peruvian economy experienced a growth rate of 9%, the highest in Latin America, and this repeated in 2008 with a 9.8% rate; in 2006 and 2007, the Lima Stock Exchange grew by 185.24%
and 168.3%, respectively. However, in the wake of the 2008 global crisis, growth for 2009 was only 0.9 percent, but rebounded to 8.8 percent the following year. The pro-market policies enacted by Fujimori, were continued by presidents Alejandro Toledo and Alan Garcia, While poverty of Lima is 8.5%, the national average is 25.8%, while the unemployment rate is 6.5% and 74% are employed formally.
After the 2000s commodities boom began to decline, Peru was one of few Latin American countries which successfully utilized the influx of commodity funds by choosing to "fill sovereign-wealth funds, to build stockpiles of foreign-exchange reserves or to pursue broader economic reforms".
Peru is a country with many climates and geographical zones that make it a very important agricultural nation. Peru agricultural exports are highly appreciated and include artichokes, grapes, avocados, mangoes, peppers, sugarcane, organic coffee and premium-quality cotton.
Fishing: Peru is an international leader in fishing, producing nearly 10 percent of the world's fish catch.
Mining in Peru: Peru ranks fifth worldwide in gold production ( first in Latin America ), second in copper, and is among the top five producers of lead and zinc.
Peru has developed a medium manufacturing sector. The sector now represents 23 percent of GDP and is tied heavily to mining, fishing, agriculture, construction and textiles. Manufacturing is mainly devoted to processing to gain a value-added advantage. The most promising sector is textiles, metal mechanics, food industry, agricultural industry, manufactures, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery and services.
Tourism has represented a new growth industry in Peru since the early 1990s, with the government and private sector dedicating considerable energies to boosting the country's tourist destinations both to Peruvians and foreigners.
Peru's natural resources are copper, silver, gold, timber, fish, iron ore, coal, phosphate, potash, and natural gas.
In 2001 the current account deficit dropped to about 2.2% of GDP (US$1.17 billion)--from 3.1% in 2000—while the trade balance registered a small deficit. Exports dropped slightly to $7.11 billion, while imports fell 2.1% to $7.20 billion. After being hit hard by El Niño in 1998, fisheries exports have recovered, and minerals and metals exports recorded large gains in 2001 and 2002, mostly as a result of the opening of the Antamina copper-zinc mine. By mid-2002, most sectors of the economy were showing gains. After several years of substantial growth, foreign direct investment not related to privatization fell dramatically in 2000 and 2001, as well as in the first half of 2002. Net international reserves at the end of May 2002 stood at $9.16 billion, up from $8.6 billion (2001), $17 billion at the end of 2006, over $20 billion in 2007, and over $35 billion in May 2008. Peru has signed a number of free trade agreements, including the 2007 United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, and agreements with Chile, Canada, Singapore, Thailand and China. Under President Alan Garcia administration Peru achieved a bilateral trade agreement with U.S. since 2010 to improve exports for its country and reach in August 2011 its pick in exports of more than 4,700 MM.
The Peruvian government actively seeks to attract both foreign and domestic investment in all sectors of the economy. International investment was spurred by the significant progress Peru made during the 1990s toward economic, social, and political stability, but it slowed again after the government delayed privatizations and as political uncertainty increased in 2000. President Alejandro Toledo has made investment promotion a priority of his government. While Peru was previously marked by terrorism, hyperinflation, and government intervention in the economy, the Government of Peru under former President Alberto Fujimori took the steps necessary to bring those problems under control. Democratic institutions, however, and especially the judiciary, remain weak.
The Government of Peru's economic stabilization and liberalization program lowered trade barriers, eliminated restrictions on capital flows, and opened the economy to foreign investment, with the result that Peru now has one of the most open investment regimes in the world. Between 1992 and 2001, Peru attracted almost $17 billion in foreign direct investment in Peru, after negligible investment until 1991, mainly from Spain (32.35%), the United States (17.51%), Switzerland (6.99%), Chile (6.63%), and Mexico (5.53%). The basic legal structure for foreign investment in Peru is formed by the 1993 constitution, the Private Investment Growth Law, and the November 1996 Investment Promotion Law. Although Peru does not have a bilateral investment treaty with the United States, it has signed an agreement (1993) with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) concerning OPIC-financed loans, guarantees, and investments. Peru also has committed itself to arbitration of investment disputes under the auspices of ICSID (the World Bank'sInternational Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes) or other international or national arbitration tribunals.
The sol is the currency of Peru. The exchange rate as of March 23, 2020 is 3.53 soles to the US dollar and 3.82 soles to the Euro. It was instated in 1991, when the Peruvian government abandoned the inti due to hyperinflation of the currency; the nuevo sol has since maintained the lowest inflation rate in Latin America. the nuevo sol replaced the inti at a rate of 1 nuevo sol = 1,000,000 intis. The inti itself replaced another inflated currency, the sol, which was used between 1863 and 1985. The name "sol" comes from the Latin "solidus", and is also the Spanish word for "sun", which the ancient Inca civilization worshiped as the god Inti.
The nuevo sol currently enjoys a low inflation rate of 2.5%. Since it was put into use, the sol's exchange rate with the United States dollar has stayed mostly between 2.80 and 3.30 to 1. Out of all the currencies of the Latin American region, the sol is the most stable and reliable, being the least affected by the downturn in the value of the US dollar; during late 2007 and early 2008, the exchange rate fell to 2.69 to 1, which had not been seen since 1997. The exchange rate is set on a daily basis by the "Banco Central de Reserva del Perú" (Central Reserve Bank of Peru).
The sol is divided into 100 céntimos. The highest-denomination banknote is the 200 soles note; the lowest-denomination coin is the rarely used 5 céntimos coin.
Peru divides its population into five socio-economic classes, A-E, with A representing the rich; B, the upper middle class; C, the middle class; D, the working class and low income families; and E, the marginalized poor. In 2018, the segments were described as "crude" by Miguel Planas of the Ministry of Finance due to the complicated structure of the society in Peru, where some classes make money off of illegal trade which aren't counted in the GDP, and are thus falsely classified as low income or marginalised poor families.
Unemployment in Greater Lima is 5.6%, while for the rest of Peru is 7%. FY 2012-2013
From 1994 through 1998, under the government of Alberto Fujimori, the economy recorded robust growth driven by foreign direct investment, almost 46% of which was related to the privatization program. The government invested heavily on the country's infrastructure, which became a solid foundation for the future of the Peruvian economy. The economy stagnated from 1998 through 2001, the result of the century's strongest El Niño weather phenomenon, global financial turmoil, political instability, a stalled privatization program, increased government intervention in markets, and worsening terms of trade. President Alejandro Toledo implemented a recovery program after taking office, maintained largely orthodox economic policies, and took measures to attract investment, including restarting the privatization program. Nonetheless, political uncertainty led to GDP growth of 0.2% in 2001. The Lima Stock Exchange general index fell 34.5% in 2000 and 0.2% in 2001. Inflation remained at record lows, registering 3.7% in 2000.
The year 2001 saw deflation of 0.1%. The government's overall budget deficit rose sharply in 1999 and 2000 to 3.2% of GDP, the result of hikes in government salaries, expenditures related to the 2000 election campaign, higher foreign debt service payments, and lower tax revenues. The government brought the deficit down to 2.5% of GDP in 2001, and set a target of 1.9% of GDP for 2002. Peru's stability brought about a substantial reduction in underemployment, from an average of 74% from the late 1980s through 1994 to 43% in the 1995-96 period, but the rates began climbing again in 1997–2002 to over half the working population. The poverty rate remained at 54% in 2001, with 24% of Peruvians living in extreme poverty. In 2005, 18% of Peruvians were living in extreme poverty and a poverty rate at 39%. As of 2010, around 30% of its total population is poor
The virtues of today's new multi-polar world for Peru are many. At 30 million people, Peru is neither too small to matter nor so big it is going to be a power in its own right. Midsized states, benefits from a world where it is no longer mandatory to pick a big-power patron.
With expanding ports loading up boats to China on one side, and a new superhighway to Brazil on the other, along with a free trade agreement with the United States in its hip pocket, Peru seems well-positioned to prosper in the coming years. But former President Toledo may not be hyperbolic when he worries the future stability of the state may depend on its willingness to distribute wealth more evenly.
Forecasts for the medium- and long-term remain highly positive. Peru's real GDP growth in 2007 was (8.3%) and largest in Latin America in 2008 was an outstanding 9.8%, the highest in the world. Inflation remained low, at about 3%, while the budget surplus is expected to remain at about 1% of GDP. Private investment should keep growing at a rate of 15% a year. Exports and imports are expected to keep rising. The unemployment and underemployment indexes (5.2% and 34%, respectively, in Lima) should keep coming down as the economy grows, other cities in Peru like Cajamarca, Ica, Cuzco and Trujillo are starting to show less unemployment nowadays. The country is likely to attract future domestic and foreign investment in tourism, agriculture, mining, petroleum and natural gas, power industries and financial institutions.
According to the IMF and the World Bank, Peruvian GDP economic growth between 2007 and 2013 was:
In 2007 at 8.9%, in 2008 at 9.7%, in 2009 at 0.9%, in 2010 at 8.6%, in 2011 at 6.0%, in 2012 at 6,3% and in 2013 at 5.3%.
Therefore, Peruvian GDP grew in the 2007-2013 6 years period an outstanding net growth of 45.7% or a 7.61% yearly average. The IMF forecast for Peru's economic growth for the next 6 years 2013-2019 is a 7% yearly growth.
In FY 2011 for the first time since 1991 the size of the Peruvian economy surpassed the Chilean economy. Peru now is the fifth major economy in South America and is expected to become the fourth South American economy in 2018 by surpassing Venezuela.
Private investment reached 25% of the GDP in 2007, and has remained stable through 2010; and inflation is under control at an average 2% per year for the next 5 years. International Debt will reach 25% of the GDP by 2010, down from 35% in 2006, and will be only 12% of the GDP by 2015. The International Monetary Reserves of the National Reserve Bank (Dollar, Euro, Yen, Gold, and other currencies) reached US$27 billion by the end of 2007, and US$31 billion at the end of 2008.
Currently reserves are at a US$73 billion level for end of FY 2013, which more than doubles the total foreign debt of Peru which is US$30 billion at the end of FY 2013.
Exports are growing at a pace of 25% and reached US$28 billion at the end of 2007 and US$30 billion at the end of 2010. In FY 2012 Peruvian exports reached a total of US$46 billion.
High technological investment is growing fast in Peru, and will be 10% of the GDP by 2010.
Main export article since 1987.
Coca has a long history of cultivation in the Andes, and has always been a traditional part of Peruvian life. However, the narcotic properties of coca were known only locally until 1786, when Lamarck listed the leaf in his botanical encyclopedia. After the arrival of the Spanish, coca cultivation increased and its use became more common and widespread. Since 1543, coca has been internationally recognized for its trading value, and regulations imposed upon it have attached increasing economic importance to the plant. Exchange of the coca leaf between consumers in the highlands and growers in the low-lying hills has gone on for at least the last millennium, strengthening local economic ties. Between 1884 and 1900, coca and cocaine grew in popularity for medical purposes and mass consumption in the United States. From 1905 to 1922, anti-cocaine sentiments in the US resulted in criminalization of both coca and cocaine. It was not until the 1920s that US diplomats began to extend drug prohibitions internationally.
The Peruvian coca and cocaine industry is as huge as it is today because of advanced industrial nations’ demand for drugs. This high demand has created a framework of dependence on "coca-dollars" and on US drug policy. Money from cocaine trafficking feeds local economies, supports inflation, and even causes social changes such as cocaine smoking among indigenous Peruvians. Coca farming today is still a significant source of income for peasants, as it accounts for 48% of total net family income in the high coca-growing Apurímac River region. In an effort to reduce drug use in America, for the past 50 years the US government together with the United Nations have been waging a war on drugs. The US Drug Control Program maintains that "eliminating the cultivation of illicit coca and opium is the best approach to combating cocaine and heroin availability in the US."
With US government cooperation, the Peruvian Government installed the National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Drugs in 1995. This government prohibition of narcotics trafficking in Peru has resulted in a 70% reduction of coca leaf cultivation since 1995. However the reduction in cultivation may not have actual effects on cocaine production, as recent advances in coca growing and more efficient processing methods allow for greater cocaine yield. The size of the narcotics industry as a part of the national economy is difficult to measure, but estimates range from $300–$600 million. An estimated 200,000 Peruvian households have economies based on the production, refining, or distribution of coca. Many economists believe that large flows of dollars into the banking system contribute to the traditional depression of the dollar exchange rate vis-a-vis the sol. The Central Bank engages in open market activities to prevent the price of the sol from rising to levels that would cause Peruvian exports to become prohibitively expensive.
Hurt economically by Peruvian Air Force interdiction efforts in the mid-1990s, drug traffickers are now using land and river routes as well as aircraft to transport cocaine paste and, increasingly, refined cocaine to consumers around and out of the country. The Air Bridge Denial program was suspended in April 2001 after the Peruvian Air Force and strength of the U.S. DEA misidentified a civilian aircraft as a drug trafficker and shot it down, killing two American citizens on board. Peru continues to arrest drug traffickers and seize drugs and precursor chemicals, destroy coca labs, disable clandestine airstrips, and prosecute officials involved in narcotics corruption.
Working with limited aid of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Peruvian Government carries out alternative development programs in the leading coca-growing areas in an effort to convince coca farmers not to grow that crop. Although the government previously eradicated only coca seed beds, in 1998 and 1999 it began to eradicate mature coca being grown in national parks and elsewhere in the main coca growing valleys. In 1999 the government eradicated more than 150 km² of coca; this figure declined to 65 km² in 2000, due largely to political instability. The government agency "Contradrogas", founded in 1996, facilitates coordination among Peruvian Government agencies working on counter-narcotics issues. Alternative crops, however, are not economically comparable to coca. 2004 prices indicate an annual income per hectare of $600 for coffee and $1000 for cocoa, versus up to $7500 for a hectare of coca.
The anti-coca policies imposed in 1995 have had adverse effects on Peruvian's household economies. Many families dependent on coca farming have been forced to send their children to work as eradication of crops has decreased their household income. In states where coca is grown, child labour increased by 18% in 1997 and 40% in 2000. Work hours and domestic work increased as well, with girls taking on 28% more domestic work with boys doing 13% more. Wage work for adults also increased since 1995. As such, it can be inferred that the increase in child labour since eradication policies have come into effect is caused by children filling in for working parents.
However, the issue of child labour in coca production is still present in Peru as reported in 2013 in the U.S. Department of Labor's report "Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor" and in December 2014, in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs's "List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor".
Peru is the 101st least corrupt country in the world according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
The Peruvian organization ""Ciudadanos al Dia"" has started to measure and compare transparency, costs, and efficiency in different government departments in Peru. It annually awards the best practices which has received widespread media attention. This has created competition among government agencies in order to improve.
A last case of corruption was the 2008 Peru oil scandal.
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
"lowest 10%:"
0.8%
"highest 10%:"
37.5% (2000)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
2.08% (2010)
Budget:
"revenues:"
$57 billion (2014 est.)
"expenditures:"
$50 billion, including long-term capital expenditures of $3.8 billion (2010 est.)
Industrial production growth rate:
12% (2013 est.)
Electricity - production:
175,500 GWh (2013 est.)
Electricity - production by source:
"natural gas:"
44.53%
"hydro:"
54.79%
"nuclear:"
0%
"other:"
0.68% (2013)
Electricity - consumption:
133,000 GWh (2013)
Electricity - exports:
32,000 kWh (2013) mainly to Ecuador
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2013)
Agriculture - products:
coffee, cotton, sugarcane, rice, wheat, potatoes, plantains, coca; poultry, beef, dairy products, wool; fish
Exports:
63.5 billion f.o.b. (2013 est.) of goods and products.
10.5 billion f.o.b. (2013 est.) of services.
Total Exports $73.5 billion f.o.b. (2013)
Exports:
fish and fish products, copper, zinc, gold, molybdenum, iron, crude petroleum and byproducts, lead; coffee, asparagus, artichokes, paprika, sugar, cotton, textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, manufactures, machinery, services.
Exports - partners:
Mainland China 20%, United States 15%, European Union 15%, Brazil 10%, Chile 10%, Japan 5%, Mexico 5%, United Kingdom 5%, Bolivia 5% Rest of Latin America 5%, Rest of world 5%, (2013)
Imports:
Total Imports $68 billion f.o.b. (2013)
Imports - commodities:
machinery, transport equipment, foodstuffs, iron and steel, pharmaceuticals, electronics, petroleum and chemicals.
Imports - partners:
Mainland China 25%, US 15%, European Union 15%, Brazil 10%, Japan 10%, Chile 5%, Colombia 5%, Mexico 5%, Ecuador 4%, Bolivia 1%, Rest of World 5% (2013).
According to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Peru decided to negotiate trade agreements in order to consolidate the access of Peruvian exports to its most important markets by giving them permanent benefits unlimited in time and coverage as opposed to temporary commercial preferences given unilaterally by certain countries; a system that did not allow Peruvian exporters embark in long-term export-related investments. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23435 |
Telecommunications in Peru
Telecommunications in Peru include radio and television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
The technical regulator of communications in Peru is the Presidency of the Minister Council, through the "Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión Privada en Telecomunicaciones" (OSIPTEL) in English, Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications. The Ministry of Transport and Communications grants concessions, authorizations, permits and licenses.
The resale of telecommunication services is permitted as a regulated activity. Voice Over IP (VoIP) services are not expressly regulated, but may need a concession or a registry depending on the type of service provided. Carrier interconnection is mandatory and interconnection fees are regulated. The Peruvian government maintains a Telecommunications Investment Fund (FITEL) to promote universal service within the country's most isolated regions, including rural areas and areas of social interest. Following the successful implementation of mobile number portability, the government requires fixed number portability be launched by July 2014.
All telecommunication services have been liberalized and are rendered under a free competition regime according to the Telecommunications Law. Under Peru's single concession regime all telecom services, including fixed-line, mobile, pay TV, and Internet, are provided under unified concessions that cover the entire country.
Privatization began in 1994 when the state-owned companies Compañía Peruana de Teléfonos S.A. (CPT) and Entel Perú were auctioned to Telefónica de España. In December 1994, Entel Perú was merged into CPT. In 1995, CPT changed its name to Telefónica del Perú S.A. (TdP). Telefónica del Perú continues to dominate the market for basic telephone services.
The operation of broadcasting companies is governed by the Law of Radio and Television (Law Nº 28278). Spectrum is managed and controlled by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC).
Peru's fixed-line penetration is the third lowest in South America after Bolivia and Paraguay. Barriers include widespread poverty, expensive services, little meaningful competition, and the geographical barriers imposed by the Andean mountains and Amazon jungles.
Under the name Movistar, Telefónica del Perú dominates the basic telephone market. América Móvil’s Claro occupies second place, while Americatel Peru is third with roughly 1% of the market. The remaining companies have market shares below 0.3%.
Mobile penetration is below the regional average with about one quarter of the population having no mobile phone at all, while others, primarily in urban areas, have multiple subscriptions.
Telefónica, operating as Movistar, is the mobile leader; América Móvil, operating as Claro, is second; and Mobile Perú is third. Vietnam's Viettel is expected to begin offering mobile services in the second half of 2014 and Virgin Mobile is expected to enter the market as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).
Peru enjoyed a remarkably high dial-up Internet penetration rate, but broadband Internet penetration is more than two-thirds below the average for Latin America and Caribbean countries. Barriers include widespread poverty, limited literacy, limited computer ownership and access, rugged topography and, perhaps most significant, a lack of meaningful competition which has made broadband Internet access in Peru one of the slowest and most expensive in the region.
In 2011 the OpenNet Initiative reported no evidence of Internet filtering in all areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) for which it tests.
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms without appropriate legal authority. Individuals and groups engage in the free expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The chief impediment to Internet access is a lack of infrastructure.
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights. Generally, an independent press and a functioning democratic political system combine to promote freedom of speech and press. A number of journalists and media outlets report experiencing threats or intimidation. Some observers claim that media outlets self-censor for fear of harassment or violence. The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reports that the aggressors are often government officials (e.g., mayors, heads of government offices, regional presidents). The penal code criminalizes libel, and officials reportedly use it to intimidate reporters. The law designates all information about national security and defense as secret. Press freedom activists and local NGOs, such as IPYS, criticized the law as an attack on transparency, freedom of information, and freedom of the press.
In October 2013 the government passed a cybercrimes law designed to combat data sharing and the illegal access of information. The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) and other local NGOs criticized the law as legally ambiguous and argued that it could be used broadly to target journalists and limit freedom of the press. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23436 |
Transport in Peru
The transport in Peru.
total: 2,374 km
standard gauge: 1,608 km, gauge
narrow gauge: 380 km, gauge
There are two unconnected principal railways in Peru.
The Ferrocarril Central Andino (FCCA; the former Ferrocarril Central del Perú) runs inland from Callao and Lima across the Andes watershed to La Oroya and Huancayo. It is the second highest railway in the world (following opening of the Qingzang railway in Tibet), with the Galera summit tunnel under Mount Meiggs at and Galera station at above sea level. In 1955 the railway opened a spur line from La Cima on the Morococha branch ( above sea level) to Volcán Mine, reaching an (at the time) world record altitude of . Both branch and spur have since closed to traffic. From Huancayo the route is extended by the Ferrocarril Huancayo - Huancavelica. In July 2006 FCCA began work to regauge the Huancavelica line from to standard gauge and it was finished in 2010. There was also a proposal for a 21 km tunnel under the Andes.
The Ferrocarriles del Sur del Perú (FCS), now operated by PeruRail, runs from the coast at Matarani to Cuzco, and to Puno on Lake Titicaca. From Cuzco, PeruRail runs the gauge line to Aguas Calientes for Machu Picchu.
See Ferrocarril Central Andino
See PeruRail
Lima has a metro service or Lima Metro, also called "Tren eléctrico" that has now only one line (called Linea 1). The line has an extension of 34.6 km. with 26 stations, and goes from the south east to north east Lima urban districts passing downtown (This is "Villa El Salvador" to "San Juan de Lurigancho"). The second line (called Linea 2) is now under construction and will run from the port of "Callao" to "Ate" passing downtown too (west to east).(2015).
Huancayo Metro is the second urban rail line in Peru, is located in the Andean city of Huancayo and is currently under construction (2012).
"total:"
85,900 km
"paved:"
45,000 km (Of which approximately 350 km. of divided multi-line roads)
"unpaved:"
40,900 km (1999 est.)
The "Pan American Highway" runs the country from north to south next to the coast, from Tumbes (Ecuadoran border) to Tacna (Chilean border). From Arequipa a branch goes to Puno and then to Bolivia. Other important highways are the "Longitudinal de la Sierra", that goes from north to south in the highlands; and the "Carretera Central", that goes from Lima (in the coast) to Pucallpa (in the jungle).
Inter-city travel in Peru is almost exclusively done in long distance buses. Buses in most of the cities depart from bus terminals called "terminal terrestre". The main bus companies which link Lima with the major cities include Cruz del Sur and Ormeño. Other companies are "Civa", "Tepsa", "Cial", "Flores" and "Oltursa".
8,600 km of navigable tributaries of Amazon system and 208 km of Lake Titicaca.
There are river boat service from Yurimaguas and Pucallpa to Iquitos, and from there to the Brazilian border in the Amazon river. Touristic boats can be reached at Puno in the Lake Titicaca.
"total:"
7 ships ( or over) totaling /
"ships by type:" (1999 est.)
According to a 1999 estimate there are 234 airports in Peru. Jorge Chavez International Airport, in Lima is Peru's main national and international gateway, with an estimate of 98 percent of all international flights into Peru landing at this airport. Other important airports are located in Cusco, Arequipa, Iquitos and Piura.
Airports - with paved runways:
"total:"
44
"over 3,047 m:"
7
"2,438 to 3,047 m:"
17
"1,524 to 2,437 m:"
12
"914 to 1,523 m:"
7
"under 914 m:"
1 (1999 est.)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
"total:"
190
"over 3,047 m:"
1
"2,438 to 3,047 m:"
2
"1,524 to 2,437 m:"
26
"914 to 1,523 m:"
67
"under 914 m:"
94 (1999 est.)
International airlines connecting Peru with North America, Europe and other Latin American countries include: Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada, Iberia, Air France, KLM, LATAM Airlines, Avianca, AeroMexico, and British Airways.
with domestic service in Peru include LAN Peru, Star Peru, Peruvian Airlines, and LC Perú. Charter and Cargo airlines include ATSA, Andes Air and Cielos Airlines. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23437 |
Peruvian Armed Forces
The Peruvian Armed Forces () are the military services of Peru, comprising independent Army, Navy and Air Force components. Their primary mission is to safeguard the country's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity against any threat. As a secondary mission they participate in economic and social development as well as in civil defense tasks.
The National Police of Peru is often classified as a part of the armed forces. Although in fact it has a different organisation and a wholly civil mission, its training and activities over more than two decades as an anti-terrorist force have produced markedly military characteristics, giving it the appearance of a virtual fourth military service with significant land, sea and air capabilities and approximately 140,000 personnel. The Peruvian armed forces report through the Ministry of Defense, while the National Police of Peru report through the Ministry of Interior.
The Joint Command of the Armed Forces is tasked with the mission to "plan, prepare, coordinate and conduct military operations and actions to guarantee independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and support the national development of Peru". This branch of the armed forces was developed in the 1950s following World War II, when Peru evaluated operational tactics used and adapted them to their own military. On 1 February 1957, the Joint Command was created following a commission of defense agencies studied its role, with the Joint Command depending directly on the President of Peru while also being "the highest step in the planning and coordination of the operations of the Army, Navy and Aeronautics Forces".
Headquartered in Lima, it has a strength of 76,228 troops divided in four military regions with headquarters in Piura, Lima, Arequipa and Iquitos. Every military region is assigned several brigades of which there are different types, including infantry, cavalry and armored. There are also several groups and battalions which operate independently of the army's organization.
The equipment of the Peruvian Army includes infantry weapons that include assault rifles and carbines such as the M16A2 and the M4A1 and pistols like the FN Five-seveN and Smith & Wesson M&P9.
Vehicles include several types of tanks (T-55 and AMX-13), armoured personnel carriers (M-113, UR-416), artillery (D30, M101, M109 and M114 howitzers), antiaircraft systems (ZSU-23-4 Shilka) and helicopters (Mil Mi-2, Mil Mi-17). Recently, Peru has sought to update their collection of tanks and armored personnel carriers that have not been updated since acquiring vehicles from the Soviet Union. After an initial deal with China fell through, Peru has attempted to make a deal with General Dynamics to purchase new military vehicles.
The Peruvian Navy ("Marina de Guerra del Perú") is organized in five naval zones headquartered in Piura, Lima, Arequipa, Iquitos and Pucallpa. It has a strength of around 25,988 troops divided between the Pacific Operations and the Amazon Operations General Commands and the Coast Guard.
The Pacific fleet flagship is the guided-missile cruiser BAP Almirante Grau (CLM-81), named for the 19th-century Peruvian Admiral who fought in the War of the Pacific (1879–1883). The fleet also includes 8 "Lupo" class frigates (two built in Peru), 6 "PR-72P" class corvettes, 3 "Terrebonne Parish" class landing ships, 2 "Type 209/1100" and 4 "Type 209/1200" class German-built diesel submarines (the biggest submarine force in South America), as well as patrol vessels, tankers and cargo ships. The Peruvian Navy also has a naval aviation force, several naval infantry battalions and special forces units.
The Peruvian Marines date back to 6 November 1821, when the Peruvian Navy requested a battalion of soldiers. Its first battle was an attack on the Spanish, successfully taking the city of Arica (today Tacna). Into the mid-20th century, the Peruvian Marines modernized their equipment and by the 1980s with the Shining Path emerging as a new threat to Peru, the Marines began to be tasked with counterterrorism operations.
As part of the Peruvian Navy, the Peruvian Marines utilize the equipment and logistics of the Navy. Various Marine battalions are based in Ancón, Iquitos, Mollendo, Pucallpa, Puno and Tumbes. The Peruvian Marines also have a Special Forces composed of the Espíritus Negros and Fuerza Delta, based on the American Delta Force and US Army Rangers.
On May 20, 1929, the aviation divisions of the Peruvian army and navy were merged into the Peruvian Aviation Corps (CAP, "Cuerpo de Aviación del Peru"). In 1950, the corps was reorganized again and became the Peruvian Air Force (FAP, "Fuerza Aérea del Perú").
The Peruvian Air Force is divided into six wing areas, headquartered in Piura, Chiclayo, Lima, Arequipa, Rioja and Iquitos. With a strength of 17,969 troops, the FAP counts in its arsenal with MiG-29 (interceptor) and Mirage 2000 (interdictor / multirole aircraft).
It also has Su-25 close-support aircraft, Mi-25 attack helicopters, Mi-17 transport helicopters, Aermacchi MB-339, Embraer EMB-312 Tucano subsonic training aircraft, and the Cessna A-37B for light attack and COIN missions.
In 1995, the FAP took part in the Cenepa War against Ecuador covering operations by the army and navy. After the war, the FAP began acquiring new aircraft, especially MiG-29 fighters and Su-25 close air support aircraft which are, along with the Mirage 2000 fighters, the main combat elements of the FAP. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23438 |
Philippines
The Philippines (; or "Filipinas" ), officially the Republic of the Philippines (), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both within the single urban area of Metro Manila. Bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia and Brunei to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest.
The Philippines' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the country prone to earthquakes and typhoons, but also endows it with abundant natural resources and some of the world's greatest biodiversity. The Philippines is the world's fifth-largest island country with an area of . As of 2015, it had a population of at least 100 million. , it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 13th-most populated country in the world. Approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas as of 2013, comprising one of the world's largest diasporas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Malay, Indian, Arab and Chinese nations occurred. Subsequently, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of datus, rajahs, sultans and lakans.
The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for the Spanish, marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago " in honor of Philip II of Spain. In 1565, the first Hispanic settlement in the archipelago was established, and the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. During this time, Catholicism became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade. In 1896 the Philippine Revolution began, which then became entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, while Filipino rebels declared the First Philippine Republic. The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States establishing control over the territory, which they maintained until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II. Following liberation, the Philippines became an independent country in 1946. Since then, the unitary sovereign state has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by the People Power Revolution.
The Philippines is a founding member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank. The Philippines is considered to be an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, which has an economy transitioning from being based on agriculture to being based more on services and manufacturing.
The Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte and Samar ' after the then-Prince of Asturias. Eventually the name ' would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other names such as ' (Islands of the West) and Magellan's name for the islands, ', were also used by the Spanish to refer to the islands.
The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history. During the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the " or the "Philippine Republic". From the period of the Spanish–American War (1898) and the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) until the Commonwealth period (1935–1946), American colonial authorities referred to the country as the "Philippine Islands", a translation of the Spanish name. Since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the "Republic of the Philippines". "Philippines", with or without the definite article, has steadily gained currency as the common name since being the name used in Article VI of the 1898 Treaty of Paris.
There is evidence of early hominins, such as "Homo luzonensis", living in what is now the Philippines as early as 709,000 years ago. The oldest modern human remains found on the islands is the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to 47,000 ± 11–10,000 years ago. The Tabon man is presumably a Negrito, who were among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, descendants of the first human migrations out of Africa via the coastal route along southern Asia to the now sunken landmasses of Sundaland and Sahul.
The first Austronesians reached the Philippines at around 2200 BC, settling the Batanes Islands and northern Luzon. From there, they rapidly spread downwards to the rest of the islands of the Philippines and Southeast Asia. They assimilated earlier Australo-Melanesian groups (the Negritos) which arrived during the Paleolithic, resulting in the modern Filipino ethnic groups which display various ratios of genetic admixture between Austronesian and Negrito groups. Jade artifacts have been found dated to 2000 BC, with the lingling-o jade items crafted in Luzon from raw materials originating Taiwan. By 1000 BC, the inhabitants of the archipelago had developed into four kinds of social groups: hunter-gatherer tribes, warrior societies, highland plutocracies, and port principalities.
The earliest known surviving written record found in the Philippines is the Laguna Copperplate Inscription. By the 1300s, a number of the large coastal settlements had emerged as trading centers, and became the focal point of societal changes. Some polities developed substantial trade contacts with other polities in China and Southeast Asia. Trade with China is believed to have begun during the Tang dynasty, but grew more extensive during the Song dynasty. By the 2nd millennium CE, some Philippine polities were known to have sent trade delegations which participated in the Tributary system enforced by the Chinese imperial court, trading but without direct political or military control. Indian cultural traits, such as linguistic terms and religious practices, began to spread within the Philippines during the 10th century, likely via the Hindu Majapahit empire. By the 15th century, Islam was established in the Sulu Archipelago and by 1565 had reached Mindanao, the Visayas, and Luzon.
Polities founded in the Philippines from the 10th-16th centuries include Maynila, Tondo, Namayan, Pangasinan, Cebu, Butuan, Maguindanao, Lanao, Sulu, and Ma-i. The early polities of the Philippine archipelago were typically characterized by a three-tier social structure: a nobility class, a class of "freemen", and a class of dependent debtor-bondsmen. Among the members of the nobility class were leaders who held the political office of "Datu," which was responsible for leading autonomous social groups called "barangay" or "dulohan". Whenever these barangays banded together, either to form a larger settlement or a geographically looser alliance group, the more senior or respected among them would be recognized as a "paramount datu".
In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the area, claimed the islands for Spain, and was then killed at the Battle of Mactan. Colonization began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565, establishing control of Cebu, Panay, and Luzon., The Spaniards established Manila, at what is now Intramuros, as the capital of the Spanish East Indies in 1571. The Spanish considered their war with the Muslims in Southeast Asia an extension of the Reconquista.
Spanish rule brought what is now the Philippines into a single unified administration. From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as part of the Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain, and then was administered directly from Madrid following the Mexican War of Independence. Manila galleons were constructed in Bicol and Cavite. Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade.
Under Spanish rule, Catholic missionaries converted most of the lowland inhabitants to Christianity. They also founded schools, a university, hospitals, and churches. To defend their settlements, the Spaniards constructed and manned a network of military fortresses across the archipelago. The Spanish also decreed the introduction of free public schooling in 1863. Slavery was also abolished. As a result of these policies the Philippine population increased exponentially.
During its rule, Spain quelled various indigenous revolts, as well as defending against external military challenges The Philippines was expensive during Spanish rule. War against the Dutch from the West, in the 17th century, together with conflict with the Muslims in the South and combating Japanese-Chinese Wokou piracy from the North nearly bankrupted the colonial treasury. There was a high desertion rate among the Latino soldiers sent from Mexico and Peru, and also to Filipino warriors and laborers levied by Spain, this was due to repeated wars, lack of wages, dislocation and near starvation. Immigration blurred the racial caste system Spain maintained in towns and cities. Increasing difficulty in governing the Philippines led to the Royal Fiscal of Manila writing to King Charles III of Spain, advising him to abandon the colony. However, this was successfully opposed by the religious and missionary orders that argued that the Philippines was a launching pad for further religious conversion in the Far East.
The Philippines survived on an annual subsidy provided by the Spanish Crown, usually paid through the provision of 75 tons of silver bullion being sent from the Americas. Financial constraints meant the 200-year-old fortifications in Manila did not see significant change after being first built by the early Spanish colonizers. British forces occupied Manila from 1762 to 1764 during the Seven Years' War, however they were unable to extend their conquest outside of Manila as the Filipinos stayed loyal to the remaining Spanish community outside Manila. Spanish rule was restored through the 1763 Treaty of Paris. The Spanish–Moro conflict lasted for several hundred years. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Spain conquered portions of Mindanao and the Moro Muslims in the Sulu Sultanate formally recognized Spanish sovereignty.
In the 19th century, Philippine ports opened to world trade and shifts started occurring within Filipino society. Many Spaniards born in the Philippines and those of mixed ancestry were wealthy, and an influx of Hispanic American immigrants opened up government positions traditionally held by Spaniards born in the Iberian Peninsula. However, ideas of rebellion and independence began to spread through the islands. Many Latin-Americans and Criollos staffed the Spanish army in the Philippines. However, the onset of the Latin American wars of independence led to doubts about their loyalty. This was compounded by a Mexican of Filipino descent, Isidoro Montes de Oca, becoming captain-general to the revolutionary leader Vicente Guerrero during the Mexican War of Independence. To prevent the union of both Latinos and Filipinos in rebellion against the empire, the Latino and Criollo officers stationed in the Philippines were soon replaced by Peninsular officers born in Spain. These Peninsular officers were less committed to the people they were assigned to protect and were often predatory, enriching themselves before returning to Spain, putting the interests of the metropolis over the interest of the natives.
Revolutionary sentiments were stoked in 1872 after three activist Catholic priests were accused of sedition and executed. This would inspire a propaganda movement in Spain, organized by Marcelo H. del Pilar, José Rizal, and Mariano Ponce, lobbying for political reforms in the Philippines. Rizal was eventually executed on December 30, 1896, on charges of rebellion. This radicalized many who had previously been loyal to Spain. As attempts at reform met with resistance, Andrés Bonifacio in 1892 established the militant secret society called the Katipunan, who sought independence from Spain through armed revolt.
The Katipunan started the Philippine Revolution in 1896. Katipunan chapters in Cavite Province, primarily the Magdiwang and the
Magdalo had an internal dispute that led to the Tejeros Convention and an election in which Bonifacio lost his position and Emilio Aguinaldo was elected as the new leader of the revolution. In 1898, the Spanish–American War began, and this war reached Spanish forces in the Philippines. Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence from Spain in Kawit, Cavite, on June 12, 1898, and the First Philippine Republic was declared in the Barasoain Church in the following year.
The islands were ceded by Spain to the United States alongside Puerto Rico and Guam as a result of the latter's victory in the Spanish–American War. As it became increasingly clear the United States would not recognize the First Philippine Republic, the Philippine–American War broke out. War resulted in the deaths of at least 200,000 and at most, 1 million Filipino civilians, mostly due to famine and disease. After the defeat of the First Philippine Republic, the archipelago was administered under an American Insular Government. The Americans then suppressed other rebellious proto-states: mainly, the waning Sultanate of Sulu, as well as the insurgent Tagalog Republic and the Republic of Zamboanga.
During this era, a renaissance in Philippine culture occurred, including an expansion of Philippine cinema and literature. Daniel Burnham built an architectural plan for Manila which would have transformed it into a modern city.
In 1935, the Philippines was granted Commonwealth status with Manuel Quezon as president and Sergio Osmeña as vice president. He designated a national language and introduced women's suffrage and land reform.
Plans for independence over the next decade were interrupted by World War II when the Japanese Empire invaded and the Second Philippine Republic, under Jose P. Laurel, was established as a puppet state.
In a report by Karl L. Rankin, from mid-1942 through mid-1944, the Japanese occupation of the Philippines was opposed by large-scale underground guerrilla activity. The largest naval battle in history, according to gross tonnage sunk, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, occurred when Allied forces began liberating the Philippines from the Japanese Empire. Many atrocities and war crimes were committed during the war, including the Bataan Death March and the Manila massacre. Allied troops defeated the Japanese in 1945. By the end of the war it is estimated that over a million Filipinos had died. On October 11, 1945, the Philippines became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
On July 4, 1946, the Philippines was officially recognized by the United States as an independent nation through the Treaty of Manila, during the presidency of Manuel Roxas.
Efforts to end the Hukbalahap Rebellion began during Elpidio Quirino's term, however, it was only during Ramon Magsaysay's presidency was the movement decimated. Magsaysay's successor, Carlos P. Garcia, initiated the Filipino First Policy, which was continued by Diosdado Macapagal, with celebration of Independence Day moved from July 4 to June 12, the date of Emilio Aguinaldo's declaration, and pursuit of a claim on the eastern part of North Borneo.
In 1965, Macapagal lost the presidential election to Ferdinand Marcos. Early in his presidency, Marcos initiated numerous infrastructure projects but, together with his wife Imelda, was accused of massive corruption and embezzling billions of dollars in public funds. Nearing the end of his term, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972. This period of his rule was characterized by political repression, censorship, and human rights violations.
On August 21, 1983, Marcos' chief rival, opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., was assassinated on the tarmac at Manila International Airport. Marcos eventually called snap presidential elections in 1986. Marcos was proclaimed the winner, but the results were widely regarded as fraudulent. The resulting protests led to the People Power Revolution, which forced Marcos and his allies to flee to Hawaii and Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, was installed as president.
The return of democracy and government reforms beginning in 1986 were hampered by national debt, government corruption, coup attempts, disasters, a persistent communist insurgency, and a military conflict with Moro separatists, during Corazon Aquino's administration. The administration also faced a series of natural disasters, including the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991. Aquino was succeeded by Fidel V. Ramos whose modest economic performance, at 3.6% growth rate, was overshadowed by the onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Ramos' successor, Joseph Estrada was overthrown by the 2001 EDSA Revolution and he was succeeded by his Vice President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on January 20, 2001. Arroyo's 9-year administration was tainted by graft and political scandals. On November 23, 2009, 34 journalists and several civilians were massacred in Maguindanao.
During Benigno Aquino III's administration, a clash which took place in Mamasapano, Maguindanao killed 44 members of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force that put the efforts to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law into law in an impasse.
Former Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte won the 2016 presidential election, becoming the first president from Mindanao. Duterte launched an intensified anti-drug campaign. The implementation of the Bangsamoro Organic Law led to the creation of the autonomous Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.
The Philippines is an archipelago composed of about 7,641 islands with a total land area, including inland bodies of water, of . This makes it the 5th largest island country in the world. The of coastline makes it the country with the fifth longest coastline in the world. The Exclusive economic zone of the Philippines covers . It is located between 116° 40', and 126° 34' E longitude and 4° 40' and 21° 10' N latitude and is bordered by the Philippine Sea to the east, the South China Sea to the west, and the Celebes Sea to the south. The island of Borneo is located a few hundred kilometers southwest and Taiwan is located directly to the north. The Moluccas and Sulawesi are located to the south-southwest and Palau is located to the east of the islands.
Most of the mountainous islands are covered in tropical rainforest and volcanic in origin. The highest mountain is Mount Apo. It measures up to above sea level and is located on the island of Mindanao. The Galathea Depth in the Philippine Trench is the deepest point in the country and the third deepest in the world. The trench is located in the Philippine Sea.
The longest river is the Cagayan River in northern Luzon. Manila Bay, upon the shore of which the capital city of Manila lies, is connected to Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines, by the Pasig River. Subic Bay, the Davao Gulf, and the Moro Gulf are other important bays. The San Juanico Strait separates the islands of Samar and Leyte but it is traversed by the San Juanico Bridge.
Situated on the western fringes of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The Benham Plateau to the east in the Philippine Sea is an undersea region active in tectonic subduction. Around 20 earthquakes are registered daily, though most are too weak to be felt. The last major earthquake was the 1990 Luzon earthquake.
There are many active volcanoes such as the Mayon Volcano, Mount Pinatubo, and Taal Volcano. The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991 produced the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century. Not all notable geographic features are so violent or destructive. A more serene legacy of the geological disturbances is the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, the area represents a habitat for biodiversity conservation, the site also contains a full mountain-to-the-sea ecosystem and has some of the most important forests in Asia.
Due to the volcanic nature of the islands, mineral deposits are abundant. The country is estimated to have the second-largest gold deposits after South Africa giving credence to the talk that the Philippines was the Biblical Ophir and the country also has one of the largest copper deposits in the world. Palladium, originally discovered in South America, was found to have the world's largest deposits in the Philippines too. Romblon island also possesses the most diversified, high quality and hardest marble in the world and is available in at least 7 colors mainly: brown, grey, rust, white, green, black and orange. The country is also rich in nickel, chromite, and zinc. Despite this, poor management, high population density, a desire to protect indigenous communities from exploitation, and an extremely ardent environmental consciousness have resulted in these mineral resources remaining largely untapped. The unstable seismology that created these minerals, such as frequent volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and landslides, continue to affect the country. Geothermal energy is a product of volcanic activity that the Philippines has harnessed more successfully. The Philippines is the world's second-biggest geothermal producer behind the United States, with 18% of the country's electricity needs being met by geothermal power.
The Philippines is a megadiverse country. Around 1,100 land vertebrate species can be found in the Philippines including over 100 mammal species and 170 bird species not thought to exist elsewhere. The Philippines has among the highest rates of discovery in the world with sixteen new species of mammals discovered in the last ten years. Because of this, the rate of endemism for the Philippines has risen and likely will continue to rise. Native mammals include the palm civet cat, the dugong, the cloud rat and the Philippine tarsier associated with Bohol.
Although the Philippines lacks large mammalian predators, it does have some very large reptiles such as pythons and cobras, together with gigantic saltwater crocodiles. The largest crocodile in captivity, known locally as Lolong, was captured in the southern island of Mindanao. The national bird, known as the Philippine eagle, has the longest body of any eagle; it generally measures 86 to 102 cm (2.82 to 3.35 ft) in length and weighs 4.7 to 8.0 kg (10.4 to 17.6 lb). The Philippine eagle is part of the family Accipitridae and is endemic to the rainforests of Luzon, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao.
Philippine maritime waters encompass as much as producing unique and diverse marine life, an important part of the Coral Triangle, a territory shared with other countries. The total number of corals and marine fish species was estimated at 500 and 2,400 respectively. New records and species discoveries continuously increase these numbers, underlining the uniqueness of the marine resources in the Philippines. The Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea was declared a World Heritage Site in 1993. Philippine waters also sustain the cultivation of pearls, crabs, and seaweeds. One rare species of oyster, Pinctada maxima which is indigenous to the Philippines, is unique since its pearls are naturally golden in color. The golden pearl from the Pinctada maxima is considered the national gem of the Philippines.
With an estimated 13,500 plant species in the country, 3,200 of which are unique to the islands, Philippine rainforests boast an array of flora, including many rare types of orchids and rafflesia. Deforestation, often the result of illegal logging, is an acute problem in the Philippines. Forest cover declined from 70% of the Philippines's total land area in 1900 to about 18.3% in 1999. Many species are endangered and scientists say that Southeast Asia, which the Philippines is part of, faces a catastrophic extinction rate of 20% by the end of the 21st century. According to Conservation International, "the country is one of the few nations that is, in its entirety, both a hotspot and a megadiversity country, placing it among the top priority hotspots for global conservation."
The Philippines has a tropical maritime climate that is usually hot and humid. There are three seasons: "tag-init" or "tag-araw", the hot dry season or summer from March to May; "tag-ulan", the rainy season from June to November; and "tag-lamig", the cool dry season from December to February. The southwest monsoon (from May to October) is known as the Habagat, and the dry winds of the northeast monsoon (from November to April), the Amihan. Temperatures usually range from to although it can get cooler or hotter depending on the season. The coolest month is January; the warmest is May.
The average yearly temperature is around . In considering temperature, location in terms of latitude and longitude is not a significant factor. Whether in the extreme north, south, east, or west of the country, temperatures at sea level tend to be in the same range. Altitude usually has more of an impact. The average annual temperature of Baguio at an elevation of above sea level is , making it a popular destination during hot summers.
Sitting astride the typhoon belt, most of the islands experience annual torrential rains and thunderstorms from July to October, with around nineteen typhoons entering the Philippine area of responsibility in a typical year and eight or nine making landfall. Annual rainfall measures as much as in the mountainous east coast section but less than in some of the sheltered valleys. The wettest known tropical cyclone to impact the archipelago was the July 1911 cyclone, which dropped over of rainfall within a 24-hour period in Baguio. "Bagyo" is the local term for a tropical cyclone in the Philippines. The Philippines is highly exposed to climate change and is among the world's ten countries that are most vulnerable to climate change risks.
The Commission on Population estimated the country's population to be 107,190,081 as of December 31, 2018, based on the latest population census of 2015 conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority. The population increased from 1990 to 2008 by approximately 28 million, a 45% growth in that time frame. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23440 |
History of the Philippines
The history of the Philippines is believed to have begun with the arrival of the first humans using rafts or boats at least 709,000 years ago as suggested by the discovery of Pleistocene stone tools and butchered animal remains associated with hominin activity. "Homo luzonensis", a species of archaic humans, was present on the island of Luzon at least 67,000 years ago. The earliest known modern human was from Tabon Cave in Palawan dating about 47,000 years. Negrito groups were the first inhabitants to settle in the prehistoric Philippines. After that, groups of Austronesians later migrated to the islands.
Scholars generally believe that these social groups eventually developed into various settlements or polities with varying degrees of economic specialization, social stratification, and political organization. Some of these settlements (mostly those located on major river deltas) achieved such a scale of social complexity that some scholars believe they should be considered early states. This includes the predecessors of modern-day population centers such as Maynila, Tondo, Pangasinan, Cebu, Panay, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, Lanao, and Sulu as well as some polities, such as Ma-i, whose possible location is still the subject of debate among scholars.
These polities were either influenced by the Hindu-Buddhist Indian religion, language, culture, literature and philosophy from India through many campaigns from India including the South-East Asia campaign of Rajendra Chola I, Islam from Arabia or were Sinified tributary states allied to China. These small maritime states flourished from the 1st millennium. These kingdoms traded with what are now called China, India, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The remainder of the settlements were independent barangays allied with one of the larger states. These small states alternated from being part of or being influenced by larger Asian empires like the Ming Dynasty, Majapahit and Brunei or rebelling and waging war against them.
The first recorded visit by Europeans is the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan. He sighted Samar Island on March 16, 1521 and landed the next day on Homonhon Island, now part of Guiuan, Eastern Samar. Spanish colonization began with the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi's expedition on February 13, 1565, from Mexico. He established the first permanent settlement in Cebu. Much of the archipelago came under Spanish rule, creating the first unified political structure known as the Philippines. Spanish colonial rule saw the introduction of Christianity, the code of law, and the oldest modern university in Asia. The Philippines was ruled under the Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain. After this, the colony was directly governed by Spain.
Spanish rule ended in 1898 with Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War. The Philippines then became a territory of the United States. U.S forces suppressed a Philippine Revolution led by Emilio Aguinaldo. The United States established the Insular Government to rule the Philippines. In 1907, the elected Philippine Assembly was set up with popular elections. The U.S. promised independence in the Jones Act. The Philippine Commonwealth was established in 1935, as a 10-year interim step prior to full independence. However, in 1942 during World War II, Japan occupied the Philippines. The U.S. military overpowered the Japanese in 1945. The Treaty of Manila in 1946 established the independent Philippine Republic.
Discovery in 2018 of stone tools and fossils of butchered animal remains in Rizal, Kalinga has pushed back evidence of early hominins in the country to as early as 709,000 years. Some archeological evidence suggested humans lived in the archipelago 67,000 years ago, with the "Callao Man" of Cagayan and the Angono Petroglyphs in Rizal suggesting the presence of human settlement before the arrival of the Negritos and Austronesian speaking people. Continued excavations in Callao Cave however led to 12 bones from three hominin individuals being identified as a new species named "Homo luzonensis". For modern humans, the Tabon remains are the oldest known at about 47,000 years.
The most widely accepted theory of the population of the islands is the "Out-of-Taiwan" model which follows the Austronesian expansion during the Neolithic in a series of maritime migrations originating from Taiwan that spread to the islands of the Indo-Pacific; ultimately reaching as far as New Zealand, Easter Island, and Madagascar. Austronesians themselves originated from the Neolithic rice-cultivating pre-Austronesian civilizations of the Yangtze River delta in coastal southeastern China pre-dating the conquest of those regions by the Han Chinese. This includes civilizations like the Liangzhu culture, Hemudu culture, and the Majiabang culture. It connects speakers of the Austronesian languages in a common linguistic and genetic lineage, including the Taiwanese indigenous peoples, Islander Southeast Asians, Chams, Islander Melanesians, Micronesians, Polynesians, and the Malagasy people. Aside from language and genetics, they also share common cultural markers like multihull and outrigger boats, tattooing, rice cultivation, wetland agriculture, teeth blackening, jade carving, betel nut chewing, ancestor worship, and the same domesticated plants and animals (including dogs, pigs, chickens, yams, bananas, sugarcane, and coconuts). Other theories include F. Landa Jocano's theorizes that the ancestors of the Filipinos evolved locally. Wilhelm Solheim's Island Origin Theory postulates that the peopling of the archipelago transpired via trade networks originating in the Sundaland area around 48,000 to 5000 BC rather than by wide-scale migration.
The Negritos were early settlers, but their appearance in the Philippines has not been reliably dated. They were followed by speakers of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, a branch of the Austronesian language family. The first Austronesians reached the Philippines at around 2200 BC, settling the Batanes Islands and northern Luzon. From there, they rapidly spread downwards to the rest of the islands of the Philippines and Southeast Asia, as well as voyaging further east to reach the Northern Mariana Islands by around 1500 BC. They assimilated earlier Australo-Melanesian groups (the Negritos) which arrived during the Paleolithic, resulting in the modern Filipino ethnic groups which all display various ratios of genetic admixture between Austronesian and Negrito groups. Before the expansion out of Taiwan, archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence had linked Austronesian speakers in Insular Southeast Asia to cultures such as the Hemudu, its successor the Liangzhu and Dapenkeng in Neolithic China.
By 1000 BC, the inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago had developed into four distinct kinds of peoples: tribal groups, such as the Aetas, Hanunoo, Ilongots and the Mangyan who depended on hunter-gathering and were concentrated in forests; warrior societies, such as the Isneg and Kalinga who practiced social ranking and ritualized warfare and roamed the plains; the petty plutocracy of the Ifugao Cordillera Highlanders, who occupied the mountain ranges of Luzon; and the harbor principalities of the estuarine civilizations that grew along rivers and seashores while participating in trans-island maritime trade. It was also during the first millennium BC that early metallurgy was said to have reached the archipelagos of maritime Southeast Asia via trade with India
Around 300–700 AD, the seafaring peoples of the islands traveling in "balangays" began to trade with the Indianized kingdoms in the Malay Archipelago and the nearby East Asian principalities, adopting influences from both Buddhism and Hinduism.
Jade artifacts made from white and green nephrite and dating as far back as 2000–1500 BC, have been discovered at a number of archeological excavations in the Philippines since the 1930s. The artifacts have been both tools like adzes and chisels, and ornaments such as lingling-o earrings, bracelets and beads. Tens of thousands were found in a single site in Batangas. The jade is said to have originated nearby in Taiwan and is also found in many other areas in insular and mainland Southeast Asia. These artifacts are said to be evidence of long range communication between prehistoric Southeast Asian societies.
Nephrite, otherwise known as "Jade", is a mineral widely used throughout Asia as ornaments or for decorative purposes. The oldest jade artefacts in Asia (6000 BC) were found in China where they were used as the primary hardstone of Chinese sculpturing. In 3000 BC, jade production in the Hongsan and Liangzhu cultures of China reached its peak. During this period, the knowledge of jade craftsmanship spread across the sea to Taiwan and eventually to the Philippines. The artefacts discovered in several sites in the Philippines were made from nephrite. Nephrite excavated in the Philippines were of two types: white nephrite and green nephrite.
The Sa Huỳnh culture centered on present-day Vietnam, showed evidence of an extensive trade network. Sa Huỳnh beads were made from glass, carnelian, agate, olivine, zircon, gold and garnet; most of these materials were not local to the region, and were most likely imported. Han dynasty-style bronze mirrors were also found in Sa Huỳnh sites.
Conversely, Sa Huỳnh produced ear ornaments have been found in archaeological sites in Central Thailand, Taiwan (Orchid Island), and in the Philippines, in the Palawan, Tabon Caves. One of the great examples is the Kalanay Cave in Masbate; the artefacts on the site in one of the "Sa Huỳnh-Kalanay" pottery complex sites were dated 400BC–1500 AD. The Maitum anthropomorphic pottery in the Sarangani Province of southern Mindanao is c. 200 AD.
Ambiguity of what is Sa Huỳnh culture puts into question its extent of influence in Southeast Asia. Sa Huỳnh culture is characterized by use of cylindrical or egg-shaped burial jars associated with hat-shaped lids. Using its mortuary practice as a new definition, Sa Huỳnh culture should be geographically restricted across Central Vietnam between Hue City in the north and Nha Trang City in the south. Recent archeological research reveals that the potteries in Kalanay Cave are quite different from those of the Sa Huỳnh but strikingly similar to those in Hoa Diem site, Central Vietnam and Samui Island, Thailand. New estimate dates the artifacts in Kalanay cave to come much later than Sa Huỳnh culture at 200-300 AD. Bio-anthropological analysis of human fossils found also confirmed the colonization of Vietnam such as in Hoa Diem site by Austronesian people from insular Southeast Asia.
By the 1300s, a number of the large coastal settlements had emerged as trading centers, and became the focal point of societal changes. The Barangic Phase of history can be noted for its highly mobile nature, with barangays transforming from being settlements and turning into fleets and vice versa, with the wood constantly re-purposed according to the situation. Politics during this era was personality-driven and organization was based on shifting alliances and contested loyalties set in a backdrop of constant inter-polity interactions, both through war and peace.
Legendary accounts often mention the interaction of early Philippine polities with the Srivijaya empire, but there is not much archaeological evidence to definitively support such a relationship. Considerable evidence exists, on the other hand, for extensive trade with the Majapahit empire.
The exact scope and mechanisms of Indian cultural influences on early Philippine polities are still the subject of some debate among Southeast Asian historiographers, but the current scholarly consensus is that there was probably little or no direct trade between India and the Philippines, and Indian cultural traits, such as linguistic terms and religious practices, filtered in during the 10th through the early 14th centuries, through early Philippine polities' relations with the Hindu Majapahit empire. The Philippine archipelago is thus one of the countries, (others include Afghanistan and Southern Vietnam) just at the outer edge of what is considered the "Greater Indian cultural zone".
The early polities of the Philippine archipelago were typically characterized by a three-tier social structure. Although different cultures had different terms to describe them, this three-tier structure invariably consisted of an apex nobility class, a class of "freemen", and a class of dependent debtor-bondsmen called "alipin" or "oripun." Among the members of the nobility class were leaders who held the political office of "Datu," which was responsible for leading autonomous social groups called "barangay" or "dulohan". Whenever these barangays banded together, either to form a larger settlement or a geographically looser alliance group, the more senior or respected among them would be recognized as a "paramount datu", variedly called a Lakan, Sultan, Rajah, or simply a more senior Datu.
During the period of the south Indian Pallava dynasty and the north Indian Gupta Empire, Indian culture spread to Southeast Asia and the Philippines which led to the establishment of Indianized kingdoms.
The date inscribed in the oldest Philippine document found so far, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, is 900 AD. From the details of the document, written in Kawi script, the bearer of a debt, Namwaran, along with his children Lady Angkatan and Bukah, are cleared of a debt by the ruler of Tondo. It is the earliest document that shows the use of mathematics in precolonial Philippine societies. A standard system of weights and measures is demonstrated by the use of precise measurement for gold, and familiarity with rudimentary astronomy is shown by fixing the precise day within the month in relation to the phases of the moon. From the various Sanskrit terms and titles seen in the document, the culture and society of Manila Bay was that of a Hindu–Old Malay amalgamation, similar to the cultures of Java, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra at the time.
There are no other significant documents from this period of pre-Hispanic Philippine society and culture until the Doctrina Christiana of the late 16th century, written at the start of the Spanish period in both native Baybayin script and Spanish. Other artifacts with Kawi script and baybayin were found, such as an Ivory seal from Butuan dated to the early 10th-14th century and the Calatagan pot with baybayin inscription, dated to not later than early 16th century.
In the years leading up to 1000, there were already several maritime societies existing in the islands but there was no unifying political state encompassing the entire Philippine archipelago. Instead, the region was dotted by numerous semi-autonomous "barangays" (settlements ranging in size from villages to city-states) under the sovereignty of competing thalassocracies ruled by datus, wangs, rajahs, sultans or lakans. or by upland agricultural societies ruled by "petty plutocrats". A number of states existed alongside the highland societies of the Ifugao and Mangyan. These included:
Some of these regions were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit and Brunei.
The earliest historical record of local polities and kingdoms is the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, which indirectly refers to the Tagalog polity of Tondo (–1589) and two to three other settlements believed to be located somewhere near Tondo, as well as a settlement near Mt. Diwata in Mindanao, and the temple complex of Medang in Java. Although the precise political relationships between these polities is unclear in the text of the inscription, the artifact is usually accepted as evidence of intra- and inter-regional political linkages as early as 900 CE. By the arrival of the earliest European ethnographers during the 1500s, Tondo was led by the paramount ruler called a "Lakan". It had grown into a major trading hub, sharing a monopoly with the Rajahnate of Maynila over the trade of Ming dynasty products throughout the archipelago. This trade was significant enough that the Yongle Emperor appointed a Chinese governor named Ko Ch'a-lao to oversee it.
Since at least the year 900, this thalassocracy centered in Manila Bay flourished via an active trade with Chinese, Japanese, Malays, and various other peoples in Asia. Tondo thrived as the capital and the seat of power of this ancient kingdom, which was led by kings under the title "Lakan" which belongs to the caste of the Maharlika, who were the feudal warrior class in ancient Tagalog society. They ruled a large part of what is now known as Luzon from Ilocos to Bicol from possibly before 900 AD to 1571, becoming the largest pre-colonial state. The Spaniards called them "Hidalgos".
The people of Tondo had developed a culture which is predominantly Hindu and Buddhist, they were also good agriculturists, and lived through farming and aquaculture. During its existence, it grew to become one of the most prominent and wealthy kingdom states in pre-colonial Philippines due to heavy trade and connections with several neighboring nations such as China and Japan.
Due to its very good relations with Japan, the Japanese called Tondo as "Luzon", even a famous Japanese merchant, Luzon Sukezaemon, went as far as to change his surname from "Naya" to Luzon. In 900 AD, the lord-minister Jayadewa presented a document of debt forgiveness to Lady Angkatan and her brother Bukah, the children of Namwaran. This is described in the Philippines' oldest known document, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription.
The Chinese also mention a polity called "Luzon." This is believed to be a reference to Maynila since Portuguese and Spanish accounts from the 1520s explicitly state that "Luçon" and "Maynila" were "one and the same", although some historians argue that since none of these observers actually visited Maynila, "Luçon" may simply have referred to all the Tagalog and Kapampangan polities that rose up on the shores of Manila Bay. Either way, from the early 1500s to as late as the 1560s, this seafaring people was referred to in Portuguese Malacca as Luções, and they set up many overseas communities across Southeast Asia where they participated in trading ventures and military campaigns in Burma, Malacca, and Timor, as traders and mercenaries. One prominent Luções was Regimo de Raja, who was a spice magnate and a Temenggung (Jawi: تمڠݢوڠ) (Governor and Chief General) in Portuguese Malacca. He was also the head of an international armada which traded and protected commerce between the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, the South China Sea, and the medieval maritime principalities of the Philippines.
In northern Luzon, Caboloan (Pangasinan) () sent emissaries to China in 1406–1411 as a tributary-state, and it also traded with Japan. Chinese records of this kingdom, named Feng-chia-hsi-lan (Pangasinan), began when the first tributary King (Wang in Chinese), Kamayin, sent an envoy offering gifts to the Chinese Emperor. The state occupies the current province of Pangasinan. It was locally known the "Luyag na Kaboloan" (also spelled "Caboloan"), with "Binalatongan" as its capital, existed in the fertile Agno River valley. It flourished around the same period, the Srivijaya and Majapahit empires arose in Indonesia which had extended their influence to much of the Malay Archipelago. The "Luyag na Kaboloan" expanded the territory and influence of Pangasinan to what are now the neighboring provinces of Zambales, La Union, Tarlac, Benguet, Nueva Ecija, and Nueva Vizcaya. Pangasinan enjoyed full independence until the Spanish conquest.
In the sixteenth century Pangasinan was called the "Port of Japan" by the Spanish. The locals wore native apparel typical of other maritime Southeast Asian ethnic groups in addition to Japanese and Chinese silks. Even common people were clad in Chinese and Japanese cotton garments. They also blackened their teeth and were disgusted by the white teeth of foreigners, which were likened to that of animals. Also, used porcelain jars typical of Japanese and Chinese households. Japanese-style gunpowder weapons were also encountered in naval battles in the area. In exchange for these goods, traders from all over Asia would come to trade primarily for gold and slaves, but also for deerskins, civet and other local products. Other than a notably more extensive trade network with Japan and China, they were culturally similar to other Luzon groups to the south.
In northern Luzon, Caboloan (Pangasinan) () sent emissaries to China in 1406–1411 as a tributary-state, and it also traded with Japan.
Volume 186 of the official history of the Song dynasty describes the polity of Ma-i (). Song dynasty traders visited Ma-i annually, and their accounts described Ma-i's geography, trade products, and the trade behaviors of its rulers. Chinese merchants noted that Ma-i's citizens were honest and trustworthy. Because the descriptions of Mai's location in these accounts are unclear, there is dispute about Mai's location, with some scholars believing it was located in Bay, Laguna, and others believing it was on the island of Mindoro. The Buddhist polity traded with Ryukyu and Japan. Chao Jukua, a customs inspector in Fukien province, China wrote the "Zhufan Zhi" ("Description of the Barbarous Peoples").
Writing in the 13th century, the Chinese historian Chao Ju-Kua mentioned raids conducted by the "Pi-sho-ye" on the port cities of southern China between A.D. 1174–1190, which he believed came by way of the southern portion of the island of Taiwan. Subsequent historians identified these raiders as Visayans while the historian Efren B. Isorena, through analysis of historical accounts and wind currents in the Pacific side of East and Southeast Asia, concluded that said raiders were most likely the people of Ibabao (the pre-Hispanic name for the eastern coast and a portion of the northern coast of Samar).
During the 11th century several exiled datus of the collapsing empire of Srivijaya led by Datu Puti led a mass migration to the central islands of the Philippines, fleeing from Rajah Makatunao of the island of Borneo. Upon reaching the island of Panay and purchasing the island from Negrito chieftain Marikudo, they established a confederation of polities and named it Madja-as centered in Aklan and they settled the surrounding islands of the Visayas. Madja-as was founded on Panay island (named after the destroyed state of Pannai as well as populated by Pannai's descendants, Pannai was a constituent state of Srivijaya which was located in Sumatra and was home to a Hindu-Buddhist Monastic-Army that successfully defended the Strait of Malacca, the world's busiest maritime choke-point, which was a significant challenge to defend due to it being surrounded by the three most populous nations of the world back then, China, India and Indonesia. The people of Pannai policed the Strait against all odds for 727 years.) Upon their rebellion against an invading Chola Empire, the people of Madja-as, being loyalist warriors, conducted resistance movements against the Hindu and Islamic invaders that arrived from the west from their new home base in the Visayas islands. This confederation reached its peak under Datu Padojinog. During his reign the confederations' hegemony extended over most of the islands of Visayas. Its people consistently made piratical attacks against Chinese imperial shipping.
The Rajahnate of Cebu was a pre-colonial state. It was founded by Sri Lumay otherwise known as Rajamuda Lumaya, a minor prince of the Hindu Chola dynasty which happened to occupy Sumatra-Indonesia. He was sent by the maharajah to establish a base for expeditionary forces to subdue the local kingdoms but he rebelled and established his own independent Rajahnate instead. This rajahnate warred against the 'magalos' (slave traders) of Maguindanao and had an alliance with the Rajahnate of Butuan and Indianized Kutai in South Borneo, before it was weakened by the insurrection of Datu Lapu-Lapu.
The official history of the Song dynasty next refers to the Rajahnate of Butuan () in northeastern Mindanao which is the first polity from the Philippine archipelago recorded as having sent a tribute mission to the Chinese empire—on March 17, 1001 CE. Butuan attained prominence under the rule of Rajah Sri Bata Shaja. In the year 1011, Rajah Sri Bata Shaja, the monarch of the Indianized Rajahnate of Butuan, a maritime-state famous for its goldwork sent a trade envoy under ambassador Likan-shieh to the Chinese Imperial Court demanding equal diplomatic status with other states. The request being approved, it opened up direct commercial links with the Rajahnate of Butuan and the Chinese Empire thereby diminishing the monopoly on Chinese trade previously enjoyed by their rivals, Tondo and the Champa civilization. Evidence of the existence of this rajahnate is given by the Butuan Silver Paleograph.
During the 1300s, the Javanese-centered Hindu empire of Majapahit briefly ruled over Luzon island and the Sulu Archipelago as recorded in the epic poem Nagarakretagama, which stated that they had colonies in the Philippines at Saludong (Manila) and Solot (Sulu). It even incorporated the Butuan and Cebu Rajahanates' Bornean ally, Kutai. But they failed to take hold of the Visayas islands, which was populated by Srivijayan loyalists who were waging incessant guerrilla warfare against them. Eventually, the kingdoms of Luzon regained independence from Majapahit after the Battle of Manila (1365) and Sulu also reestablished independence, and in vengeance, assaulted the Majapahit province of Poni (Brunei) before a fleet from the capital drove them out. The subsequent start of the Islamic era ushered the slow death of Majapahit as its provinces eventually seceded and became independent sultanates. With the upsurge of Islam, the remnants of Hindu Majapahit eventually fled to the island of Bali.
In 1380, Karim ul' Makdum and Shari'ful Hashem Syed Abu Bakr, an Arab trader born in Johore, arrived in Sulu from Malacca and established the Sultanate of Sulu by converting its previous ruler, the Hindu king, Rajah Baguinda, to Islam and then marrying his daughter. This sultanate eventually gained great wealth due to its diving for fine pearls. Before Islamization, the then Rajahnate of Sulu was established by Visayan speaking Hindu migrants from the Rajahnate of Butuan to the Sulu Archipelago as Tausug, the language of the Sulu state is classified as a Southern Visayan language. During the 10th-13th Century the Champa civilization and the port-kingdom of Sulu traded with each other which resulted in Cham mercahants settling in Sulu where they were known as Orang Dampuan . The Orang Dampuan were slaughtered by envious native Sulu Buranuns due to the wealth of the Orang Dampuan. The Buranun were then subjected to retaliatory slaughter by the Orang Dampuan. Harmonious commerce between Sulu and the Orang Dampuan was later restored. The Yakans were descendants of the Taguima-based Orang Dampuan who came to Sulu from Champa. As told before, Sulu was also briefly ruled under the Hindu Majapahit empire as narrated in the Nagarakretagama but afterwards, Sulu and Manila both rebelled and sacked Brunei which was a nearby loyal province of Majapahit. However with the onset of Islam by the 15th century, they associated themselves with their new Arab descended Sultans who's origins was in Malacca and their fellow co-religionist Moros (ethnic groups of the Philippine who had accepted Islam) than their still Hindu, Visayan speaking cousins. This culminated with royal intermarriages between the families of the then newly Islamized Rajahnate of Manila as well the Sultanates of Brunei, Sulu and Malacca.
The Sultanate of Maguindanao rose to prominence at the end of the 15th century, Shariff Mohammed Kabungsuwan of Johor introduced Islam in the island of Mindanao and he subsequently married Paramisuli, an Iranun princess from Mindanao, and established the Sultanate of Maguindanao.
It ruled most parts of Mindanao and continued to exist prior to the Spanish colonization until the 19th century. The Sultanate also traded and maintained good relations with the Chinese, Dutch, and the British.
The Sultanates of Lanao in Mindanao, Philippines were founded in the 16th century through the influence of Shariff Kabungsuan, who was enthroned as first Sultan of Maguindanao in 1520. Islam was introduced to the area by Muslim missionaries and traders from the Middle East, Indian and Malay regions who propagated Islam to Sulu and Maguindanao.
Unlike in Sulu and Maguindanao, the Sultanate system in Lanao was uniquely decentralized. The area was divided into Four Principalities of Lanao or the Pat a Pangampong a Ranao which are composed of a number of royal houses (Sapolo ago Nem a Panoroganan or The Sixteen (16) Royal Houses) with specific territorial jurisdictions within mainland Mindanao. This decentralized structure of royal power in Lanao was adopted by the founders, and maintained up to the present day, in recognition of the shared power and prestige of the ruling clans in the area, emphasizing the values of unity of the nation (kaiisaisa o bangsa), patronage (kaseselai) and fraternity (kapapagaria). By the 16th century, Islam had spread to other parts of the Visayas and Luzon.
Upon the secession of Poni (Brunei) from the Majapahit Empire, they imported the Arab Emir from Mecca, Sharif Ali, and became an independent Sultanate. During the reign of his descendant, Sultan Bolkiah, in 1485 to 1521, the recently Islamized Bruneian Empire decided to break the Dynasty of Tondo's monopoly in the China trade by attacking Tondo and defeating Rajah Gambang and then establishing the State of Selurong (Kingdom of Maynila) as a Bruneian satellite-state and placing his descendants on the throne of Maynila. A new dynasty under the Islamized Rajah Salalila was also established to challenge the House of Lakandula in Tondo. In addition to establishing the satellite state of Manila, Sultan Bolkiah also married Laila Mecana, the daughter of Sulu Sultan Amir Ul-Ombra to expand Brunei's influence in both Luzon and Mindanao. Furthermore, Islam was further strengthened by the arrival to the Philippines of traders and proselytizers from Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei was so powerful, it already subjugated their Hindu Bornean neighbor, Kutai to the south, though it survived through a desperate alliance with Hindu Butuan and Cebu which were already struggling against encroaching Islamic powers like Maguindanao. Brunei had also conquered the northern third and the southern third of the Philippines but failed to conquer the Visayas islands even though Sultan Bolkiah himself was half-Visayan from his Visayan mother. Sultan Bolkiah is associated with the legend of Nakhoda Ragam the singing captain, a myth about a handsome, virile, strong, musically gifted and angelic voiced prince who is known for his martial exploits. There is contextual evidence that Sultan Bolkiah may indeed be Nakhoda Ragam, since he is of half Visayan-Filipino descent since later Spanish accounts record that Filipinos, especially Visayans, were obsessed with singing and the warrior castes were particularly known for their great singing abilities.
Concurrent with the spread of Islam in the Philippine archipelago, was the rise of the Lucoes who were the people of Luzon. They rose to prominence by establishing overseas communities all across South and Southeast Asia as well as maintaining relations with East Asia, participating in trading ventures, navigation expeditions and military campaigns in Burma, Japan, Brunei, Malacca, East Timor and Sri Lanka where they were employed as traders and mercenaries. One prominent Luções was Regimo de Raja, who was a spice magnate and a Temenggung (Jawi: تمڠݢوڠ) (Governor and Chief General) in Portuguese Malacca. He was also the head of an international armada which traded and protected commerce between the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, the South China Sea, and the medieval maritime principalities of the Philippines.
Pinto noted that there were a number of Luzones in the Islamic fleets that went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century. The Sultan of Aceh gave one of them, Sapetu Diraja, the task of holding Aru (northeast Sumatra) in 1540. Pinto also says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the Portuguese conquest in 1511. Pigafetta notes that one of them was in command of the Brunei fleet in 1521.
However, the Luzones did not only fight on the side of the Muslims. Pinto says they were also apparently among the natives of the Philippines who fought the Muslims in 1538.
On Mainland Southeast Asia, Luzones aided the Burmese king in his invasion of Siam in 1547 AD. At the same time, Luzones fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the Burmese king in the defence of the Siamese capital at Ayuthaya. Lucoes military and trade activity reached as far as Sri Lanka in South Asia where Lungshanoid pottery made in Luzon were discovered in burials.
The Luzones were also pioneer seafarers and it is recorded that the Portuguese were not only witnesses but also direct beneficiaries of Lusung's involvement. Many Luzones chose Malacca as their base of operations because of its strategic importance. When the Portuguese finally took Malacca in 1512 AD, the resident Luzones held important government posts in the former sultanate. They were also large-scale exporters and ship owners that regularly sent junks to China, Brunei, Sumatra, Siam and Sunda. One Lusung official by the name of Surya Diraja annually sent 175 tons of pepper to China and had to pay the Portuguese 9000 cruzados in gold to retain his plantation. His ships became part of the first Portuguese fleet that paid an official visit to the Chinese empire in 1517 AD.
The Portuguese were soon relying on Luzones bureaucrats for the administration of Malacca and on Luzones warriors, ships and pilots for their military and commercial ventures in East Asia.
It was through the Luzones who regularly sent ships to China that the Portuguese discovered the ports of Canton in 1514 AD. And it was on Luzones ships that the Portuguese were able to send their first diplomatic mission to China 1517 AD. The Portuguese had the Luzones to thank for when they finally established their base at Macao in the mid-1500s.
The Luzones were also instrumental in guiding Portuguese ships to discover Japan. The Western world first heard of Japan through the Portuguese. But it was through the Luzones that the Portuguese had their first encounter with the Japanese. The Portuguese king commissioned his subjects to get good pilots that could guide them beyond the seas of China and Malacca. In 1540 AD, the Portuguese king's factor in Brunei, Brás Baião, recommended to his king the employment of Lusung pilots because of their reputation as "discoverers." Thus it was through Luzones navigators that Portuguese ships found their way to Japan in 1543 AD.
Around 1563 AD, at the closing stages of the precolonial era, the Kedatuan of Dapitan in Bohol achieved prominence and it was known to a later Spanish missionary, Alcina, as the "Venice of the Visayas", because it was a wealthy, wooden and floating city-state in the Visayas. However, this kedatuan was eventually attacked and destroyed by soldiers from the Sultanate of Ternate, a state made up of Muslim Moluccans. The survivors of the destruction, led by their datu, Pagbuaya, migrated to northern Mindanao and established a new Dapitan there. They then waged war against the Sultanate of Lanao and settled in the lands conquered from them. Eventually, in vengeance against the Muslims and Portuguese allied to the Ternateans, they aided the Spanish in the conquest of Muslim Manila and in the Spanish expeditions to capture Portuguese Ternate. There was also a simmering territorial conflict between the Polity of Tondo and the Bruneian vassal-state, the Islamic Rajahnate of Maynila, to which the ruler of Maynila, Rajah Matanda, sought military assistance against Tondo from his relatives at the Sultanate of Brunei. The Hindu Rajahnates of Butuan and Cebu also endured slave raids from, and waged wars against the Sultanate of Maguindanao. Simultaneous with these slave-raids, was the rebellion of Datu Lapu-Lapu of Mactan against Rajah Humabon of Cebu. The sparse population and the multiple states competing over the limited territory and people of the islands simplified Spanish colonization by allowing its conquistadors to effectively employ a strategy of divide and conquer for rapid conquest.
A Spanish expedition around the world led by Portuguese-born Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan landed on the island called Homonhon in March 17, 1521. Magellan claimed the islands he saw for Spain and named them Islas de San Lázaro. He established friendly relations with some of the local leaders especially with Rajah Humabon and converted some of them to Roman Catholicism. In the Philippines, they explored many islands including the island of Mactan. However, Magellan was killed during the Battle of Mactan against the local datu, Lapu-Lapu.
Over the next several decades, other Spanish expeditions were dispatched to the islands. In 1543, Ruy López de Villalobos led an expedition to the islands and Leyte and Samar "Las Islas Filipinas" in honor of Philip of Austria, the Prince of Asturias at the time. Philip became Philip II of Spain on January 16, 1556, when his father, Charles I of Spain (who also reigned as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor), abdicated the Spanish throne. The name was then extended to the entire archipelago later on in the Spanish era.
European colonization began in earnest when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565 and formed the first European settlements in Cebu. Beginning with just five ships and five hundred men accompanied by Augustinian monks, and further strengthened in 1567 by two hundred soldiers, he was able to repel the Portuguese and create the foundations for the colonization of the Archipelago. In 1571, the Spanish, their Latin-American recruits and their Filipino (Visayan) allies, commanded by able conquistadors such as Mexico-born Juan de Salcedo (who was in love with Tondo's princess, Kandarapa) attacked the Maynila, a vassal-state of the Brunei Sultanate and liberated plus incorporated the kingdom of Tondo as well as establishing Manila as the capital of the Spanish East Indies. During the early part of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines the Spanish Augustinian Friar, Gaspar de San Agustín, O.S.A., describes Iloilo and Panay as one of the most populated islands in the archipelago and the most fertile of all the islands of the Philippines. He also talks about Iloilo, particularly the ancient settlement of Halaur, as site of a progressive trading post and a court of illustrious nobilities.
In 1578, the Castilian War erupted between the Christian Spaniards and Muslim Bruneians over control of the Philippine archipelago. On one side, the newly Christianized Non-Muslim Visayans of the Kedatuan of Madja-as and Rajahnate of Cebu, plus the Rajahnate of Butuan (which were from northern Mindanao), as well as the remnants of the Kedatuan of Dapitan had previously waged war against the Sultanate of Sulu, Sultanate of Maguindanao and Kingdom of Maynila, then joined the Spanish in the war against the Bruneian Empire and its allies, the Bruneian puppet-state of Maynila, Sulu which had dynastic links with Brunei as well as Maguindanao which was an ally of Sulu. The Spanish and its Visayan allies assaulted Brunei and seized its capital, Kota Batu. This was achieved as a result in part of the assistance rendered to them by two noblemen, Pengiran Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. The former had traveled to Manila to offer Brunei as a tributary of Spain for help to recover the throne usurped by his brother, Saiful Rijal. The Spanish agreed that if they succeeded in conquering Brunei, Pengiran Seri Lela would indeed become the Sultan, while Pengiran Seri Ratna would be the new Bendahara. In March 1578, the Spanish fleet, led by De Sande himself, acting as Capitán General, started their journey towards Brunei. The expedition consisted of 400 Spaniards and Mexicans, 1,500 Filipino natives and 300 Borneans. The campaign was one of many, which also included action in Mindanao and Sulu.
The Spanish succeeded in invading the capital on April 16, 1578, with the help of Pengiran Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. Sultan Saiful Rijal and Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Abdul Kahar were forced to flee to Meragang then to Jerudong. In Jerudong, they made plans to chase the conquering army away from Brunei. The Spanish suffered heavy losses due to a cholera or dysentery outbreak. They were so weakened by the illness that they decided to abandon Brunei to return to Manila on June 26, 1578, after just 72 days. Before doing so, they burned the mosque, a high structure with a five-tier roof.
Pengiran Seri Lela died in August–September 1578, probably from the same illness that had afflicted his Spanish allies, although there was suspicion he could have been poisoned by the ruling Sultan. Seri Lela's daughter, the Bruneian princess, left with the Spanish and went on to marry a Christian Tagalog, named Agustín de Legazpi of Tondo and had children in the Philippines.
Concurrently, northern Luzon became a center of the "Bahan Trade" (comercio de bafan), found in Luís Fróis’ Historia de Japam, mainly refers to the robberies, raids, and pillages conducted by the Japanese pirates of Kyūshūa as they assaulted the China seas. The Sengoku Period (1477–1603) or the warring states period of Japan had spread the wakō’s 倭寇 (Japanese Pirates) activities in the China Seas, some groups of these raiders relocated to the Philippines and established their settlements in Luzon. Because of the proximity to China's beaches, the Philippines were favorable a location to launch raids on the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, and for shipping with Indochina and the Ryūkyū Islands. These were the halycon days of the Philippine branch of the Bahan trade. Thus, the Spanish sought to fight off these Japanese Pirates, prominent among whom was warlord Tayfusa, whom the Spaniards expelled after he set up the beginnings of a city-state of Japanese pirates in Northern Luzon. The Spanish repelled them in the fabled 1582 Cagayan battles.
In 1587, Magat Salamat, one of the children of Lakan Dula, along with Lakan Dula's nephew and lords of the neighboring areas of Tondo, Pandacan, Marikina, Candaba, Navotas and Bulacan, were executed when the Tondo Conspiracy of 1587–1588 failed in which a planned grand alliance with the Japanese Christian-captain, Gayo, (Gayo himself was a Woku who once pirated in Cagayan) and Brunei's Sultan, would have restored the old aristocracy. Its failure resulted in the hanging of Agustín de Legaspi and the execution of Magat Salamat (the crown-prince of Tondo). Thereafter, some of the conspirators were exiled to Guam or Guerrero, Mexico.
Spanish power was further consolidated after Miguel López de Legazpi's complete assimilation of Madja-as, his subjugation of Rajah Tupas, the Rajah of Cebu and Juan de Salcedo's conquest of the provinces of Zambales, La Union, Ilocos, the coast of Cagayan, and the ransacking of the Chinese warlord Limahong's pirate kingdom in Pangasinan.
The Spanish also invaded Northern Taiwan and Ternate in Indonesia, using Filipino warriors, before they were driven out by the Dutch.
The Spanish and the Moros of the sultanates of Maguindanao, Lanao and Sulu also waged many wars over hundreds of years in the Spanish-Moro conflict, not until the 19th century did Spain succeed in defeating the Sulu Sultanate and taking Mindanao under nominal suzerainty.
The Spanish considered their war with the Muslims in Southeast Asia an extension of the Reconquista, a centuries-long campaign to retake and rechristianize the Spanish homeland which was invaded by the Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate. The Spanish expeditions into the Philippines were also part of a larger Ibero-Islamic world conflict that included a war against the Ottoman Caliphate which had just invaded former Christian lands in the Eastern Mediterranean and which had a center of operations in Southeast Asia at its nearby vassal, the Sultanate of Aceh.
In time, Spanish fortifications were also set up in Taiwan and the Maluku islands. These were abandoned and the Spanish soldiers, along with the newly Christianized natives of the Moluccas, withdrew back to the Philippines in order to re-concentrate their military forces because of a threatened invasion by the Japan-born Ming-dynasty loyalist, Koxinga, ruler of the Kingdom of Tungning. However, the planned invasion was aborted. Meanwhile, settlers were sent to the Pacific islands of Palau and the Marianas.
The founding of the City of Manila by uniting the dominions of Sulayman III of Namayan, Sabag, Rajah Ache "Matanda" of Maynila who was a vassal to the Sultan of Brunei, and Lakan Dula of Tondo who was a tributary to Ming Dynasty China – caused the establishment of Manila on February 6, 1579, through the Papal bull "Illius Fulti Præsidio" by Pope Gregory XIII, encompassing all Spanish colonies in Asia as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mexico. For much of the Spanish colonial period, the Philippines was part of the Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain.
The "Memoria de las Encomiendas en las Islas" of 1591, just twenty years after the conquest of Luzon, reveals a remarkable progress in the work of colonization and the spread of Christianity. A cathedral was built in the city of Manila with an episcopal palace, Augustinian, Dominican and Franciscan monasteries and a Jesuit house. The king maintained a hospital for the Spanish settlers and there was another hospital for the natives run by the Franciscans. In order to defend the settlements the Spaniards established in the Philippines, a network of military fortresses called "Presidios" were constructed and officered by the Spaniards, and sentried by Latin-Americans and Filipinos, across the archipelago, to protect it from foreign nations such as the Portuguese, British and Dutch as well as raiding Muslims and Wokou. The Manila garrison was composed of roughly four hundred Spanish soldiers and the area of Intramuros as well as its surroundings, were initially settled by 1200 Spanish families. In Cebu City, at the Visayas, the settlement received a total of 2,100 soldier-settlers from New Spain. At the immediate south of Manila, Mexicans were present at Ermita and at Cavite where they were stationed as sentries. In addition, men conscripted from Peru, were also sent to settle Zamboanga City in Mindanao, to wage war upon Muslim pirates. There were also communities of Spanish-Mestizos that developed in Iloilo, Negros and Vigan. Interactions between native Filipinos and immigrant Spaniards, Latin-Americans and their Spanish-Mestizo descendants eventually caused the formation of a new language, Chavacano, a creole of Mexican Spanish. Meanwhile, in the suburb of Tondo, there was a convent run by Franciscan friars and another by the Dominicans that offered Christian education to the Chinese converted to Christianity. The same report reveals that in and around Manila were collected 9,410 tributes, indicating a population of about 30,640 who were under the instruction of thirteen missionaries (ministers of doctrine), apart from the monks in monasteries. In the former province of Pampanga the population estimate was 74,700 and 28 missionaries. In Pangasinan 2,400 people with eight missionaries. In Cagayan and islands Babuyanes 96,000 people but no missionaries. In La Laguna 48,400 people with 27 missionaries. In Bicol and Camarines Catanduanes islands 86,640 people with fifteen missionaries. Based on the tribute counts, the total founding population of Spanish-Philippines was 667,612 people, of which: 20,000 were Chinese migrant traders, 16,500 were Latino soldier-colonists sent from Peru and Mexico, 3,000 were Japanese residents, and 600 were pure Spaniards from Europe, there was also a large but unknown number of Indian Filipinos, the rest were Malays and Negritos. They were under the care of 140 missionaries, of which 79 were Augustinians, nine Dominicans and 42 Franciscans. During the Spanish evacuation of Ternate, Indonesia, the 200 families of mixed Mexican-Filipino-Spanish and Moluccan-Portuguese descent who had ruled over the briefly Christianized Sultanate of Ternate (They later reverted to Islam) and included their Sultan who converted to Christianity, were relocated to Ternate, Cavite and Ermita, Manila.
The fragmented and sparsely populated nature of the islands made it easy for Spanish colonization. The Spanish then brought political unification to most of the Philippine archipelago via the conquest of the various small maritime states although they were unable to fully incorporate parts of the sultanates of Mindanao and the areas where the ethnic groups and highland plutocracy of the animist Ifugao of Northern Luzon were established. The Spanish introduced elements of western civilization such as the code of law, western printing and the Gregorian calendar alongside new food resources such as maize, pineapple and chocolate from Latin America.
Education played a major role in the socio-economic transformation of the archipelago. The oldest universities, colleges, and vocational schools and the first modern public education system in Asia were all created during the Spanish colonial period, and by the time Spain was replaced by the United States as the colonial power, Filipinos were among the most educated subjects in all of Asia. The Jesuits founded the Colegio de Manila in 1590, which later became the Universidad de San Ignacio, a royal and pontifical university. They also founded the Colegio de San Ildefonso on August 1, 1595. After the expulsion of the Society of Jesus in 1768, the management of the Jesuit schools passed to other parties. On April 28, 1611, through the initiative of Bishop Miguel de Benavides, the University of Santo Tomas was founded in Manila. The Jesuits also founded the Colegio de San José (1601) and took over the Escuela Municipal, later to be called the Ateneo de Manila University (1859). All institutions offered courses included not only religious topics but also science subjects such as physics, chemistry, natural history and mathematics. The University of Santo Tomás, for example, started by teaching theology, philosophy and humanities and during the 18th century, the Faculty of Jurisprudence and Canonical Law, together with the schools of medicine and pharmacy were opened.
Outside the tertiary institutions, the efforts of missionaries were in no way limited to religious instruction but also geared towards promoting social and economic advancement of the islands. They cultivated into the natives their innate taste for music and taught Spanish language to children. They also introduced advances in rice agriculture, brought from America maize and cocoa and developed the farming of indigo, coffee and sugar cane. The only commercial plant introduced by a government agency was the plant of tobacco.
Church and state were inseparably linked in Spanish policy, with the state assuming responsibility for religious establishments. One of Spain's objectives in colonizing the Philippines was the conversion of the local population to Roman Catholicism. The work of conversion was facilitated by the disunity and insignificance of other organized religions, except for Islam, which was still predominant in the southwest. The pageantry of the church had a wide appeal, reinforced by the incorporation of indigenous social customs into religious observances. The eventual outcome was a new Roman Catholic majority, from which the Muslims of western Mindanao and the upland tribal and animistic peoples of Luzon remained detached and alienated from (Ethnic groups such as the Ifugaos of the Cordillera region and the Mangyans of Mindoro).
At the lower levels of administration, the Spanish built on traditional village organization by co-opting local leaders. This system of indirect rule helped create an indigenous upper class, called the "principalía", who had local wealth, high status, and other privileges. This perpetuated an oligarchic system of local control. Among the most significant changes under Spanish rule was that the indigenous idea of communal use and ownership of land was replaced with the concept of private ownership and the conferring of titles on members of the "principalía".
Around 1608 William Adams, an English navigator contacted the interim governor of the Philippines, Rodrigo de Vivero y Velasco on behalf of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who wished to establish direct trade contacts with New Spain. Friendly letters were exchanged, officially starting relations between Japan and New Spain. From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as a territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from Mexico, via the "Royal Audiencia" of Manila, and administered directly from Spain from 1821 after the Mexican revolution, until 1898.
The Manila galleons, were constructed in Bicol and Cavite. The Manila galleons were accompanied with a large naval escort as it traveled to and from Manila and Acapulco. The galleons sailed once or twice a year, between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Manila Galleons brought with them goods, settlers and military reinforcements destined for the Philippines, from Latin America. The reverse voyage also brought Asian commercial products and immigrants to the western side of the Americas.
The Manila galleons which linked Manila to Acapulco traveled once or twice a year between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Spanish military fought off various indigenous revolts and several external colonial challenges, especially from the British, Chinese pirates, Dutch, and Portuguese. Roman Catholic missionaries converted most of the lowland inhabitants to Christianity and founded schools, universities, and hospitals. In 1863 a Spanish decree introduced education, establishing public schooling in Spanish.
In 1646, a series of five naval actions known as the Battles of La Naval de Manila was fought between the forces of Spain and the Dutch Republic, as part of the Eighty Years' War. Although the Spanish forces consisted of just two Manila galleons and a galley with crews composed mainly of Filipino volunteers, against three separate Dutch squadrons, totaling eighteen ships, the Dutch squadrons were severely defeated in all fronts by the Spanish-Filipino forces, forcing the Dutch to abandon their plans for an invasion of the Philippines.
In 1687, Isaac Newton included an explicit reference to the Philippines in his classic Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by mentioning Leuconia, the ancient Ptolemaic name for the Philippines.
Colonial income derived mainly from entrepôt trade: The Manila Galleons sailing from the port of Manila to the port of Acapulco on the west coast of Mexico brought shipments of silver bullion, and minted coin that were exchanged for return cargoes of Asian, and Pacific products. A total of 110 Manila galleons set sail in the 250 years of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade (1565 to 1815). There was no direct trade with Spain until 1766.
The Philippines was never profitable as a colony during Spanish rule, and the long war against the Dutch from the West, in the 17th century together with the intermittent conflict with the Muslims in the South and combating Japanese Wokou piracy from the North nearly bankrupted the colonial treasury. Furthermore, the state of near constant war caused a high death and desertion rate among the Mestizo, Mulatto and Indio (Native American) soldiers sent from Mexico and Peru that were stationed in the Philippines. The high death and desertion rate also applied to the native Filipino warriors conscripted by Spain, to fight in battles all across the archipelago. The repeated wars, lack of wages and near starvation were so intense, almost half of the soldiers sent from Latin America either died or fled to the countryside to live as vagabonds among the rebellious natives or escaped enslaved Indians (From India) where they race-mixed through rape or prostitution, further blurring the racial caste system Spain tried hard to maintain. These circumstances contributed to the increasing difficulty of governing the Philippines. The Royal Fiscal of Manila wrote a letter to King Charles III of Spain in which he advises to abandon the colony, but the religious orders opposed this since they considered the Philippines a launching pad for the conversion of the Far East.
The Philippines survived on an annual subsidy paid by the Spanish Crown and often procured from taxes and profits accrued by the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico), and the 200-year-old fortifications at Manila had not been improved much since first built by the early Spanish colonizers. This was one of the circumstances that made possible the brief British occupation of Manila between 1762 and 1764.
Britain declared war against Spain on January 4, 1762 and on September 24, 1762 a force of British Army regulars and British East India Company soldiers, supported by the ships and men of the East Indies Squadron of the British Royal Navy, sailed into Manila Bay from Madras, India. Manila was besieged and fell to the British on October 4, 1762.
Outside of Manila, the Spanish leader Simón de Anda y Salazar organized a militia of 10,000 of mostly from Pampanga to resist British rule. Anda y Salazar established his headquarters first in Bulacan, then in Bacolor. After a number of skirmishes and failed attempts to support uprisings, the British command admitted to the War Secretary in London that the Spanish were "in full possession of the country". The occupation of Manila ended in April 1764 as agreed to in the peace negotiations for the Seven Years' War in Europe. The Spanish then persecuted the Binondo Chinese community for its role in aiding the British. An unknown number of Indian soldiers known as sepoys, who came with the British, deserted and settled in nearby Cainta, Rizal, which explains the uniquely Indian features of generations of Cainta residents.
In 1766 direct communication was established with Spain and trade with Europe through a national ship based on Spain. In 1774, colonial officers from Bulacan, Tondo, Laguna Bay, and other areas surrounding Manila reported with consternation that discharged soldiers and deserters (From Mexico, Spain and Peru) who survived the previous British occupation, were providing indios military training for the weapons that had been disseminated all over the territory during the war. Expeditions from Spain were administered since 1785 by the Real Compañía Filipina, which was granted a monopoly of trade between Spain and the islands that lasted until 1834, when the company was terminated by the Spanish crown due to poor management and financial losses.
In 1781, Governor-General José Basco y Vargas established the Economic Society of the Friends of the Country. The Philippines was administered from the Viceroyalty of New Spain until the independence to Mexico in 1821 necessitated the direct rule from Spain of the Philippines from that year.
The Philippines was included in the vast territory of the Kingdom of Spain, in the first constitution of Spain promulgated in Cadiz in 1812. It was never a colony as modern-day historical literature would say, but an overseas region in Asia (Spanish Constitution 1812). The Spanish Constitution of 1870 provides for the first autonomous community for "Archipelago Filipino" where all provinces in the Philippine Islands will be given the semi-independent home rule program.
During the 19th century Spain invested heavily in education and infrastructure. Through the Education Decree of December 20, 1863, Queen Isabella II of Spain decreed the establishment of a free public school system that used Spanish as the language of instruction, leading to increasing numbers of educated Filipinos. Additionally, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 cut travel time to Spain, which facilitated the rise of the ilustrados, an enlightened class of Spanish-Filipinos that had been able to enroll in Spanish and European universities.
A great number of infrastructure projects were undertaken during the 19th century that put the Philippine economy and standard of living ahead of most of its Asian neighbors and even many European countries at that time. Among them were a railway system for Luzon, a tramcar network for Manila, and Asia's first steel suspension bridge Puente Claveria, later called Puente Colgante.
On August 1, 1851 the Banco Español-Filipino de Isabel II was established to attend the needs of the rapid economic boom, that had greatly increased its pace since the 1800s as a result of a new economy based on a rational exploitation of the agricultural resources of the islands. The increase in textile fiber crops such as abacá, oil products derived from the coconut, indigo, that was growing in demand, etc., generated an increase in money supply that led to the creation of the bank. Banco Español-Filipino was also granted the power to print a Philippine-specific currency (the Philippine peso) for the first time (before 1851, many currencies were used, mostly the pieces of eight).
Spanish Manila was seen in the 19th century as a model of colonial governance that effectively put the interests of the original inhabitants of the islands before those of the colonial power. As John Crawfurd put it in its History of the Indian Archipelago, in all of Asia the "Philippines alone did improve in civilization, wealth, and populousness under the colonial rule" of a foreign power. John Bowring, Governor General of British Hong Kong from 1856 to 1860, wrote after his trip to Manila:
In "The Inhabitants of the Philippines", Frederick Henry Sawyer wrote:
The first official census in the Philippines was carried out in 1878. The colony's population as of December 31, 1877, was recorded at 5,567,685 persons. This was followed by the 1887 census that yielded a count of 6,984,727, while that of 1898 yielded 7,832,719 inhabitants.
Spanish-Philippines then reached its peak when the Philippine-born Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero became Prime Minister of the Spanish Kingdom. However, ideas of rebellion and independence began to spread through the islands. Many Latin-Americans and Criollos were mostly officers in the army of Spanish Philippines. However, the onset of the Latin American wars of independence led to serious doubts of their loyalty, so they were soon replaced by Peninsular officers born in Spain. "" and "Latino" dissatisfaction against the "Peninsulares" resulted in the uprising of Andres Novales which was supported by local soldiers as well as former officers in the Spanish army of the Philippines who were from the now independent nations of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica. The uprising was brutally suppressed but it foreshadowed the 1872 Cavite Mutiny that was a precursor to the Philippine Revolution.
In the Americas; overseas Filipinos were involved in several Anti-colonial movements, Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr. in his paper: “Manilamen and seafaring: engaging the maritime world beyond the Spanish realm”, stated therein that Filipinos who were internationally called Manilamen were active in the navies and armies of the world even after the era of the Manila Galleons such as the case of the Argentine war of independence wherein an Argentinian of French descent, Hypolite Bouchard, who was a privateer for the Argentine army, when he laid siege to Monterey California, his second ship, the Santa Rosa which was captained by the American Peter Corney, had a multi-ethnic crew which included Filipinos. Mercene, writer of the Book “Manila Men”, proposes that those Manilamen were recruited in San Blas, an alternative port to Acapulco Mexico where several Filipinos had settled during the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade era. Likewise, in Mexico, Filipinos like General Isidoro Montes de Oca had participated in the Mexican Revolutionary war against Spain too. The recent participation of overseas Filipinos in Anti-Imperial wars in the Americas started even earlier when they assisted the United States in the defense of New Orleans during the War of 1812, when the United Kingdom attempted to Reconquer America. Likewise, in this period, overseas Filipinos were also active in the Asia-Pacific especially in China and Indochina. During the Taiping rebellion, Frederick Townsend Ward had a militia employing foreigners to quell the rebellion for the Qing government, at first he hired American and European adventurers but they proved unruly, while recruiting for better troops, he met his aide-de-camp, Vincente (Vicente?) Macanaya, who was twenty three years old in 1860 and was part of the large Filipino population then living in Shanghai, who “were handy on board ships and more than a little troublesome on land’, as Caleb Carr journalistically put it. Smith, another writer about China also notes in his book: “Mercenaries and Mandarins” that Manilamen were ‘Reputed to be brave and fierce fighters’ and ‘were plentiful in Shanghai and always eager for action’. During this Taiping rebellion, by July 1860, Townsend Ward’s force of Manilamen ranging from one to two hundred mercenaries successfully assaulted Sung-Chiang Prefecture. Thus, while the Philippines was slowly engendered with revolutionary fervour being suppressed by Spain, overseas Filipinos have had an active role in the military and naval engagements of various nations in the Americas and Asia-Pacific. Soldiers from the Philippines were recruited by France, which was allied to Spain, to initially protect Indo-Chinese converts to Roman Catholicism who were persecuted by their native governments, and later for an actual conquest of Vietnam and Laos as well as the establishment of the Protectorate of Cambodia which was liberated from Thai invasions and re-established as a vassal-state of France with the combined Franco-Spanish-Filipino forces creating French Cochinchina which was governed from the former Cambodian and now Vietnamese city of Saigon.
The "" and "Latino" dissatisfaction against them spurred by their love of the land and their suffering people had a justified hatred against the exploitative "Peninsulares" who were only appointed due to their race and unflinching loyalty to the homeland. This resulted in the uprising of Andres Novales a Philippine born soldier who earned great fame in richer Spain but chose to return to serve in poorer Philippines. He was supported by local soldiers as well as former officers in the Spanish army of the Philippines who were from the now independent nations of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica. The uprising was brutally suppressed but it foreshadowed the 1872 Cavite Mutiny that was a precursor to the Philippine Revolution. However, Hispanic-Philippines reached its zenith when the Philippine-born Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero became a hero as he restored the Bourbon Dynasty of Spain to the throne during his stint as Lieutenant-General (Three Star General) after the Bourbons have been deposed by revolutionaries. He eventually became Prime Minister of the Spanish Empire and was awarded membership in the Order of the Golden Fleece, which is considered the most exclusive and prestigious order of chivalry in the world.
In 2006, the Civil Code of Spain provided that the acquisition of nationalities of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal and those of the Sephardic Jews originally from Spain, does not bear the loss of their Spanish nationalities of origin that paved the way for easier route of Spanish Nationality reacquisition by the people of the Philippines. A similar law in the Philippines was enacted later in 1963 that provides "Natural born citizens of the Philippines who acquired the citizenship of one of the Iberian countries, Ibero-American Countries and United Kingdom will not lose their natural born citizen status."
Revolutionary sentiments arose in 1872 after three Filipino priests, Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, known as Gomburza, were accused of sedition by colonial authorities and executed by garotte. This would inspire the Propaganda Movement in Spain, organized by Marcelo H. del Pilar, José Rizal, Graciano López Jaena, and Mariano Ponce, that clamored for adequate representation to the Spanish Cortes and later for independence. José Rizal, the most celebrated intellectual and radical ilustrado of the era, wrote the novels "Noli Me Tángere", and "El filibusterismo", which greatly inspired the movement for independence. The Katipunan, a secret society whose primary purpose was that of overthrowing Spanish rule in the Philippines, was founded by Andrés Bonifacio who became its "Supremo" (leader).
The Philippine Revolution began in 1896. Rizal was wrongly implicated in the outbreak of the revolution and executed for treason in 1896. The Katipunan in Cavite split into two groups, Magdiwang, led by Mariano Álvarez (a relative of Bonifacio's by marriage), and Magdalo, led by Emilio Aguinaldo. Leadership conflicts between Bonifacio and Aguinaldo culminated in the execution or assassination of the former by the latter's soldiers. Aguinaldo agreed to a truce with the Pact of Biak-na-Bato and Aguinaldo and his fellow revolutionaries were exiled to Hong Kong. Not all the revolutionary generals complied with the agreement. One, General Francisco Makabulos, established a Central Executive Committee to serve as the interim government until a more suitable one was created. Armed conflicts resumed, this time coming from almost every province in Spanish-governed Philippines.
In 1898, as conflicts continued in the Philippines, the USS Maine, having been sent to Cuba because of U.S. concerns for the safety of its citizens during an ongoing Cuban revolution, exploded and sank in Havana harbor. This event precipitated the Spanish–American War. After Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish squadron at Manila, a German squadron arrived in Manila and engaged in maneuvers which Dewey, seeing this as obstruction of his blockade, offered war—after which the Germans backed down. The German Emperor expected an American defeat, with Spain left in a sufficiently weak position for the revolutionaries to capture Manila—leaving the Philippines ripe for German picking.
The U.S. invited Aguinaldo to return to the Philippines in the hope he would rally Filipinos against the Spanish colonial government. Aguinaldo arrived on May 19, 1898, via transport provided by Dewey. On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo declared the independence of the Philippines in Kawit, Cavite. Aguinaldo proclaimed a Revolutionary Government of the Philippines on June 23. By the time U.S. land forces arrived, the Filipinos had taken control of the entire island of Luzon except for Spanish capitol in the walled city of Intramuros. In the Battle of Manila, on August 13, 1898, the United States captured the city from the Spanish. This battle marked an end of Filipino-American collaboration, as Filipino forces were prevented from entering the captured city of Manila, an action deeply resented by the Filipinos.
On January 23, 1899, the First Philippine Republic was proclaimed under Asia's first democratic constitution, with Aguinaldo as its President. Under Aguinaldo, The Philippine Revolutionary Army was also renowned to be racially tolerant and progressive as it had a multi-ethnic composition that included various other races and nationalities asides from the native Filipino, being its officers. Juan Cailles an Indian and French Mestizo served as a Major General, the Chinese Filipino José Ignacio Paua was a Brigadier General, and Vicente Catalan who was appointed supreme Admiral of the Philippine Revolutionary Navy was a Cuban of Criollo descent.
Despite the establishment of the First Philippine Republic, Spain and the United States had sent commissioners to Paris to draw up the terms of the Treaty of Paris to end the Spanish–American War. The Filipino representative, Felipe Agoncillo, had been excluded from sessions as Aguinaldo's government was not recognized by the family of nations. Although there was substantial domestic opposition, the United States decided to annex the Philippines. In addition to Guam and Puerto Rico, Spain was forced in the negotiations to cede the Philippines to the U.S. in exchange for US$20,000,000.00. U.S. President McKinley justified the annexation of the Philippines by saying that it was "a gift from the gods" and that since "they were unfit for self-government, ... there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them", in spite of the Philippines having been already Christianized by the Spanish over the course of several centuries. The First Philippine Republic resisted the U.S. occupation, resulting in the Philippine–American War (1899–1913).
The estimated GDP per capita for the Philippines in 1900, the year Spain left and the First Philippine Republic was in operation, was $1,033.00. That made it the second-richest place in all of Asia, just a little behind Japan ($1,135.00), and far ahead of China ($652.00) and India ($625.00).
Filipinos initially saw their relationship with the United States as that of two nations joined in a common struggle against Spain. However, the United States later distanced itself from the interests of the Filipino insurgents. Emilio Aguinaldo was unhappy that the United States would not commit to paper a statement of support for Philippine independence. The islands were ceded by Spain to the United States alongside Puerto Rico and Guam as a result of the latter's victory in the Spanish–American War. A compensation of US$20 million was paid to Spain according to the terms of the 1898 Treaty of Paris. Relations deteriorated and tensions heightened as it became clear that the Americans were in the islands to stay.
Hostilities broke out on February 4, 1899, after two American privates killed three Filipino soldiers as American forces launched a major attack in San Juan, a Manila suburb. This began the Philippine–American War, which would cost far more money and take far more lives than the Spanish–American War. Some 126,000 American soldiers would be committed to the conflict; 4,234 Americans died, as did 12,000–20,000 Philippine Republican Army soldiers who were part of a nationwide guerrilla movement of at least 80,000 to 100,000 soldiers.
The general population, caught between Americans and rebels, suffered significantly. At least 200,000 Filipino civilians lost their lives as an indirect result of the war mostly as a result of the cholera epidemic at the war's end that took between 150,000 and 200,000 lives. Atrocities were committed by both sides.
The poorly equipped Filipino troops were easily overpowered by American troops in open combat, but they were formidable opponents in guerrilla warfare. Malolos, the revolutionary capital, was captured on March 31, 1899. Aguinaldo and his government escaped, however, establishing a new capital at San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. On June 5, 1899, Antonio Luna, Aguinaldo's most capable military commander, was killed by Aguinaldo's guards in an apparent assassination while visiting Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija to meet with Aguinaldo. With his best commander dead and his troops suffering continued defeats as American forces pushed into northern Luzon, Aguinaldo dissolved the regular army on November 13 and ordered the establishment of decentralized guerrilla commands in each of several military zones. Another key general, Gregorio del Pilar, was killed on December 2, 1899 in the Battle of Tirad Pass—a rear guard action to delay the Americans while Aguinaldo made good his escape through the mountains.
Aguinaldo was captured at Palanan, Isabela on March 23, 1901 and was brought to Manila. Convinced of the futility of further resistance, he swore allegiance to the United States and issued a proclamation calling on his compatriots to lay down their arms, officially bringing an end to the war. However, sporadic insurgent resistance continued in various parts of the Philippines, especially in the Muslim south, until 1913.
In 1900, President McKinley sent the Taft Commission, to the Philippines, with a mandate to legislate laws and re-engineer the political system. On July 1, 1901, William Howard Taft, the head of the commission, was inaugurated as Civil Governor, with limited executive powers. The authority of the Military Governor was continued in those areas where the insurrection persisted. The Taft Commission passed laws to set up the fundamentals of the new government, including a judicial system, civil service, and local government. A Philippine Constabulary was organized to deal with the remnants of the insurgent movement and gradually assume the responsibilities of the United States Army.
Brigadier General James F. Smith arrived at Bacolod on March 4, 1899, as the Military Governor of the Sub-district of Negros, after receiving an invitation from Aniceto Lacson, president of the breakaway Cantonal Republic of Negros. Two other insurgent republics were briefly formed during American administration: the Tagalog Republic in Luzon, under Macario Sakay, and the Republic of Zamboanga in Mindanao under Mariano Arquiza.
The Philippine Organic Act was the basic law for the Insular Government, so called because civil administration was under the authority of the U.S. Bureau of Insular Affairs. This government saw its mission as one of tutelage, preparing the Philippines for eventual independence. On July 4, 1902 the office of military governor was abolished and full executive power passed from Adna Chaffee, the last military governor, to Taft, who became the first U.S. Governor-General of the Philippines.
United States policies towards the Philippines shifted with changing administrations. During the early years of territorial administration, the Americans were reluctant to delegate authority to the Filipinos, but an elected Philippine Assembly was inaugurated in 1907, as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the appointive Philippine Commission becoming the upper house.
Philippines was a major target for the progressive reformers. A 1907 report to Secretary of War Taft provided a summary of what the American civil administration had achieved. It included, in addition to the rapid building of a public school system based on English teaching, and boasted about such modernizing achievements as:
In 1903 the American reformers in the Philippines passed two major land acts designed to turn landless peasants into owners of their farms. By 1905 the law was clearly a failure. Reformers such as Taft believed landownership would turn unruly agrarians into loyal subjects. The social structure in rural Philippines was highly traditional and highly unequal. Drastic changes in land ownership posed a major challenge to local elites, who would not accept it, nor would their peasant clients. The American reformers blamed peasant resistance to landownership for the law's failure and argued that large plantations and sharecropping was the Philippines’ best path to development.
Elite Filipina women played a major role in the reform movement, especially on health issues. They specialized on such urgent needs as infant care and maternal and child health, the distribution of pure milk and teaching new mothers about children's health. The most prominent organizations were the La Protección de la Infancia, and the National Federation of Women's Clubs.
When Democrat Woodrow Wilson became U.S. president in 1913, new policies were launched designed to gradually lead to Philippine independence. In 1902 U.S. law established Filipinos citizenship in the Philippine Islands; unlike Hawaii in 1898 and Puerto Rico in 1918, they did not become citizens of the United States. The Jones Law of 1916 became the new basic law, promised eventual independence. It provide for the election of both houses of the legislature.
In socio-economic terms, the Philippines made solid progress in this period. Foreign trade had amounted to 62 million pesos in 1895, 13% of which was with the United States. By 1920, it had increased to 601 million pesos, 66% of which was with the United States. A health care system was established which, by 1930, reduced the mortality rate from all causes, including various tropical diseases, to a level similar to that of the United States itself. The practices of slavery, piracy and headhunting were suppressed but not entirely extinguished.
A new educational system was established with English as the medium of instruction, eventually becoming a "lingua franca" of the Islands. The 1920s saw alternating periods of cooperation and confrontation with American governors-general, depending on how intent the incumbent was on exercising his powers vis-à-vis the Philippine legislature. Members to the elected legislature lobbied for immediate and complete independence from the United States. Several independence missions were sent to Washington, D.C. A civil service was formed and was gradually taken over by Filipinos, who had effectively gained control by 1918.
Philippine politics during the American territorial era was dominated by the Nacionalista Party, which was founded in 1907. Although the party's platform called for "immediate independence", their policy toward the Americans was highly accommodating. Within the political establishment, the call for independence was spearheaded by Manuel L. Quezon, who served continuously as Senate president from 1916 until 1935.
World War I gave the Philippines the opportunity to pledge assistance to the US war effort. This took the form of an offer to supply a division of troops, as well as providing funding for the construction of two warships. A locally recruited national guard was created and significant numbers of Filipinos volunteered for service in the US Navy and army.
Frank Murphy was the last Governor-General of the Philippines (1933–35), and the first U.S. High Commissioner of the Philippines (1935–36). The change in form was more than symbolic: it was intended as a manifestation of the transition to independence.
The Great Depression in the early thirties hastened the progress of the Philippines towards independence. In the United States it was mainly the sugar industry and labor unions that had a stake in loosening the U.S. ties to the Philippines since they could not compete with the Philippine cheap sugar (and other commodities) which could freely enter the U.S. market. Therefore, they agitated in favor of granting independence to the Philippines so that its cheap products and labor could be shut out of the United States. In 1933, the United States Congress passed the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act as a Philippine Independence Act over President Herbert Hoover's veto. Though the bill had been drafted with the aid of a commission from the Philippines, it was opposed by Philippine Senate President Manuel L. Quezon, partially because of provisions leaving the United States in control of naval bases. Under his influence, the Philippine legislature rejected the bill. The following year, a revised act known as the Tydings–McDuffie Act was finally passed. The act provided for the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines with transition to full independence after a ten-year period. The commonwealth would have its own constitution and be self-governing, though foreign policy would be the responsibility of the United States, and certain legislation required approval of the United States president. The Act stipulated that the date of independence would be on July 4 following the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Commonwealth.
A Constitutional Convention was convened in Manila on July 30, 1934. On February 8, 1935, the 1935 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines was approved by the convention by a vote of 177 to 1. The constitution was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 23, 1935 and ratified by popular vote on May 14, 1935.
On September 17, 1935, presidential elections were held. Candidates included former president Emilio Aguinaldo, the "Iglesia Filipina Independiente" leader Gregorio Aglipay, and others. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña of the Nacionalista Party were proclaimed the winners, winning the seats of president and vice-president, respectively.
The Commonwealth Government was inaugurated on the morning of November 15, 1935, in ceremonies held on the steps of the Legislative Building in Manila. The event was attended by a crowd of around 300,000 people. Under the Tydings–McDuffie Act this meant that the date of full independence for the Philippines was set for July 4, 1946, a timetable which was followed after the passage of almost eleven very eventful years.
Japan launched a surprise attack on the Clark Air Base in Pampanga on the morning of December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Aerial bombardment was followed by landings of ground troops on Luzon. The defending Philippine and United States troops were under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. Under the pressure of superior numbers, the defending forces withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula and to the island of Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay.
On January 2, 1942, General MacArthur declared the capital city, Manila, an open city to prevent its destruction. The Philippine defense continued until the final surrender of United States-Philippine forces on the Bataan Peninsula in April 1942 and on Corregidor in May of the same year. Most of the 80,000 prisoners of war captured by the Japanese at Bataan were forced to undertake the infamous Bataan Death March to a prison camp 105 kilometers to the north. About 10,000 Filipinos and 1,200 Americans died before reaching their destination.
President Quezon and Osmeña had accompanied the troops to Corregidor and later left for the United States, where they set up a government in exile. MacArthur was ordered to Australia, where he started to plan for a return to the Philippines.
The Japanese military authorities immediately began organizing a new government structure in the Philippines and established the Philippine Executive Commission. They initially organized a Council of State, through which they directed civil affairs until October 1943, when they declared the Philippines an independent republic. The Japanese-sponsored republic headed by President José P. Laurel proved to be unpopular.
From mid-1942 through mid-1944, Japanese occupation of the Philippines was opposed by large-scale underground and guerrilla activity. The Philippine Army, as well as remnants of the U.S. Army Forces Far East, continued to fight the Japanese in a guerrilla war and was considered an auxiliary unit of the United States Army. Supplies and encouragement were provided by U.S. Navy submarines and a few parachute drops. Their effectiveness was such that by the end of the war, Japan controlled only twelve of the forty-eight provinces. One element of resistance in the Central Luzon area was furnished by the Hukbalahap, which armed some 30,000 people and extended their control over much of Luzon. While remaining loyal to the United States, many Filipinos hoped and believed that liberation from the Japanese would bring them freedom and their already-promised independence.
The Philippines was the bloodiest theater of the war for the invading empire, with at least 498,600 Japanese troops killed in fighting the combined Filipino resistance and American soldiers, a larger amount of casualties compared to the second-placed theater, the entirety of China, which caused the Japanese about 455,700 casualties. The occupation of the Philippines by Japan ended at the war's conclusion. At the eve of the liberation of the Philippines, the Allied forces and the Japanese Empire waged the largest naval battle in history, by gross tonnage in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The American army had been fighting the Philippines Campaign since October 1944, when MacArthur's Sixth United States Army landed on Leyte. Landings in other parts of the country had followed, and the Allies, with the Philippine Commonwealth troops, pushed toward Manila. However, fighting continued until Japan's formal surrender on September 2, 1945. Approximately 10,000 U.S. soldiers were missing in action in the Philippines when the war ended, more than in any other country in the Pacific or European Theaters. The Philippines suffered great loss of life and tremendous physical destruction, especially during the Battle of Manila. An estimated 1 million Filipinos had been killed, a large portion during the final months of the war, and Manila had been extensively damaged.
As in most occupied countries, crime, looting, corruption, and black markets were endemic. Japan in 1943 proposed independence on new terms, and some collaborators went along with the plan, but Japan was clearly losing the war and nothing became of it.
With a view of building up the economic base of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Japanese Army envisioned using the islands as a source of agricultural products needed by its industry. For example, Japan had a surplus of sugar from Taiwan but, a severe shortage of cotton, so they tried to grow cotton on sugar lands with disastrous results. They lacked the seeds, pesticides, and technical skills to grow cotton. Jobless farm workers flocked to the cities, where there was minimal relief and few jobs. The Japanese Army also tried using cane sugar for fuel, castor beans and copra for oil, derris for quinine, cotton for uniforms, and abaca (hemp) for rope. The plans were very difficult to implement in the face of limited skills, collapsed international markets, bad weather, and transportation shortages. The program was a failure that gave very little help to Japanese industry, and diverted resources needed for food production.
Living conditions were bad throughout the Philippines during the war. Transportation between the islands was difficult because of lack of fuel. Food was in very short supply, due to inflation.
The return of the Americans in spring 1945 was welcomed by nearly all the Filipinos, in sharp contrast to the situation in nearby Dutch East Indies. The collaborationist "Philippine Republic" set up by the Japanese under Jose P. Laurel, was highly unpopular, and the extreme destructiveness of the Japanese Army in Manila in its last days solidified Japan's image as a permanent target of hate. The pre-war Commonwealth system was reestablished under Sergio Osmeña, who became president in exile after President Quezon died in 1944. Osmeña was little-known and his Nacionalista Party was no longer such a dominant force. Osmeña supporters challenged the legitimacy of Manuel Roxas who had served as secretary to Laurel. MacArthur testified to Roxas' patriotism and the collaborationist issue disappeared after Roxas was elected in 1946 on a platform calling for closer ties with the United States; adherence to the new United Nations; national reconstruction; relief for the masses; social justice for the working class; the maintenance of peace and order; the preservation of individual rights and liberties of the citizenry; and honesty and efficiency of government. The United States Congress passed a series of programs to help rehabilitation, including $2 billion over five years for war damages and rehabilitation, and a new tariff law that provided for a 20-year transition from free trade to a low tariff with the United States. Washington also demanded that Americans would have equal rights with Filipinos in business activities, a special treatment that was resented. In 1947 the United States secured an agreement that it would keep its major military and naval bases. On the whole the transition to independence, achieved in 1946, was mostly peaceful and highly successful, despite the extreme difficulties caused by massive war damages. The special relationship with the United States remained the dominant feature until sharp criticism arose in the 1960s.
Elections were held in April 1946, with Manuel Roxas becoming the first president of the independent Republic of the Philippines. The United States ceded its sovereignty over the Philippines on July 4, 1946, as scheduled. However, the Philippine economy remained highly dependent on United States markets—more dependent, according to United States high commissioner Paul McNutt, than any single U.S. state was dependent on the rest of the country. The Philippine Trade Act, passed as a precondition for receiving war rehabilitation grants from the United States, exacerbated the dependency with provisions further tying the economies of the two countries. A military assistance pact was signed in 1947 granting the United States a 99-year lease on designated military bases in the country.
The Roxas administration granted general amnesty to those who had collaborated with the Japanese in World War II, except for those who had committed violent crimes. Roxas died suddenly of a heart attack in April 1948, and the vice president, Elpidio Quirino, was elevated to the presidency. He ran for president in his own right in 1949, defeating José P. Laurel and winning a four-year term.
World War II had left the Philippines demoralized and severely damaged. The task of reconstruction was complicated by the activities of the Communist-supported Hukbalahap guerrillas (known as "Huks"), who had evolved into a violent resistance force against the new Philippine government. Government policy towards the Huks alternated between gestures of negotiation and harsh suppression. Secretary of Defense Ramon Magsaysay initiated a campaign to defeat the insurgents militarily and at the same time win popular support for the government. The Huk movement had waned in the early 1950s, finally ending with the unconditional surrender of Huk leader Luis Taruc in May 1954.
Supported by the United States, Magsaysay was elected president in 1953 on a populist platform. He promised sweeping economic reform, and made progress in land reform by promoting the resettlement of poor people in the Catholic north into traditionally Muslim areas. Though this relieved population pressure in the north, it heightened religious hostilities. Remnants of the communist Hukbalahap were defeated by Magsaysay. He was extremely popular with the common people, and his death in an airplane crash in March 1957 dealt a serious blow to national morale.
Carlos P. Garcia succeeded to the presidency after Magsaysay's death, and was elected to a four-year term in the election of November that same year. His administration emphasized the nationalist theme of "Filipino first", arguing that the Filipino people should be given the chances to improve the country's economy. Garcia successfully negotiated for the United States' relinquishment of large military land reservations. However, his administration lost popularity on issues of government corruption as his term advanced.
In the presidential elections held on November 14, 1961, Vice President Diosdado Macapagal defeated re-electionist President Carlos P. Garcia and Emmanuel Pelaez as a Vice President. President Macapagal changed the independence day of the Philippines from July 4 to June 12.
The Agricultural Land Reform Code (RA 3844) was a major Philippine land reform law enacted in 1963 under President Macapagal.
The code declared that it was State policy
and, in pursuance of those policies, established the following
Maphilindo was a proposed nonpolitical confederation of Malaya, the Philippines, and Indonesia. It was based on concepts developed during the Commonwealth government in the Philippines by Wenceslao Vinzons and by Eduardo L. Martelino in his 1959 book "Someday, Malaysia"".
In July 1963, President Diosdado Macapagal of the Philippines convened a summit meeting in Manila. Maphilindo was proposed as a realization of José Rizal's dream of bringing together the Malay peoples. However, this was perceived as a tactic on the parts of Jakarta and Manila to delay or prevent the formation of the Federation of Malaysia. The plan failed when Indonesian President Sukarno adopted his plan of Konfrontasi with Malaysia.
Macapagal ran for re-election in 1965, but was defeated by his former party-mate, Senate President Ferdinand Marcos, who had switched to the Nacionalista Party. Early in his presidency, Marcos initiated public works projects and intensified tax collection. In a failed attempt to retake east Sabah, the Jabidah massacre, where Muslim Tausug Filipinos were killed by the Philippine Army, occurred under the authority of Marcos. Due to his popularity among Christians, Marcos was re-elected president in 1969, becoming the first president of the Philippines to get a second term. Crime and civil disobedience increased. The Communist Party of the Philippines formed the New People's Army and the Moro National Liberation Front continued to fight for an independent Muslim nation in Mindanao. An explosion which killed opposition lawmakers during the proclamation rally of the senatorial slate of the Liberal Party on August 21, 1971 led Marcos to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. Protests surged and the writ was restored on January 11, 1972.
Amidst the rising wave of lawlessness and the conveniently timed threat of a looming Communist insurgency under his administration, as well as the growing popularity of the opposition, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972 by virtue of Proclamation No. 1081 to stifle dissent. Ruling by decree, Marcos curtailed press freedom and other civil liberties, abolished Congress, closed down major media establishments, ordered the arrest of opposition leaders and militant activists, including his staunchest critics: senators Benigno Aquino, Jr., Jovito Salonga and Jose Diokno. Crime rates plunged dramatically after a curfew was implemented. Many protesters, students, and political opponents were forced to go into exile, and a number were killed.
A constitutional convention, which had been called for in 1970 to replace the colonial 1935 Constitution, continued the work of framing a new constitution after the declaration of martial law. The new constitution went into effect in early 1973, changing the form of government from presidential to parliamentary and allowing Marcos to stay in power beyond 1973. Marcos claimed that martial law was the prelude to creating a "New Society", which he would rule for more the two decades. The economy during the 1970s was robust, due to previous engagements by various administrations. However, the economy suffered after incurring massive debt and downgrading prospects of the Philippines under martial rule, while the wife of the president, Imelda Marcos, lived in high society.
The human rights abuses under the dictatorship particularly targeted political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought back against the administration. Based on the documentation of Amnesty International, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, and similar human rights monitoring entities, the dictatorship was marked by 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, 77 'disappeared', and 70,000 incarcerations.
Some 2,520 of the 3,257 murder victims were tortured and mutilated before their bodies were dumped in various places for the public to discover - a tactic meant to sow fear among the public, which came to be known as "salvaging." Some bodies were even cannibalized.
Marcos officially lifted martial law on January 17, 1981. However, he retained much of the government's power for arrest and detention. Corruption and nepotism as well as civil unrest contributed to a serious decline in economic growth and development under Marcos, whose own health faced obstacles due to lupus. The political opposition boycotted the 1981 presidential elections, which pitted Marcos against retired general Alejo Santos, in protest over his control over the results. Marcos won by a margin of over 16 million votes, allowing him to have another six-year term under the new Constitution that his administration crafted. Finance Minister Cesar Virata was eventually appointed to succeed Marcos as Prime Minister.
In 1983, opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated at the Manila International Airport upon his return to the Philippines after a long period of exile. This coalesced popular dissatisfaction with Marcos and began a succession of events, including pressure from the United States, that culminated in a snap presidential election in February 1986. The opposition united under Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino. The official election canvasser, the Commission on Elections (Comelec), declared Marcos the winner of the election. However, there was a large discrepancy between the Comelec results and that of Namfrel, an accredited poll watcher. The allegedly fraudulent result was rejected by local and international observers. Cardinal Jaime Sin declared support for Corazon Aquino, which encouraged popular revolts. General Fidel Ramos and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile withdrew their support for Marcos. A peaceful civilian-military uprising, now popularly called the People Power Revolution, forced Marcos into exile and installed Corazon Aquino as president on February 25, 1986. The administration of Marcos has been called by various sources as a conjugal dictatorship.
Corazon Aquino immediately formed a revolutionary government to normalize the situation, and provided for a transitional "Freedom Constitution". A new permanent constitution was ratified and enacted in February 1987.
The constitution crippled presidential power to declare martial law, proposed the creation of autonomous regions in the Cordilleras and Muslim Mindanao, and restored the presidential form of government and the bicameral Congress.
Progress was made in revitalizing democratic institutions and respect for civil liberties, but Aquino's administration was also viewed as weak and fractious, and a return to full political stability and economic development was hampered by several attempted coups staged by disaffected members of the Philippine military.
Economic growth was additionally hampered by a series of natural disasters, including the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo that left 700 dead and 200,000 homeless.
During the Aquino presidency, Manila witnessed six unsuccessful coup attempts, the most serious occurring in December 1989.
In 1991, the Philippine Senate rejected a treaty that would have allowed a 10-year extension of the U.S. military bases in the country. The United States turned over Clark Air Base in Pampanga to the government in November, and Subic Bay Naval Base in Zambales in December 1992, ending almost a century of U.S. military presence in the Philippines.
In the 1992 elections, Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos, endorsed by Aquino, won the presidency with just 23.6% of the vote in a field of seven candidates. Early in his administration, Ramos declared "national reconciliation" his highest priority and worked at building a coalition to overcome the divisiveness of the Aquino years.
He legalized the Communist Party and laid the groundwork for talks with communist insurgents, Muslim separatists, and military rebels, attempting to convince them to cease their armed activities against the government. In June 1994, Ramos signed into law a general conditional amnesty covering all rebel groups, and Philippine military and police personnel accused of crimes committed while fighting the insurgents.
In October 1995, the government signed an agreement bringing the military insurgency to an end. A peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a major separatist group fighting for an independent homeland in Mindanao, was signed in 1996, ending the 24-year-old struggle. However, an MNLF splinter group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front continued the armed struggle for an Islamic state.
Efforts by Ramos supporters to gain passage of an amendment that would allow him to run for a second term were met with large-scale protests, leading Ramos to declare he would not seek re-election.
On his Presidency the death penalty was revived in the light of the rape-slay case of UPLB students Eileen Sarmienta and Allan Gomez in 1993 and the first person to be executed was Leo Echegaray in 1999.
Joseph Estrada, a former movie actor who had served as Ramos' vice president, was elected president by a landslide victory in 1998. His election campaign pledged to help the poor and develop the country's agricultural sector. He enjoyed widespread popularity, particularly among the poor. Estrada assumed office amid the Asian Financial Crisis. The economy did, however, recover from a low −0.6% growth in 1998 to a moderate growth of 3.4% by 1999.
Like his predecessor there was a similar attempt to change the 1987 constitution. The process is termed as CONCORD or Constitutional Correction for Development. Unlike Charter change under Ramos and Arroyo the CONCORD proposal, according to its proponents, would only amend the 'restrictive' economic provisions of the constitution that is considered as impeding the entry of more foreign investments in the Philippines. However it was not successful in amending the constitution.
After the worsening secessionist movement in Mindanao in April 2000, President Estrada declared an "all-out-war" against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The government later captured 46 MILF camps including the MILF's headquarters', Camp Abubakar.
In October 2000, however, Estrada was accused of having accepted millions of pesos in payoffs from illegal gambling businesses. He was impeached by the House of Representatives, but his impeachment trial in the Senate broke down when the senate voted to block examination of the president's bank records. In response, massive street protests erupted demanding Estrada's resignation. Faced with street protests, cabinet resignations, and a withdrawal of support from the armed forces, Estrada was forced from office on January 20, 2001.
Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (the daughter of President Diosdado Macapagal) was sworn in as Estrada's successor on the day of his departure. Her accession to power was further legitimized by the mid-term congressional and local elections held four months later, when her coalition won an overwhelming victory.
Arroyo's initial term in office was marked by fractious coalition politics as well as a military mutiny in Manila in July 2003 that led her to declare a month-long nationwide state of rebellion. Later on in December 2002 she said would not run in the May 10, 2004 presidential election, but she reversed herself in October 2003 and decided to join the race anyway.
She was re-elected and sworn in for her own six-year term as president on June 30, 2004. In 2005, a tape of a wiretapped conversation surfaced bearing the voice of Arroyo apparently asking an election official if her margin of victory could be maintained. The tape sparked protests calling for Arroyo's resignation. Arroyo admitted to inappropriately speaking to an election official, but denied allegations of fraud and refused to step down. Attempts to impeach the president failed later that year.
Halfway through her second term, Arroyo unsuccessfully attempted to push for an overhaul of the constitution to transform the present presidential-bicameral republic into a federal parliamentary-unicameral form of government, which critics describe would be a move that would allow her to stay in power as Prime Minister.
Her term saw the completion of infrastructure projects like Line 2 in 2004.
Numerous other scandals (such as the Maguindanao massacre, wherein 58 people were killed, and the unsuccessful NBN-ZTE Broadband Deal) took place in the dawn of her administration. She formally ended her term as president in 2010 (wherein she was succeeded by Senator Benigno Aquino III) and ran for a seat in congress the same year (becoming the second president after Jose P. Laurel to run for lower office following the presidency).
Benigno Aquino III began his presidency on June 30, 2010, the fifteenth President of the Philippines. He is a bachelor and the son of former Philippines president Corazon C. Aquino. His administration claimed to be focused on major reforms that would bring greater transparency, reduced poverty, reduced corruption, and a booming market which will give birth to a newly industrialized nation.
The first major issue he dealt with was the 2010 Manila hostage crisis that caused deeply strained relations between Manila and Hong Kong for a time.
Just as with his predecessor, however, Aquino's administration has been marked with a mix of success and scandal since his inauguration, beginning with the 2010 Manila hostage crisis that caused deeply strained relations between Manila and Hong Kong for a time (affecting major events such as Wikimania 2013).
The Sultanate of Panay, founded in 2011, was recognized by the Lanao Advisory Council in 2012.
Tensions regarding Sabah due to the Sultanate of Sulu's claim gradually rose during the early years of his administration. Standoffs in Sabah between The Sultanate of Sulu's Royal Army and the Malaysian forces struck in 2013.
In 2012, the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro was signed to create the Bangsamoro Government in Mindanao. In response, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) was assembled by religious extremists with the goal of seceding from the Philippines.
The economy performed well at 7.2% GDP growth, the second fastest in Asia.
On May 15, 2013, the Philippines implemented the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, commonly known as K–12 program. It added two more years to the country's ten-year schooling system for primary and secondary education.
The country was then hit by Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) on November 8, 2013, which heavily devastated the Visayas. Massive rehabilitation efforts by foreign world powers sending aid, devolved into chaos following the revelations that the administration and that the government had not been properly handing out the aid packages and preference for political maneuvering over the safety of the people, leading to mass deterioration of food and medical supplies.
In 2014, the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro was finally signed after 17 years of negotiation with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a move that is expected to bring peace in Mindanao and the Sulu.
When the United States President Barack Obama visited the Philippines on April 28, 2014, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, was signed, paving the way for the return of United States Armed Forces bases into the country.
From January 15 to 19, 2015, Pope Francis stayed in the Philippines for a series of publicity tours and paid visits to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan.
On January 25, 2015, 44 members of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) were killed during an encounter between MILF and BIFF in Mamasapano, Maguindanao putting efforts to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law into law in an impasse.
Under his presidency, the Philippines has had controversial clashes with the People's Republic of China on a number of issues (such as the standoff in Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and the dispute over the Spratly islands). This resulted in the proceedings of the Philippines to file a sovereignty case against China in a global arbitration tribunal. Later on in 2014, the Aquino Administration then filed a memorial to the Arbitration Tribunal in The Hague which challenged Beijing's claim in the South China Sea after Chinese ships were accused of harassing a small Philippine vessel carrying goods for stationed military personnel in the South Thomas Shoal where an old Philippine ship had been stationed for many years.
Under his presidency, for aiming to enhance the educational system in the country, Aquino III signed the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, commonly known as K–12 program on May 15, 2013.
On December 20, 2015, Pia Wurtzbach won the Miss Universe 2015, making her the third Filipino to win the Miss Universe title following Gloria Diaz in 1969 and Margarita Moran in 1973.
On January 12, 2016, the Philippine Supreme Court upheld the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement paving the way for the return of United States Armed Forces bases into the country.
On March 23, 2016, Diwata-1 was launched to the International Space Station (ISS), becoming the country's first micro-satellite and the first satellite to be built and designed by Filipinos.
Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte of PDP–Laban won the 2016 presidential election, garnering 39.01% or 16,601,997 of the total votes, becoming the first Mindanaoan to become president. On the other hand, Camarines Sur 3rd District representative Leni Robredo won with the second narrowest margin in history, against Senator Bongbong Marcos.
Duterte's presidency began following his inauguration on June 30, 2016 at the Rizal Ceremonial Hall of the Malacañang Palace in Manila, which was attended by more than 627 guests.
On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippines in its case against China's claims in the South China Sea.
Under his presidency, the government launched a 24-hour complaint office accessible to the public through a nationwide hotline, 8888, and changed the nationwide emergency telephone number from 117 to 911. In addition, he has launched an intensified anti-drug campaign to fulfill a campaign promise of wiping out criminality in six months. By August 2019, the death toll for the Philippine Drug War is 5,779.
On November 8, 2016, the Supreme Court of the Philippines ruled in favor of the burial of the late president Ferdinand Marcos at the "Libingan ng Mga Bayani", the country's official cemetery for heroes, provoking protests from various groups. The burial was done on November 18, 2016 in private. Later in the afternoon, the event was made public.
On May 23, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation No. 216 declaring a 60-day martial law in Mindanao following clashes between government forces and the Maute group in Marawi.
In a bid for attaining inclusive economic growth and the improvement quality of life in the country, Duterte launched DuterteNomics, with infrastructure development and industrialization being a significant part of its policy. The Build! Build! Build! Infrastructure Plan, which aims to usher in "a golden age of infrastructure" in the country, began in 2017. It includes the development of transport infrastructure such as railways, roads, airports, and seaports, as well as other infrastructure such as irrigation and flood control projects. The goal of this program is to sustain the country's economic growth and accelerate poverty reduction. The construction industry needs two million more workers to sustain the program. The Build, Build, Build program is made up of 75 projects, which includes six air transport projects, 12 rail transport projects, and four water transport projects. It also includes four major flood management projects, 11 water supply and irrigation projects, four power projects, and three other public infrastructure projects. The country is expected to spend $160 billion to $180 billion up to 2022 for the public investments in infrastructure.
In 2017, Duterte signed the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which provides for free tuition and exemption from other fees in public universities and colleges for Filipino students, as well as subsidies for those enrolled in private higher education institutions. He also signed 20 new laws, including the Universal Health Care Act, the creation of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, establishing a national cancer control program, and allowing subscribers to keep their mobile numbers for life.
Under his presidency, the Bangsamoro Organic Law was legislated into law. It was later ratified after a plebiscite was held. The Bangsamoro transition period began, paving the way for the formal creation of the Bangsamoro ARMM. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23441 |
Geography of the Philippines
The Philippines is an archipelago that comprises 7,641 islands with a total land area of . It is the world's 5th largest island country. The eleven largest islands contain 95% of the total land area. The largest of these islands is Luzon at about . The next largest island is Mindanao at about . The archipelago is around from the Asian mainland and is located between Taiwan and Borneo.
The Philippine archipelago is divided into three island groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Luzon islands include Luzon itself, Palawan, Mindoro, Marinduque, Masbate, Romblon, Catanduanes, Batanes and Polillo. The Visayas is the group of islands in the central Philippines, the largest of which are: Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, Siquijor, Biliran and Guimaras. The Mindanao islands include Mindanao itself, Dinagat, Siargao, Camiguin, Samal, plus the Sulu Archipelago, composed primarily of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.
The Philippine archipelago lies in Southeast Asia in a position that has led to itself becoming a cultural crossroads - a place where Malays, Hindus, Arabs, Chinese, Spaniards, Americans, and others had interacted to forge a unique cultural and racial blend. The archipelago numbers some 7,641 islands. The Philippines occupies an area that stretches for from about the fifth to the twentieth parallels north latitude. The total land area is . This makes it the 5th largest island country in the world. Only approximately 1,000 of its islands are populated, and fewer than one-half of these are larger than . Eleven islands make up 95 percent of the Philippine landmass, and two of these — Luzon and Mindanao — measure and , respectively. They, together with the cluster of islands in Visayas in between them, represent the three principal regions of the archipelago that are identified by the three stars on the Philippine flag. The Philippines is broken up in many islands by the sea. This gives it the fifth longest coastline of in the world. The Exclusive economic zone of the Philippines covers , from its shores.
Off the coast of eastern Mindanao is the Philippine Trench, which descends to a depth of . The Philippines is part of a western Pacific arc system characterized by active volcanoes. Among the most notable peaks are Mount Mayon near Legazpi City, Taal Volcano south of Manila, and Mount Apo in Mindanao. All of the Philippine islands are prone to earthquakes. The northern Luzon highlands, or Cordillera Central, rise to between and , and, together with the Sierra Madre in the northeastern portion of Luzon and the mountains of Mindanao, boast rain forests that provide refuge for numerous upland tribal groups. The rain forests also offer prime habitat for more than 500 species of birds, including the Philippine eagle (or monkey-eating eagle), some 1,100 species of orchids, and some 8,500 species of flowering plants.
The country's most extensive river systems are the Pulangi River, which flows into the Mindanao River (Rio Grande de Mindanao); the Agusan, in Mindanao which flows north into the Mindanao Sea; the Cagayan in northern Luzon; and the Pampanga, which flows south from east Central Luzon into Manila Bay. Laguna de Bay, east of Manila Bay, is the largest freshwater lake in the Philippines. Several rivers have been harnessed for hydroelectric power.
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To protect the country's biological resources, the government has taken a first step of preparing a Biodiversity Action Plan to address conservation of threatened species.
Most of the islands used to be covered by tropical rainforests. However, illegal logging has reduced forest cover to less than 10% of the total land area.
The islands are volcanic in origin, being part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and are mostly mountainous. The highest point in the country is the peak of Mount Apo in Mindanao, which is above sea level. The second highest point can be found on Luzon at Mount Pulag, a peak above sea level.
The Philippine Archipelago is geologically part of the Philippine Mobile Belt located between the Philippine Sea Plate, the South China Sea Basin of the Eurasian Plate, and the Sunda Plate. The Philippine Trench (also called the Mindanao Trench) is a submarine trench in length found directly east of the Philippine Mobile Belt and is the result of a collision of tectonic plates. The Philippine Sea Plate is subducting under the Philippine Mobile Belt at the rate of about per year. Its deepest point, the Galathea Depth, has a depth of . The Philippine Fault System consists of a series of seismic faults that produce several earthquakes per year, most of which are not felt.
Many volcanoes in the country are active. Mount Pinatubo is notorious for its destructive eruption on June 15, 1991. Taal Volcano, one of the Decade Volcanoes, had a eruption on January 12, 2020. Mount Mayon is renowned for having an almost perfect cone, but has a violent history of 47 eruptions since 1616 and its eruption on June 23, 1897 rained fire for seven days.
The Batanes and Babuyan Islands are situated on the northernmost extremity of the Philippines at Luzon Strait facing Taiwan. It contains the northernmost point of land, the islet of Y'Ami in the Batanes Islands, separated from Taiwan by the Bashi Channel (c. wide).
This region stretches from Mairaira Point in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte in the north to Cochinos Point in Mariveles, Bataan in the south. The terrain ranges from coastal plains to rugged mountains bordered by the South China Sea in the west and the Cordillera Central and Zambales mountain ranges in the east. Western Luzon is known for its beaches, surf spots and historic towns.
Nestled between the Cordilleras in the east and the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in the west is the Cagayan Valley, also the name of the administrative region which it covers. Through its center runs the country's longest river, the Cagayan, flowing in a northward direction before emptying its waters in the Luzon Strait at the town of Aparri.
The Cordilleras and Caraballos, together with the Sierra Madre Range, form the main mountain system in Northern Luzon.
The Cordilleras consists of two, sometimes three, mountain ranges that are found in northwestern central Luzon. The first, called "Caraballo del Sur", forms the nucleus of the system and has its highest peaks in the border between the provinces of Abra, Ilocos Norte and Cagayan. "Caraballo Occidentalles", is further divided into two ranges, the Cordillera Norte and Cordillera Central. They line the central portions of the Cordillera Administrative Region.
The Caraballos ("Caraballo de Baler") start where the Sierra Madre and the Cordilleras meet. They are found south of Cagayan Valley, northeast of the Central Luzon Plains.
Lying in the eastern portion of Luzon is the longest mountain range in the Philippines, the Sierra Madre, stretching from Quezon province in the south to Cagayan in the north. 80 percent of the mountain range is tropical rainforest, which is diminishing from rampant illegal logging activity. The range serves as the eastern wall of Luzon Island that protects inhabitants from tropical cyclones usually coming from the Pacific Ocean.
The largest plain of the nation is situated in the Central Luzon region and produces most of the national rice supply, earning itself the nickname ""Rice Bowl of the Philippines"". The plains encompass the provinces of Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Pangasinan.
South of the Central Luzon plains lies the largest inland freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, the Laguna de Bay. To the east of the lake is a plain that stretches westward to the Manila Bay. Large rivers from bays and mountain springs traverse the plain. In the northern part of the region, that is, Manila and Rizal, most of the plain had been converted into cities and towns, and are thus industrialized. Lying east of the lake is the southern terminus of the Sierra Madre mountain range at northern Quezon province.
To the southwest of the Laguna de Bay is the nation's third largest lake, the Taal, bordered to the north by the Tagaytay Ridge, a ridge stretching from southern Cavite to northern Batangas provinces.
The Bondoc Peninsula is located in the southeastern part of Quezon Province.
Southeast of Laguna de Bay lies the Bicol Peninsula, connected to mainland Luzon by the isthmus of Tayabas. The predominantly flat landscape features several solitary peaks, usually active volcanoes, which include Iriga, Mayon and Bulusan.
The peninsula has an irregular coastline that features large bays and gulfs, which include the Lamon Bay, San Miguel Bay, Lagonoy Gulf, and Albay Gulf to the north, and the Tayabas Bay, Ragay Gulf and Sorsogon Bay to the south.
Mindoro's coastal plains are characterized by rice and corn fields, rivers, beaches, and extensive open space areas. Most of the population is concentrated on the northern and eastern coast of this island where the city of Calapan and Puerto Galera are located.
The Mindoro mountain range begins with Mount Halcon and is further divided into three. The northwest ends at Calavite Point and is a landmark for ships. The east originates from Lake Naujan and the west follows the Mindoro Strait.
The Kalayaan Islands are located to the west of Palawan. "Kalayaan" is a Filipino word meaning "freedom".
The eastern coast of Mindanao features a long mountain range, the Eastern Pacific Cordillera, which stretches from Bilar Point at Surigao in the north to Cape San Agustin at Davao in the south. Forming its northern portion are the Diwata Mountains (also spelled "Diuata"), separated from the south by low passes situated at the middle. To the east of the range are narrow strips of lowland that feature several inlets and bays, the most prominent of which include the Lianga and Bislig bays.
To the west of the Pacific Cordillera lies an extensive lowland, the Davao-Agusan Trough. Its northern portion includes the Agusan Valley which forms the lower river basin of the Agusan River. The river flows in a northward direction and empties into the Butuan Bay. Draining the southern portion of the lowland are several other rivers, which include the Tagum, flowing southward to the Davao Gulf.
Situated west of the Davao-Agusan Trough is a complex series of mountain ranges called the Central Mindanao Highlands (also known as the "Central Cordillera"). From these mountains form the headwaters of several rivers which include the Rio Grande de Mindanao, Pulangi, Maridagao and Tagoloan rivers. Several tall mountains, such as Mount Apo, the country's highest are found within the range.
The north-central portion of Mindanao is dominated by an extensive highland region, the Bukidnon-Lanao Plateau, which includes the Kitanglad and Kalatungan mountain ranges. Within the plateau lies the country's second largest lake, Lake Lanao situated at an elevation of 2,296 feet, drained by the Agus River flowing northward to its river mouth at Iligan Bay.
South of the Bukidnon-Lanao Plateau lies a large depression, the Cotabato Basin, which forms the lower river basin of the country's second largest river system, the Rio Grande de Cagayan (also known as the "Mindanao River"). Surrounded by three mountain ranges, the basin's only opening to the sea is to the northwest at Illana Bay, where the Mindanao River empties into the ocean.
To the southeast of the main basin are two large valleys, the Koronadal and Allah valleys.
Situated south and west of the Cotabato Basin are a moderately high mountain range, the Tiruray Highlands, which block off the Basin from the southern coastline. South of the highlands are narrow strips of coastlines.
At the northwestern tip of Mindanao is the generally mountainous Zamboanga Peninsula. The chain of mountain ranges in this region is called "Zamboanga Cordilleras", with the highest elevation at Mount Dapi, which is high.
The southern coastline is irregular, featuring two smaller peninsulas, the Sibuguey and Baganian, extending southward to the Moro Gulf.
To the north of the Diwata Mountains at northeast Mindanao lie Siargao island and the Dinagat group of islands.
Southwest of the Zamboanga Peninsula is the Sulu Archipelago, a chain of islands which comprise the smaller archipelago provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.
The Philippines is divided into a hierarchy of local government units (LGUs) with the 81 provinces and 38 independent cities as the primary unit. Provinces are further subdivided into component cities and municipalities, both of which consist of barangays, the smallest local government unit.
There are 17 regions comprising the Philippines. Each region, with the exception of the National Capital Region, is further subdivided into component provinces. The National Capital Region is divided into four special districts.
Most government offices establish regional offices in a city to serve the constituent provinces. Such cities are designated as "regional centers". The regions themselves do not possess a separate local government, with the exception of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
Forming the regions, with the exception of the National Capital, are the 81 provinces. Each province has a capital city or municipality.
Of the 81 provinces of the Philippines, 15 are "landlocked", and 16 are "island provinces".
The Philippines has a tropical climate dominated by a rainy season and a dry season, although certain locations have no dry season (meaning, all months have an average rainfall of above 60 mm) and certain higher-altitude areas can have a subtropical climate. The summer monsoon brings heavy rains to most of the archipelago from May to October, whereas the winter monsoon brings relatively cooler and drier air from December to February. Manila and most of the lowland areas are hot and dusty from March to May. Even at this time, however, temperatures rarely rise above . Mean annual sea-level temperatures rarely fall below . Annual rainfall measures as much as in the mountainous east coast section of the country, but less than in some of the sheltered valleys.
Monsoon rains, although hard and drenching, are not normally associated with high winds and waves. But the Philippines sit astride the typhoon belt, and it suffers an annual onslaught of dangerous storms from July through October. These are especially hazardous for northern and eastern Luzon and the Bicol and Eastern Visayas regions, but Manila gets devastated periodically as well.
In the last decade, the Philippines has been hit severely by natural disasters. In 2005 alone, Central Luzon was hit by both a drought, which sharply curtailed hydroelectric power, and by a typhoon that flooded practically all of low-lying Manila's streets. Still more damaging was the 1990 earthquake that devastated a wide area in Luzon, including Baguio and other northern areas. The city of Cebu and nearby areas were struck by a typhoon that killed more than a hundred people, sank vessels, destroyed part of the sugar crop, and cut off water and electricity for several days. The Philippines is prone to about six to nine storms which make landfall each year, on average. The 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption also damaged much of Central Luzon, the lahar burying towns and farmland, and the ashes affecting global temperatures.
Building construction is undertaken with natural disasters in mind. Most rural housing has consisted of nipa huts that are easily damaged but are inexpensive and easy to replace. Most urban buildings are steel and concrete structures designed (not always successfully) to resist both typhoons and earthquakes. Damage is still significant, however, and many people are displaced each year by typhoons, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. In 1987 alone the Department of Social Welfare and Development helped 2.4 million victims of natural disasters.
Unless otherwise indicated, the information below is taken from CIA Factbook information for the Philippines.
The Philippines sit astride typhoon belt and are usually affected by 15 and struck by five to six cyclonic storms per year; landslides; active volcanoes; destructive earthquakes; tsunamis.
Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013 caused major problems.
In political geography, an enclave is a territory or part of a territory lying wholly within the boundaries of another, and an exclave is one which is politically attached to a larger piece but not actually contiguous with it. Many entities are both enclaves and exclaves, but the two are not synonymous.
A quadripoint is a point on the Earth that touches four distinct regions. Such points are often called "four corners", from the corners of the four regions meeting there.
Four distinct geographic divisions converging at a single point is not uncommon in the Philippines, and there are other points of convergence between five or more divisions that can be found.
The island province of Marinduque prides itself as being the geographic center of the Philippines. The Marinduque governor has stated that their claim to be the Geographical Center of the Philippines has received notice and support from the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA). The Luzon Datum of 1911 in Marinduque is used as point number one for all map makers in the country.
The boundaries of the Philippine archipelago are described in Article III of the Treaty of Paris (1898), as comprising an irregular polygon. A box enclosing that polygon would have corners at 20°N 116°E, 20°N 127°E, 4.75°N 127°E, 4.75°N 116°E. The center of this box would lie at 121.5 E, 12.375 N. That point lies roughly in the center of the Tablas Strait between the islands of Tablas and Mindoro.
"Republic Act No. 9522", "An Act to Define the Baselines of the Territorial Sea of the Philippines", describes an irregular polygon which fits within a box with its center at 121°44'47.45"E 12°46'6.1252"N, a point also roughly in the center of the Tablas Strait.
The "CIA Factbook" locates the Philippines at 13°N 122°E.
The extreme points under Philippine control are:
The center of a box enclosing these points would be located at 12°46’6.13"N, 120°26’36.46"E. That point is located in the Mindoro Strait, about NNE of Apo Island, in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.
The following is a list of the most populous cities in the country, with their population according to the 2010 census. Component cities and municipalities of Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao are taken as one to show the extent of urbanization. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23442 |
Demographics of the Philippines
Demography of the Philippines records the human population, including its population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects. The Philippines annualised population growth rate between the years 2010–2015 was 1.72%. According to the 2015 census, the population of the Philippines is 100,981,437. The first census in the Philippines was held in the year 1591 which counted 667,612 persons.
The majority of Filipinos are of the Malay race, while the Aetas (Negritos), as well as other highland groups form a minority. The indigenous population is related to the indigenous populations of the Malay Archipelago. Ethnic groups that have been in the Philippines for centuries before European and American colonial rule have assimilated. 600,000 people from the United States live in the Philippines. They represent 0.56% of the total population. The ethnic groups include Arabs, Japanese, Han Chinese and Indians which form parts of the population. There are also Europeans and Latin Americans who have migrated to the Philippines during the colonial period.
The most commonly spoken indigenous languages are Tagalog and Cebuano, with 23.8 million (45 million speakers as Filipino) and 16 million speakers, respectively. Another 11 indigenous languages have at least one million native speakers: Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Waray, northern, central and southern Bikol languages, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Maranao, Maguindanao, Kinaray-a, Zamboangueño and Tausug. One or more of these are spoken as a mother tongue by more than 93% of the population. Filipino and English are the official languages but there are between 120 and 170 distinct indigenous Philippine languages (depending on expert classifications).
The first census in the Philippines was founded in 1591, based on tributes collected. The tributes count the total founding population of Spanish-Philippines as 667,612 people, of which: 20,000 were Chinese migrant traders, at different times: around 16,500 individuals were Latino soldier-colonists who were cumulatively sent from Peru and Mexico and they were shipped to the Philippines annually, 3,000 were Japanese residents, and 600 were pure Spaniards from Europe, there was also a large but unknown number of Indian Filipinos, the rest of the population were Malays and Negritos. Thus, with merely 667,612 people, during this era, the Philippines was among the most sparsely populated lands in Asia. In contrast, Japan during that era (the 1500s) already had a population of 8 Million or Mexico had a population of 4 million, which was huge compared to the Philippine's mere 600,000. In 1600, the method of population counting was revamped by the Spanish officials, who then based the counting of the population through church records. In 1798, the population of Luzon or Luconia was estimated to be around 600,000 with the other islands, unknown. 200,000 of the 600,000 population were of mixed-raced descent of either Spanish, Chinese or Latin-American admixture. 5,000 enlisted soldiers on that year, were of South American descent, while 2,500 were pure Spanish officers. There were also 20,000 new Chinese migrants. In 1799, Friar Manuel Buzeta estimated the population count of all Philippine islands as 1,502,574. However, the first official census was conducted only in 1878, when the population as of midnight on December 31, 1877 was counted. This was followed by two more censuses, namely, the 1887 census, and the 1898 census. The 1887 census yielded a count of 6,984,727, while that of 1898 yielded 7,832,719 inhabitants.
In 1903 the population of the Philippines was recounted by American authorities to fulfill Act 467. The survey yielded 7,635,426 people, including 56,138 who were foreign-born.
According to the 1920 United States Census, there were 10,314,310 people in the Philippines. 99 percent were Filipino; 51,751 were either Chinese or Japanese; 34,563 were of mixed race; 12,577 were Caucasian; and 7,523 were African.
The 1939 census was undertaken in conformity with Section 1 of Commonwealth Act 170. The Philippine population figure was 16,000,303.
In 1941 the estimated population of the Philippines reached 17,000,000. Manila's population was 684,000.
By then, some 27% of the population could speak English as a second language, while the number of Spanish speakers as first language had further fallen to 3% from 10–14% at the beginning of the century. In 1936, Tagalog was selected to be the basis for a national language. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23443 |
Politics of the Philippines
The politics of the Philippines take place in an organized framework of a presidential, representative, and democratic republic whereby the president is both the head of state and the head of government within a pluriform multi-party system. This system revolves around three separate and sovereign yet interdependent branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. Executive power is exercised by the government under the leadership of the president. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the bicameral Congress: the Senate (the upper house) and the House of Representatives (the lower house). Judicial power is vested in the courts with the Supreme Court of the Philippines as the highest judicial body.
Elections are administered by an independent Commission on Elections every three years starting 1992. Held every second Monday of May, the winners in the elections take office on the following June 30.
Local government is produced by local government units from the provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays. While the most regions do not have political power, and exist merely for administration purposes, autonomous regions have expanded powers more than the other local government units. While local government units enjoy autonomy, much of their budget is derived from allocations from the national government, putting their true autonomy in doubt.
Congress is a bicameral legislature. The upper house, the Senate, is composed of 24 senators elected via the plurality-at-large voting with the country as one at-large "district." The senators elect amongst themselves a Senate President. The lower house is the House of Representatives, currently composed of 292 representatives, with no more than 20% elected via party-list system, with the rest elected from legislative districts. The House of Representatives is headed by the Speaker.
Each bill needs the consent of both houses to be submitted to the president for his signature. If the president vetoes the bill, Congress can override the veto with a two-thirds supermajority. If either house voted down on a bill or fails to act on it after an adjournment sine die, the bill is lost and would have to be proposed to the next congress, with the process starting all over again. Congress' decisions are mostly via majority vote, except for voting on constitutional amendments and other matters. Each house has its inherent power, with the Senate given the power to vote on treaties, while money bills may only be introduced by the House of Representatives. The constitution provides Congress with impeachment powers, with the House of Representatives having the power to impeach, and the Senate having the power to try the impeached official.
The Nacionalista Party, the Liberal Party, the Lakas-CMD, the PDP-LABAN, the Nationalist People's Coalition, the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, the Akbayan and the Philippine Democratic Socialist Party are the parties with largest membership in Congress. The party of the sitting president controls the House of Representatives, while the Senate has been more independent. From 1907 to 1941, the Nacionalistas operated under a dominant-party system, with factions within that party becoming the primary political discourse. During World War II, the Japanese-sponsored Second Philippine Republic forced all the existing parties to merge into the KALIBAPI that controlled the party as a one-party state. From 1945 to 1972, the Philippines was under a two-party system, with the Nacionalistas and their offshoots Liberals alternating power until President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law. Political discourse was kept to a minimum until Marcos then merged the parties into the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), which dominated elections until 1986 when Marcos was overthrown as a result of the People Power Revolution. The political climate ushered in a multi-party system which persists into this day.
Executive power is vested to the President; in practice, however, the president delegates his power to a cabinet. The president, who is both the head of state and head of government, is directly elected to a single six-year term via first past the post. In case of death, resignation or incapacitation, the Vice President acts as the president until the expiration of the term. The Vice President is elected separately from the president and may be of differing political parties. While the vice president has no constitutional powers aside from acting as president when the latter is unable to do so, the president may give the former a cabinet office. The cabinet is mostly composed of the heads of the executive departments, which provide services to the people, and other cabinet-level officials.
The president is also the commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, thereby ensuring civilian supremacy over the military. The president is also given several military powers, although once exercised, Congress can prolong or end it. The president also proposes a national budget, in which Congress may adopt in full, with amendments, or a complete revision altogether. The president wields considerable political power and may be able to influence other branches via the so-called Padrino System.
The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court and other lower courts. The Supreme Court is the court of last resort, and decides on the constitutionality of laws via judicial review. The President selects justices and judges from nominees given by the Judicial and Bar Council. The Court of Appeals is the second-highest appellate court, the Court of Tax Appeals rules on tax matters, and the Sandiganbayan (People's Advocate) is a special court for alleged government irregularities. The Regional Trial Courts (RTC) are the main trial courts. The Regional Trial Courts are based on judicial regions, which almost correspond to the administrative regions. Each RTC has at least one branch in each province and handles most of the criminal and civil cases; several branches of an RTC may be designated as family courts and environmental courts. Metropolitan Trial Courts try lesser offenses.
The Ombudsman investigates and prosecutes government officials on crimes while in dispensing powers given by the government. The Office of the Solicitor General represents the government in legal cases.
The Philippine Legal System is a hybrid form based on the Spanish Civil Law and Anglo-American Common Law system, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao observes the Sharia Law as their binding legal system in accordance to their Islamic traditions.
The Constitution is the supreme law of the land and laws passed by the Congress shall be consistent with the Constitution. Under the Civil Code of the Philippines, Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution is part of the legal system, the doctrine of stare decisis applies in deciding legal controversies. The court may exercise judicial review to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government. The President may issue executive orders, proclamations or other executive issuance. The Supreme Court is also vested the powers to promulgate rules concerning the protection and enforcement of constitutional rights. The Philippines adopts the dualist system in Incorporation of international law. The local legislative assemblies may enact local ordinances within their respective territorial and political boundaries in accordance with the local autonomy granted by the Local Government Code.
Elections are administered by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC). The elected officials are the president, vice president, members of Congress, regional governors and assemblymen, provincial governors, vice governors, and board members, city and municipal mayors, vice mayors and councilors, and barangay (village) chairmen and councilors. Elections are for fixed terms. All elected officials have three-year terms, except for the president, vice president, and senators, which are six years. All terms above the barangay level begin and end on June 30 of the election year, and all elected officials are limited to three consecutive terms, except for senators, and the vice president, who are limited to two, and for the president, who cannot be reelected.
Elections above the barangay level are held every three years since 1992 on the second Monday of May, all positions are disputed except for the president and vice president; presidential and vice presidential elections are held every six years since 1992. Single-winner elections are done via the plurality voting system: the candidate with the highest number of votes is elected. Multiple-winner elections, except for representatives elected the party-list system, are done via plurality-at-large voting. Each voter has "x" votes, with the "x" candidates with the highest number of votes being elected. For representatives elected the party-list system, a party that won at least 2% of the national vote wins one seat, with additional seats, but not exceeding three seats, depends on the number of votes it received. If the number of sectoral representatives does not reach 20% of the membership of the House of Representatives, parties with less than 2% of the vote are given a seat each until the 20% membership is filled.
The constitution mandates that local governments must have local autonomy. The smallest local government unit, the barangay or village, is descended from the balangay of the Maragtas legend, where the first Austronesian people reached the Philippines via the boat. The prehistoric barangays were headed by datus. Currently, barangays are grouped into municipalities or cities, while municipalities and cities may be further grouped into provinces. Each barangay, municipality or city, and province is headed by a barangay chairman, mayor, or governor, respectively, with its legislatures being the Sangguniang Barangay (village council), Sangguniang Bayan (municipal council) or Sangguniang Panlungsod (city council), and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial board).
Regions are the highest administrative divisions but do not have powers possessed under them; however, autonomous regions are given wider powers than other local government units. While the constitution allows autonomous regions in the Cordilleras and Muslim Mindanao, only the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) exists, with the proposed autonomous region in Cordillera being defeated after two plebiscites. The BARMM has a regional governor and a regional assembly.
While local government units have the autonomy, most of their budget is derived from the Internal Revenue Allotment, a disbursement from the national government which is ultimately derived from taxes. This makes most local government units ultimately dependent on the national government unless they have other sources of income, such as property taxes.
Before the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, the Philippines was split into numerous barangays, which were not unlike the Greek city-states. These barangays warred, made peace, traded and had relations with each other. In Mindanao, Islamic sultanates such as the Sultanate of Sulu and Maguindanao, prospered. Ferdinand Magellan's death in 1521 can be partly attributed to a dispute between Lapu-Lapu and Rajah Humabon for control of Cebu. The Kingdom of Maynila was trading with China and other nearby empires when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi conquered the kingdom in 1565 and assimilated it with the other kingdoms he had conquered nearby to unite the Philippines under Spanish rule.
Upon the subjugation of the local population in Manila and Cebu, the Spaniards refused the locals any political participation. The old ruling class in the pre-Spanish era were given essentially powerless government posts. Several revolts erupted against Spain but were all defeated. In 1808, when Joseph Bonaparte became king of Spain, the liberal constitution of Cadiz was adopted, giving the Philippines representation to the Spanish Cortes. However, once the Spanish overthrew the Bonapartes, the Philippine, and indeed colonial, representation in the Spanish Cortes was rescinded.
The restoration of Philippine representation to the Cortes was one of the grievances of the Illustrados, the learned indigenous class during the late 1800s. The Illustrados mounted a campaign that would include indigenous voices in running the government. However, the Katipunan advocated complete Philippine independence, thereby starting the Philippine Revolution in 1896. After the execution of José Rizal on December 30, 1896, the leader of the Illustrados who disapproved of the revolution, the rebellion intensified. Cavite, Bulacan and Morong were the main areas of conflict; the Katipunan in Cavite had won several battles against the Spaniards, but was split into the Magdiwang and Magdalo factions. A conference was held in 1897 to unite the two factions, but instead caused further division that led to the execution of Andres Bonifacio, who was then the leader of the Katipunan; Bonifacio's death passed the control of the Katipunan to Emilio Aguinaldo.
The death of Bonifacio also caused several of the revolutionaries to be demoralized; Aguinaldo and his men retreated northward until reaching Biak-na-Bato in San Miguel, Bulacan. The Spaniards and the revolutionaries signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, that provided for Aguinaldo's surrender and exile to Hong Kong, and amnesty and payment of indemnities by the Spaniards to the revolutionaries. However, both sides eventually violated the agreement, and this allowed the United States admiral George Dewey to lead his squadron to Manila Bay, defeating the Spanish navy. Aguinaldo returned from exile, most of the Philippine revolutionaries rallying to his cause, and negotiated with the Americans, while the Americans in 1898 defeated the Spaniards in what was called a mock battle in Manila, and took control of the city. Aguinaldo then proclaimed the independence of the Philippines on June 12, 1898, at his home in Cavite. A Congress was convened in January 1899 in Barasoain Church and inaugurated the first Philippine Republic.
The Philippine–American War erupted in February in a skirmish in Manila; the Filipinos lost the battle, and Aguinaldo again began a northward retreat. Aguinaldo was captured on April 1, 1901, at Palanan, Isabela, while the Americans had already started setting up civil governments in areas that had already been pacified.
The Americans gave Filipinos limited self-government at the local level by 1901, and the Americans passed the Philippine Organic Act in 1902 to introduce a national government; by 1907, an election to the Philippine Assembly was held. Led by Sergio Osmeña, the assembly was held predominantly by the Nacionalista Party, which advocated independence; they were opposed by the Progresista Party, which advocated statehood within the United States. The Americans controlled the Philippine Commission, the upper house of the Philippine Legislature. The Nacionalista-dominated Philippine Assembly, and later the Philippine Senate, which was created by the Jones Law and replaced the Philippine Commission, was often at odds with the Governor-General. However, the Nacionalistas were split into camps loyal to Osmeña and Senate President Manuel L. Quezon. Several independence missions were sent to Washington, D.C.; the OsRox Mission led by Osmeña and House Speaker Manuel Roxas resulted in the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act. However, the Senate rejected this; a new law, the Tydings–McDuffie Act which was marginally different and more importantly, was supported by Quezon, was approved and paved the way for the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
Quezon and Osmeña reconciled, and both were easily elected as president and vice president respectively, in 1935. The Nacionalistas controlled the now unicameral National Assembly for the entirety of the Commonwealth, with the understanding that the Americans would grant independence in the near future. Quezon pressed for constitutional amendments that would allow him to obtain a second term and the restoration of a bicameral legislature. Quezon did obtain both amendments, with the newly restored Senate now being elected at-large instead of per districts, as what was done during the pre-Commonwealth era. Quezon, Osmeña and the Nacionalista Party as a whole both won the elections in 1941 in much larger margins.
The Japanese invasion of 1941 at the onset of World War II delayed this granting of independence, forced the Commonwealth government to go into exile, and subjected the country to a puppet government. The KALIBAPI became the sole legal political party, and Jose P. Laurel was declared president of the Second Philippine Republic. This nationalist KALIBAPI government espoused anti-American sentiment. Exiled leaders of the previous first Commonwealth government, including Quezon and Osmeña, provided limited support to the U.S. Despite the relationship with Japanese officials and opposition to U.S. control, the nationalist KALIBAPI government of Laurel refused to declare war on the U.S. However, the Americans reconquered the country in 1944, and Osmeña, who had succeeded Quezon upon the latter's death, restored the Commonwealth government. The first meeting of a bicameral Commonwealth Congress occurred.
The Nacionalistas were divided during the 1946 presidential election, with Manuel Roxas setting up what would later be the Liberal Party. Roxas defeated Osmeña, and became the last president of the Commonwealth; the Americans agreed to grant independence on July 4, 1946.
Roxas succumbed to a heart attack in 1948, allowing Vice President Elpidio Quirino to rule the country for the next six years, after winning in 1949. Quirino's Liberal government was widely seen as corrupt and was easily beaten by his former Defense secretary Ramon Magsaysay in the 1953 election. Magsaysay, who oversaw the surrender of the long-running Hukbalahap Rebellion, was massively popular. Before the 1957 election, he was killed in a plane crash. His vice president, Carlos P. Garcia, succeeded him and won the election. He implemented a "Filipino First" policy and an austerity program. Garcia was defeated by his Vice President, Diosdado Macapagal of the Liberal Party, in 1961. Macapagal initiated a return to a system of free enterprise not seen since the Quirino administration. However, Macapagal's policies faced stiff opposition in Congress, where the Nacionalistas hold the majority. Macapagal was defeated in 1965 by Senator Ferdinand Marcos.
Marcos' infrastructure projects were the feature policy of his term, he was the first president to be reelected, in 1969, although the election was tainted by violence and allegations that Marcos used the treasury to fund his campaign. However, significant protests, such as the First Quarter Storm, the communist and Moro insurgencies, and civil unrest, heightened. This made Marcos in 1972 declare martial law and suspend the constitution. A new constitution calling for a semi-presidential government was approved in 1973, but Marcos still ruled by decree until 1978, when the Interim Batasang Pambansa was elected. However, opposition groups, whose leaders mostly had already left in exile, boycotted the election, and Marcos still allowed martial law to continue. Marcos did end martial law in 1981, but opposition groups still boycotted the 1981 presidential election, which Marcos easily won.
Opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. was slain upon his return to the country in 1983. By this time, the government was marred by alleged rampant corruption and allegations of human rights violations. The opposition participated in the 1984 parliamentary election and won several seats, but not enough to topple Marcos' KBL. To counter growing opposition, Marcos called a snap election in 1986, the opposition nominated Benigno's widow Corazon as their candidate. Marcos was declared the winner, but the opposition refused to accept the result, alleging that the election was rigged. The People Power Revolution drove Marcos from power, and Aquino became president. Aquino ruled by decree in 1987 when a new constitution restoring the presidential system was approved. In the ensuing legislative election, the pro-Aquino parties won most of the seats in Congress.
Aquino's government was mired by coup attempts, high inflation and unemployment, and natural calamities, but introduced land reform and market liberalization. Aquino's administration also saw the pullout of the U.S. bases in Subic Bay and Clark. As the 1992 election grew closer, Aquino declined to run even though she could do so, and instead supported Ramon Mitra; she later backtracked and threw her support to Fidel V. Ramos, who later won albeit under controversial circumstances. Ramos had to face an ongoing energy crisis that had started during the Aquino administration which was resolved when Ramos issued contracts favorable to power producers. The Ramos administration hosted the 1996 APEC summit, reinstated the death penalty, signed a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front, and bore the brunt of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He wanted to amend the constitution, but Aquino and other sectors opposed the measure and backed off. Ramos' vice president Joseph Estrada defeated the former's party mate Jose de Venecia and several others in the 1998 election in a comfortable margin; meanwhile de Venecia's running mate Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was elected vice president.
Estrada expanded the land reform program and the death penalty and refused to sign contracts with sovereign guarantees on public projects. Estrada also wanted to amend the constitution but was again rebuffed by Aquino, the Catholic Church, and the left. The administration launched an "all-out war" against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that saw the government retaking Camp Abubakar, the main rebel encampment. However, the administration was embroiled in charges of cronyism and corruption; the Juetengate scandal led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives. In the impeachment trial, Estrada's allies in the Senate successfully prevented evidence to be presented; this triggered massive protests. Days later, in what would be called the 2001 EDSA Revolution, the Armed Forces of the Philippines withdrew their support to Estrada and transferred their allegiance to Vice President Arroyo; the Supreme Court later ruled the presidency as vacant, and Estrada left Malacañang Palace.
Arroyo was sworn in as president on January 20, 2001. Four months later, Estrada's supporters lay siege to the presidential palace but were later expelled; Arroyo's People Power Coalition won a majority of seats in the 2001 elections and therefore consolidated power. In 2003, Arroyo put down a coup attempt in the central business district. Arroyo faced Fernando Poe Jr., a friend of Estrada, along with three others in 2004, and won on a slim plurality. Months after Poe died in December, it was exposed, via wiretapped conversations, that Arroyo rigged the election. On a national address, Arroyo said that she was "sorry on a lapse of judgment." The opposition did not let up, and she had to put down two more coup attempts. The opposition united in the 2007 Senate election and won easily, but Arroyo's allies still held the House of Representatives. At the end of her presidency, Arroyo became the most unpopular president on record, with increases on taxes, attempts to amend the constitution, and the alleged illegitimacy of her administration as the reasons.
Before the 2010 election, Arroyo's party nominated Gilberto Teodoro for president; however, some quarters suggested that Arroyo was secretly supporting Manny Villar, who was the front-runner. However, former president Aquino died, and her son, Benigno Aquino III, overtook Villar in the polls. Estrada overtook Villar in the polls but still lost to Aquino. Aquino embarked on an anti-corruption drive, saw the economy grew and maintain high popularity. However, with natural calamities, and scams on the use of pork barrel and other discretionary funds coming into the light, the Aquino administration had to contend with rising opposition.
In 2016, Aquino's handpicked successor, Mar Roxas, grandson of Manuel Roxas, was decisively defeated by Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 Presidential Election. Duterte then implemented a massive War on Drugs that led to thousands of deaths. The opposition, now primarily Liberal Party, pro-Aquino figures, opposed the killings, branding it as human rights abuses. The administration then made peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ushering in the Bangsamoro. The opposition was wiped out in the 2019 midterms, where all of its senatorial candidates lost, and only a handful of winners in the lower house. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23444 |
Economy of the Philippines
The economy of the Philippines is the world's 36th largest economy by nominal GDP according to the 2019 estimate of the International Monetary Fund's statistics, it is the 13th largest economy in Asia, and the 3rd largest economy in the ASEAN after Indonesia and Thailand. The Philippines is one of the emerging markets and is the sixth richest in Southeast Asia by GDP per capita values, after the regional countries of Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The Philippines is primarily considered a newly industrialized country, which has an economy in transition from one based on agriculture to one based more on services and manufacturing. As of 2017, GDP by purchasing power parity was estimated to be at $1.980 trillion.
Primary exports include semiconductors and electronic products, transport equipment, garments, copper products, petroleum products, coconut oil, and fruits. Major trading partners include Japan, China, the United States, Singapore, South Korea, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany, Taiwan and Thailand. The Philippines has been named as one of the Tiger Cub Economies together with Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand. It is currently one of Asia's fastest growing economies. However, major problems remain, mainly having to do with alleviating the wide income and growth disparities between the country's different regions and socioeconomic classes, reducing corruption, and investing in the infrastructure necessary to ensure future growth.
The Philippine economy is projected to be the 5th largest in Asia and 16th biggest in the world by 2050. According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers, it estimates that it will be the 12th to 14th richest economy in the world by 2060. While this opposes other reports from HSBC Holdings PLC, that by the year 2050, the Philippines will have been stated to surpass the economy of Indonesia due to its yearly higher GDP growth rate of 6.5% (Second, after China). However, the economic statistics may still vary depending on the performance of the government every year.
The economic history of the Philippine Islands had been traced back to the pre-colonial times. The country which was then composed of different kingdoms and thalassocracies oversaw the large number of merchants coming to the islands for trade. Indian, Arab, Chinese and Japanese merchants were welcomed by these kingdoms, which were mostly located by riverbanks, coastal ports and central plains. The merchants traded for goods such as gold, rice, pots and other products. The barter system was implemented at that time and the pre-colonial people enjoyed a life filled with imported goods which reflected their fashion and lifestyle.
From the 12th century, a huge industry centred around the manufacture and trade of burnay clay pots, used for the storage of tea and other perishables, was set up in the northern Philippines with Japanese and Okinawan traders. These pots were known as 'Ruson-tsukuri' (Luzon-made) in Japanese, and were considered among the best storage vessels used for the purpose of keeping tea leaves and rice wine fresh. Hence, Ruson-Tsukuri pots became sought after in Northeast Asia. Each Philippine kiln had its own branding symbol, marked on the bottom of the Ruson-tsukuri by a single baybayin letter.
The people also were great agriculturists and the islands especifically Luzon has great abundance of rice, fowls, wine as well as great numbers of carabaos, deer, wild boar and goats. In addition, there were also great quantities of cotton and colored clothes, wax, honey and date palms produced by the natives. The precolonial state of Caboloan in Pangasinan often exported deer-skins to Japan and Okinawa. The Nation of Ma-i produced beeswax, cotton, true pearls, tortoise shell, medicinal betel nuts and yuta cloth in their trade with East Asia. By the early sixteenth century, the two largest polities of the Pasig River delta, Maynila and Tondo, established a shared monopoly on the trade of Chinese goods throughout the rest of the Philippine archipelago.
The Visayas islands which is home to the Kedatuan of Madja-as, the Kedatuan of Dapitan and the Rajahnate of Cebu on the other hand were abundant in rice, fish, cotton, swine, fowls, wax and honey. Leyte was said to produce two rice crops a year, and Pedro Chirino commented on the great rice and cotton harvests that were sufficient to feed and clothe the people.
In Mindanao, the Rajahnate of Butuan specialized in the mining of gold and the manufacture of jewelry. The Sultanate of Maguindanao was known for the raising and harvesting of cinnamon. The Sultanate of Lanao had a fishing industry by lake Lanao and the Sultanate of Sulu had lively pearl-diving operations.
The kingdoms of ancient Philippines were active in international trade, and they used the ocean as natural highways. Ancient peoples were engaged in long-range trading with their Asian neighbors as far as west as Maldives and as far as north as Japan.
Some historians even proposed that they also had regular contacts with other Austronesian people in Western Micronesia because it was the only area in the Oceania that had rice crops, "tuba" (fermented coconut sap), and tradition of betel nut chewing when the first Europeans arrived there. The uncanny resemblance of complex body tattoos among the Visayans and those of Borneo also proved some interesting connection between Borneo and ancient Philippines. Magellan's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, mentioned that merchants and ambassadors from all surrounding areas came to pay tribute to the rajah of Sugbu (Cebu) for the purpose of trade. While Magellan's crew were with the rajah, a representative from Siam was paying tribute to the rajah. Miguel López de Legazpi also wrote how merchants from Luzon and Mindoro had come to Cebu for trade, and he also mentioned how the Chinese merchants regularly came to Luzon for the same purpose. The Visayan Islands had earlier encounters with Greek traders in 21 AD. Its people enjoyed extensive trade contacts with other cultures. Indians, Japanese, Arabs, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Thais, Malays and Indonesians as traders or immigrants.
Aside from trade relations, the natives were also involved in aquaculture and fishing. The natives make use of the "salambao", which is a type of raft that utilizes a large fishing net which is lowered into the water via a type of lever made of two criss-crossed poles. Night fishing was accomplished with the help of candles made from a particular type of resin similar to the copal of Mexico. Use of safe pens for incubation and protection of the small fry from predators was also observed, and this method astonished the Spaniards at that time. During fishing, large mesh nets were also used by the natives to protect the young and ensure future good catches.
From the early 1500s to as late as the 1560s, people from Luzon, Philippines; were referred to in Portuguese Malacca as Luções, and they set up many overseas communities across Southeast Asia where they participated in trading ventures and military campaigns in Burma, Malacca and Eastern Timor as traders and mercenaries. One prominent Luções was Regimo de Raja, who was a spice magnate and a Temenggung (Jawi: تمڠݢوڠ) (Governor and Chief General) in Portuguese Malacca. He was also the head of an armada which traded and protected commerce between the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, the South China Sea, and the medieval maritime principalities of the Philippines.
The natives were slavered among them by other tribes like Lapu-Lapu which forced other islands to pay taxes. The arrival of the Spanish removed this slavering system. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi with Tlaxcaltecs from Mexico conquered and unified the islands. The conquered was possible thanks to the discovery of the trip back to Mexico coast by Agustino Urdaneta. The administration of Islas Filipinas was done through the Capitania General and depended on Mexico Capital which formed the New Spain Viceroyalty. The economy of Islas Filipinas grew further when the Spanish government inaugurated the Manila Galleon trade system. Trading ships, settlers and military reinforcements made voyages once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean from the port of Acapulco in Mexico to Manila in the Philippines. Both cities were part of the then Province of New Spain.
This trade made the city of Manila one of the major global cities in the world, improving the growth of the Philippine economy in the succeeding years. Trade also introduced foodstuffs such as maize, tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers, chocolate and pineapples from Mexico and Peru. Tobacco, first domesticated in Latin-America, and then introduced to the Philippines, became an important cash crop for Filipinos. The Philippines also became the distribution center of silver mined in the Americas, which was in high demand in Asia, during the period. In exchange for this silver, Manila gathered Indonesian spices, Chinese silks and Indian gems to be exported to Mexico.
The Manila Galleon system operated until 1815, when Mexico got its independence. Nevertheless, it didn't affect the economy of the islands.
On March 10, 1785, King Charles III of Spain confirmed the establishment of the Royal Philippine Company with a 25-year charter. The Basque-based company was granted a monopoly on the importation of Chinese and Indian goods into the Philippines, as well as the shipping of the goods directly to Spain via the Cape of Good Hope.
After Spain lost Mexico as a territory, New Spain was dissolved making the Philippines and other Pacific islands to form the Spanish East Indies. This resulted in the Philippines being governed directly by the King of Spain and the Captaincy General of the Philippines while the Pacific islands of Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Micronesia and Palau was governed by the Real Audiencia of Manila and was part of the Philippine territorial governance.
It made the economy of the Philippines grow further as people saw the rise of opportunities. Agriculture remained the largest contributor to economy, being the largest producer of coffee in Asia as well as a large produce of tobacco.
In Europe, the Industrial Revolution spread from Great Britain during the period known as the Victorian Age. The industrialization of Europe created great demands for raw materials from the colonies, bringing with it investment and wealth, although this was very unevenly distributed. Governor-General Basco had opened the Philippines to this trade. Previously, the Philippines was seen as a trading post for international trade but in the nineteenth century it was developed both as a source of raw materials and as a market for manufactured goods. The economy of the Philippines rose rapidly and its local industries developed to satisfy the rising demands of an industrializing Europe. A small flow of European immigrants came with the opening of the Suez Canal, which cut the travel time between Europe and the Philippines by half. New ideas about government and society, which the friars and colonial authorities found dangerous, quickly found their way into the Philippines, notably through the Freemasons, who along with others, spread the ideals of the American, French and other revolutions, including Spanish liberalism.
In 1834 the Royal Company of the Philippines was abolished, and free trade was formally recognized. With its excellent harbor, Manila became an open port for Asian, European, and North American traders. European merchants alongside the Chinese immigrants opened stores selling goods from all parts of the world. The "El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II "(now the Bank of the Philippine Islands) was the first bank opened in the Philippines in 1851.
In 1873 additional ports were opened to foreign commerce, and by the late nineteenth century three crops—tobacco, abaca, and sugar—dominated Philippine exports.
The economy of the Philippines during the insurgency of the First Philippine Republic remained the same throughout its early years but was halted due to the break out of the Philippine–American War. Nevertheless, during the era of the First Republic, the estimated GDP per capita for the Philippines in 1900 was of $1,033.00. That made it the second richest place in all of Asia, just a little behind Japan ($1,135.00), and far ahead of China ($652.00) or India ($625.00).
The results of the economy under the Americans were mixed. An initial high growth phase occurred during the 1910s due to the recovery from the wars with Spain and the US, and investment in agriculture. The Philippines would at first briefly outpace its neighbors. This would not last as growth fell behind in the later years. Stagnation in the late 1920s and beyond took place as access to US markets became restricted by protectionist quotas and fiscal restraints forestalled any further development in agriculture.
The growth period can be attributed to the results of a crash program in agricultural modernization undertaken in 1910–1920. This in turn was done in order to address the growing shortfall in the supply of rice. The Philippines once a net exporter became an importer of rice as a result of the wars with the Spanish and later the Americans and by the reallocation of labour to export crops.
The 1930s would mark the end to this period of relative prosperity. The Sugar Act of 1934 capped Philippines sugar exports to the US at 921,000 tons per year. Expenditure on public infrastructure for agriculture was reduced as the Payne–Aldridge Act stripped the government of customs revenue. Manila hemp was now competing against the newly invented Nylon. Although the area of land cultivated for agriculture was still increasing, the rate was reduced to 1% per annum.
The policy with the most far reaching consequences of this period was the peg between the peso and dollar. This was enforced by law until 1975. It provided monetary stability for foreign investment inflows, which lead to 40% of all capital invested in manufacturing and commercial enterprises to be owned by foreign entities by 1938. On the other hand, this overvaluation of the peso would have a negative impact with foreign trade with the rest of Asia. Economic policy leading to independence would have necessitated loosening trade links with the US. In order to achieve an internationally competitive exchange rate, the peso dollar link would have to be broken. The much belated move to a true floating exchange rate led to uncompetitive exports as such an import substitution strategy remained until significant currency devaluation opened up the opportunity for reorienting towards exports.
Due to the Japanese invasion establishing the unofficial Second Philippine Republic, the economic growth receded and food shortages occurred. Prioritizing the shortages of food, Jose Laurel, the appointed President, organized an agency to distribute rice, even though most of the rice was confiscated by Japanese soldiers. Manila was one of the many places in the country that suffered from severe shortages, due mainly to a typhoon that struck the country in November 1943. The people were forced to cultivate private plots which produced root crops like kangkong. The Japanese, in order to raise rice production in the country, brought a quick-maturing horai rice, which was first used in Taiwan. Horai rice was expected to make the Philippines self-sufficient in rice by 1943, but rains during 1942 prevented this.
Also during World War II in the Philippines, the occupying Japanese government issued fiat currency in several denominations; this is known as the Japanese government-issued Philippine fiat peso.
The first issue in 1942 consisted of denominations of 1, 5, 10 and 50 centavos and 1, 5, and 10 Pesos. The next year brought ""replacement notes"" of the 1, 5 and 10 Pesos while 1944 ushered in a 100 Peso note and soon after an inflationary 500 Pesos note. In 1945, the Japanese issued a 1,000 Pesos note. This set of new money, which was printed even before the war, became known in the Philippines as Mickey Mouse money due to its very low value caused by severe inflation. Anti-Japanese newspapers portrayed stories of going to the market laden with suitcases or ""bayong"" (native bags made of woven coconut or "buri" leaf strips) overflowing with the Japanese-issued bills. In 1944, a box of matches cost more than 100 "Mickey Mouse" pesos. In 1945, a kilogram of camote cost around 1000 "Mickey Mouse" pesos. Inflation plagued the country with the devaluation of the Japanese money, evidenced by a 60% inflation experienced in January 1944.
After the re-establishment of the Commonwealth in 1945, the country was left with a devastated city, food crisis and financial crisis. A year later in 1946, the Philippines got its independence in America, creating the Third Philippine Republic.
In an effort to solve the massive socio-economic problems of the period, newly elected President Manuel Roxas reorganized the government, and proposed a wide-sweeping legislative program. Among the undertakings of the Third Republic's initial year were: The establishment of the Rehabilitation Finance Corporation (which would be reorganized in 1958 as the Development Bank of the Philippines); the creation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the organization of the foreign service through Executive Order No. 18; the GI Bill of Rights for Filipino veterans; and the revision of taxation laws to increase government revenues.
President Roxas moved to strengthen sovereignty by proposing a Central Bank for the Philippines to administer the Philippine banking system which was established by Republic Act No. 265.
In leading a "cash-starved government" that needed to attend a battered nation, President Roxas campaigned for the parity amendment to the 1935 Constitution. This amendment, demanded by the Philippine Trade Relations Act or the Bell Trade Act, would give American citizens and industries the right to utilize the country's natural resources in return for rehabilitation support from the United States. The President, with the approval of Congress, proposed this move to the nation through a plebiscite.
The Roxas administration also pioneered the foreign policy of the Republic. Vice President Elpidio Quirino was appointed Secretary of Foreign Affairs. General Carlos P. Romulo, as permanent representative of the Philippines to the United Nations, helped shape the country's international identity in the newly established stage for international diplomacy and relations. During the Roxas administration, the Philippines established diplomatic ties with foreign countries and gained membership to international entities, such as the United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labor Organization (ILO), etc.
When President Carlos P. Garcia won the elections, his administration promoted the "Filipino First" policy, whose focal point was to regain economic independence; a national effort by Filipinos to "obtain major and dominant participation in their economy." The administration campaigned for the citizens' support in patronizing Filipino products and services, and implemented import and currency controls favorable for Filipino industries. In connection with the government's goal of self-sufficiency was the "Austerity Program," which President Garcia described in his first State of the NatIon Address as "more work, more thrift, more productive investment, and more efficiency" that aimed to mobilize national savings. The Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, through Republic Act No. 301, aimed to prevent corruption, and promote honesty and public trust. Another achievement of the Garcia administration was the Bohlen–Serrano Agreement of 1959, which shortened the term of lease of the US military bases in the country from the previous 99 to 25 years.
President Diosdado Macapagal, during his inaugural address on December 30, 1961, emphasized the responsibilities and goals to be attained in the "new era" that was the Macapagal administration. He reiterated his resolve to eradicate corruption, and assured the public that honesty would prevail in his presidency. President Macapagal, too, aimed at self-sufficiency and the promotion of every citizen's welfare, through the partnership of the government and private sector, and to alleviate poverty by providing solutions for unemployment.
Among the laws passed during the Macapagal administration were: Republic Act No. 3844 or the Agricultural Land Reform Code (an act that established the Land Bank of the Philippines); Republic Act No. 3466, which established the Emergency Employment Administration; Republic Act No. 3518, which established the Philippine Veterans Bank; Republic Act No. 3470, which established the National Cottage Industries Development Authority (NACIDA) to organize, revive, and promote the establishment of local cottage industries; and Republic Act No. 4156, which established the Philippine National Railways (PNR) to operate the national railroad and tramways. The administration lifted foreign exchange controls as part of the decontrol program in an attempt to promote national economic stability and growth.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law in the midst of rising student movements and an increasing number communist and socialist groups lobbying for reforms in their respective sectors. Leftists held rallies to express their frustrations to the government, this restiveness culminating in the First Quarter Storm, where activists stormed Malacañang Palace only to be turned back by the Philippine Constabulary. This event in particular left four people dead and many injured after heavy exchanges of gunfire. There was further unrest, and in the middle of the disorder on September 21, 1972, Marcos issued Proclamation No. 1081, effectively installing martial law in the Philippines, a declaration that suspended civil rights and imposed military rule in the country.
The GDP of the Philippines rose during the martial law, rising from P55 million to P193 million in about 8 years. This growth was spurred by massive lending from commercial banks, accounting for about 62% percent of external debt. As a developing country, the Philippines during the martial law was one of the heaviest borrowers. These aggressive moves were seen by critics as a means of legitimizing martial law by purportedly enhancing the chances of the country in the global market. Much of the money was spent on pump-priming to improve infrastructure and promote tourism. However, despite the aggressive borrowing and spending policies, the Philippines lagged behind its Southeast Asia counterparts in GDP growth rate per capita. The country, in 1970–1980, only registered an average 5.73 percent growth, while its counterparts like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia garnered a mean growth of 7.97 percent. This lag, which became very apparent at the end of the Marcos Regime, can be attributed to the failures of economic management that was brought upon by State-run monopolies, mismanaged exchange rates, imprudent monetary policy and debt management, all underpinned by rampant corruption and cronyism. As said by Emannuel de Dios “[…]main characteristics distinguishing the Marcos years from other periods of our history has been the trend towards the concentration of power in the hands of the government, and the use of governmental functions to dispense economic privileges to some small factions in the private sector.”
There are few more palpable and glaring examples of the economic mismanagement of the time than the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) located in Morong, Bataan. Started in the 1970s, the BNPP was supposed to boost the country's competitiveness by providing affordable electricity to fuel industrialization and job creation in the country. Far from this, the US$2.3 billion nuclear plant suffered from cost over-runs and engineering and structural issues which eventually led to its mothballing—without generating a single watt of electricity.
Income inequality grew during the era of martial law, as the poorest 60 percent of the nation were able to contribute only 22.5 percent of the income at 1980, down from 25.0 percent in 1970. The richest 10 percent, meanwhile, took a larger share of the income at 41.7 percent at 1980, up from 37.1 percent at 1970. These trends coincided with accusations of cronyism in the Marcos administration, as the administration faced questions of favoring certain companies that were close to the ruling family.
According to the FIES (Family Income and Expenditure Survey) conducted from 1965 to 1985, poverty incidence in the Philippines rose from 41 percent in 1965 to 58.9 percent in 1985. This can be attributed to lower real agricultural wages and lesser real wages for unskilled and skilled laborers. Real agricultural wages fell about 25 percent from their 1962 level, while real wages for unskilled and skilled laborers decreased by about one-third of their 1962 level. It was observed that higher labor force participation and higher incomes of the rich helped cushion the blow of the mentioned problems.
The Aquino administration took over an economy that had gone through socio-political disasters during the People Power revolution, where there was financial and commodity collapse caused by an overall consumer cynicism, a result of the propaganda against cronies, social economic unrest resulting from numerous global shortages, massive protests, lack of government transparency, the opposition's speculations, and various assassination attempts and failed coups. At that point in time, the country's incurred debt from the Marcos Era's debt-driven development began crippling the country, which slowly made the Philippines the "Latin-American in East Asia" as it started to experience the worst recession since the post-war era.
Most of the immediate efforts of the Aquino administration was directed in reforming the image of the country and paying off all debts, including those that some governments were ready to write-off, as possible. This resulted in budget cuts and further aggravated the plight of the lower class because the jobs offered to them by the government was now gone. Infrastructure projects, including repairs, were halted in secluded provinces turning concrete roads into asphalt. Privatization of many government corporations, most catering utilities, was the priority of the Aquino administration which led to massive lay-offs and inflation. The Aquino administration was persistent in its belief that the problems that arose from the removal of the previous administration can be solved by the decentralization of power.
Growth gradually began in the next few years of the administration. Somehow, there was still a short-lived, patchy, and erratic recovery from 1987 to 1991 as the political situation stabilized a bit. With this, the peso became more competitive, confidence of investors was gradually regained, positive movements in terms of trade were realized, and regional growth gradually strengthened.
The Ramos administration basically served its role as the carrier of the momentum of reform and as an important vehicle in "hastening the pace of liberalization and openness in the country". The administration was a proponent of capital account liberalization, which made the country more open to foreign trade, investments, and relations. It was during the term of the administration when the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was established, and the Philippines joined the World Trade Organization and other free trade associations such as the APEC. Also, debt reduction was considered and as such, the issuance of certain government bonds called Brady Bonds also came to fruition in 1992. Key negotiations with conflicting forces in Mindanao actually became more successful during the administration, with Jose Almonte as one of the key adviser of the administration.
By the time Ramos succeeded Corazon Aquino in 1992, the Philippine economy was already burdened with a heavy budget deficit. This was largely the result of austerity measures imposed by a standard credit arrangement with the International Monetary Fund and the destruction caused by natural disasters such as the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Hence, according to Canlas, pump priming through government spending was immediately ruled out due to the deficit. Ramos therefore resorted to institutional changes through structural policy reforms, of which included privatization and deregulation. He sanctioned the formation of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), which served as a forum for consensus building, on the part of the Executive and the Legislative branches, on important bills on economic policy reform measures (4).
The daily brownouts that plagued the economy were also addressed through the enactment of policies that placed guaranteed rates. The economy during the first year of Ramos administration suffered from severe power shortage, with frequent brownouts, each lasting from 8 to 12 hours. To resolve this problem, the Electric Power Crisis Act was made into law together with the Build-Operate-Transfer Law. Twenty power plants were built because of these, and in effect, the administration was able to eliminate the power shortage problems in December 1993 and sustained economic growth for some time.
The economy seemed to be all set for long-run growth, as shown by sustainable and promising growth rates from 1994 to 1997. However, the Asian Crisis contagion which started from Thailand and Korea started affecting the Philippines. This prompted the Philippine economy to plunge into continuous devaluation and very risky ventures, resulting in property busts and a negative growth rate. The remarkable feat of the administration, however, was that it was able to withstand the contagion effect of the Asian Crisis better than anybody else in the neighboring countries. Most important in the administration was that it made clear the important tenets of reform, which included economic liberalization, stronger institutional foundations for development, redistribution, and political reform.
Perhaps some of the most important policies and breakthroughs of the administration are the Capital Account Liberalization and the subsequent commitments to free trade associations such as APEC, AFTA, GATT, and WTO. The liberalization and opening of the capital opening culminated in full-peso convertibility in 1992. And then another breakthrough is again, the establishment of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which also involved the reduction of debts in that the debts of the old central bank were taken off its books.
Although Estrada's administration had to endure the continued shocks of the Asian Crisis contagion, the administration was also characterized by the administration's economic mismanagement and "midnight cabinets." As if the pro-poor rhetoric, promises and drama were not really appalling enough, the administration also had "midnight cabinets composed of 'drinking buddies' influencing the decisions of the "daytime cabinet'". Cronyism and other big issues caused the country's image of economic stability to change towards the worse. And instead of adjustments happening, further deterioration of the economy occurred. Targeted revenues were not reached, implementation of policies became very slow, and fiscal adjustments were not efficiently conceptualized and implemented. All those disasters caused by numerous mistakes were made worse by the sudden entrance of the "Jueteng" controversy, which gave rise to the succeeding EDSA Revolutions.
Despite all these controversies, the administration still had some meaningful and profound policies to applaud. The administration presents a reprise of the population policy, which involved the assisting of married couples to achieve their fertility goals, reduce unwanted fertility and match their unmet need for contraception. The administration also pushed for budget appropriations for family planning and contraceptives, an effort that was eventually stopped due to the fact that the church condemned it. The administration was also able to implement a piece of its overall Poverty Alleviation Plan, which involved the delivery of social services, basic needs, and assistance to the poor families. The Estrada administration also had limited contributions to Agrarian Reform, perhaps spurred by the acknowledgement that indeed, Agrarian Reform can also address poverty and inequitable control over resources. In that regard, the administration establishes the program "Sustainable Agrarian Reform Communities-Technical Support to Agrarian and Rural Development". As for regional development, however, the administration had no notable contributions or breakthroughs.
The Arroyo administration, in an economical standpoint, was a period of good growth rates simultaneous with the US, due perhaps to the emergence of the Overseas Filipino workers (OFW) and the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). The emergence of the OFW and the BPO improved the contributions of OFW remittances and investments to growth. In 2004, however, fiscal deficits grew and grew as tax collections fell, perhaps due to rampant and wide scale tax avoidance and tax evasion incidences. Fearing that a doomsday prophecy featuring the [Argentina default] in 2002 might come to fruition, perhaps due to the same sort of fiscal crisis, the administration pushed for the enactment of the 12% VAT and the E-VAT to increase tax revenue and address the large fiscal deficits. This boosted fiscal policy confidence and brought the economy back on track once again.
Soon afterwards, political instability afflicted the country and the economy anew with Abu Sayyaf terrors intensifying. The administration's Legitimacy Crisis also became a hot issue and threat to the authority of the Arroyo administration. Moreover, the Arroyo administration went through many raps and charges because of some controversial deals such as the NBN-ZTE Broadband Deal. Due however to the support of local leaders and the majority of the House of Representatives, political stability was restored and threats to the administration were quelled and subdued. Towards the end of the administration, high inflation rates for rice and oil in 2008 started to plague the country anew, and this led to another fiscal crisis, which actually came along with the major recession that the United States and the rest of the world were actually experiencing.
The important policies of the Arroyo administration highlighted the importance of regional development, tourism, and foreign investments into the country. Therefore, apart from the enactment and establishment of the E-VAT policy to address the worsening fiscal deficits, the administration also pushed for regional development studies in order to address certain regional issues such as disparities in regional per capita income and the effects of commercial communities on rural growth. The administration also advocated for investments to improve tourism, especially in other unexplored regions that actually need development touches as well. To further improve tourism, the administration launched the policy touching on Holiday Economics, which involves the changing of days in which we would celebrate certain holidays. Indeed, through the Holiday Economics approach, investments and tourism really improved. As for investment, the Arroyo administration would normally go through lots of trips to other countries in order to encourage foreign investments for the betterment of the Philippine economy and its development.
The Philippines consistently coined as one of the Newly Industrialized Countries has had a fair gain during the latter years under the Arroyo Presidency to the current administration. The government managed foreign debts falling from 58% in 2008 to 47% of total government borrowings. According to the 2012 World Wealth Report, the Philippines was the fastest growing economy in the world in 2010 with a GDP growth of 7.3% driven by the growing business process outsourcing and overseas remittances.
The country markedly slipped to 3.6% in 2011 after the government placed less emphasis on exports, as well as spending less on infrastructure. In addition, the disruption of the flow of imports for raw materials as a result from floods in Thailand and the tsunami in Japan affected the manufacturing sector in the same year. "The Philippines contributed more than $125 million as of end-2011 to the pool of money disbursed by the International Monetary Fund to help address the financial crisis confronting economies in Europe. This was according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which reported Tuesday that the Philippines, which enjoys growing foreign exchange reserves, has made available about $251.5 million to the IMF to finance the assistance program—the Financial Transactions Plan (FTP)—for crisis-stricken countries."
The economy saw continuous real GDP growth of at least 5% since 2012. The Philippine Stock Exchange index ended 2012 with 5,812.73 points a 32.95% growth from the 4,371.96-finish in 2011.
The Philippine economy has been growing steadily over decades and the International Monetary Fund in 2014 reported it as the 39th largest economy in the world. However its growth has been behind that of many of its Asian neighbors, the so-called Asian Tigers, and it is not a part of the Group of 20 nations. Instead it is grouped in a second tier for emerging markets or newly industrialized countries. Depending on the analyst, this second tier can go by the name the Next Eleven or the Tiger Cub Economies.
In the years 2012 and 2013, the Philippines posted high GDP growth rates, reaching 6.8% in 2012 and 7.2% in 2013, the highest GDP growth rates in Asia for the first two quarters of 2013, followed by China and Indonesia.
A chart of selected statistics showing trends in the gross domestic product of the Philippines using data taken from the International Monetary Fund.
As a newly industrialized country, the Philippines is still an economy with a large agricultural sector; however, services have come to dominate the economy. Much of the industrial sector is based on processing and assembly operations in the manufacturing of electronics and other high-tech components, usually from foreign multinational corporations.
Filipinos who go abroad to work–-known as Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs—are a significant contributor to the economy but are not reflected in the below sectoral discussion of the domestic economy. OFW remittances is also credited for the Philippines' recent economic growth resulting in investment status upgrades from credit ratings agencies such as the Fitch Group and Standard & Poor's. In 1994, more than $2 billion USD worth of remittance from Overseas Filipinos were sent to the Philippines. In 2012, Filipino Americans sent 43% of all remittances sent to the Philippines, totaling to US$10.6 billion.
Agriculture employs 30% of the Filipino workforce as of 2014. Agriculture accounts for 11% of Philippines GDP as of 2014. The type of activity ranges from small subsistence farming and fishing to large commercial ventures with significant export focus.
The Philippines is the world's largest producer of coconuts producing 19,500,000 tons in 2009. Coconut production in the Philippines is generally concentrated in medium-sized farms. The Philippines is also the world's largest producer of pineapples, producing 2,458,420 million metric tons in 2013.
Rice production in the Philippines is important to the food supply in the country and economy. The Philippines is the 8th largest rice producer in the world, accounting for 2.8% of global rice production. The Philippines was also the world's largest rice importer in 2010. Rice is the most important food crop, a staple food in most of the country. It is produced extensively in Luzon (especially Central Luzon), Western Visayas, Southern Mindanao and Central Mindanao.
The Philippines is one of the largest producers of sugar in the world. At least 17 provinces located in eight regions of the nation have grown sugarcane crops, of which the Negros Island Region accounts for half of the country's total production. As of Crop Year 2012–2013, 29 mills are operational divided as follows: 13 mills in Negros, 6 mills in Luzon, 4 mills in Panay, 3 mills in Eastern Visayas and 3 mills in Mindanao. A range from 360,000 to 390,000 hectares are devoted to sugarcane production. The largest sugarcane areas are found in the Negros Island Region, which accounts for 51% of sugarcane areas planted. This is followed by Mindanao which accounts for 20%; Luzon by 17%; Panay by 07% and Eastern Visayas by 04%.
The Philippines is a major player in the global shipbuilding industry with shipyards in Subic, Cebu, General Santos City and Batangas. It became the fourth largest shipbuilding nation in 2010. Subic-made cargo vessels are now exported to countries where shipping operators are based. South Korea's Hanjin started production in Subic in 2007 of the 20 ships ordered by German and Greek shipping operators. The country's shipyards are now building ships like bulk carriers, container ships and big passenger ferries. General Santos' shipyard is mainly for ship repair and maintenance.
Being surrounded by waters, the country has abundant natural deep-sea ports ideal for development as production, construction and repair sites. On top of the current operating shipyards, two additional shipyards in Misamis Oriental and Cagayan province are being expanded to support future locators. It has a vast manpower pool of 60,000 certified welders that comprise the bulk of workers in shipbuilding.
In the ship repair sector, the Navotas complex in Metro Manila is expected to accommodate 96 vessels for repair.
The ABS used in Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volvo cars are made in the Philippines. Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Honda are the most prominent automakers manufacturing cars in the country. Kia and Suzuki produce small cars in the country. Isuzu also produces SUVs in the country. Honda and Suzuki produce motorcycles in the country. A 2003 Canadian market research report predicted that further investments in this sector were expected to grow in the following years. Toyota sells the most vehicles in the country. By 2011, China's Chery Automobile company is going to build their assembly plant in Laguna, that will serve and export cars to other countries in the region if monthly sales would reach 1,000 units. Automotive sales in the Philippines moved up from 165,056 units in 2011 to over 180,000 in 2012. Japan's automotive manufacturing giant Mitsubishi Motors has announced that it will be expanding its operations in the Philippines.
Aerospace products in the Philippines are mainly for the export market and include manufacturing parts for aircraft built by both Boeing and Airbus. Moog is the biggest aerospace manufacturer with base in Baguio in the Cordillera region. The company produces aircraft actuators in their manufacturing facility.
In 2011, the total export output of aerospace products in the Philippines reached US$3 billion.
A Texas Instruments plant in Baguio has been operating for 20 years and is the largest producer of DSP chips in the world. Texas Instruments' Baguio plant produces all the chips used in Nokia cell phones and 80% of chips used in Ericsson cell phones in the world. Until 2005, Toshiba laptops were produced in Santa Rosa, Laguna. Presently the Philippine plant's focus is in the production of hard disk drives. Printer manufacturer Lexmark has a factory in Mactan in the Cebu region. Electronics and other light industries are concentrated in Laguna, Cavite, Batangas and other CALABARZON provinces with sizable numbers found in Southern Philippines that account for most of the country's export.
The country is rich in mineral and geothermal energy resources. In 2003, it produced 1931 MW of electricity from geothermal sources (27% of total electricity production), second only to the United States, and a recent discovery of natural gas reserves in the Malampaya oil fields off the island of Palawan is already being used to generate electricity in three gas-powered plants. Philippine gold, nickel, copper, palladium and chromite deposits are among the largest in the world. Other important minerals include silver, coal, gypsum, and sulphur. Significant deposits of clay, limestone, marble, silica, and phosphate exist.
About 60% of total mining production are accounted for by non-metallic minerals, which contributed substantially to the industry's steady output growth between 1993 and 1998, with the value of production growing 58%. In 1999, however, mineral production declined 16% to $793 million. Mineral exports have generally slowed since 1996. Led by copper cathodes, Philippine mineral exports amounted to $650 million in 2000, barely up from 1999 levels. Low metal prices, high production costs, lack of investment in infrastructure, and a challenge to the new mining law have contributed to the mining
industry's overall decline.
The industry rebounded starting in late 2004 when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of an important law permitting foreign ownership of Philippines mining companies. However, the DENR has yet to approve the revised Department Administrative Order (DAO) that will provide the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA), the specific part of the 1994 Mining Act that allows 100% foreign ownership of Philippines mines.
In 2008, the Philippines has surpassed India as the world leader in business process outsourcing. The majority of the top ten BPO firms of the United States operate in the Philippines. The industry generated 100,000 jobs, and total revenues were placed at $960 million for 2005. In 2012, BPO sector employment ballooned to over 700,000 people and is contributing to a growing middle class. BPO facilities are concentrated in IT parks and centers in Economic Zones across the Philippines. BPO facilities are located mainly in Metro Manila and Cebu City although other regional areas such as Baguio, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Clark Freeport Zone, Dagupan, Davao City, Dumaguete, Lipa, Iloilo City, and Naga City, Camarines Sur are now being promoted and developed for BPO operations.
Call centers began in the Philippines as plain providers of email response and managing services and is now a major source of employment. Call center services include customer relations, ranging from travel services, technical support, education, customer care, financial services, online business to customer support, and online business-to-business support. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is regarded as one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The Philippines is also considered as a location of choice due to its many outsourcing benefits such as less expensive operational and labor costs, the high proficiency in spoken English of a significant number of its people, and a highly educated labor pool. In 2011, the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines generated 700 thousand jobs and some US$11 billion in revenue, 24 percent higher than 2010. By 2016, the industry is projected to reach US$27.4 billion in revenue with employment generation to almost double at 1.3 million workers.
BPOs and the call center industry in general are also credited for the Philippines' recent economic growth resulting in investment status upgrades from credit ratings agencies such as Fitch and S&P.
With the Philippines being the 34th largest economy in the world, the country continues to be a promising prospect for the BPO Industry. Just in August 2014, the Philippines hit an all-time high for employment in the BPO industry. From 101,000 workers in 2004, the labor force in the industry has grown to over 930,000 in just the first quarter of 2014.
Growth in the BPO industry continues to show significant improvements with an average annual expansion rate of 20%. Figures have shown that from $1.3 Billion in 2004, export revenues from the BPO sector has increased to over $13.1 Billion in 2013. The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) also projects that the sector will have an expected total revenue of $25 Billion in 2016. IBPAP projects that the industry will employ 1.8 million workers and generate US$38.9 billion of revenue by 2022.
This growth in the industry is further promoted by the Philippine government. The industry is highlighted by the Philippines Development Plan as among the 10 high potential and priority development areas. To further entice investors, government programs include different incentives such as tax holidays, tax exemptions, and simplified export and import procedures. Additionally, training is also available for BPO applicants.
Tourism is an important sector for the Philippine economy, contributing 7.8% to the Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014.
The tourism industry employed 3.8 million Filipinos, or 10.2 per cent of national employment in 2011, according to data gathered by the National Statistical Coordination Board. In a greater thrust by the Aquino administration to pump billion to employ 7.4 million people by 2016, or about 18.8 per cent of the total workforce, contributing 8 per cent to 9 per cent to the nation's GDP.
In 2014, the tourism sector contributed 1.4 trillion pesos to the country's economy.
According to PSA, Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) is GDP measured at regional levels. Figures below are for the year 2018:
Note: Green-colored cells indicate higher value or best performance in index, while yellow-colored cells indicate the opposite. Numbers may not add up to totals due to rounding.
Most of the following statistics are sourced from the International Monetary Fund – Philippines (as of 2012; figures are in US dollars unless otherwise indicated).
The national government budget for 2016 has set the following budget allocations: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23445 |
Telecommunications in the Philippines
Telecommunications in the Philippines are well-developed due to the presence of modern infrastructure facilities. The industry was deregulated in 1995 when President Fidel Ramos signed Republic Act 7925 (The Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines). This law opened the sector to more private players and improved the provision of telecom services are better and fairer rates. The industry was deregulated in 1995, leading to the creation of many telecommunication service providers for mobile, fixed-line, Internet and other services.
Two private companies offered telecom services namely Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company which is a subsidiary of Britain's Cable and Wireless. The Spanish authorizes Eastern Extension to construct and operate the first submarine cable linking the Philippines and Hong Kong.
The Philippine Islands Telephone and Telegraph Company is American-owned which started operations in 1905 in Metro Manila. In 1928, merged with Cebu, Panay, and Negros Telephone and Telegraph companies to form the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). In 1932, the colonial Philippines congress granted PLDT a 50-year franchise to operate a national telephone system.
The establishment of the Public Service Commission to regulate the industry as well as other utilities, meanwhile the Bureau of Posts was created to operate telegraph services nationwide.
Initially, PLDT was managed by Americans, including the American company General Telephone and Electric Corporation (GTE) as a major stockholder. However in March 1967, GTE disposed of their 28% controlling interest in PLDT. Which is why in November 7, 1967, the Philippines Telecommunications Investment Corporation (PTIC) was registered to buy GTE's controlling interest. Ramon Cojuangco, who was part of one of the most influential clans in Philippine history, was a main incorporator. PTIC formally took control of PLDT on January 1, 1968. This led to the takeover of PLDT by the Filipinos, becoming a dominant player in telecommunications because of its authorization to operate a national network. Company officials however dispute that they were a monopoly because of the existence of a government telephone system, and over 60 provincial companies operating in the country. The Bureau of Telecommunications (Butel) handled the government telephone system, which by 1975 had 34,643 operational telephone lines, or about 10.2% of the total telephone capacity of the country.
There were also four major companies with license for international data communication.
In 1976, the Philippine Association of Private Telephone Companies was organized to protect the interest of small telephone companies. By 1975, around 60 small telephone companies provided 11.7% of the total telephone capacity at the time. These small companies were dependent on PLDT to place inter-provincial and overseas calls, in which PLDT used this interconnection to their advantage.
PLDT could allow, slow down, or deny interconnection at will. Some companies which found it financially impossible to operate without interconnection sold their companies to PLDT. They also dictated the interconnection access rates, which meant that PLDT cornered most telecommunications revenues. Eventually, by 1991, PLDT had 94% of the total lines.
Marcos' Presidential Decree 217 in 1973 mandated all PLDT subscribers to invest in PLDT to raise its equity and finance its expansion program. This law, known as the Subscribers Investment Plan (SIP) required all PLDT subscribers to buy non-voting shares in the company. Mandatory investors held about 85% of the total company equity shares but had no actual power in controlling the company.
PLDT also had access to international loans from the World Bank. These loans assisted PLDT's dominance, and PLDT became the single largest private recipient of foreign loans to the Philippines.
In 1981, a National Telecommunications Development Plan was released. A section of the plan recommended the integration of all private telephone companies under one monopoly. Marcos issued a presidential directive to Retelco, PLDT's main competitor in Metro Manila, to merge with PLDT. The merger was met with objection by the owners of Retelco, but the merger was continued because Marcos threatened to withdraw the companies' franchises.
The Aquino government's policy was two-pronged: it was to increase public spending in underserved or unserved municipalities, and allow entry of new players. In 1987, the DOTC adopted a series of policies aimed at rationalizing the development of the industry. This led to the reversal of Marcos' push towards the integration of the telecommunications system under a monopoly. It also affirmed that development of the national telcos needs an introduction of competition and regulated entry into the market. During the end of Cory’s therm however, telecommunications was poor but PLDT prevailed with their tactics in maintaining their monopoly.
Under the Ramos administration, a coalition named the Movement for Reliable and Efficient Phone System (MORE Phones) was formed with the goal of liberalizing the telecommunications industry. Until the mid-1990s, MORE Phones continued to pressure PLDT to be more transparent and accountable. Ricardo Manapat, who wrote about the illegitimate activities of the Marcoses and their cronies, wrote a follow-up report entitled "Wrong Number" the PLDT Telephone Monopoly." The report revealed PLDT's questionable management practices as well as how the Cojuangco family controlled the company, despite owning only 1.6% of the total stock.
As a countermeasure against PLDT's earlier attempts at refusing interconnection with its competitors, President Ramos signed an Executive Order 59 on 24 February 1993. EO 59 required interconnection among all authorized telecommunications companies, in order for subscribers on one operator to reach the subscribers of another. In the Senate, anti-monopoly bills were filed in the House of Representatives and it was reported that PLDT was the main target of these bills. The Congress had already approved nine telecom franchise, their applications pending at the NTC for provisional authority to operate international, cellular, or value-added services. This also led to the Congress controlling who could obtain a franchise. But PLDT would successfully block new entrants to the industry by filing various legal challenges.
In 1994, the NTC and several other industry players devised the Service Area Scheme (SAS) This scheme was in response to imbalanced demand of telecom companies in urban areas over rural areas.The SAS attempted to allow companies to earn profits but also ensure that part of those profits would be channeled to serve less profitable areas. Companies were allocated both profitable and unprofitable areas to ensure operational viability and the provision of rural telephony.
Globe Telecom (Globe) was a joint venture between Ayala Corporation and Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel). Globe was the first foreign company to be granted entry into the Philippine’s liberalized market. In 1994, Globe launched its digital cellular services, pioneering the use of Global System for Mobile Communications Technology (GSM). In fact, Globe popularized the short messaging service (SMS) through adding it for free with their basic services.
When the 1997 financial crisis stuck, there were two consolidations that happened in the industry. In June 2001, the Globe-Islacom Merger was completed. This merger resulted to providing improved services and a wider coverage for the two companies subscribers.
Smart Communications (Smart) was the first company to enter the liberalised market. In September 1999, PLDT purchased Smart Communications absorbing it as a 100-percent owned subsidiary. Smart was financially supported by First Pacific. This partnership resulted to a rapid construction of Smart’s network and more importantly, the subsidization of handsets. Smart was also authorised to offer both international gateway and cellular telephone services. At the end of 2005, Smart became the largest cellular operator in the Philippines with over 15.4 million subscribers.
Mobile Numbers are coded base on network providers ranging from 0800 to 0999, and international code for Philippines replace the zero to make an international call to the Philippines that would make it +63800 to +63999.
Considered as one of the most profitable industries, telecoms have emerged in the country due to it becoming a necessity and its product life cycle. The mobile market of the Philippines has been run by the duopoly of Smart together with Globe Telecom. The two companies have a very tight hold on the industry but they continue to fight for more subscribers and they are in a race to introduce new services. However, both still lost subscribers during 2017 as the market went through consolidation.
Although based in the Philippines, there is foreign ownership in PLDT (76%) and Globe (73%)—resulting a duopoly in the telecom industry. Anthony Salim is one of them, which is the biggest controlling stockholder of PLDT through Hong Kong based First Pacific Company Limited, which led him to establish and expand in the Philippines as a conglomerate.
It is expected that for the next five years to 2023, the growth of mobile subscribers will be low due to a highly mature and highly competitive market. There will be a movement from 4G to 5G services for faster browsing.
The mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) levels have been decreasing in the Philippines due to the visible competition in the mobile industry. In order to grab market share, aggressive price competition is done by these operators. There has been a drastic increase in mobile broadband penetration, as well as an increase of wireless broadband users over the past five years. It is predicted that over the next five years will have a strong growth. On the other hand, it could decline and slow down as the market matures. Currently, the Philippines is preparing from the move from 4G to 5G. A “5G technolab” is currently in the works in PLDT. Meanwhile, Globe Telecom announced its plans to release 5G within the middle of 2019.
SMS services are very common in the Philippines, from news briefs to multimedia services. Cellular mobile services began in the country only in 1991. In May 2000, the number of cellular phone subscribers exceeded the number of fixed line subscribers. This is because of the spotty telephone service and high cost of fixed line subscriptions. It was also seen how SMS is affordable. This led to the Philippines has become the global capital of text messaging, which was a feature of the mobile phone that was ignored by other countries. Meanwhile in 2001, the popularity of the text messaging in the Philippines has created a subculture called Generation Txt, where teenagers and young mobile professionals have developed their own language in text.
A lot of Filipinos work outside of their country and they keep contact with their families back home using calling cards to the Philippines because those are cheaper than direct calling. According to the TNS Digital Life Study of 2012, about 81% of urban Filipinos use the internet to keep in touch with their relatives abroad. 90% of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) belong to social media networking sites such as Facebook wherein they. Some people use e-mail or instant messaging, but the preferred method is still the phone. The use of a mobile phone for offers the cheapest way overseas Filipino workers (OFW) to send money or remittances to their families back in the Philippines.
Furthermore, in a study done in 2015 by the US-based Pew Research Center, 88% of Filipinos consider the internet good for education. The survey also notes that 76% of Filipinos see the internet as good for the maintenance of personal relationships. 73% believe that the internet is good for the economy, especially with the boom of online or electronic commerce.
Apart from that, telecommunications is used in the Philippine establishments. According to the 2015 Survey on Information and Communication Technology, 61.9% of establishments have Local Area Network (LAN). 13.7% of establishments utilize the internet for their business. This includes e-commerce. 17.6% of establishments conduct business transactions using the mobile phone. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23446 |
Transportation in the Philippines
Transportation in the Philippines is relatively underdeveloped partly due to the country's mountainous terrain and archipelagic state and as a result of the government's underspending on infrastructure. In recent years however, the Government of the Philippines has been improving transportation through various infrastructure projects.
Jeepneys are a popular and iconic public utility vehicle. They have become a symbol of the Philippine culture. Another popular mode of public transportation in the country is the motorized tricycles, especially common in smaller urban and rural areas. The Philippines has four railway lines: Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 1, Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 2, Manila Metro Rail Transit System Line 3, and the PNR Metro Commuter Line operated by the Philippine National Railways. There are also steam engines found in Visayas which operate sugar mills such as Central Azucarera. Taxis and buses are also important modes of public transport in urban areas.
The Philippines has 12 international airports, and has more than 20 major and minor domestic airports serving the country. The Ninoy Aquino International Airport is the main international gateway to the Philippines.
The Philippines has of roads, with 83% being paved and 17% being unpaved. As of 2014, the road network consists of:
In 1940, there were of road in the entire country, half of which was in central and southern Luzon. The roads served 50,000 vehicles.
Road classification is based primarily on administrative responsibilities (with the exception of barangays), i.e., which level of government built and funded the roads. Most of the barangay roads are unpaved village-access roads built in the past by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), but responsibility for maintaining these roads have been devolved to the Local Government Units (LGUs). Farm-to-market roads fall under this category, and a few are financed by the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Agriculture.
Highways in the Philippines include national roads that can be classified into three types: the national primary, national secondary and national tertiary roads.
The Pan-Philippine Highway is a 3,517 km (2,185 mi) network of roads, bridges, and ferry services that connect the islands of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao, serving as the Philippines' principal transport backbone. The northern terminus of the highway is in Laoag, and the southern terminus is at Zamboanga City.
The Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) is one of the most known highways of the Philippines, the highway serves the National Capital Region of the Philippines, it also serves as an important highway in the metropolis. The avenue passes through 6 of the 17 settlements in the region, namely, the cities of Caloocan, Quezon City, Mandaluyong, San Juan, Makati and Pasay. EDSA is the longest highway in the metropolis and handles an average of 2.34 million vehicles. Commonwealth Avenue is also an important highway in the metropolis, it serves the Quezon City area and has a length of 12.4 km (7.7 mi). Other important thoroughfares in Metro Manila that are part of the Philippine highway network include España Boulevard, Quezon Avenue, Taft Avenue, and Alabang–Zapote Road.
Outside Metro Manila, the MacArthur Highway links Metro Manila to the provinces in central and northern Luzon. It is a component of both N1 (from Caloocan to Guiguinto) and N2 (from Guiguinto northwards to Laoag) of the Philippine highway network and Radial Road 9 (R-9) of Metro Manila's arterial road network. Both Kennon Road and Aspiras–Palispis Highway are major roads leading to and from Baguio. Aguinaldo Highway, Jose P. Laurel Highway, Manila South Road, and Calamba–Pagsanjan Road (part of Manila East Road) are the major roads in the Calabarzon region. Andaya Highway (N68) links the province of Quezon to Bicol Region. Located in Cebu City is the Colon Street, considered the oldest thoroughfare in the country. Among the major highways in Mindanao are Sayre Highway, Butuan–Cagayan de Oro–Iligan Road, Surigao–Davao Coastal Road, Davao–Cotabato Road, and Maria Clara L. Lobregat Highway.
The Strong Republic Nautical Highway links many of the islands' road networks through a series of roll-on/roll-off ferries, some rather small covering short distances and some larger vessels that might travel several hours or more.
The Philippines has numerous expressways and most of them are located in the main island of the country, Luzon. The first expressway systems in the country are the North Luzon Expressway formerly known as North Diversion Road and the South Luzon Expressway, formerly known as South Super Highway. Both were built in the 1970s, during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos.
The North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) is a 4 to 8-lane limited-access toll expressway that connects Metro Manila to the provinces of the Central Luzon region. The expressway begins in Quezon City at a cloverleaf interchange with EDSA. It then passes through various cities and municipalities in the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga. The expressway ends at Mabalacat and merges with the MacArthur Highway, which continues northward into the rest of Central and Northern Luzon.
The South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) is another important expressway in the country, it serves the southern part of Luzon. The expressway is a network of two expressways that connects Metro Manila to the provinces of the Region IV-A in the southern part of Luzon. It starts at the Paco District of Manila then passes through Manila, Makati, Pasay, Paranaque, Taguig and Muntinlupa in Metro Manila; San Pedro, Biñan in Laguna; Carmona in Cavite, then transverses again to Biñan, Santa Rosa, Cabuyao and Calamba in the province of Laguna and ends in Santo Tomas, Batangas.
The Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway is another expressway that serves the region of Central Luzon, the expressway is linked to the North Luzon Expressway through the Mabalacat Interchange. Its southern terminus is at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales, it passes through the Clark Freeport Zone and its northern terminus is at Brgy. Amucao in Tarlac City. Construction on the expressway began in April 2005, and opened to the public three years later.
The Philippine government and other private sectors are building more plans and proposals to build new expressways through public–private partnership.
Rail transportation in the Philippines includes services provided by three rapid transit lines and one commuter rail line: the Manila Light Rail Transit System (Lines 1 and 2), Manila Metro Rail Transit System (Line 3) and the PNR Metro South Commuter Line. The government has plans to expand the country's railway footprint from 77 kilometers as of 2017 to more than 320 kilometers by 2022.
The Manila Light Rail Transit System or the LRTA system, is a rapid transit system serving the Metro Manila area, it is the first metro system in Southeast Asia. The system served a total 928,000 passengers each day in 2012. Its 31 stations along over 31 kilometers (19 mi) of mostly elevated track form two lines: the original Line 1, and the more modern Line 2 which passes through the cities of Caloocan, Manila, Marikina, Pasay, San Juan and Quezon City. Apart from the LRTA system, the Manila Metro Rail Transit System system also serves Metro Manila. The system is located along the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), one of Metro Manila's main thoroughfares. It has 13 stations along its 16.95 km track form a single line which is the Line 3 which passes through the cities of Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasay and Quezon City. Some of the stations of the system have been retrofitted with escalators and elevators for easier access, and ridership has increased. By 2004, Line 3 had the highest ridership of the three lines, with 400,000 passengers daily.
Philippine National Railways (PNR) operates a commuter line that serves a region from Metro Manila south toward Laguna. PNR, a state-owned railway system of the Philippines, alongside a tramway system in Manila, were established during the Spanish Colonial period. The intercity rail used to provide services on Luzon, connecting northern and southern Luzon with Manila; on the other hand, the tramway served what is known today as Metro Manila. In 1988, the railway line to northern Luzon became disused and later the services to Bicol were halted although plans to revive the southern line are around as of 2015. Panay Railways is a company that ran rail lines on Panay until 1989 and Cebu until World War II.
3,219 km; limited to shallow-draft (less than 1.5 m) vessels.
The Pasig River Ferry Service is a river ferry service that serves Metro Manila, it is also the only water-based transportation that cruised the Pasig River. The entire ferry network had 17 stations operational and 2 lines. The first line was the Pasig River Line which stretched from Plaza Mexico in Intramuros, Manila to Nagpayong station in Pasig. The second line was the Marikina River Line which served the Guadalupe station in Makati up to Santa Elena station in Marikina.
Because it is an island nation, ferry services are an important means of transportation. A range of ships are used, from large cargo ships to small pump boats. Some trips last for a day or two on large overnight ferris such as those operated by 2GO Travel while other trips can last for less than 15 minutes on small, open-air pump boats such as those that cross the Iloilo Strait.
There are numerous shipping companies in the Philippines. Notable companies include 2GO Travel (the successor to Superferry and Negros Navigation) and Trans-Asia Shipping Lines.
The busiest port is the Port of Manila, especially the Manila International Cargo Terminal and the Eva Macapagal Port Terminal, both in the pier area of Manila. Other cities with bustling ports and piers include Bacolod City, Batangas City, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu City, Davao City, Butuan, Iligan, Iloilo City, Jolo, Legazpi City, Lucena City, Puerto Princesa, San Fernando, Subic, Zamboanga City, Cotabato City, General Santos City, Allen, Ormoc, Ozamiz, Surigao and Tagbilaran. Most of these terminals comprise the Strong Republic Nautical Highway, a nautical system conceptualized under the term of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo where land vehicles can use the roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ferries to cross between the different islands.
Manila, Iloilo, Cebu, Davao, Clark, Subic, Zamboanga and Laoag are the international gateways to the country, with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila as the main and premier gateway of the country.
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport serves as the premier gateway of the Philippines, it serves the Metro Manila area and its surrounding regions. It is located in the boundary of Parañaque and Pasay in the National Capital Region. In 2012, NAIA became the 34th busiest airport in the world, passenger volume increased to about eight percent to a total of 32.1 million passengers, making it one of the busiest airports in Asia.
The Clark International Airport is also a major gateway to the country, It was originally planned to replace the Ninoy Aquino International Airport as the country's premier airport, amid the plan to shut down the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The airport mostly serves low-cost carriers that avail themselves of the lower landing fees than those charged at NAIA.
Other important airports in the Philippines are the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu; the Iloilo International Airport in Cabatuan, Iloilo;the Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City; the Zamboanga International Airport in Zamboanga City and the General Santos International Airport in General Santos City.
Philippine Airlines (PAL) is the national flag carrier of the Philippines and is the first commercial airline in Asia. Philippine Airlines remains as the country's biggest airline company, it has the largest number of international flights to the Philippines as well as domestic flights. , Philippine Airlines flies to 8 domestic and 58 international destinations in 33 countries and territories across Asia, North America, South America, Africa, Oceania and Europe. The airlines operates hubs in Clark, Manila, Cebu, and Davao.
Cebu Pacific is the low fare leader in the country, and is the country's leading domestic airline, flying to 37 domestic destinations. Since the launching of its international operations in November 2001, flies to 27 destinations in 15 countries and territories across Asia and Oceania. , the airline operates hubs in Manila, Cebu and Davao.
Other low-cost carriers in the country include Cebgo, PAL Express, and Philippines AirAsia. These airlines have routes to several tourist destinations in the country.
The Philippines' automobile industry started during the American Colonial Period from 1898 to 1946, with the introduction of American-made cars, which have been sold in the Philippines ever since. An import substitution policy was developed for the 1950s, which led to the prohibition of and then punishingly high tariffs on the import of fully built-up cars (CBUs) from 1951 until 1972. During the 1973 oil crisis, Marcos advised Filipinos to buy smaller, more efficient vehicles with four-cylinder engines. In the early 1970s, the local Volkswagen assembler attempted to build a native national car, the "Volkswagen Sakbayan" (short for "sasakyangkatutubongbayan"), but this did not last long. In 1972 the government instituted the Progressive Car Manufacturing Program (PCMP), a system with scheduled increases in local parts content requirement which also allowed program participants to import a certain proportion of CBU vehicles. The original participants were General Motors, Ford, PAMCOR (a Chrysler/Mitsubishi joint venture), Delta Motors Corporation (Toyota), and Nissan Motors Philippines.
In the 1970s, the first Asian Utility Vehicles (AUV, local versions of the Basic Utility Vehicle project then in vogue) With full manufacturing and assembly capabilities, each of the five PCMP participants were spurred to produce vehicles completely from local materials, designed for local needs. In terms of design, all AUV's body parts were flat stamped (no compound curves) requiring minimum investment in tooling and simplifying repairs.
The most successful of the AUV's in the country were the Toyota Tamaraw and Ford Fiera. From the chassis cab, Ford and Toyota designed numerous body styles for specific uses for small business' such as farmers and fishermen. Affordability was a target for all AUV's. To solve this, Ford prepared project studies for varied uses. They had a financial arrangement with Citibank to give additional consideration if the applicant would follow the project study. Delta/Toyota also developed a local SUV mainly for military use, the Delta Mini Cruiser. After the early 1980s financial collapse, three of the PCMP members withdrew, leaving only Nissan and PAMCOR. In 1987 PCMP was replaced by the new "Car Development Program" (CDP), with lower local parts requirements. In 1990 a people's car program was added, followed by a luxury car program. The original PCMP members returned in the 1990s after the People Power Revolution ousted Marcos in 1986, and eventually no less than thirteen manufacturers vied for a market limited to around 100,000 cars per year. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis several makers withdrew as sales declined, becoming de facto CBU importers rather than assemblers. Since 1998 the Philippine automotive manufacturing policy has been in flux, severely undermined by the preponderance of lightly used cars from Japan and South Korea. A new program introduced in 2002, EO 156, actually undermined any local assembly by lowering the sales tax on the cheapest microcars, called "Bantam cars" in the Philippines, which are almost entirely imported from other ASEAN countries or China. Meanwhile, the popular locally assembled AUVs with high Philippine parts content were hit with considerable sales tax increases due to their bigger engines and higher up front prices.
Notable Filipino automotive manufacturers include Sarao Motors and Francisco Motors Corporation.
Notable foreign manufacturers with plants in the Philippines include Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Foton. Other car brands with presence in the Philippine market include Ford, Mazda, Ssangyong,Kia, Volkswagen, BMW, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, and Chery.
Daewoo sold moderately in the country until it was forced to pull out due to the Asian Economic Crisis, which led to its bankruptcy and acquisition by GM. Today, many of their cars are sold under the Chevrolet brand.
The Daihatsu Feroza was considered a status symbol during its release in the late 1980s, while the Hijet was a popular taxicab.
Despite being a bestseller worldwide, the Fiat Uno sold poorly in the country. Some sources say that Fiat is coming back to bring the Fiat 500 and Fiat Punto. Although in mid-2018, Abarth was introduced into the Philippine market selling the Abarth versions of the Fiat 500. Petromax Enterprises, the distributors of the newly introduced brand in the local market, also reintroduced Alfa Romeo into the market.
As of November 2008, Hummers in the Philippines were extremely rare, but were available. The brand was discontinued by GM in early 2010, following its 2009 bankruptcy.
Opel, along with Ford, were the two most popular non-Japanese car companies in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the company pulled out of the country after Martial Law was imposed by the Marcos Administration. Opel returned to the Philippines in the mid-1990s with the Astra, Vectra and Omega, with good sales as a cheap alternative to Japanese cars, but was taken out of the country by its distributor GM Auto Traders to make way for Chevrolet's then-brand new line up (which basically replaced all the cars Opel was selling). An example of this is the Opel Zafira, the car was supposed to be sold under the Opel brand, but the car was sold in Chevrolet dealerships as the Chevrolet Zafira. Opel Vectras and Astras are still a common sight to see on the roads of Manila, with the Opel Tigra and the Opel Manta are popular among enthusiasts.
The Malaysian firm Proton sold only one car in the country before the Asian Economic Crisis forced them out, the Wira.
The Australian car manufacturer Holden also assembled a couple of cars in the country during the 1960s and the 1970s, with the Holden Torana being one of the most popular models.
Vauxhall also made cars in the local market during the 60's. The cars they have sold locally is the Vauxhall Viva and the Vauxhall Victor.
The lightweight Smart ForTwo city car was supposed to be ideal for Manila's congested roads, but failed due to its relatively high price. It did remain slightly popular with companies who used them for advertising.
In the 1990s, SsangYong became popular for their Musso SUV and the Istana van – both of which were marketed as Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The brand pulled out of the Philippine market in 2012. In January 2016, Ssangyong came back into the Philippine Market with their new distributor, Berjaya Group Malaysia. They debuted in the Philippine Market with 3 models: Tivoli, Korando, and Rodius, with more added when they returned to the local market.
Specialty dealerships across the country import various new vehicles from several countries such as the U.S. and UAE. In addition, many pre-owned vehicles are imported from Japan, or Hong Kong – countries that use right-hand-drive vehicles on the left side of the road. Because right-hand-drive vehicles are banned in the country, they are converted to left-hand-drive in conversion bays and freeport zones in Subic, Santa Ana, and Toledo. These vehicles are seen with plate numbers R for Subic, B for Cagayan, K for Cagayan De Oro and Y for Cebu. Smuggling of used cars is rampant, with as many as sixty percent of registrations being of cars not officially imported.
The country made headlines in 2007, when president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the immediate destruction of 18 luxury vehicles that were illegally smuggled in the country. The cars, which included four BMWs and a Lincoln Navigator, were crushed by backhoes and other heavy construction vehicles at a depot in the Freeport Zone.
Limousines are used by the President & Vice-President of the Philippines, as well as wedding services for wealthy families. Otherwise, they are seldom seen on Philippine roads due to considerations like cost and road traffic conditions but if used, they are utilized for Bridal events or limo services. Limousines include the Chrysler 300C, Lincoln Town Car, Mercedes-Benz E-Class and S-Class, as well as SUV-based limousines such as the Cadillac Escalade and Hummer H2.
Jeepneys are the most popular means of public transportation in the Philippines. They were originally made from US military jeeps left over from World War II and are known for their flamboyant decoration and crowded seating. They have become a ubiquitous symbol of Filipino culture.
Original jeepneys were simply refurbished military jeeps by Willys & Ford, modern jeepneys are now produced by independently owned workshops and factories in the Philippines with surplus engines and parts coming from Japan. In the central island of Cebu, the bulk of jeepneys are built from second-hand Japanese trucks, originally intended for cargo. These are euphemistically known as "surplus" trucks.
There are two classes of jeepney builders in the Philippines. The backyard builders produce 1–5 vehicles a month, source their die-stamped pieces from one of the larger manufacturers, and work with used engines and chassis from salvage yards (usually the Isuzu 4BA1, 4BC2, 4BE1 series diesel engines or the Mitsubishi Fuso 4D30 diesel engines). The second type is the large volume manufacturer. They have two subgroups: the PUJ, or "public utility jeep," and the large volume metal-stamping companies that supply parts as well as complete vehicles.
The jeepney builders in the past were mostly based in Cebu City and Las Piñas. The largest manufacturer of vintage-style army jeepneys is MD Juan. Other makers include Armak Motors (San Pablo, Laguna), Celestial Motors (San Pablo, Laguna), Hebron Motors, LGS Motors, Malagueña (Imus, Cavite), Mega (Lipa, Batangas), Morales Motors (San Mateo, Rizal), and Sarao Motors (Las Piñas). Another manufacturer, PBJ Motors, manufactured jeepneys in Pampanga using techniques derived from Sarao Motors. Armak sells remanufactured trucks and vehicles as an adjunct, alongside its jeepneys.
Traffic congestion is an issue, especially on Metro Manila. Increasing car sales and lack of mass transit and highways cause most traffic congestion, and is feared to make Metro Manila "uninhabitable" by 2020. A survey made by Waze called Metro Manila the "worst traffic on Earth".
Economic losses due to traffic congestion costs about ₱3 billion, as of 2012. By 2030, over ₱6 billion will be lost in the Philippines' economy due to traffic congestion, according to JICA. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23447 |
Armed Forces of the Philippines
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP; ; ) are the military forces of the Philippines. It consists of the three main service branches; the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps) and the Air Force. The President of the Philippines is the Commander-in-Chief of the AFP and forms military policy with the Department of National Defense, an executive department acting as the principal organ by which military policy is carried out, while the Chief of Staff is the overall commander and the highest-ranking officer in the AFP. The Philippine Coast Guard also serves as an attached service of the AFP in wartime. Military service is entirely voluntary.
Pre-Hispanic Philippines maintained local militia groups under the barangay system. Reporting to the datu, these groups, aside from maintaining order in their communities, also served as their defense forces. With the arrival of Islam, the system of defense forces in the Mindanao region's sultanates under Muslim control mirrored those other existing sultanates in the region. These local warriors who were in the service of the Sultan were also responsible to qualified male citizens appointed by him.
During the Spanish colonial period, the Spanish Army was responsible for the defense and general order of the archipelago in the land, while the Spanish Navy conducts maritime policing in the seas as well as providing naval logistics to the Army. The Guardia Civil took police duties and maintaining public order in villages and towns. In the early years of Spanish colonial era, most of the formations of the army were composed of conquistadors backed with native auxiliaries. By the 18th and 19th Centuries, line infantry and cavalry formations were created composed of mixed Spanish and Filipino personnel, as well as volunteer battalions composed of all-Filipino volunteers during the later half of the 19th Century. Units from other colonies were also levied to augment the existing formations in the Philippines. Almost all of the formations of the Spanish Army in the archipelago participated in the local religious uprisings between 17th and 19th Centuries, and in the Philippine Revolution in 1896 fighting against the revolutionary forces. At the peak of the revolution, some Filipinos and a few Spaniards in the Spanish Army, Guardia Civil, and Navy defected to the Philippine Revolutionary Army.
The Spanish cession of the Philippines in the 1898 Treaty of Paris put the independence of the newly declared Southeast Asian republic in grave danger. The revolutionaries were fighting desperately as the American forces already landed in other islands and had taken over towns and villages. The Americans established the Philippine Constabulary in 1901 manned by Filipino fighters and used against Gen. Aguinaldo who was later captured.
On April 9, 2002, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo proclaimed that the Philippine–American War had ended on April 16, 1902 with the surrender of General Miguel Malvar.
Since the beginning of American rule in the Philippines, the United States Army had taken the responsibility for the defense of the country in the land, and the United States Navy in the seas until the passage of the National Defense Act of 1935 which called for a separate defense force for the Philippines.
In accordance with the National Defense Act of 1935, the "Armed Forces of the Philippines" was officially established on December 21, 1935, when the act entered into force. Retired U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was asked to supervise its foundation and training. MacArthur accepted the offer and became a Field Marshal of the Philippines, a rank no other person has since held. Jean MacArthur, his wife, found the situation amusing and remarked that her husband had gone from holding the highest rank in the United States Army to holding the highest rank in a non-existent army. President Quezon officially conferred the title of Field Marshal on MacArthur in a ceremony at Malacañan Palace on August 24, 1936 when he appeared with a gold marshal's baton and a unique uniform.
The Army of the Philippines included naval and air assets directly reporting to Army headquarters, and the Philippine Constabulary, later part of the ground forces proper as a division. In 1938 the Constabulary Division was separated from the army and reorganized into a national police force.
MacArthur expanded the Army of the Philippines with the revival of the Navy in 1940 and the formation of the Philippine Army Air Corps (formerly the Philippine Constabulary Air Corps), but they were not ready for combat at the start of the Pacific War in December 1941 and unable to defeat the 1941–42 Japanese invasion of the Philippines.
In 1940–41, most soldiers of the Philippine military were incorporated in the U.S. Army Forces Far East (USAFFE), with MacArthur appointed as its commander. USAFFE made its last stand on Corregidor Island, after which Japanese forces were able to force all remaining Filipino and American troops to surrender. The establishment of the general headquarters of the Philippine Commonwealth Army are military station went to the province during occupation. Those who survived the invasion but escaped from the Japanese formed the basis of recognized guerrilla units and ongoing local military force of the Philippine Commonwealth Army that continued the fighting against the enemy all over the islands. The Philippine Constabulary went on active service under the Armed Forces of the Philippines during liberation. After Japan was defeated in World War II, the Philippines gained its independence in 1946. (This was its second independence after the Philippine Declaration of Independence in 1898). In 1947 the modern AFP first emerged with the upgrade of the PAAC to the Philippine Air Force.
During the Korean War from 1951 to 1953, the Philippines sent various AFP battalions, known as the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea (PEFTOK) to fight as part of the US-led United Nations Command in liberating South Korea from the invading North Korean troops. At the same time the armed forces, including the established Marine company under the PN, fought against Communist elements of the Hukbalahap (by then the Bagong Hukbong Bayan, the Philippine counterpart of the PLA) in Central Luzon, two Southern Tagalog provinces and several Visayan provinces, with great successes.
In 1966, an AFP battalion was also sent into South Vietnam during the Vietnam War to ameliorate the economic and social conditions of its people there. AFP units were also sent at the same time to the Spratly Islands.
1963 would see the first women join the ranks of the armed forces with the raising of the Women's Auxiliary Corps.
Upon the declaration of Martial Law in 1972, then-President Ferdinand Marcos used the AFP, through the regime's secret police force, the National Intelligence and Security Authority, to arrest, and to contain his political opponents. However, Marcos – as Commander in Chief – did modernization efforts for the AFP by instituting a series of self-reliance programs to enable it to construct its own weapons, warplanes, tanks, ships and aircraft locally instead of buying from foreign sources. A missile development program known as the "Sta. Barbara project" was initiated by the AFP and missiles were successfully tested, but the project was discontinued after the Marcos administration.
In 1981, when Marcos' trusted military officer, General Fabian Ver became the AFP chief of staff, favoritism was believed to be attached to the military organization due to the fact that the general only placed his favorites in most sensitive positions, it did not dismay qualified officers. Marcos would like to make sure who is fit for the job. Ver and Marcos also extended the tour of duty of those military officers who should have been effectively retired, to the dismay also of the younger officers. Consequently, discontent in the AFP ensued.
The AFP also at that time, waged a military campaign against the secessionist Moro National Liberation Front in the island of Mindanao and New People's Army units under the Communist Party of the Philippines nationwide, growing to a 200,000 strong force.
In 1986, a faction of AFP headed by then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and AFP vice-chief of staff Lt. General Fidel V. Ramos took a stand against Marcos, ushering in the bloodless People Power Revolution that removed Marcos from power and installed Corazon Aquino as the new president of the Philippines.
During Aquino's term, most of the military units remained loyal to her as she dealt with various coup attempts against her by other military factions that remained loyal to the former dictator and those military officers who helped her to assume power. The 1989 coup attempt, the bloodiest of all coup attempts against her was crushed with US help. The AFP, during her term also launched a massive campaign against the CPP-NPA after a brief hiatus and also against the MNLF in the south.
In 1991, the major services of the AFP was reduced from four to three, when the Philippine Constabulary or PC, an AFP major service tasked to enforce the law and to curb criminality, was formally merged with the country's Integrated National Police, a national police force on the cities and municipalities in the country attached to the PC to become the Philippine National Police, thus removing it from AFP control and it was civilianized by a law passed by Congress, therefore becoming under the Department of the Interior and Local Government as a result.
In 2000, then President Joseph Estrada ordered the AFP to launch an "All-Out war" against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a breakaway group of the MNLF that wants to proclaim Mindanao an independent state.
In 2001, Estrada was removed from power in the two-day Edsa Dos People Power revolt, in which the AFP played a key role. The revolution installed then Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as president.
Since 2001, the Armed Forces of the Philippines has been active in supporting the War on terror and has been attacking terrorist groups in Mindanao ever since. In 2012, the AFP Chief of Staff said that there had been no increase in the number of soldiers over a long period, and that the military aimed to hire 30,000 troops in three years.
In 2013, the AFP managed to stall the attacks of the Moro National Liberation Front in the Zamboanga City crisis as they launch an attack to proclaim the independence of the Bangsamoro Republik. In 2016, the AFP clashed with the Maute group on Butig on February and on November of 2016. In 2017, The AFP also clashed with ISIS Militants in Marawi, calling President Duterte to declare Martial Law under Proclamation No. 216.
Republic Act No. 7898, approved on February 23, 1995, declared it the policy of the State to modernize the AFP to a level where it can effectively and fully perform its constitutional mandate to uphold the sovereignty and preserve the patrimony of the Republic of the Philippines, and mandated specific actions to be taken to achieve this end. Republic Act No. 10349, approved on December 11, 2012, amended RA7898 to establish a revised AFP modernization program. The act include new provision for the acquisition of equipment for all the branches of AFP.
The 1987 Philippine Constitution placed the AFP under the control of a civilian, the President of the Philippines, who acts as its Commander-in-Chief. All of its branches are part of the Department of National Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of National Defense.
The AFP has three major services:
These three major services are unified under a Chief of Staff who normally holds the rank of General/Admiral. He is assisted by The Vice Chief of Staff, and The Deputy Chief of Staff, normally holding the rank of Lieutenant General/Vice Admiral. Each of the three major branches are headed by an officer with the following titles: Commanding General of the Philippine Army (Lieutenant General), Flag Officer in Command of the Philippine Navy (Vice Admiral), and Commanding General of the Philippine Air Force (Lieutenant General), as well as the AFP Inspector General (Lieutenant General/Vice Admiral) and Unified Command Commanders (Lieutenant General/Vice Admiral). Meanwhile, the Chief of Staff of the AFP is also assisted by the following office holders carry the rank of Major General/Rear Admiral: The Commandant of the Philippine Marine Corps, The Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, J1, The Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, J2, The Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Organization & Training, J3, The Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, J4, Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans, J5, The Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, Electronics and Information Systems Service, J6, The Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil-Military Operations, J7, The Deputy Chief of Staff for Education and Training, J8, and The Deputy Chief of Staff for Retirees and Reservists Affairs, J9, as well as Army Divisions, Naval Commands, and Air Commands.
The Philippine Constabulary (PC) was a gendarmerie type para-military police force of the Philippines established in 1901 by the United States-appointed administrative authority, replacing the Guardia Civil of the Spanish colonial regime. On December 13, 1990, Republic Act No. 6975 was approved, organizing the Philippine National Police (PNP) consisting of the members of the Integrated National Police (INP) and the officers and enlisted personnel of the PC. Upon the effectivity of that Act, the PC ceased to be a major service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the INP ceased to be the national police and civil defense force. On January 29, 1991, the PC and the INP were formally retired and the PNP was activated in their place.
Units from these three services may be assigned to one of six "Unified Commands", consisting of different branches from the three branches of the AFP, which are multi-service, regional entities:
Several service-wide support services and separate units report directly to the AFP General Headquarters (AFP GHQ), these include:
In October 1999, the Joint Defense Assessment (JDA) began as a policy level discussion between the Philippine Secretary of National Defense and the US Secretary of Defense. An initial JDA report in 2001 provided an objective evaluation of Philippine defense capability. During a May 2003 state visit to Washington DC, President Arroyo requested U.S. assistance in conducting a strategic assessment of the Philippine defense system. This led to a follow-up JDA and formulation of recommendations addressing deficiencies found in the Philippine defense structure.
The results of the 2003 JDA were devastating. The JDA findings revealed that the AFP was only partially capable of performing its most critical missions. Moreover, the results pointed overwhelmingly toward institutional and strategic deficiencies as being the root cause of most of the shortcomings. A common thread in all: the lack of strategy-based planning that would focus DND/AFP on addressing priority threats and link capability requirements with the acquisition process.
Specifically, the 2003 JDA revealed critical deficiencies in the following specific areas:
During a reciprocal visit to the Philippines in October 2003 by U.S. President Bush, he and President Arroyo issued a joint statement expressing their commitment to embark upon a multi-year plan to implement the JDA recommendations. The Philippine Defense Reform (PDR) Program is the result of that agreement.
The JDA specifically identified 65 key areas and 207 ancillary areas of concern. These were reduced to ten broad-based and inter-related recommendations that later became the basis for what became known as the PDR Priority Programs. The ten are:
1. Multi-Year Defense Planning System (MYDPS)
2. Improve Intelligence, Operations, and Training Capacities
3. Improve Logistics Capacity
4. Professional Development Program
5. Improve Personnel Management System
6. Multi-year Capabilities Upgrade Program (CUP)
7. Optimization of Defense Budget and Improvement of Management Controls
8. Centrally Managed Defense Acquisition System Manned by a Professional Workforce
9. Development of Strategic Communication Capability
10. Information Management Development Program
From the perspective of the Philippine Department of National Defense (DND), the framework for reforms is based on an environment of increasing economic prowess and a gradually decreasing threat level over time, and seeks to make the following improvements:
1. Address AFP capability gaps to enable the AFP to effectively fulfill its mission.
2. Implement capability for seamless interoperability by developing proficiency in the conduct of joint operations, eliminating crisis handling by individual major services as done previously.
3. improve effectiveness of internal security operations.
4. Enhance capability to counter terrorism and other transnational threats.
5. Provide sustainment and/or long-term viability of acquired capabilities.
6. Improve cost-effectiveness of operations.
7. Improve accountability and transparency in the DND.
8. Increase professionalism in the AFP through reforms in areas such as promotions, assignments, and training.
9. Increase involvement of AFP in the peace process.
According to the goals stated in the Philippines Defense Reform Handbook: "The PDR serves as the overall framework to re-engineer our systems and re-tool our personnel." The Philippine Defense Reform follows a three-step implementation plan:
1. Creating the environment for reform (2004–2005);
2. Enabling the defense establishment (2005–2007);
3. Implementing and institutionalizing reform (2007–2010).
On September 23, 2003, President Arroyo issued Executive Order 240, streamlining procedures for defense contracts for the expeditious implementation of defense projects and the speedy response to security threats while promoting transparency, impartiality, and accountability in government transactions. Executive Order 240, creating the Office of the Undersecretary of Internal Control in the DND, mandated in part to institutionalize reforms in the procurement and fund disbursement systems in the AFP and the DND. On November 30, 2005, the Secretary of National Defense issued Department Order No. 82 (DO 82), creating the PDR Board and formalizing the reform organizational set-up between the DND and the AFP and defining workflow and decision-making processes.
The PDR is jointly funded by the U.S. and R.P. governments. from 2004 to 2008, funding amounted to $51.8 million from the U.S. and $514.0 million from the RP. Initial planning assumptioned that the 18-year span of reform would encompass a period of steady rise in economic growth coupled with equally steady decline in the military threat from terrorists and separatists. Neither of these projections have proven accurate. , at the six-year mark of PDR, the Philippine economy was internally strong, but suffering during a period of recession that crippled Philippine purchasing power. Worse, the threat situation in the Philippines had not improved significantly, or as in the case of the Sulu Archipelago, was deteriorating.
During the Arroyo presidency, deliberate 'Rolodexing' of senior leadership within the DND and AFP constantly put U.S. PDR advocates in a position of re-winning previously won points and positions, and gave U.S. observers a 'two steps forward, one step back' impression of the program. , U.S. observers were uncertain whether Arroyo's successor, Benigno Aquino III, chosen in Philippine Presidential elections on May 10, 2010, will continue the tradition of rapid turnover of senior leadership.
U.S. observers have reported that overall progress of the PDR is unmistakable and has clearly struck a wider swath of the Philippine defense establishment than originally hoped. However, they see some troubling signs that the depth of the PDR's impact may not be as significant as originally desired. For example, the Philippine legislature continues to significantly underfund the DND and AFP, currently at.9 percent of GDP, compared to an average of 2 percent worldwide, and a 4 percent outlay by the U.S. Even with full implementation of all the PDR's programs and recommendations, the defense establishment would not be able to sustain itself at current funding levels. While this can be made up by future outlays, observers see no outward sign the legislature is planning to do so. One U.S. observer likened PDR process to the progress of a Jeepney on a busy Manila avenue—explaining, "a Jeepney moves at its own pace, stops unexpectedly, frequently changes passengers, moves inexplicably and abruptly right and left in traffic, but eventually arrives safely." President Aquino has promised to implement the PDR program. , a major Philippine news organization tracking performance on his promises evaluated that one as "To Be Determined."
The Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the United States has not been updated since its signing in 1951. , discussions were underway for a formal U.S.-Philippine Framework Agreement detail how U.S. forces would be able to "operate on Philippine military bases and in Philippine territorial waters to help build Philippine military capacity in maritime security and maritime domain awareness." In particular, this Framework Agreement would which would increase rotational presence of American forces in the Philippines.
Longstanding treaties, such as the aforementioned 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982, are of great importance to the Philippines in supporting maritime security in particular; respectively, their legally binding nature provides long-term effectiveness for mutual defense cooperation and for the development of the Philippine maritime and archipelagic domain.
Philippine defense operations are supported in part through U.S. Section 1206 ($102.3 million) and 1207 ($16.02 million) funds. These funds are aimed at carrying out security, counterterrorism training and rule of law programs. Overall, the United States is increasing U.S. funding for military education and training programs in Southeast Asia. The most recent U.S. Department of Defense budget for the region includes $90 million for programs, which is a 50 percent increased from four years ago.
In 2007, The Jamestown Foundation, a US-based think tank, reported that the AFP was one of the weakest military forces in Southeast Asia, saying that as the country's primary security threats are land-based, the Army has received priority funding, and that the operational effectiveness of the Philippine Navy (PN) and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has suffered accordingly, leaving the country's sea lanes largely unprotected. In 2008, The Irrawaddy reported a statement by General Alexander B. Yano, then Chief of Staff of the AFP, that the Philippine military cannot fully defend the country from external threats due to a lack of weapons and a preoccupation with crushing the long-running communist and Muslim insurgencies. Yano went on to say that a more ambitious modernization of the ill-equipped navy and air force to better guard the country from external threats will have to wait, saying, "To be very frank with you, our capability as far as these aspects are concerned is a little deficient," and "We cannot really defend all these areas because of a lack of equipment."
Corruption within the higher ranks are believed to be one of the main reasons why modernization of the armed forces has remained stagnant for decades.
As reported by The Philippine Star in an op-ed piece, the Commission on Audit said in its 2010 audit report for the Philippine Air Force (PAF) that with only 31 aging airplanes and 54 helicopters, the PAF "virtually has a non-existent air deterrent capability" and is "ill-equipped to be operationally responsive to national security and development."
Since 1951, a Mutual Defense Treaty has been in effect between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States.
The country is prone to transnational crime, maritime territorial disputes, environmental degradation and disasters. Transnational crimes include international terrorism, drug trafficking, small arms trafficking. Environmental degradation consists of marine resource exploitation and pollution. Disasters include typhoons and floods.
The Philippines faces technical and geospatial challenges in handling threats to maritime surveillance operations and external defense. Having the eighth longest coastline (36,000 km) in the world, the country is subject to porous borders and coastlines, which place constraints on the acquisition of long-range radar systems, which require multilateral assistance due to limited defense funds. Additionally, the production, development, procurement and servicing of satellite technology is deemed as cost prohibitive.
Recent national policies have shifted the strategic direction of the AFP towards external, territorial defense as opposed to previous, internal foci. Some of the challenges with this change in strategic direction include the uneven distribution of maritime security resources among territorial, transnational, environmental, and humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) conflicts. For example, Philippine Executive Order 57, signed in 2011 by President Benigno Aquino III, established a central inter-agency mechanism for enhancing governance in the country's maritime domain. Between 1995 and 2019, the AFP Reserve Manpower in the Philippines totaled 741,937 and 4,384,936 ROTC Cadets. Out of the 700,00+ reservists; 93,062 are (ready reserve) and 610,586 are (standby reserve). There are a total of 20,451 with the affiliated reserve units.
Conflicts over responsibility for maritime surveillance between armed forces continue to underscore the numerous challenges that the TBA faces. For example, following the expulsion of Ferdinand Marcos from the Philippines in 1986, the Philippine Coast Guard separated from the Philippine Navy, resulting in an uneven distribution of resources and jurisdictional confusion.
The Philippine Army shooting team was the overall champion in a two-week competition held in Australia, 2013. The Philippine Army shooting team won 14 gold medals, 50 silver medals and two bronze medals in Australian Army Skills at the Arms Meeting (AASAM) 2014. The 7th Philippine Contingent peacekeepers to the Golan Heights were awarded the prestigious United Nations Service Medal for the performance of their mission.
The officer ranks are as follows:
These ranks, heavily inspired by those of the United States Armed Forces, are officially used in the Philippine Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. The ranks are more frequently referred and addressed in English rather than in Spanish or Tagalog/Filipino, since English is the working language within the Armed Forces.
The ranks in the Philippine Navy are similar to the US Navy ranks, the only difference is the rank of Commodore in the Philippine Navy is equivalent to the Lower Half Rear Admiral of the US Navy.
The alternative style of address for the ranks of lieutenant junior grade, lieutenant senior grade, second lieutenant, and first lieutenant are simply "lieutenant" in English, or "tenyente" or "teniente" in Tagalog and Spanish, respectively.
The ranks of enlisted personnel in Filipino are the same as their U.S. counterparts, with some differences. Except in the Marine Corps, never used are the ranks of specialist, sergeant first class, and first sergeant. Lance corporal, gunnery sergeant, and master gunnery sergeant are also never used by the Philippine Marine Corps, whose ranks are the same as the Army's. Additionally, sergeant majors in the AFP are only appointments for senior ranked non-commissioned officers (NCOs) rather than ranks, examples of such appointments being the Command Sergeant Major, AFP (held by a first chief master sergeant or a first master chief petty officer) and the Command Master Chief Petty Officer, Philippine Navy (held by an either MCPO or CMS or a SCPO or SMS).
In the Philippine Navy, they also use enlisted ranks which come from the U.S. Navy with their specialization, e.g. "Master Chief and Boatswain's mate Juan Dela Cruz, PN" (Philippine Navy).
In effect, the AFP uses the pre-1955 US military enlisted ranks, with several changes, especially in the Navy and in the senior NCO ranks.
There are no warrant officers in between officer ranks and enlisted ranks.
The uniqueness of Philippine military ranks can be seen in the current highest ranks of first chief master sergeant (for the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force) and first master chief petty officer (for the Navy), both created in 2004, and since then have become the highest enlisted rank of precedence. Prior, first chief sergeant and master chief petty officer were the highest enlisted ranks and rates, the former being the highest rank of precedence for Army, Air Force and Marine NCOs. Today only the rank of first master chief petty officer is unused, but the rank of first chief master sergeant is now being applied.
President Ferdinand Marcos, who acted also as national defense secretary (from 1965–1967 and 1971–1972), issued an order conferring the five-star officer rank to the President of the Philippines, making himself as its first rank holder. Since then, the rank of five-star general/admiral became an honorary rank of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces whenever a new president assumes office for a six-year term, thus making the President the most senior military official.
The only career military officer who reached the rank of five-star general/admiral "de jure" is President Fidel V. Ramos (USMA 1950) (president from 1992–1998) who rose from second lieutenant up to commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was also made Field Marshal of the Philippine Army with five-star rank in 1938, the only person to hold that rank. Emilio Aguinaldo, the first President of the Philippines, holds an equivalent of five-star general under the title "Generalissimo" and Minister/Field Marshal as the first commander-in-chief of the AFP.
The position is honorary and may be granted to any military officer, especially generals or admirals who had significant contributions and showed heroism, only in times of war and national defense concerns and emergencies. The highest peacetime rank is that of four-star general which is being held only by the AFP Chief of Staff. However, no law specifically establishes the rank of five-star general in the Armed Forces of the Philippines unlike in the United States and other countries.
The AFP, like the military forces of Singapore and Indonesia, uses unitary rank insignia for enlisted personnel, in the form of raised chevrons increasing by seniority, save for the Philippine Air Force which uses inverted chevrons from Airman 2nd Class onward only since recently. In the Philippine Navy these are supplemented by rating insignia by specialty, similar to the United States Navy. Like the British and Spanish armed services, however, senior ranked NCOs (especially in the Philippine Navy) also wear shoulder rank insignia only on the mess, semi-dress and dress uniforms, and in some cases even collar insignia. Like the US military all NCOs wear sleeve stripes to denote years of service in the enlisted ranks. Sleeve insignia for enlisted personnel in the Army and the Navy are similar but are different from those used in the US while those in the Marine Corps mirror its US counterpart but with special symbols from Master Sergeants onward (adopted in the early 2000s).
Officer ranks in the AFP are inspired by revolutionary insignia used by the Philippine Army after the 1898 declaration of independence. These are unitary rank insignia used in the every day, combat, duty and technical uniforms both on shoulders and collars (the latter in the khaki uniforms of the Navy), but in the semi-dress, dress and mess uniforms are different: The Army, Air Force and Marine Corps use unitary rank insignia on the shoulder board but the Navy uses the very same rank insignia format as in the US Navy except for the star (for Ensigns to Captains) in almost all officer uniforms and all general officer and flag officer shoulder boards in the full dress uniform are in gold colored backgrounds with the rank insignia and the AFP seal (the star arrangement is the same in the Army, Air Force and Marines but is different in the Navy). The Navy uses sleeve insignia only on its dress blue uniforms. Lieutenants and Captains wear 1 to 3 triangles (and Navy Ensigns and Lieutenants (junior and senior grades) in their working, duty and combat uniforms) while Majors, Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels wear 1, 2, and 3 suns (both triangles and suns have the ancient baybayin letter "ka" (K) in the center) as well as Navy superior officers (Lieutenant Commanders, Commanders and Captains) in their working, duty and combat uniforms respectively. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23448 |
Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands (; Pitkern: '), officially Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four islands—Pitcairn proper, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno—are scattered across several hundred miles of ocean and have a combined land area of about . Henderson Island accounts for 86% of the land area, but only Pitcairn Island is inhabited. The nearest places are Mangareva (of French Polynesia) to the west and Easter Island to the east.
Pitcairn is the least populous national jurisdiction in the world. The Pitcairn Islanders are a biracial ethnic group descended mostly from nine "Bounty" mutineers and a handful of Tahitian captives, an event that has been retold in many books and films. This history is still apparent in the surnames of many of the islanders. As of 2014, there were approximately 50 permanent inhabitants, originating from four main families.
The earliest known settlers of the Pitcairn Islands were Polynesians who appear to have lived on Pitcairn and Henderson, and on Mangareva Island to the northwest, for several centuries. They traded goods and formed social ties among the three islands despite the long canoe voyages between them, which helped the small populations on each island survive despite their limited resources. Eventually, important natural resources were exhausted, inter-island trade broke down and a period of civil war began on Mangareva, causing the small human populations on Henderson and Pitcairn to be cut off and eventually become extinct.
Although archaeologists believe that Polynesians were living on Pitcairn as late as the 15th century, the islands were uninhabited when they were rediscovered by Europeans.
Ducie and Henderson Islands were discovered by Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, sailing for the Spanish Crown, who arrived on 26 January 1606. He named them La Encarnación ("The Incarnation") and San Juan Bautista ("Saint John the Baptist"), respectively. However, some sources express doubt about exactly which of the islands were visited and named by Queirós, suggesting that La Encarnación may actually have been Henderson Island, and San Juan Bautista may have been Pitcairn Island.
Pitcairn Island was sighted on 3 July 1767 by the crew of the British sloop HMS "Swallow", commanded by Captain Philip Carteret. The island was named after midshipman Robert Pitcairn, a fifteen-year-old crew member who was the first to sight the island. Robert Pitcairn was a son of British Marine Major John Pitcairn, who later was killed at the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill in the American War of Independence.
Carteret, who sailed without the newly-invented marine chronometer, charted the island at , and although the latitude was reasonably accurate, his recorded longitude was incorrect by about 3°, putting his coordinates to the west of the actual island. This made Pitcairn difficult to find, as highlighted by the failure of captain James Cook to locate the island in July 1773.
In 1790, nine of the mutineers from the "Bounty", along with the native Tahitian men and women who were with them (six men, eleven women, and a baby girl), settled on Pitcairn Island and set fire to the "Bounty". The inhabitants of the island were well aware of the "Bounty's" location, which is still visible underwater in Bounty Bay, but the wreckage gained significant attention in 1957 when documented by "National Geographic" explorer Luis Marden. Although the settlers survived by farming and fishing, the initial period of settlement was marked by serious tensions among them. Alcoholism, murder, disease and other ills took the lives of most mutineers and Tahitian men. John Adams and Ned Young turned to the scriptures, using the ship's Bible as their guide for a new and peaceful society. Young eventually died of an asthmatic infection.
Ducie Island was rediscovered in 1791 by Royal Navy captain Edwards aboard , while searching for the "Bounty" mutineers. He named it after Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie, also a captain in the Royal Navy.
The Pitcairn islanders reported it was not until 27 December 1795 that the first ship since the "Bounty" was seen from the island, but it did not approach the land and they could not make out the nationality. A second ship appeared in 1801, but made no attempt to communicate with them. A third came sufficiently near to see their house, but did not try to send a boat on shore. Finally, the American sealing ship "Topaz", under Mayhew Folger, became the first to visit the island, when the crew spent 10 hours on Pitcairn in February 1808. Whalers subsequently became regular visitors to the island. The last recorded whaler to visit was the "James Arnold" in 1888.
A report of Folger's discovery was forwarded to the Admiralty, mentioning the mutineers and giving a more precise location of the island: . However, this was not known to Sir Thomas Staines, who commanded a Royal Navy flotilla of two ships, HMS "Briton" and HMS "Tagus", which found the island at (by meridian observation) on 17 September 1814. Staines sent a party ashore and wrote a detailed report for the Admiralty. By that time, only one mutineer, John Adams, remained alive. He was granted amnesty for his part in the mutiny.
Henderson Island was rediscovered on 17 January 1819 by British Captain James Henderson of the British East India Company ship "Hercules". Captain Henry King, sailing on "Elizabeth", landed on 2 March to find the king's colours already flying. His crew scratched the name of their ship into a tree. Oeno Island was discovered on 26 January 1824 by American captain George Worth aboard the whaler .
In 1832 a Church Missionary Society missionary, Joshua Hill, arrived. He reported that by March 1833, he had founded a Temperance Society to combat drunkenness, a "Maundy Thursday Society", a monthly prayer meeting, a juvenile society, a Peace Society and a school.
Traditionally, Pitcairn Islanders consider that their islands "officially" became a British colony on 30 November 1838, at the same time becoming one of the first territories to extend voting rights to women. By the mid-1850s, the Pitcairn community was outgrowing the island; its leaders appealed to the British government for assistance, and were offered Norfolk Island. On 3 May 1856, the entire population of 193 people set sail for Norfolk on board the "Morayshire", arriving on 8 June after a difficult five-week trip. However, just eighteen months later, seventeen of the Pitcairn Islanders returned to their home island, and another 27 followed five years later.
In 1886, the Seventh-day Adventist layman John Tay visited Pitcairn and persuaded most of the islanders to accept his faith. He returned in 1890 on the missionary schooner with an ordained minister to perform baptisms. Since then, the majority of Pitcairn Islanders have been Adventists.
The islands of Henderson, Oeno and Ducie were annexed by Britain in 1902: Henderson on 1 July, Oeno on 10 July, and Ducie on 19 December. In 1938, the three islands, along with Pitcairn, were incorporated into a single administrative unit called the "Pitcairn Group of Islands".
The population peaked at 233 in 1937. It has since decreased owing to emigration, primarily to Australia and New Zealand.
In 2004, charges were laid against seven men living on Pitcairn and six living abroad. This accounted for nearly a third of the male population. After extensive trials, most of the men were convicted, some with multiple counts of sexual encounters with children. On 25 October 2004, six men were convicted, including Steve Christian, the island's mayor at the time. In 2004, the islanders had about 20 firearms among them, which they surrendered ahead of the sexual assault trials. After the six men lost their final appeal, the British government set up a prison on the island at Bob's Valley. The men began serving their sentences in late 2006. By 2010, all had served their sentences or been granted home detention status.
In 2010, Pitcairn mayor Mike Warren faced 25 charges of possessing images and videos of child pornography on his computer. In 2016 Warren was found guilty of downloading more than 1,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse. Warren began downloading the images some time after the 2004 sexual assault convictions. During the time he downloaded the images, he was working in child protection. Warren was convicted in 2016 of engaging in a "sex chat" with someone he believed was a 15-year-old girl, and sentenced to 20 months imprisonment. In 2018, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council refused a bid for appeal, saying that Warren's attempt to appeal using constitutional grounds was an abuse of process.
The Pitcairn Islands form the southeasternmost extension of the geological archipelago of the Tuamotus of French Polynesia, and consist of four islands: Pitcairn Island, Oeno Island (atoll with five islets, one of which is Sandy Island), Henderson Island and Ducie Island (atoll with four islets).
The Pitcairn Islands were formed by a centre of upwelling magma called the Pitcairn hotspot.
The only permanently inhabited island, Pitcairn, is accessible only by boat through Bounty Bay. Henderson Island, covering about 86% of the territory's total land area and supporting a rich variety of animals in its nearly inaccessible interior, is also capable of supporting a small human population despite its scarce fresh water, but access is difficult, owing to its outer shores being steep limestone cliffs covered by sharp coral. In 1988, this island was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The other islands are at a distance of more than and are not habitable.
† Includes reef flat and lagoon of the atolls.
Pitcairn is located just south of the Tropic of Capricorn and experiences year-round warm weather, with wet summers and drier winters. The rainy season (summer) is from November through to March, when temperatures average and humidity can exceed 95%. Temperatures in the winter range from .
About nine plant species are thought to occur only on Pitcairn. These include tapau, formerly an important timber resource, and the giant nehe fern. Some, such as red berry ("Coprosma rapensis" var. "Benefica"), are perilously close to extinction. The plant species "Glochidion pitcairnense" is endemic to Pitcairn and Henderson Islands.
Between 1937 and 1951, Irving Johnson, skipper of the brigantine "Yankee Five", introduced five Galápagos giant tortoises to Pitcairn. Turpen, also known as Mr Turpen, or Mr. T, is the sole survivor. Turpen usually lives at Tedside by Western Harbour. A protection order makes it an offence should anyone kill, injure, capture, maim, or cause harm or distress to the tortoise.
The birds of Pitcairn fall into several groups. These include seabirds, wading birds and a small number of resident land-bird species. Of 20 breeding species, Henderson Island has 16, including the unique flightless Henderson crake; Oeno hosts 12; Ducie 13 and Pitcairn six species. Birds breeding on Pitcairn include the fairy tern, common noddy and red-tailed tropicbird. The Pitcairn reed warbler, known by Pitcairners as a "sparrow", is endemic to Pitcairn Island; formerly common, it was added to the endangered species list in 2008.
A small population of humpback whales (which has been poorly studied by scientists) migrate to the islands annually, to over-winter and breed.
The four islands in the Pitcairn group have been identified by BirdLife International as separate Important Bird Areas (IBAs). Pitcairn Island is recognised because it is the only nesting site of the Pitcairn reed warbler. Henderson Island is important for its endemic land-birds as well as its breeding seabirds. Oeno's ornithological significance derives principally from its Murphy's petrel colony. Ducie is important for its colonies of Murphy's, herald and Kermadec petrels, and Christmas shearwaters.
In March 2015 the British government established one of the largest marine protected areas in the world around the Pitcairn Islands. The reserve covers the islands' entire exclusive economic zone—. The intention is to protect some of the world's most pristine ocean habitat from illegal fishing activities. A satellite "watchroom" dubbed Project Eyes on the Seas has been established by the Satellite Applications Catapult and the Pew Charitable Trusts at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Harwell, Oxfordshire to monitor vessel activity and to gather the information needed to prosecute unauthorised trawling.
In March 2019 the International Dark-Sky Association approved the Pitcairn Islands as a Dark Sky Sanctuary. The sanctuary encompasses all 4 islands in the Pitcairn Islands Group for a total land area of 43.25 km2.
The Pitcairn Islands are a British overseas territory with a degree of local government. The Queen of the United Kingdom is represented by a Governor, who also holds office as British High Commissioner to New Zealand and is based in Wellington.
The 2010 constitution gives authority for the islands to operate as a representative democracy, with the United Kingdom retaining responsibility for matters such as defence and foreign affairs. The Governor and the Island Council may enact laws for the "peace, order and good government" of Pitcairn. The Island Council customarily appoints a Mayor of Pitcairn as a day-to-day head of the local administration. There is a Commissioner, appointed by the Governor, who liaises between the Council and the Governor's office.
Since 2015, same-sex marriage has been legal on Pitcairn Island, although there are no people on the island known to be in such a relationship.
The Pitcairn Islands has the smallest population of any democracy in the world.
The United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes the Pitcairn Islands on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
The Pitcairn Islands are an overseas territory of the United Kingdom; defence is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence and Her Majesty's Armed Forces.
The fertile soil of the Pitcairn valleys, such as Isaac's Valley on the gentle slopes southeast of Adamstown, produces a wide variety of fruits: including bananas (Pitkern: "plun"), papaya ("paw paws"), pineapples, mangoes, watermelons, cantaloupes, passionfruit, breadfruit, coconuts, avocadoes, and citrus (including mandarin oranges, grapefruit, lemons and limes). Vegetables include: sweet potatoes (kumura), carrots, sweet corn, tomatoes, taro, yams, peas, and beans. Arrowroot ("Maranta arundinacea") and sugarcane are grown and harvested to produce arrowroot flour and molasses, respectively. Pitcairn Island is remarkably productive and its benign climate supports a wide range of tropical and temperate crops. All land allocation for any use including agriculture is under the discretion of the government. If the government deems agricultural production excessive then it may tax the land. If the agricultural land has been deemed not up to the standards of the government it may confiscate and transfer the land without compensation.
Fish are plentiful in the seas around Pitcairn. Spiny lobster and a large variety of fish are caught for meals and for trading aboard passing ships. Almost every day someone will go fishing, whether it is from the rocks, from a longboat, or diving with a spear gun. There are numerous types of fish around the island. Fish such as nanwee, white fish, moi, and opapa are caught in shallow water, white snapper, big eye, and cod are caught in deep water, and yellow tail and wahoo are caught by trawling.
Manganese, iron, copper, gold, silver and zinc have been discovered within the exclusive economic zone, which extends offshore and comprises .
In 1998 the UK's overseas aid agency, the Department for International Development, funded an apiculture programme for Pitcairn which included training for Pitcairn's beekeepers and a detailed analysis of Pitcairn's bees and honey with particular regard to the presence or absence of disease. Pitcairn has one of the best examples of disease-free bee populations anywhere in the world and the honey produced was and remains exceptionally high in quality. Pitcairn bees are also a placid variety and, within a short time, beekeepers are able to work with them wearing minimal protection. As a result, Pitcairn exports honey to New Zealand and to the United Kingdom. In London, Fortnum & Mason sells it and it is a favourite of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. The Pitcairn Islanders, under the "Bounty Products" and "Delectable Bounty" brands, also export dried fruit including bananas, papayas, pineapples, and mangoes to New Zealand. Honey production and all honey-related products are a protected monopoly. All funds and management are under the supervision and discretion of the government.
Cuisine is not very developed, because of Pitcairn's tiny population. The most traditional meal is pota, mash from palm leaves and coconut. Domestic tropical plants are abundantly used. These include: basil, breadfruit, sugar cane, coconut, bananas and beans. Meat courses consist mainly of fish and beef. Given that most of the population's ancestry is from the UK, the cuisine is influenced by British cuisine; for example, the meat pie.
The cuisine of Norfolk Island is very similar to that of the Pitcairn Islands, as Norfolk Islanders trace their origins to Pitcairn. The local cuisine is a blend of British cuisine and Tahitian cuisine.
Recipes from Norfolk Island of Pitcairn origin include mudda (green banana dumplings) and kumara pilhi. The island's cuisine also includes foods not found on Pitcairn, such as chopped salads and fruit pies.
Tourism plays a major role on Pitcairn. Tourism is the focus for building the economy. It focuses on small groups coming by charter vessel and staying at "home stays". About ten times a year, passengers from expedition-type cruise ships come ashore for a day, weather permitting. As of 2019, the government has been operating the MV "Silver Supporter" as the island's only dedicated passenger/cargo vessel, providing adventure tourism holidays to Pitcairn every week. Tourists stay with local families and experience the island's culture while contributing to the local economy. Providing accommodation is a growing source of revenue, and some families have invested in private self-contained units adjacent to their homes for tourists to rent.
Entry requirements for short stays, up to 14 days, which do not require a visa, and for longer stays, that do require prior clearance, are explained in official documents. All persons under 16 years of age require prior clearance before landing, irrespective of the length of stay.
The Pitcairners are involved in creating crafts and curios (made out of wood from Henderson). Typical woodcarvings include sharks, fish, whales, dolphins, turtles, vases, birds, walking sticks, book boxes, and models of the "Bounty". Miro ("Thespesia populnea"), a dark and durable wood, is preferred for carving. Islanders also produce tapa cloth and painted Hattie leaves. The major sources of revenue have been the sale of coins and postage stamps to collectors, .pn domain names, and the sale of handicrafts to passing ships, most of which are on the United Kingdom to New Zealand route via the Panama Canal. The flow of funds from these revenue sources are from customer to the government to the Pitcairners. The government holds a monopoly over "any article of whatsoever nature made, manufactured, prepared for sale or produced by any of the inhabitants of Pitcairn Island".
Diesel generators provide the island with electricity from 7 am to 10 pm. A wind power plant was planned to be installed to help reduce the high cost of power generation associated with the import of diesel, but was cancelled in 2013 after a project overrun of three years and a cost of £250,000.
The only qualified high-voltage electrician on Pitcairn, who manages the electricity grid, reached the age of 67 in 2020.
The islands have suffered a substantial population decline since 1940, and the viability of the island's community is in doubt (see § Potential extinction, below). The government has tried to attract migrants. However, these initiatives have not been effective.
Only two children were born on Pitcairn in the 21 years prior to 2012. In 2005, Shirley and Simon Young became the first married outsider couple in history to obtain citizenship on Pitcairn.
Most resident Pitcairn Islanders are descendants of the "Bounty" mutineers and Tahitians (or other Polynesians). Pitkern is a creole language derived from 18th-century English, with elements of the Tahitian language. It is spoken as a first language by the population and is taught alongside English at the island's only school. It is closely related to the creole language Norfuk, spoken on Norfolk Island, because Norfolk was repopulated in the mid-19th century by Pitcairners.
The only church building on the island is Seventh-day Adventist. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not a state religion, as no laws concerning its establishment were passed by the local government. A successful Seventh-day Adventist mission in the 1890s was important in shaping Pitcairn society. In recent years, the church population has declined, and , eight of the then forty islanders attended services regularly, but most attend church on special occasions. From Friday at sunset until Saturday at sunset, Pitcairners observe a day of rest in observance of the Sabbath, or as a mark of respect for observant Adventists.
The church was built in 1954 and is run by the Church board and resident pastor, who usually serves a two-year term. The Sabbath School meets at 10 am on Saturday mornings, and is followed by Divine Service an hour later. On Tuesday evenings, there is another service in the form of a prayer meeting.
Education is free and compulsory between the ages of five and fifteen. Children up to the age of 12 are taught at Pulau School, while children of 13 and over attend secondary school in New Zealand, or are educated via correspondence school.
The island's children have produced a book in Pitkern and English called "Mi Bas Side orn Pitcairn" or "My Favourite Place on Pitcairn".
The school at Pitcairn, Pulau School, provides pre-school and primary education based on the New Zealand syllabus. The teacher is appointed by the governor from suitable qualified applicants who are registered in New Zealand as teachers. The government officially took responsibility for education in 1958; the Seventh-day Adventist Church had done so from the 1890s until 1958. There were ten students in 1999; enrollment was previously 20 in the early 1950s, 28 in 1959, and 36 in 1962. The Pulau School has a residence for teachers built in 2004; there was a previous such facility built in 1950.
Pitcairn's population has significantly decreased since its peak of over 200 in the 1930s, to only around fifty permanent residents today (2012–2018).
, the total resident population of the Pitcairn Islands was 56, including the six temporary residents: an administrator, a doctor, a police officer, and their spouses. However, the actual permanent resident population was only 49 Pitcairners spread across 23 households. It is, however, rare for all 49 residents to be on-island at the same time; it is common for several residents to be off-island for varying lengths of time visiting family, for medical reasons, or to attend international conferences. , for instance, seven residents were off-island. A diaspora survey projected that by 2045, if nothing were done, only three people of working age would be left on the island, with the rest being very old. In addition, the survey revealed that residents who had left the island over the past decades showed little interest in coming back. Of the hundreds of emigrants contacted, only 33 were willing to participate in the survey and just three expressed a desire to return.
, the labour force consisted of 31 able-bodied persons: 17 males and 14 females between 18 and 64 years of age. Of the 31, just seven are younger than 40, but 18 are over the age of 50. Most of the men undertake the more strenuous physical tasks on the island such as crewing the longboats, cargo handling, and the operation and maintenance of physical assets. Longboat crew retirement age is 58. There were then 12 men aged between 18 and 58 residing on Pitcairn. Each longboat requires a minimum crew of three; of the four longboat coxswains, two were in their late 50s.
The Pitcairn government's attempts to attract migrants have been unsuccessful. Since 2013, some 700 make inquiries each year, but so far, not a single formal settlement application has been received. The migrants are prohibited from taking local jobs or claiming benefits for a certain length of time, even those with children. The migrants are expected to have at least NZ$30,000 per person in savings and are expected to build their own house at average cost of NZ$140,000. It is also possible to bring off-island builders at an additional cost of between NZ$23,000 and NZ$28,000. The average annual cost of living on the island is NZ$9,464. There is, however, no assurance of the migrant's right to remain on Pitcairn; after their first two years, the council must review and reapprove the migrant's status. The migrants are also required to take part in the unpaid public work to keep the island in order such as maintaining the island's numerous roads and paths, building roads, navigating the island longboats, and cleaning public toilets. There are also restrictions on bringing children under the age of 16 to the island.
Freight from Tauranga to Pitcairn on the (Pitcairn Island's dedicated passenger and cargo ship chartered by the Pitcairn government) is charged at NZ$350/m3 for Pitcairners and NZ$1,000/m3 for all other freight. Additionally, Pitcairners are charged NZ$3,000 for a one-way trip; others are charged NZ$5,000.
, the government's Pitcairn Islands Economic Report stated that " will migrate to Pitcairn Islands for economic reasons as there are limited government jobs, a lack of private sector employment, as well as considerable competition for the tourism dollar". The Pitcairners take turns to accommodate those few tourists who occasionally visit the island.
As the island remains a British Overseas Territory, the British government will at some stage be required to make a decision about the island's future.
The once-strict moral codes, which prohibited dancing, public displays of affection, smoking, and consumption of alcohol, have been relaxed. Islanders and visitors no longer require a six-month licence to purchase, import, and consume alcohol. There is now one licensed café and bar on the island, and the government store sells alcohol and cigarettes.
Fishing and swimming are two popular recreational activities. A birthday celebration or the arrival of a ship or yacht will involve the entire Pitcairn community in a public dinner in the Square, Adamstown. Tables are covered in a variety of foods, including fish, meat, chicken, pilhi, baked rice, boiled "plun" (banana), breadfruit, vegetable dishes, an assortment of pies, bread, breadsticks, an array of desserts, pineapple, and watermelon.
Paid employees maintain the island's numerous roads and paths. , the island had a labour force of over 35 men and women.
Bounty Day is an annual public holiday celebrated on Pitcairn on 23 January to commemorate the day in 1790 when the mutineers arrived on the island in HMS "Bounty".
Pitcairn uses New Zealand's international calling code, +64. It is still on the manual telephone system.
There is no broadcast station. Marine band walkie-talkie radios are used to maintain contact among people in different areas of the island. Foreign stations can be picked up on shortwave radio.
Callsign website QRZ.COM lists six amateur radio operators on the island, using the ITU prefix (assigned through the UK) of VP6, two of whom have a second VR6 callsign. However, two of these 6 are listed by QRZ.COM as deceased, while others are no longer active. Pitcairn Island has one callsign allocated to its Club Station, VP6PAC.
QRZ.COM lists 29 VP6 callsigns being allocated in total, 20 of them to off-islanders. Of these, five were allocated to temporary residents and ten to individuals visiting. The rest were assigned to the DX-peditions to Pitcairn, one of which took place . In 2008, a major DX-pedition visited Ducie Island. In 2018, another major DX-pedition visited Ducie Island.
Pitcairn can receive a number of television channels but only has capacity to broadcast two channels to houses at any one time. The channels are currently switched on a regular basis.
There is one government-sponsored satellite Internet connection, with networking provided to the inhabitants of the island. Pitcairn's country code top-level domain is .pn. Residents pay NZ$50 (about £26) for 25 GB of data per month. In 2012, a single 1 Mbit/s link installed provided the islanders with an Internet connection, the 1 Mbit/s was shared across all families on the island. By December 2017, the British Government implemented a 4G LTE mobile network in Adamstown with shared speeds of 5 Mbit/s across all islanders.
All settlers of the Pitcairn Islands arrived by boat or ship. Pitcairn Island does not have an airport, airstrip or seaport; the islanders rely on longboats to ferry people and goods between visiting ships and shore through Bounty Bay. Access to the rest of the shoreline is restricted by jagged rocks. The island has one shallow harbour with a launch ramp accessible only by small longboats.
A dedicated passenger and cargo supply ship chartered by the Pitcairn Island government, the , was until 2018 the principal transport from Mangareva in the Gambier Islands of French Polynesia. The supply ship was replaced in 2019 by .
Totegegie Airport in Mangareva can be reached by air from the French Polynesian capital Papeete.
There is one paved road leading up from Bounty Bay through Adamstown.
The main modes of transport on Pitcairn Islands are by four-wheel drive quad bikes and on foot. Much of the road and track network and some of the footpaths of Pitcairn Island are viewable on Google's Street View. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23450 |
Politics of the Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands are a British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific Ocean, with a population of about 50. The politics of the islands takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic dependency, whereby the Mayor is the head of government. The territory's constitution is the Local Government Ordinance of 1964. In terms of population, the Pitcairn Islands is the smallest democracy in the world.
The government's administrative offices are in Auckland, New Zealand.
The Queen is represented by the Governor of the Pitcairn Islands, who is the British High Commissioner to New Zealand, currently Jonathan Sinclair. A non-resident Commissioner, appointed by the Governor, serves as the Governor's Representative to the territory. The Commissioner is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the island as well as for its economic regeneration, and also serves as the liaison between the Governor and the Island Council. As both the Governor and the Commissioner do not live on the island, its daily affairs have since 1999 been taken care of by the mayor of Pitcairn. The Island Magistrate is appointed by the Governor. The Chairman of the Internal Committee is an elected official.
Until 30 October 2004, the mayor was Steve Christian; after his rape conviction on 24 October 2004, Christian was dismissed (after refusing to resign). His sister Brenda Christian was selected by the Island Council to be mayor for November and December 2004, until an election was held. Jay Warren was elected on 15 December 2004. The island Mayor is elected by popular vote for a three-year term. The current mayor is convicted child rapist Shawn Christian.
The Attorney General of the Pitcairn Islands is appointed under Section 35 of the Pitcairn Islands Constitution and serves as the principal legal adviser to the government of Pitcairn for a set term. Initially, the Attorney General was referred to as the Legal Adviser. The Attorney General's powers and responsibilities include handling criminal matters, drafting Pitcairn ordinances, and revising and publishing any laws that pertain to the country.
The Pitcairn Islands have a unicameral Island Council (10 seats: the Mayor and the Chairman of the Island Council both hold membership "ex officio;"; 4 elected by popular vote; 1 co-opted by the Chairman and the 4 other elected members; 2 appointed by the Governor including the Island Secretary "(ex officio)"; the tenth seat is reserved for a Commissioner (non-resident) who liaises between the Council and the Governor. Except for the Mayor, who has a three-year term, and the Island Secretary, whose term is indefinite, members serve one-year terms.
Last elections were held on 12 November 2013.
Elections are held every two years for councillors and deputy mayor and every three years for the mayor. Before a change in the Constitution, elections were held every year on 24 December. There are no political parties on the islands.
The members of the Pitcairn judiciary are all New Zealanders – as are almost all of the lawyers admitted to the Pitcairn Bar – and are all either current or former members of the judiciary or legal profession (in the case of the magistrates) in that country.
Currently, the members of the judiciary are:
Additionally, several magistrates have been appointed from amongst the ranks of the senior members of the legal profession in New Zealand. The Pitcairn Public Prosecutor – Simon Moore (also the Crown Solicitor at Auckland) and Public Defender – Paul Dacre – were also appointed.
According to a 2012 report, there are no lawyers in the Pitcairn Islands. There has been a Public Defender serving the islands since 2003. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23454 |
Geography of Puerto Rico
The geography of Puerto Rico consists of an archipelago located between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Dominican Republic, west of the Virgin Islands and north of Venezuela. The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest and most eastern of the Greater Antilles. With an area of , it is the third largest island in the United States and the 82nd largest island in the world. Various smaller islands and cays, including Vieques, Culebra, Mona, Desecheo, and Caja de Muertos comprise the remainder of the archipelago with only Culebra and Vieques being inhabited year-round. Mona is uninhabited through large parts of the year except for employees of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources.
The mainland measures some by , slightly larger than the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It is mostly mountainous with large coastal areas in the north and south regions of the island. Some popular beaches on the north-west side of the island are Jobos Beach, Maria's Beach, Domes Beach and Sandy Beach. The main mountainous range is called "La Cordillera Central" (The Central Range). The highest elevation point of Puerto Rico, Cerro de Punta (), is located in this range. Another important peak is El Yunque, located in the Sierra de Luquillo at the El Yunque National Forest, with a maximum elevation of . The capital, San Juan, is located on the main island's north coast.
The archipelago of Puerto Rico is located between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands. Located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, Puerto Rico was key to the Spanish Empire since the early years of exploration, conquest and colonization of the New World.
The topography of the main island is divided into three major regions: the mountainous region, which includes the "Cordillera Central", "Sierra de Luquillo", "Sierra de Cayey" and "Sierra Bermeja", the coastal plains and the northern karst region. The "Cordillera Central" extends through the entire island, dividing it into the northern and southern region. The mountain region accounts for approximately 60% of the land area.
The archipelago of Culebra, located east of Puerto Rico, north of Vieques, and west of the Virgin Islands, is composed of the main island of Culebra and 28 uninhabited islets. Mainly mountainous, the island of Culebra possesses renowned beaches.
Located in the tropics, Puerto Rico enjoys an average temperature of throughout the year. The seasons do not change very drastically. The temperature in the south is usually a few degrees higher than the north and temperatures in the central interior mountains are always cooler than the rest of the island. The highest temperature record was in the Town of San German with and the minimum registration is in Aibonito. The dry season spans from November to May while the wet season coincides with the Atlantic hurricane season from June to November.
Puerto Rico has lakes (none of them natural) and more than 50 rivers. Most of these rivers are born in the "Cordillera Central", Puerto Rico's principal mountain range located across the center of the island. The rivers in the north of the island are bigger and with higher flow capacity than those of the south. The south is thus drier and hotter than the north. These rivers make up 60 watersheds throughout the island, where over 95% of the runoff goes back to sea.
As of 1998, 239 plants, 16 birds and 39 amphibians/reptiles have been discovered that are endemic to the archipelago of Puerto Rico. The majority of these (234, 12 and 33 respectively) are found on the main island. The most recognizable endemic species and a symbol of Puerto Rican pride are the Coquís ("Eleutherodactylus" spp.), small frogs easily recognized by the sound from which they get their name. El Yunque National Forest, a tropical rainforest, is home to the majority (13 of 16) of species of Coquí. It is also home to more than 240 plants, 26 of which are endemic, and 50 bird species, including the critically endangered Puerto Rican amazon ("Amazona vittata").
Forests of Puerto Rico are well represented by the flora of the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF), a Long Term Ecological Research Network site managed by the United States Forest Service and University of Puerto Rico. At this site, there are four main life zones, delineated on the basis of temperature and precipitation (Holdridge System), in the Luquillo Mountains: subtropical wet and subtropical rain forests are found at low and mid elevations, lower montane rain and lower montane wet forests at high elevations. There is also an area of subtropical moist forest at low elevations on the southwest slope.
Tabonuco forest, so named for the dominant tabonuco tree ("Dacryodes excelsa"), covers lower slopes to about . In well-developed stands the larger trees exceed in height, there is a fairly continuous canopy at , and the shaded understory is moderately dense. Tabonuco trees are especially large on ridges, where they are firmly rooted in the rocky substrate and connected by root grafts with each other. There are about 168 tree species in the tabonuco forest.
The Colorado forest, named for the large Colorado tree ("Cyrilla racemiflora"), begins above the tabonuco forest and extends up to about . Its canopy reaches only about . Soils are saturated and root mats above the soil are common. There are some 53 tree species in this forest type. At this same elevation, but in especially steep and wet areas, is palm forest, heavily dominated by the sierra palm ("Prestoea montana"). Patches of palm forest are also found in saturated riparian areas in the tabonuco forest. The palm forest reaches about 15 m in height.
At the highest elevations is dwarf forest, a dense forest as short as , on saturated soils. Here the trees are covered with epiphytic mosses and vascular plants, especially bromeliads, and these also cover large areas of the ground. Ascending the Luquillo Mountains through these forest types, the average tree height and diameter, number of tree species, and basal area (cross sectional area of tree stems) tend to decrease, while stem density increases.
There are more than 89 tree species in the LEF. The most common are "Prestoea acuminata", "Casearia arborea", "Dacryodes excelsa", "Manilkara bidentata", "Inga laurina", and "Sloanea berteroana". Common shrub species are "Palicourea croceoides", "Psychotria berteriana", and "Piper glabrescens". Grasses, ferns, and forbs are frequent on the ground, especially in canopy gaps; epiphytes are fairly common, and vines are uncommon.
Puerto Rican dry forests are dominated by plants in the families Rubiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Myrtaceae. In this regard they are similar to Jamaican dry forests, but differ sharply from dry forests on the mainland of South and Central America, which are dominated by Fabaceae and Bignoniaceae.
Mario Javier Fernandez-Vega is a Puerto Rican forester who uses silvicultural techniques. Fernandez is currently developing cutting edge forestry methods known as the "Borincano Model". The model capitalizes on the diversity of ecological niches in Puerto Rican forests and native disturbance regimes to formulate practices uniquely suited to the forests of the territory. About his model Fernandez has been known to comment, "Soy de aquí como el coquí" I am from here just like the Coquí, a common patriotic axiom that is used to demonstrate their native ties to the island. Although incorrect, many believe that the Coquí and its unique vocalizations are indigenous to the island of Puerto Rico. In fact however, there are thriving populations of Coquís that, like the people of Puerto Rico, have been transported to the island of Hawaii. The Coquí is viewed as an ecological menace in Hawaii where its song of "co kee co kee" is found to be an irritant by many. Needless to say that efforts to eradicate its presence in Hawaii is not a popular issue among Puerto Ricans.
Puerto Rico is mostly mountainous with large coastal areas in the north and south. The main mountain range is called "La Cordillera Central" (The Central Range). The highest elevation in Puerto Rico, Cerro de Punta , is located in this range. Another important peak is El Yunque, one of the highest in the "Sierra de Luquillo" at the El Yunque National Forest, with an elevation of .
Puerto Rico is composed of Cretaceous to Eocene volcanic and plutonic rocks, which are overlain by younger Oligocene to recent carbonates and other sedimentary rocks. Most of the caverns and karst topography on the island occurs in the northern Oligocene to recent carbonates. The oldest rocks are approximately 190 million years old (Jurassic) and are located at Sierra Bermeja in the southwest part of the island. These rocks may represent part of the oceanic crust and are believed to come from the Pacific Ocean realm. Puerto Rico lies at the boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates. This means that it is currently being deformed by the tectonic stresses caused by the interaction of these plates. These stresses may cause earthquakes and tsunamis. These seismic events, along with landslides, represent some of the most dangerous geologic hazards in the island and in the northeastern Caribbean. The most recent major earthquake occurred on October 11, 1918, with seismic moment estimated at 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale. It originated off the coast of Aguadilla and was accompanied by a tsunami.
Lying about north of Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean at the boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates is the Puerto Rico Trench, the largest and deepest trench in the Atlantic. The trench is long and about wide. At its deepest point, named the Milwaukee Depth, it is 27,493 ft (8,380 m) deep, or about .
As an unincorporated territory of the United States, Puerto Rico does not have any first-order administrative divisions as defined by the U.S. Government, but there are 78 municipalities at the second level. Municipalities are further subdivided into "barrios", and those into sectors. Each municipality has a mayor and a municipal legislature elected for a 4-year term.
The first municipality (previously called "town") of Puerto Rico, San Juan, was founded in 1521. In the 16th century two more municipalities were established, Coamo (1570) and San Germán (1570). Three more municipalities were established in the 17th century. These were Arecibo (1614), Aguada (1692) and Ponce (1692). The 18th and 19th century saw an increase in settlement in Puerto Rico with 30 municipalities being established in the 18th century and 34 more in the 19th century. Only six municipalities were founded in the 20th century with the last, Florida, being founded in 1971.
Under Spanish rule, as of the 1880s, Puerto Rico was subdivided into regional districts (or "departamentos") that contained smaller ayuntamientes (municipalities): | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23461 |
Demographics of Puerto Rico
The population of Puerto Rico has been shaped by Amerindian settlement, European colonization especially under the Spanish Empire, slavery and economic migration. This article is about the demographic features of the population of Puerto Rico, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Sometime between 400 B.C. and A.D. 100, the Arawak group of Amerindians inhabited Puerto Rico. Around A.D. 600, the Arawaks no longer lived on the island, perhaps because they had integrated with another culture or perhaps because they had been killed by illness. By A.D. 1000, the indigenous Taíno inhabited the island. They called the island Borikén (alternatively, Borinquén), which means "land of the valiant one" and later Puerto Ricans called themselves boricua, borincano and borinqueño to embrace their indigenous identity. In the 15th century, the Carib lived on nearby islands and periodically invaded Taíno villages.
The Spanish conquered the island, assuming government in 1508, colonized it, and assumed hegemony over the natives. The Taíno population dwindled due to disease, tribal warfare, and forced labor, so the Spanish began importing large numbers of slaves from Africa. Spanish men arrived on the island disproportionately to Spanish women; African and Taíno women would sometimes marry them, resulting in a mixed tri-racial ethnicity.
In the late 18th century, the number of African slaves began to dwindle on the island. The British ban on slavery resulted in slave raids on Puerto Rico. Many slaves also escaped to neighboring islands.
During the 19th century large numbers of immigrants from Spain, as well as numerous Spaniards living in former Spanish colonies in South America, also arrived in Puerto Rico (See Spanish immigration to Puerto Rico). Although the vast majority of settlers came from Spain, Catholics from France, Ireland, Italy and other European countries were also granted land by Spain as one of the provisions of the "Real Cédula de Gracias de 1815" (Royal Decree of Graces of 1815). These immigrants were allowed to settle on the island, with a certain amount of free land and enslaved persons granted to them. In return, they had to profess fealty to the Spanish Crown. During the early 20th century Jews began to settle in Puerto Rico. The first large group of Jews to settle in Puerto Rico were European refugees fleeing German–occupied Europe in the 1930s. Puerto Rico's economic boom of the 1950s attracted a considerable number of Jewish families from the U.S. mainland, who were joined after 1959 by an influx of Jewish emigres from Fidel Castro's Cuba.
The mass immigration that occurred during the 19th century helped the population grow from 155,000 in 1800 to almost 1,000,000 at the close of the century.
Emigration has been a major part of Puerto Rico's recent history as well. Starting in the post-World War II period waves of Puerto Ricans moved to the continental United States, particularly to New York City; Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Camden, New Jersey; Providence, Rhode Island; Springfield; Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut; Boston, Massachusetts; Orlando, Miami and Tampa, Florida; Philadelphia and Reading, Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles, California. This continued even as Puerto Rico's economy improved and its birth rate declined.
Births
Deaths
Natural growth
Structure of the population (01.07.2012) (Estimates) (Data refer to projections based on the 2010 Population Census) :
Source: "UN World Population Prospects"
The first census by the United States in 1899 reported a population of 953,243 inhabitants, 61.8% of them classified as white, 31.9% as mixed, and 6.3% as black.
A strong European immigration wave and large importation of slaves from Africa helped increase the population of Puerto Rico sixfold during the 19th century. No major immigration wave occurred during the 20th century.
The federal Naturalization Act, signed into law on March 26, 1790, by President Washington stated that immigrants to the United States had to be White according to the definition under the British Common Law, which the United States inherited. The legal definition of Whiteness differed greatly from White Society's informal definition, thus Jews, Romani Peoples, Middle Eastern Peoples and those of the Indian Subcontinent were before 1917 classified as White for Immigration purposes but not considered White by the society at large. The Naturalization Act of 1870, passed during Reconstruction, allowed for peoples of African descent to become U.S. Citizens but it excluded other nonwhites. The U.S. Supreme Court in the case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) declared that all nonwhites who were born in the United States were eligible for citizenship via the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment. U.S. Immigration Policy was first restricted toward Chinese with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Gentleman's Agreement of 1907 in which Japan voluntarily barred emigration to the United States and the Immigration Act of 1917 or the Asiatic Barred Zone which barred immigrants from all of the Middle East, the Steppes and the Orient, excluding the Philippines which was then a US Colony. European Jews and Romani, although of Asiatic Ancestry, were not affected by the Asiatic Barred Zone, as they held European Citizenship. The Johnson-Reed act of 1924 applied only to the Eastern Hemisphere. The Act imposed immigration quotas on Europe, which allowed for easy immigration from Northern and Western Europe, but almost excluded the Mediterranean and Slavic Nations. Africa and Asia were excluded altogether. The Western Hemisphere remained unrestricted to immigrate to the United States. Thus under the Immigration Act of 1924 all Hispanics and Caribbeans could immigrate to the United States, but a White family from Poland or Russia could not immigrate. Puerto Rican Citizenship was created under the Foraker Act, Pub.L. 56–191, 31 Stat. 77 but it wasn't until 1917 that Puerto Ricans were granted full American Citizenship under the Jones–Shafroth Act (Pub.L. 64–368, 39 Stat. 951. Puerto Ricans, excluding those of obvious African ancestry, were like most Hispanics formally classified as White under U.S. Law, but this classification did not prevent informal discrimination against them by Anglo-Americans.
Until 1950 the U.S. Bureau of the Census attempted to quantify the racial composition of the island's population, while experimenting with various racial taxonomies. In 1960 the census dropped the racial identification question for Puerto Rico but included it again in the year 2000. The only category that remained constant over time was white, even as other racial labels shifted greatly—from "colored" to "Black", "mulatto" and "other".
Regardless of the precise terminology, the census reported that the bulk of the Puerto Rican population was white from 1899 to 2000.
In the late 1700s, Puerto Rico had laws like the "Regla del Sacar" or "Gracias al Sacar" where a person of mixed ancestry could be considered legally white so long as they could prove that at least one person per generation in the last four generations had also been legally white. Therefore, people of mixed ancestry with known white lineage were classified as white, the opposite of the "one-drop rule" in the United States.
According to the 1920 Puerto Rico census, 2,505 individuals immigrated to Puerto Rico between 1910 and 1920. Of these, 2,270 were classified as "white" in the 1920 census (1,205 from Spain, 280 from Venezuela, 180 from Cuba, and 135 from the Dominican Republic).
During the same 10-year period, 7,873 Puerto Ricans emigrated to the U.S. Of these, 6,561 were listed as "white" on the U.S mainland census, 909 as "Spanish white" and 403 as "black".
According to the 2015 Race and Hispanic Origin estimate (2011–2015 American Community Survey) published by the US Census Bureau, the data for Puerto Rico was as follows:
Puerto Ricans, on average, have genetic contributions from Europeans, West Africans, and Native Americans of approximately 66%, 18%, and 16%, respectively. showed 66% of Puerto Ricans could trace their ancestry to male European ancestors, 18% could trace it to male African ancestors, and 16% could trace it to male Native American ancestors.
In a study done on Puerto Rican women (of all races) born on the island but living in New York by Carolina Bonilla, Mark D. Shriver and Esteban Parra in 2004, the ancestry proportions corresponding to the three parental populations were found to be 53.3±2.8% European, 29.1±2.3% West African, and 17.6±2.4% Native American based on autosomal ancestry informative markers. Although autosomal markers tests seem to draw a more broad picture than that of single, gender-based mtDNA and Y-Chromosome tests, the problem with autosomal DNA is in the archaic categories used: "European", "Sub-Saharan African", "East Asian" & "Native American". "Asian" (South, North or East) & "North African" are not included. These generalized categories may not take into account the complexity of migratory patterns across the Old World. The study also found that, from the women sampled, 98% had European ancestry markers, 87% had African ancestry markers, 84% had Native American ancestry markers, 5% showed only African and European markers, 4% showed mostly Native American and European markers, 2% showed only African markers, and 2% showed mostly European markers.
There are many religious beliefs represented in the island with Christianity as the religion indicated by the majority in 2010.
Religious breakdown in Puerto Rico (2010):
A recent report providing a full breakdown as to specific religions is not available; the most recent was for 2006.
The Christian Denominational Breakdown was as follows in 2006:
The Roman Catholic Church has been historically the most dominant religion of the majority of Puerto Ricans, with Puerto Rico having the first dioceses in the Americas. This religion was brought by Spanish colonists. The first dioceses in the Americas, including that of Puerto Rico, were authorized by Pope Julius II in 1511. One Pope, John Paul II, visited Puerto Rico in October 1984. All municipalities in Puerto Rico have at least one Catholic Church, most of which are located at the town center or ""plaza"".
An Associated Press article in March 2014 stated that "more than 70 percent of whom identify themselves as Catholic" but provided no source for this information. (It may have been using the 2010 Pew Research Center data.)
The CIA World Factbook however, reports that 85% of the population of Puerto Rico identifies as Roman Catholic, while 15% identify as Protestant and Other. Neither a date or a source for that information is provided and may not be recent.
In November 2014, a Pew Research report, with the sub-title "Widespread Change in a Historically Catholic Region", indicated that only 56% of Puerto Ricans were Catholic and that 33% were Protestant. This survey was completed between October 2013 and February 2014.
Protestantism was suppressed under the Spanish Catholic regime. For example, the Holy Trinity Anglican church in Ponce, was prevented from ringing its bell until 1898, when American troops landed there. Protestantism increased under American sovereignty, making contemporary Puerto Rico more interconfessional than in previous centuries, although Catholicism continues to be the dominant religion. The first Protestant church, Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad, was established in Ponce by the Anglican Diocese of Antigua in 1872. It was the first non-Roman Catholic Church in the entire Spanish Empire in the Americas.
In 2007, there were over 5,000 Muslims in Puerto Rico, representing about 0.13% of the population. There are eight Islamic mosques spread throughout the island, with most Muslims living in Río Piedras. Puerto Rican converts to Islam continue to occur. "Ties between Latinos and Islam are more than just spiritual, but date back to Spanish history. Many people do not realize that Muslims conquered Spain". And at times not just individuals, but whole families convert. However, lack of Muslim education in the Island forces some Puerto Rican Muslims to migrate to the States. Islam was brought into Puerto Rico mainly via the Palestinian migration of the 1950s and '60s. Thus, today there is a strong Palestinian presence among Muslims in Puerto Rico. "They are economically strong and are thus able to pay for a full-time Imaam".
Puerto Rico is also home to the largest Jewish community in the Caribbean with 3,000 Jewish inhabitants. Some Puerto Ricans have converted, not only as individuals but as entire families. Puerto Rico is the only Caribbean island in which the Conservative, Reform and Orthodox Jewish movements are represented.
Taíno religious practices have been rediscovered/reinvented by a handful of advocates. Starting in about 1840, there have been attempts to create a quasi-indigenous Taíno identity in rural areas of Puerto Rico. This trend accelerated among the Puerto Rican community in the mainland United States in the 1960s. In the 2010 U.S. census, 9,399 people are identified as "Taíno."
Various African religious practices have been present since the arrival of enslaved Africans. In particular, the Yoruba beliefs of Santería and/or Ifá, and the Kongo-derived Palo Mayombe (sometimes called an African belief system, but rather a way of Bantu lifestyle of Congo origin) find adherence among the few individuals who practice some form of African traditional religion.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook unless otherwise indicated.
Population in 2010:
Population in 2016:
Gender:
Age structure:
Infant mortality rate:
Life expectancy at birth:
Total fertility rate:
Nationality:
Ethnic Groups (2010):
Religions:
Languages:
Median Household Income:
Individuals below the poverty level:
Education, high school graduate or higher: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23462 |
Politics of Puerto Rico
The politics of Puerto Rico take place in the framework of a democratic republic form of government that is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States as an organized unincorporated territory. Since the 1898 invasion of Puerto Rico by the United States during the Spanish–American War, politics in Puerto Rico have been significantly shaped by its status as territory of the United States. The nature of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the United States is the subject of ongoing debate in Puerto Rico, in the United States, the United Nations and the International Community, with all major political parties in the Island calling it a colonial relationship.
As a republican form of government, the government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is divided into three branches: executive, legislative and judicial, as established by the Constitution of Puerto Rico. The executive power is exercised by the executive branch, which is headed by the Governor, advised by a cabinet of secretaries that are independent of the legislature. Legislative power is vested upon the Legislature. Judicial power is exercised by the judiciary, consisting of the Tribunal Supremo de Puerto Rico, the Tribunal de Apelaciones (English: Court of Appeals), and Tribunal de Primera Instancia (English: Courts of First Instance). There is also a Federal Court to hear cases of a federal nature or with federal jurisdiction.
Puerto Rico's governor, who is the head of government, and the members of the legislature are elected every four years by popular vote. Puerto Rico's legislature is a bi-cameral body consisting of a Senate and a Camara de Representantes. The members of the judicial branch are appointed by the Governor with the approval of the Senate to serve until they reach age 70. Due to the status of Puerto Rico as a territory of the United States, its residents cannot vote in the U.S. presidential elections.
Politics in Puerto Rico revolve around a multi-party political system. The politics of Puerto Rico are dominated by three political parties: the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP), the Partido Popular Democratico (PPD), and the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP).
One year after the United States invasion of the island, Dr. José Celso Barbosa embraced the idea of annexation as a U.S. state as a solution to the colonial situation and founded the Partido Republicano Puertorriqueño in 1899.
Celso Barbosa had been the leader in the Autonomist Party that favored a republican government for Spain. For much of the 19th Century, the principal parties favored Puerto Rico becoming one of the Spanish provinces in equal footing with the rest of the provinces; such a standing was given twice, under liberal governments, but it was revoked as many times when the monarchs regained their power. In this context, Dr. Barbosa returned to the original idea of equal footing, but this time with the constituent members of the American Republic.
During the last twenty years under the Spanish flag, the local parties, with the exception of the Partido Incondicional Español (Unconditional Spanish Party) embraced the idea of autonomy. The Incondicionales accepted whatever Spain had for Puerto Rico and the Crown duly recognized their support by giving aristocratic titles to the leaders. The leader of the Canadian model developed by the British and supported a similar development for Puerto Rico under Spain. Before Baldorioty de Castro, other leaders had mentioned the possibility of autonomy, generally as an answer to the Spanish insistence in instituting special laws to govern the colonies.
The Partido Republicano Puertorriqueño won the elections in 1900 and again in 1902. The new government of Puerto Rico, organized under the Foraker Act of 1900, was a mixture of the British and the American system, somewhat similar to that established for the territory of Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase. The House of Delegates was elected directly by the voters (male, propertied) and the equivalent to the Senate was the Cabinet appointed by the Governor and by the President of the United States. Muñoz-Rivera exiled himself to New York after the defeat, but returned once the Federal Party was no longer useful and joined Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón in organizing the Union Party, also with them was José de Diego.
Matienzo Cintrón had been a Republican, supporting statehood. But two years into the new government, he realized that statehood would not be granted and the desired equality as citizens was not feasible under the United States. He brought with him other former Republicans and practically all of Muñoz-Rivera's Federalists into a party that was to bring about the union of all political groups. He was successful, they won the elections of 1904 and all subsequent elections until the 1920s, when another defection of Republicans allowed for the creation of yet another party bringing into it persons supporting a status change.
The Union Party, initially supported statehood or an autonomous government, it then later added independence. In fact, Matienzo-Cintrón went from statehood advocate to autonomist to independence advocate as a result of eight years of American civil government in Puerto Rico. The Union Party, from the very beginning, was against the colonial government established under the "Foraker Act". Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón, Manuel Zeno Gandía, Luis Lloréns Torres, Eugenio Benítez Castaño, and Pedro Franceschi started to organize the Independence Party in 1912, which paved the path for similar movements. The Union Party quickly gained the attention of the colonial governors, all Republicans, who were willing to work closely with them because of their control of the House of Delegates. The local Republicans protested bitterly and, at one point, they took statehood out of their platform – not reinstating it until the early 1920s. Many in the Union Party leadership were lawyers who had contracts with the sugar operations recently bought out and enlarged by the new American owners, thus establishing a close relationship between the nascent middle classes and the American corporate interests.
A coalition between the pro-independence Union Party presided by Antonio R. Barceló and the pro-statehood Partido Republicano Puertorriqueño presided by José Tous Soto called the "Alianza Puertorriqueña" was formed. Differences between Barceló and Tous Soto and Félix Córdova Dávila, the resident commissioner of Puerto Rico in Washington, as to the goals of the alliance became apparent. The Unionist sector of the alliance, decided to disaffiliate themselves from the "Alliance." Because of legal reasons Barceló was unable to use the name "Union Party" and in 1932, founded the "Liberal Party of Puerto Rico". The Liberal Party's political agenda was the same as the original Union Party's agenda and urged independence as a final political solution for Puerto Rico. After the Liberal Party was defeated in 1936 elections, an assembly was held in Naranjales on May 31, 1937, in which Luis Muñoz Marín presented his ideas as to how the party should be run, however the majority of the party members objected and blamed him for their defeat. Muñoz Marín considered this action the same as having been expelled from the party. Muñoz Marín and his followers, among which were included Felisa Rincon de Gautier and Ernesto Ramos Antonini, held an assembly in the town of Arecibo founded the "Partido Liberal, Neto, Auténtico y Completo" ("Clear, Authentic and Complete Liberal Party"), claiming to be the true Liberal Party. The Partido Liberal, Neto, Auténtico y Completo, an independence political party, later became the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) which would ironically end up promoting the "Estado Libre Associado" (Free Associated State) status that Barceló, as president of Union Party, had asked for in 1923 under Campbell Bill and which Muñoz Marín had always opposed, instead of independence.
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded in 1922. It strongly criticized the American colonial regime for its menace to the Spanish and Latin American roots of the Puerto Rican culture. It also advocated for complete independence. The PNP began to grow with the leadership of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, who was later jailed by the colonial regime under charges as a subversive leader. On March 21, 1937, a peaceful march was organized in the southern city of Ponce by the nationalists after receiving authorization from the pertinent authorities. The march was organized to commemorate the abolition of slavery and to demand the release of Albizu Campos from federal prison. The permit, however, was revoked by the U.S.-appointed governor of the Island Blanton Winship minutes before the march was to start. The march turned into a bloody event when the Insular Police ("a force somewhat resembling the National Guard of the typical U.S. state" and which answered to governor Winship) opened fire upon, what a U.S. Congressman and others reported were unarmed and defenseless cadets and bystanders alike killing 19 and badly wounding over 200 more, many in their backs while running away. It came to be known as the Ponce massacre.
Luis Muñoz Marín founded the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in 1940. Their slogan was "Pan, Tierra y Libertad" (Bread, Land and Liberty). The party favored independence from the United States in its initial stages but social and economic reform were priorities in their political agenda.
The Puerto Rican Independence Party was formed six years later by dissidents who saw the PPD moving away from the ideal of independence. During that period, the colonial regime appointed the first Puerto Rican governor, Jesús T. Piñero, until 1948 when the people elected Luis Muñoz Marín, the first elected governor.
The years or 1944–1948 were crucial ones in the direction of the country. Luis Muñoz Marín shifted his goals from independence to state-like autonomy to accommodate better economic circumstances. This led to the U.S. Congress to enact the Public Law 81-600 which led to the Congressional approval of a local constitution drafted by a constitutional assembly elected by Puerto Rico and the renaming of the United States unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, using the same official name as the commonwealths of the U.S. states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as that of other sovereign nation countries such as Australia. The alternative pro-independence Tydings bill had languished in Congress.
In the 1950s, the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party denounced the Constitution and Muñoz Marín support as a sham, and staged a series of uprisings in 1950, known as the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s, of which the most notable were the ones in Jayuya, Utuado and San Juan, plus the attack on Blair House, and the United States House of Representatives in 1954. Twenty-three people were killed and more than 50 were injured.
Governor Muñoz Marín inaugurated the new status called "Estado Libre Asociado"—or " Free Associated State" in English—and raised the Puerto Rican flag along with La Borinqueña, the official anthem of Puerto Rico, for the first time on July 25, 1952—date in which Puerto Ricans celebrate the Constitution of Puerto Rico ("see also:" Holidays in Puerto Rico).
The New Progressive Party (PNP) was founded in August, 1967 by Luis A. Ferré, a month after the July 23, 1967 local plebiscite and the year before the PNP won the 1968 elections. The party saw the ideology of annexation as a U.S. state as a civil rights issue. The creation of the New Progressive Party polarized the political arena to a great degree as radical independence groups were formed in the 1970s and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), a Marxist and Cuba-friendly party, was created. Two of the radical groups were labeled as terrorist groups by the U.S. Government, Los Macheteros and the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN). These groups were viewed by many pro-independence followers as freedom fighters.
In 1972 the NPP lost to a reunified Popular Democratic Party (PDP). Rafael Hernández Colón became the undisputed leader of the PPD at age 36. He was, as the fourth elected governor, in favor of adding more powers to the commonwealth status. One of his projects was the Puerto Rican owned marine transportation. In order to control the costs of marine transport in Puerto Rico, the marine company "Sea Land" was bought to form "Navieras of Puerto Rico" in 1974.
The fifth governor was Carlos Romero Barceló, a fierce supporter of annexation as the U.S. state of Puerto Rico. Under his administration, Section 936 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Tax Code () was implemented as an economic incentive. This allowed American companies to profit in the island without paying taxes. His administration was shadowed by the Cerro Maravilla (Maravilla Hill) affair, where two independence activists were killed by police agents. This created a Watergate-like scandal that was later investigated by the Senate.
In 1980, Romero Barcelo was reelected Governor by a controversial 0.2% margin, but lost control of the Senate and, a year later, the House of Representatives to the PDP. Independence radical groups placed bombs on 11 jet fighters in 1981 in the Muñiz Base (a U.S. military base), and the U.S. removed all of its fighter aircraft from Puerto Rico. Rafael Hernández Colón became the head of government for the second time in 1984, was reelected in 1988 and remained in power until 1992.
Pedro Rosselló became the sixth elected Governor in 1992. He pushed the political status dilemma in Washington, D.C. and sponsored two local non-binding referendums, one in 1993 and another in 1998. While he was elected to a second term, his last four years were met with mounting allegations of corruption. After Rosselló's second term ended, former Speaker of the House Edison Misla Aldarondo (NPP) was jailed as well as many members of Rosselló's party. Most of the corruption allegations were based on extortion and appropriation of public funds. This led his party to lose the 2000 election and the Governorship when he ran again in 2004.
In 2000 Sila María Calderón (PDP) was elected, becoming the first female governor of Puerto Rico, also gaining control of the Senate, presided over by Antonio Fas Alzamora and the House of Representatives, headed by Speaker Carlos Vizcarrondo. The PDP also elected Aníbal Acevedo Vilá as the island's non-voting delegate in Congress.
In 2004 Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (PDP) was declared the winner by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico as governor by about 3,000 votes, but his party lost control of the Senate, which elected NPP Senator Kenneth McClintock as its president, and the House of Representatives, which chose the NPP's José Aponte as Speaker, and Puerto Rico's seat in Congress, due to the election of Luis Fortuño.
During the 2005–2008 term, former Gov. Rosselló's unsuccessful attempt to unseat Senate President McClintock split the New Progressive Party, a split that continued as Rosselló initiated a fourth bid for the governorship against Resident Commissioner Fortuño in an internal primary that was held March 9, 2008, and which he lost. On the PDP side, Acevedo's rocky relationship with the NPP-controlled Legislature was compounded with Federal investigations and unsuccessful indictments of his past political fundraising by grand juries in Philadelphia and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In 2008 Luis Fortuño (NPP) was elected governor, giving the New Progressive Party its largest victory in history and beating incumbent Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) by more than 223,000 votes. Also the NPP won supermajorities in the Commonwealth's House of Representatives and Senate. Additionally, the NPP won the seat for Puerto Rico's sole delegate to Congress, because of the election of Pedro Pierluisi. Alejandro García Padilla (PDP) was elected as the eleventh Governor of Puerto Rico, by a narrow (0.6%) margin, defeating Fortuño 47.73% to 47.13% in the 2012 gubernatorial elections. On November 8, 2016, Ricardo Rosselló, the son of former governor Pedro Rosselló (PNP) and an advocate of Puerto Rican statehood, received 41% of the vote defeating five other gubernatorial candidates and was elected the twelfth Governor of Puerto Rico. He was sworn in on January 2, 2017.
In 1950, the U.S. Congress gave Puerto Ricans the right to organize a constitutional convention, contingent on the results of a referendum, where the electorate would determine if they wished to organize their own government pursuant to a constitution of their own choosing. Puerto Ricans expressed their support for this measure in a 1951 referendum, which gave voters a yes-or-no choice for the commonwealth status, defined as a 'permanent association with a federal union' but not choice for independence or statehood. A second referendum was held to ratify the constitution, which was adopted in 1952.
Before approving the new constitution, the Constitutional Convention specified the name by which the body politic would be known. On February 4, 1952, the convention approved Resolution 22 which chose in English the word "Commonwealth", meaning a "politically organized community" or "state", which is simultaneously connected by a compact or treaty to another political system. The convention adopted a translation into Spanish of the term, inspired by the Irish saorstát (Free State) of "Estado Libre Asociado" (ELA) to represent the agreement adopted "in the nature of a compact" between the people of Puerto Rico and the U.S. literally translated into English, the phrase means "Associated Free State."
In 1967, the Legislative Assembly tested the political interests of the Puerto Rican people by passing a plebiscite Act that allowed a vote on the status of Puerto Rico. This constituted the first plebiscite by the Legislature for a choice on three political status options. Puerto Rican leaders had lobbied for such an opportunity repeatedly, in 1898, 1912, 1914, 1919, 1923, 1929, 1932, 1939, 1943, 1944, 1948, 1956, and 1960. The Commonwealth option, represented by the PDP, won with an overwhelming majority of 60.4% of the votes. The Partido Republicano Puertorriqueño and the Puerto Rican Independence Party boycotted the plebiscite.
After the plebiscite, efforts in the 1970s to enact legislation to address the status issue died in Congressional committees. In the 1993 plebiscite, in which Congress played a more substantial role, Commonwealth status was again upheld. In the 1998 plebiscite, all the options were rejected when 50.3% of voters chose the "none of the above" option, favoring the commonwealth status quo by default.
On November 27, 1953, shortly after the establishment of the Commonwealth, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved Resolution 748, removing Puerto Rico's classification as a non-self-governing territory under article 73(e) of the Charter from UN. But the General Assembly did not apply its full list of criteria to Puerto Rico to determine if it has achieved self-governing status.
In August 1977, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico, Franklin Delano López, testified before the UN Decolonization Committee denouncing the colonial nature of the Commonwealth Status. As a result of his statement, many other statehooders and commonwealth supporters went to the United Nations requesting the end of the colonial status. President Jimmy Carter subsequently signed the "Alternative Futures and Self Determination Executive Order" on July 25, 1978, guaranteeing the right of self-determination to the People of Puerto Rico.
Under the Constitution of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico is described as a Commonwealth and Puerto Ricans have a degree of administrative autonomy similar to that of a U.S. state.
Puerto Ricans "were collectively made U.S. citizens" in 1917 as a result of the Jones–Shafroth Act. The act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on March 2, 1917. U.S. Federal law approved by the President Harry S. Truman on June 27, 1952 declared all persons born in Puerto Rico on or after January 13, 1941 to be citizens of the U.S. at birth and all persons born in Puerto Rico between April 11, 1899, and January 12, 1941, and meeting certain other technical requirements, and not citizens of the United States under any other Act, were declared to be citizens of the U.S. as of January 13, 1941.
Only the "fundamental rights" under the federal constitution apply to Puerto Rico like the Privileges and Immunities Clause (U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1, also known as the 'Comity Clause') that prevents a state from treating citizens of other states in a discriminatory manner, with regard to basic civil rights. The clause also embraces a right to travel, so that a citizen of one state can go and enjoy privileges and immunities in any other state; this constitutional clause was expressly extended to Puerto Rico by the U.S. Congress through the federal law and signed by the President Harry S. Truman in 1947. Other fundamental rights like the Due Process Clause and the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment was expressly extended to Puerto Rico by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a brief concurrence in the judgment of "Torres v. Puerto Rico", U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brennan, argued that any implicit limits from the Insular Cases on the basic rights granted by the Constitution (including especially the Bill of Rights) were anachronistic in the 1970s.
President George H. W. Bush issued a memorandum on November 30, 1992 to heads of executive departments and agencies establishing the current administrative relationship between the federal government and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. This memorandum directs all federal departments, agencies, and officials to treat Puerto Rico administratively as if it were a state, insofar as doing so would not disrupt federal programs or operations.
Puerto Rico does participate in the internal political process of both the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S., accorded equal-proportional representation in both parties, and delegates from the islands vote in each party's national presidential convention.
Puerto Ricans may enlist in the U.S. military. Since 1917, Puerto Ricans have been included in the compulsory draft whenever it has been in effect and more than 400,000 Puerto Ricans have served in the United States Armed Forces. Puerto Ricans have participated in all U.S. wars since 1898, most notably World War I, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, as well as the current Middle Eastern conflicts. Several Puerto Ricans became notable commanders, five have been awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration in the United States, also several Puerto Ricans have attained the rank of General or Admiral, which requires a Presidential nomination and Senate confirmation. In World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War Puerto Ricans were the most decorated Hispanic soldiers and in some cases they were the first to die in combat.
Puerto Rico is an organized unincorporated U.S. territory which has been given internal self-governing powers which are referred to as "Commonwealth" status. Puerto Rico has more latitude over its internal affairs than the U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or American Samoa.
Puerto Rico has approximately the same degree of authority over its internal affairs as an American state. However, it does not have the sovereignty that a state of the Union has, given that Puerto Rico is a possession of the United States and it is, thus, not protected by the US Constitution to the same degree that states are.
Some differences between Puerto Rico and a state of the American Union are:
Despite the fact that the U.S. Federal Government holds ultimate sovereignty over all U.S. citizens and the territory of Puerto Rico, residents of Puerto Rico are without an effective voice in the Federal government. To be clear, this is not because Puerto Rican residents do not have the right to vote. Rather it is because the territory itself does not have full voting representation in the United States Congress, nor is it represented in the United States Electoral College. Puerto Ricans do, however, play an indirect role in electing the President of the United States, since both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party hold primaries in Puerto Rico, giving Puerto Ricans a voice selecting each party's presidential nominee.
Both the Puerto Rican Independence Party and the New Progressive Party outright reject the status quo that permits disfranchisement. The remaining political organization, the Popular Democratic Party, is less active in its opposition of this case of disfranchisement but has officially stated that it favors fixing the remaining "deficits of democracy" that the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations have publicly recognized in writing through Presidential Task Force Reports.
Although the Republican Party and Democratic Party chapters in Puerto Rico have selected voting delegates to the national nominating conventions since the early 1900s, public interest in these processes heightened as a result of the efforts of a group of Democratic statehooders led by Franklin Delano López in 1976 to elect delegates supporting former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter to that year's Democratic National Convention. On October 23, 1979, the first primary of a party affiliated to the Democratic National Committee was held in Puerto Rico. Franklin Delano López was elected Chairman of the New Democratic Party of Puerto Rico by the direct votes of 374,000 American citizens residing on the Island. Lopez then moved the Puerto Rican Legislature to adopt a Presidential Primary Law. During the discussion of the Presidential primary Law, Lopez managed to persuade Presidential Chief of Staff, Hamilton Jordan and Timothy Kraft to grant Puerto Rico the right for a more robust delegation, the inclusion of Puerto Rico after Pennsylvania in the roll call of the state in exchange of eliminating from the bill that Puerto Rico was going to be the first Presidential Primary in the Nation. As a result of that effort, the Puerto Rico Legislature approved a law regulating presidential primaries in 1979, the first of which was held in 1980, with George H. W. Bush winning the Republican primary and President Carter beating Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy in a hard-fought Democratic primary. More than 1.2 million American citizens residing in Puerto Rico participated in the primaries.
In the first internal primary of a National political party, the new slate of statehooders, headed by Franklin Delano López took control of the local Democratic party chapter. In January 1980 after clashing with Governor Carlos Romero Barceló, Lopez was forced to resign the chairmanship of the New Democratic Party in exchange of the Governor becoming the President of Carter's campaign in Puerto Rico and throwing the New Progressive Party behind the president's re-election efforts. Lopez' fight with Governor Romero, on behalf of President Carter, paid off and was appointed Deputy Campaign Manager of President Carter national campaign. Lopez efforts moved to Puerto Rico and the status issue at the forefront of the National political discussion. Subsequently, both the statehood faction and the commonwealth shared control on a 50-50 basis from 1984 to 1988 and lost control that year as a result of their defeat in an internal primary that year between PDP forces led by then Senate president Miguel Hernández Agosto and NPP forces led by former Gov. Carlos Romero Barceló. While the PDP Democratic faction controls the Democratic party chapter under the state chairmanship of former senator Roberto Prats, two of the five DNC members residing in Puerto Rico, Senate president Kenneth McClintock and Francisco Domenech are statehooders.
On the Republican side NPP-affiliated statehood Republicans control the GOP local chapter (Republican Party of Puerto Rico), headed by state chair and Aguadilla mayor Carlos Méndez, Republican National Committeeman and Governor Luis Fortuño and Republican National Committeewoman Zoraida Fonalledas.
The 2008 Republican presidential primary was slated to be held in February, while Democrats held their primary in June. Then Senate President and Democratic National Committeeman Kenneth McClintock, former Sen. Roberto Prats, Puerto Rico's Democratic State Chair and former PDP gubernatorial candidate José Alfredo Hernández Mayoral were appointed co-chairs of Sen. Hillary Clinton's National Hispanic Leadership Council while Young Democrats of America Democratic National Committeeman Francisco Domenech co-chaired Clinton's young professionals organization. Prats and McClintock subsequently co-chaired Clinton's Puerto Rico campaign, while Francisco Domenech became the Deputy Campaign Manager. Senator Clinton won the Puerto Rico Primary by a 68% to 32% margin. Being the last big primary before the last two states voted on June 3, Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary attracted historic levels of national media coverage.
Several local politicians have expressed concern that Puerto Rico has become a "piggy bank" for presidential campaigns. Recent examples include Vice President Dick Cheney's whirlwind two-hour visit to collect $300,000 in 2006 and Senator Barack Obama's 50% longer three-hour trip in November, 2007 to collect $200,000 Both refused to meet with the news media, press the flesh or meet with local politicians, inconceivable in Iowa or New Hampshire.
Speculation, which began in late 2009 by a national media blog and by Grover Norquist, a well-known Republican commentator, mentioned Gov. Fortuño as a long-shot inclusion in a national political ticket.
President Obama was scheduled to briefly visit Puerto Rico on June 14, 2011.
According to a December 2005, report by the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status, it is not possible "to bind future (U.S.) Congresses to any particular arrangement for Puerto Rico as a Commonwealth". This determination was based on articles in the U.S. Constitution regarding territories. Prominent leaders in the pro-statehood and pro-independence political movements agree with this assessment. In 2005 and 2007, two reports were issued by the U.S. President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status. Both reports conclude that Puerto Rico continues to be a territory of U.S. under the plenary powers of the U.S. Congress. Reactions from Puerto Rico's two major political parties were mixed. The Popular Democratic Party (PPD) challenged the task force's report and committed to validating the current status in all international forums, including the United Nations. It also rejects any "colonial or territorial status" as a status option, and vows to keep working for the enhanced Commonwealth status that was approved by the PPD in 1998 which included sovereignty, an association based on "respect and dignity between both nations", and common citizenship. The New Progressive Party (PNP) supported the White House Report's conclusions and supported bills to provide for a democratic referendum process among Puerto Rico voters. It stated that the U.S. Justice Department in 1959 reiterated that Congress held power over Puerto Rico pursuant to the Territorial Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In a 1996 report on a Puerto Rico status political bill, the "U.S. House Committee on Resources stated that PR's current status does not meet the criteria for any of the options for full self-government". It concluded that Puerto Rico is still an unincorporated territory of the U.S. under the territorial clause, that the establishment of local self-government with the consent of the people can be unilaterally revoked by the U.S. Congress, and that U.S. Congress can also withdraw the U.S. citizenship of Puerto Rican residents of Puerto Rico at any time, for a legitimate Federal purpose. The application of the Constitution to Puerto Rico is limited by the Insular Cases.
On December 21, 2007, the Bush Administration's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status reiterated and confirmed that Puerto Rico continues to be a territory of the U.S. under the plenary powers of the U.S. Congress, a position shared by the remaining two-major parties: New Progressive Party and the Puerto Rican Independence Party.
Following the reports recommendations the 2009 bill (), was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on May 19, 2009 by Pedro Pierluisi (D-Puerto Rico). The bill would provide for a referendum giving Puerto Ricans the choice between the options of retaining their present political status, or choosing a new status. If the former option were to win, the referendum would have been held again every 8 years. If the latter option were to win, a separate referendum would be held where Puerto Ricans would have been given the option of being admitted as a US State "on equal footing with the other states", or becoming a "sovereign nation, either fully independent from or in free association with the United States." The bill enjoys bi-partisan support in the House of Representatives, with 182 co-sponsors and was reported out of the House Resources Committee on a 30–8 vote. The measure was passed by the House on April 29, 2010.
On March 16, 2011, the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status issued a third report that reaffirned the legal position adopted by the three previous presidents over nearly a quarter century that Puerto Rico remains today "subject to the Territory Clause of the U.S. Constitution (see Report at page 26), that the territory's long-term economic well-being would be enhanced by an early resolution of the political status problem (p. 33) and devotes most of the report to extensive economic analysis and recommendations.
On December 11th, 2012, the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico has enacted a concurrent resolution to request the President and the Congress of the United States to respond diligently and effectively, and to act on the demand of the people of Puerto Rico, as freely and democratically expressed in the plebiscite held on November 6, 2012, to end, once and for all, its current form of territorial status and to begin the process to admit Puerto Rico to the Union as a State.
On May 15, 2013, headed by non-voting Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, a group of 119 Democratic and 12 Republican members of Congress cosponsored H.R. 2000, the Puerto Rico Status Resolution Act to Congress, requesting a process for voting to admit Puerto Rico as a State to be approved and a vote to ratify Puerto Rico as a state.
The nature of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the United States is the subject of ongoing debate in the United Nations and the International Community. According to two consecutive Bush Administration President's Task Force Reports, the latest of which was issued on December 21, 2007 Puerto Rico is an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, subject to the plenary powers of the United States government. The Popular Democratic Party has challenged the Bush Administration's Task Force Reports stating that in 1953 Puerto Rico achieved a compact of association between both nations that was recognized by the United Nations. Nonetheless, the aforementioned U.S. Presidential and Congressional Reports state that the current prerogatives assumed by the Puerto Rico government are delegated by the U.S. Congress and may be amended or eliminated at its sole behest.
In a letter sent by the former governor of Puerto Rico to the former U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and the Co-Chairs of the White House's Presidential Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status on the Bush administration, former governor Acevedo Vilá stated:
On December 21, 2007, the Bush Administration's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status reiterated and confirmed that Puerto Rico continues to be a territory of the United States under the plenary powers of the U.S. Congress.
On June 15, 2009, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization approved a draft resolution calling on the Government of the United States to expedite a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23463 |
Telecommunications in Puerto Rico
Telecommunications in Puerto Rico includes radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Broadcasting in Puerto Rico is regulated by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Hurricane Maria destroyed the internet systems in Puerto Rico in September 2017. Then in 2019, the US Federal Communications Commission stated $950 million had been approved for the rebuilding and strengthening of Puerto Rico's and the Virgin Island's internet infrastructure.
Being a state dependency that controls the US territory, the country's Internet censorship is from the United States. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23465 |
Transportation in Puerto Rico
Transportation in Puerto Rico includes a system of roads, highways, freeways, airports, ports and harbors, and railway systems, serving a population of approximately 4 million year-round. It is funded primarily with both local and federal government funds.
Puerto Rico has a total of 30 airports (3 of which are international), including one in each of the smaller islands of Vieques and Culebra. The main airport is Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, and consists of two runways and three concourses. It is by far the busiest airport in Puerto Rico, with direct connections to most major cities in the mainland United States, Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean Madrid, Spain, Germany.
The following are current and former passenger and cargo airlines based in Puerto Rico or with flights to Puerto Rico:
Sea-based transportation of any merchandise or persons shipped entirely or even partly by water between U.S. points—either directly or indirectly via one or any number of foreign points—U.S. Federal Law requires that said items or persons must travel in U.S.-built, U.S.-crewed, U.S.-citizen owned vessels that are U.S.-documented by the Coast Guard for such maritime "cabotage" carriage. This transportation/trade restriction includes Puerto Rico under the Jones Act of 1920 (Merchant Marine Act of 1920). The Jones Act and various other United States laws that govern the domestic and domestic-foreign-domestic transportation of merchandise and passengers by water between two points in the United States, including Puerto Rico, have been extended to that island-territory since the initial years of United States' political relations. Currently, the only providers who ship from the United States to Puerto Rico are Crowley Maritime, TOTE Maritime, and Trailer Bridge.
Strictly construed, the Jones Act refers only to Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, (; 19 CFR 4.80 and 4.80(b)), which has come to bear the name of its original sponsor, Sen. Wesley L. Jones. Another law that was enacted in 1886 requires essentially the same standards for the transport of passengers between U.S. points, directly or indirectly transported through foreign ports or foreign points (46 App. U.S.C. 289; 19 CFR 4.80(a)). However, since the mid-1980s, as part of a joint effort between the cruise ship industry that serves Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican politicians such as then Resident Commissioner, U.S. non-voting Representative Baltasar Corrada del Río, obtained a limited-exception since no U.S. cruise ships that were Jones Act-eligible were participating in said market.
The application of these coastwise shipping laws and their imposition on Puerto Rico consist in a serious restriction of free trade and have been under scrutiny and controversy due to the apparent contradictory rhetoric involving the United States Government's sponsorship of free trade policies around the world, while its own national shipping policy (cabotage law) is essentially mercantilist and based on notions foreign to free-trade principles.
The following are minor ports and harbors used for small freight/cargo ships, fishing vessels, and private boats/yachts: Guánica, Guayanilla, Guayama, Fajardo, Culebra, and Vieques.
There are ferries between Ceiba-Culebra and Ceiba-Vieques; between San Juan and Cataño; and between Ponce and Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island).
There are several private marinas in Puerto Rico for boats and yachts, the largest being Puerto del Rey in Fajardo and Club Naútico de Ponce.
The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (also known as the Jones Act) prevents foreign-flagged ships from carrying cargo between two American ports (a practice known as cabotage). Because of the Jones Act, foreign ships inbound with goods from Central and South America, Western Europe, and Africa cannot stop in Puerto Rico, offload Puerto Rico-bound goods, load mainland-bound Puerto Rico-manufactured goods, and continue to U.S. ports. Instead, they must proceed directly to U.S. ports, where distributors break bulk and send Puerto Rico-bound manufactured goods to Puerto Rico across the ocean by U.S.-flagged ships.
Puerto Rican consumers ultimately bear the expense of transporting goods again across the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea on U.S.-flagged ships subject to the extremely high operating costs imposed by the Jones Act. This also makes Puerto Rico less competitive with Caribbean ports as a shopping destination for tourists from home countries with much higher taxes (like mainland states) even though prices for non-American manufactured goods in theory should be cheaper since Puerto Rico is much closer to Central and South America, Western Europe, and Africa.
The local government of Puerto Rico has requested several times to the U.S. Congress to exclude Puerto Rico from the Jones Act restrictions without success. The most recent measure has been taken by the 17th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico through R. Conc. del S. 21. These measures have always received support from all the major local political parties. In 2013 the Government Accountability Office published a report which concluded that "repealing or amending the Jones Act cabotage law might cut Puerto Rico shipping costs" and that "shippers believed that opening the trade to non-U.S.-flag competition could lower costs." The report, however, concluded that the effects of modifying the application of the Jones Act for Puerto Rico are highly uncertain for both Puerto Rico and the United States, particularly for the U.S. shipping industry and the military preparedness of the United States.
The Puerto Rico train system flourished during the late 19th and early 20th century due to a large sugar cane industry in the island. Most, if not all, of these system were private-owned services. Vieques Island also had the system all around the island connecting the others sugar cane plantations.
During the 1870s and 1890s, Puerto Rico did not have a national railroad system, but the city of Mayagüez did have a small passenger rail system for transporting its residents mainly along the Mendez Vigo Avenue.
The main system can be traced back to 1891, when the northern line was built between San Juan (Martín Peña sector) and the town of Manatí. The system was expanded to include all the western coastal towns, providing a link which would allow passengers to travel between the northern and southern parts of the island in less than a day for the first time in its history. Before its downfall, the Puerto Rico railroad system operated in all major cities, with tracks and stations along most of the coastal towns and direct lines to all major sugar refineries.
However, when Puerto Rico changed its mostly agricultural economy to an industrialized one, and the U.S. and Puerto Rican governments started investing heavily in interstate highways and freeways, the railroad business soon collapsed. Passenger travel ceased in 1953, while the commercial train system (mostly for the sugar cane industry) continued operating until 1957.
Puerto Rico has an extensive system of roads and highways featuring tolled freeways ("autopistas"). Some are designated as Interstate Highways; although these routes do not connect to the contiguous United States, and are unsigned as such, they still receive funding in a similar fashion to the other Interstates on the U.S. mainland. In total, there are more than 8,950 miles (14,400 km, 1999 est.) of paved road. Some of the major highways are:
Transportation in Puerto Rico is heavily dependent on automobile transportation. Nevertheless, the government has increased investment in public transportation in an attempt to decrease vehicle dependency and road congestion. The island's metro area is serviced with three major public transportation systems:
Most cities and towns also have a Jitney-type taxi system locally called "Carros Públicos". Each town has a central taxi terminal usually within walking distance of the town's central plaza where taxis are stationed, and they provide transportation through local and islandwide routes. In February 2014, the islandwide system of Carros Públicos consisted of over 3,000 vehicles authorized by the "Comission de Servico Público" (Public Service Commission), and it covered almost 500 routes. At approximately 130,000 passengers per day, in 2014 the Públicos system handled over five times the daily passenger volume of the island's largest international airport, the Luis Muñoz Marín. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23466 |
Military of Puerto Rico
The military defense of Puerto Rico is the responsibility of the United States as part of the Treaty of Paris. Locally, Puerto Rico has its own National Guard, the Puerto Rico National Guard, and its own state defense force, the Puerto Rico State Guard, which, by local law, is under the authority of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The commander-in-chief of both forces is the governor of Puerto Rico, currently Wanda Vázquez Garced, who delegates her authority to the Puerto Rico Adjutant General, currently Brigadier General Isabelo Rivera The Adjutant General, in turn, delegates the authority over the State Guard to another officer but retains the authority over the Puerto Rico National Guard as a whole. At the national level, the commander-in-chief is the President of the United States, currently Donald Trump.
A branch of the U.S. Army National Guard is stationed in Puerto Rico —known as the Puerto Rico Army National Guard— which performs missions equivalent to those of the Army National Guards of the different states of the United States, including ground defense, disaster relief, and control of civil unrest. The local National Guard also incorporates a branch of the U.S. Air National Guard —known as the Puerto Rico Air National Guard— which performs missions equivalent to those of the Air National Guards of the U.S. states.
The former Ramey Air Force Base in Aguadilla has been closed for decades, and no other Air Force Bases or Naval Air Stations remain. The Puerto Rico Air National Guard no longer has any fighter planes within its jurisdiction. On January 12, 1981, a group calling itself Volunteer Organization for the Revolution, aka Los Macheteros, claimed responsibility for blowing up six Vought A-7 Corsair aircraft in what is known as Base Muñiz; a Puerto Rico Air National Guard base at a loss of $40 million. Responsibility for the air defense of Puerto Rico now rests with USAF or US Navy fighters that would be flown in case of a military emergency.
At different times in the 20th century, the U.S. had about 25 military or naval installations in Puerto Rico, some very small ones, as well as large installations. The largest of these installations were the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Ceiba, the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, and the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility (AFWTF) on Vieques (all now closed), the National Guard training facility at Camp Santiago in Salinas, Fort Allen in Juana Diaz, the Army's Fort Buchanan in San Juan, the former U.S. Air Force Ramey Air Force Base in Aguadilla, and the Puerto Rico Air National Guard at Muñiz Air Force base in San Juan.
The former U.S. Navy facilities at Roosevelt Roads, Vieques, and Sabana Seca have been deactivated and partially turned over to the local government. Other than U.S. Coast Guard and Puerto Rico National Guard facilities, there are only two remaining military installations in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Army's small Ft. Buchanan (supporting local veterans and reserve units) and the PRANG(Puerto Rico Air National Guard) Muñiz Air Base (the C-130 Fleet). In recent years, the U.S. Congress has considered their deactivations, but these have been opposed by diverse public and private entities in Puerto Rico - such as retired military who rely on Ft. Buchanan for the services available there.
The coastal defense of Puerto Rico is the responsibility of the U.S. Navy from ships at sea, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
The U.S. Coast Guard has a significant presence in Puerto Rico. Located on what was formerly Ramey Air Force Base, the Coast Guard maintains what is now referred to as "Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen". HH-65C helicopters operate out of Borinquen performing search-and-rescue as well as law-enforcement missions. On a continual basis, Coast Guard fixed-wing airplanes, such as the C-130 Hercules search-and-rescue plane, stationed primarily in Florida fly to Puerto Rico to support these missions.
U.S. Coast Guard cutters visit Puerto Rican waters periodically in their missions of coastal patrol and search-and-rescue. U.S. Navy ships visit Puerto Rican waters on an as-required basis, just like they visit all American waters, international oceans, and foreign ones, too.
On "La Puntilla" in Old San Juan the Coast Guard base its small, but capable surface fleet of several long cutters and other patrol boats. These boats and cutters work hand in hand with the air station responding to any mission that they may be called upon to perform.
A significant number of Puerto Ricans participate as members and work for the U.S. Armed Services, largely as National Guard members and civilian employees. The size of the overall military-related community in Puerto Rico is estimated to be 100,000 individuals. This includes retired personnel.
Fort Buchanan has about 4,000 military and civilian personnel. In addition, approximately 17,000 people are members of the Puerto Rico Army and Puerto Rico Air National Guard, or the U.S. Reserve forces. Puerto Rican soldiers have served in every US military conflict from World War I to the current military engagement known by the United States and its allies as the War against Terrorism.
A number of Puerto Rican colleges and universities have the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) programs. Army ROTC programs are offered at the American University of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean University, the University of Puerto Rico - Arecibo, the University of Puerto Rico – Bayamon Technological University College, the University of Puerto Rico – Carolina Regional College, the University of Puerto Rico - Cayey, the University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez, and the University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras. Air Force ROTC programs are offered at the University of Puerto Rico - Bayamon Technological University College, the University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez, and the University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras.
The U.S. military has sought to form alliances with Hispanic organizations to promote military recruitment. In January 1999, leaders of National Hispanic organizations in collaboration with the U.S. Army held the Hispanic Leadership Summit '99. The "Education and Career Opportunities for Hispanic Youth in America's Army" summit included the participation of leaders of the US Army as well as leaders of national Hispanic organizations including ASPIRA, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), SER jops for progress, and the members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. At the summit, the director of the LULAC National Educational Service Center (LNESC), Richard Royball commented, "Based on our mutually beneficial partnership, we would encourage other Hispanic organizations to ally themselves with the US Army." LNESC promotes military recruitment in educational service centers in several US cities and in Puerto Rico.
The US military installations in Puerto Rico are part of the US Atlantic Command (LANTCOM). LANTCOM has authority over all US military operations that take place throughout the Atlantic. Puerto Rico has been seen as crucial in supporting LANTCOM's mission. Both the Naval Forces Caribbean (NFC) and the Fleet Air Caribbean (FAIR) were formerly based at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station. The NFC has authority over all US Naval activity in the waters of the Caribbean while FAIR has authority over all US military flights and air operations over the Caribbean. With the closing of the Roosevelt Roads and Vieques Island training facilities, the US Navy has basically exited from Puerto Rico, except for the ships that steam by, and the only significant military naval presence in the island is the U.S. Navy Reserve Naval Operational Support Center Puerto Rico (NOSC Puerto Rico) at Fort Buchanan, the Puerto Rican Army and Air National Guards. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains presence at Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen and Coast Guard Station San Juan.
The U.S. Navy's largest training area for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet used to be in Puerto Rico and in the Atlantic Ocean surrounding the island, but this was ended after President George W. Bush ordered the closure of the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station and the Vieques Island training grounds.
Through the years, the United States had conducted several military training exercises in Puerto Rico, the largest of these being Operation Springboard and Operation Readex. These exercises included thousands of personnel and involve air, sea, and land operations, and include training with live ammunition.
On top of training exercises, the US used Puerto Rico as a base to rehearse and launch military operations in Latin America and throughout the world. Operations launched from Puerto Rico include the 1954 intervention in Guatemala; the 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic; the 1983 invasion of Grenada; the 1989 invasion of Panama; support of Salvadoran military; preparation for operation Desert Storm and Desert Fox in Iraq; and preparation for the War in Yugoslavia.
Near Aguada the US marine operates a LF-transmitter with a 367.3 metres tall guyed mast, the tallest man-made object in the Caribbean area . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23467 |
Polyhedron
In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons) is a three dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices. The word polyhedron comes from the Classical Greek πολύεδρον, as "poly-" (stem of πολύς, "many") + "-hedron" (form of ἕδρα, "base" or "seat").
A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all on the same plane.
Cubes and pyramids are examples of convex polyhedra.
A polyhedron is a 3-dimensional example of the more general polytope in any number of dimensions.
Convex polyhedra are well-defined, with several equivalent standard definitions. However, the formal mathematical definition of polyhedra that are not required to be convex has been problematic.
Many definitions of "polyhedron" have been given within particular contexts, some more rigorous than others, and there is not universal agreement over which of these to choose.
Some of these definitions exclude shapes that have often been counted as polyhedra (such as the self-crossing polyhedra) or include
shapes that are often not considered as valid polyhedra (such as solids whose boundaries are not manifolds). As Branko Grünbaum observed,
Nevertheless, there is general agreement that a polyhedron is a solid or surface that can be described by its vertices (corner points), edges (line segments connecting certain pairs of vertices),
faces (two-dimensional polygons), and sometimes by its three-dimensional interior volume.
One can distinguish among these different definitions according to whether they describe the polyhedron as a solid, whether they describe it as a surface, or whether they describe it more abstractly based on its incidence geometry.
In all of these definitions, a polyhedron is typically understood as a three-dimensional example of the more general polytope in any number of dimensions. For example, a polygon has a two-dimensional body and no faces, while a 4-polytope has a four-dimensional body and an additional set of three-dimensional "cells".
However, some of the literature on higher-dimensional geometry uses the term "polyhedron" to mean something else: not a three-dimensional polytope, but a shape that is different from a polytope in some way. For instance, some sources define a convex polyhedron to be the intersection of finitely many half-spaces, and a polytope to be a bounded polyhedron. The remainder of this article considers only three-dimensional polyhedra.
Polyhedra may be classified and are often named according to the number of faces. The naming system is based on Classical Greek, for example tetrahedron (4), pentahedron (5), hexahedron (6), triacontahedron (30), and so on.
For a complete list of the Greek numeral prefixes see Numeral prefixes>Table of number prefixes in English>Greek>Quantitative
The topological class of a polyhedron is defined by its Euler characteristic and orientability.
From this perspective, any polyhedral surface may be classed as certain kind of topological manifold. For example, the surface of a convex or indeed any simply connected polyhedron is a topological sphere.
The Euler characteristic χ relates the number of vertices "V", edges "E", and faces "F" of a polyhedron:
This is equal to the topological Euler characteristic of its surface. For a convex polyhedron, or more generally any simply connected polyhedron with surface a topological sphere, χ = 2. For more complicated shapes, the Euler characteristic relates to the number of toroidal holes, handles or cross-caps in the surface and will be less than 2.
Some polyhedra have two distinct sides to their surface. For example, the inside and outside of a convex polyhedron paper model can each be given a different colour (although the inside colour will be hidden from view). These polyhedra are orientable. The same is true for non-convex polyhedra without self-crossings. Some non-convex self-crossing polyhedra can be coloured in the same way but have regions turned "inside out" so that both colours appear on the outside in different places; these are still considered to be orientable.
But for some other self-crossing polyhedra with simple-polygon faces, such as the tetrahemihexahedron, it is not possible to colour the two sides of each face with two different colours so that adjacent faces have consistent colours.
In this case the polyhedron is said to be one-sided or non-orientable.
For polyhedra with self-crossing faces, it may not be clear what it means for adjacent faces to be consistently coloured, but for these polyhedra it is still possible to determine whether it is orientable or non-orientable by considering a topological cell complex with the same incidences between its vertices, edges, and faces.
All polyhedra with odd-numbered Euler characteristic χ are non-orientable. A given figure with even χ < 2 may or may not be orientable. For example, the one-holed toroid and the Klein bottle both have χ = 0, with the first being orientable and the other not.
For every convex polyhedron, there exists a dual polyhedron having
The dual of a convex polyhedron can be obtained by the process of polar reciprocation. Dual polyhedra exist in pairs, and the dual of a dual is just the original polyhedron again. Some polyhedra are self-dual, meaning that the dual of the polyhedron is congruent to the original polyhedron.
Abstract polyhedra also have duals, which satisfy in addition that they have the same Euler characteristic and orientability as the initial polyhedron. However, this form of duality does not describe the shape of a dual polyhedron, but only its combinatorial structure. For some definitions of non-convex geometric polyhedra, there exist polyhedra whose abstract duals cannot be realized as geometric polyhedra under the same definition.
For every vertex one can define a vertex figure, which describes the local structure of the polyhedron around the vertex. Precise definitions vary, but a vertex figure can be thought of as the polygon exposed where a slice through the polyhedron cuts off a corner. If the vertex figure is a regular polygon, then the vertex itself is said to be regular.
Polyhedral solids have an associated quantity called volume that measures how much space they occupy. Simple families of solids may have simple formulas for their volumes; for example, the volumes of pyramids, prisms, and parallelepipeds can easily be expressed in terms of their edge lengths or other coordinates. (See Volume § Volume formulas for a list that includes many of these formulas.)
Volumes of more complicated polyhedra may not have simple formulas. Volumes of such polyhedra may be computed by subdividing the polyhedron into smaller pieces (for example, by triangulation). For example, the volume of a regular polyhedron can be computed by dividing it into congruent pyramids, with each pyramid having a face of the polyhedron as its base and the centre of the polyhedron as its apex.
In general, it can be derived from the divergence theorem that the volume of a polyhedral solid is given by
formula_2
where the sum is over faces of the polyhedron, is an arbitrary point on face , is the unit vector perpendicular to pointing outside the solid, and the multiplication dot is the dot product. Since it may be difficult to enumerate the faces, volume computation may be challenging, and hence there exist specialized algorithms to determine the volume (many of these generalize to convex polytopes in higher dimensions).
In two dimensions, the Bolyai–Gerwien theorem asserts that any polygon may be transformed into any other polygon of the same area by cutting it up into finitely many polygonal pieces and rearranging them. The analogous question for polyhedra was the subject of Hilbert's third problem. Max Dehn solved this problem by showing that, unlike in the 2-D case, there exist polyhedra of the same volume that cannot be cut into smaller polyhedra and reassembled into each other. To prove this Dehn discovered another value associated with a polyhedron, the Dehn invariant, such that two polyhedra can only be dissected into each other when they have the same volume and the same Dehn invariant. It was later proven by Sydler that this is the only obstacle to dissection: every two Euclidean polyhedra with the same volumes and Dehn invariants can be cut up and reassembled into each other. The Dehn invariant is not a number, but a vector in an infinite-dimensional vector space.
Another of Hilbert's problems, Hilbert's 18th problem, concerns (among other things) polyhedra that tile space. Every such polyhedron must have Dehn invariant zero. The Dehn invariant has also conjecturally been connected to flexible polyhedra by the strong bellows conjecture, which asserts that the Dehn invariant of any flexible polyhedron must remain invariant as it flexes.
A three-dimensional solid is a convex set if it contains every line segment connecting two of its points. A convex polyhedron is a polyhedron that, as a solid, forms a convex set. A convex polyhedron can also be defined as a bounded intersection of finitely many half-spaces, or as the convex hull of finitely many points.
Important classes of convex polyhedra include the highly symmetrical Platonic solids, the Archimedean solids and their duals the Catalan solids, and the regular-faced Johnson solids.
Many of the most studied polyhedra are highly symmetrical, that is, their appearance is unchanged by some reflection or rotation of space. Each such symmetry may change the location of a given vertex, face, or edge, but the set of all vertices (likewise faces, edges) is unchanged. The collection of symmetries of a polyhedron is called its symmetry group.
All the elements that can be superimposed on each other by symmetries are said to form a symmetry orbit. For example, all the faces of a cube lie in one orbit, while all the edges lie in another. If all the elements of a given dimension, say all the faces, lie in the same orbit, the figure is said to be transitive on that orbit. For example, a cube is face-transitive, while a truncated cube has two symmetry orbits of faces.
The same abstract structure may support more or less symmetric geometric polyhedra. But where a polyhedral name is given, such as icosidodecahedron, the most symmetrical geometry is almost always implied, unless otherwise stated.
There are several types of highly symmetric polyhedron, classified by which kind of element – faces, edges, or vertices – belong to a single symmetry orbit:
Some classes of polyhedra have only a single main axis of symmetry. These include the pyramids, bipyramids, trapezohedra, cupolae, as well as the semiregular prisms and antiprisms.
Regular polyhedra are the most highly symmetrical. Altogether there are nine regular polyhedra: five convex and four star polyhedra.
The five convex examples have been known since antiquity and are called the Platonic solids. These are the triangular pyramid or tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron:
There are also four regular star polyhedra, known as the Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra after their discoverers.
The dual of a regular polyhedron is also regular.
Uniform polyhedra are vertex-transitive and every face is a regular polygon.
They may be subdivided into the regular, quasi-regular, or semi-regular, and may be convex or starry.
The duals of the uniform polyhedra have irregular faces but are face-transitive, and every vertex figure is a regular polygon. A uniform polyhedron has the same symmetry orbits as its dual, with the faces and vertices simply swapped over. The duals of the convex Archimedean polyhedra are sometimes called the Catalan solids.
The uniform polyhedra and their duals are traditionally classified according to their degree of symmetry, and whether they are convex or not.
An isohedron is a polyhedron with symmetries acting transitively on its faces. Their topology can be represented by a face configuration. All 5 Platonic solids and 13 Catalan solids are isohedra, as well as the infinite families of trapezohedra and bipyramids. Some isohedra allow geometric variations including concave and self-intersecting forms.
Many of the symmetries or point groups in three dimensions are named after polyhedra having the associated symmetry. These include:
Those with chiral symmetry do not have reflection symmetry and hence have two enantiomorphous forms which are reflections of each other. Examples include the snub cuboctahedron and snub icosidodecahedron.
Besides the regular and uniform polyhedra, there are some other classes which have regular faces but lower overall symmetry.
Convex polyhedra where every face is the same kind of regular polygon may be found among three families:
Polyhedra with congruent regular faces of six or more sides are all non-convex.
The total number of convex polyhedra with equal regular faces is thus ten: the five Platonic solids and the five non-uniform deltahedra. There are infinitely many non-convex examples. Infinite sponge-like examples called infinite skew polyhedra exist in some of these families.
Norman Johnson sought which convex non-uniform polyhedra had regular faces, although not necessarily all alike. In 1966, he published a list of 92 such solids, gave them names and numbers, and conjectured that there were no others. Victor Zalgaller proved in 1969 that the list of these Johnson solids was complete.
Pyramids include some of the most time-honoured and famous of all polyhedra, such as the four-sided Egyptian pyramids.
Stellation of a polyhedron is the process of extending the faces (within their planes) so that they meet to form a new polyhedron.
It is the exact reciprocal to the process of facetting, which is the process of removing parts of a polyhedron without creating any new vertices.
The figures below show some stellations of the regular octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron.
A zonohedron is a convex polyhedron in which every face is a polygon that is symmetric under rotations through 180°. Zonohedra can also be characterized as the Minkowski sums of line segments, and include several important space-filling polyhedra.
A toroidal polyhedron is a polyhedron whose Euler characteristic is less than or equal to 0, or equivalently whose genus is 1 or greater. Topologically, the surfaces of such polyhedra are torus surfaces having one or more holes through the middle.
A space-filling polyhedron packs with copies of itself to fill space. Such a close-packing or space-filling is often called a tessellation of space or a honeycomb. Space-filling polyhedra must have a Dehn invariant equal to zero. Some honeycombs involve more than one kind of polyhedron.
A convex polyhedron in which all vertices have integer coordinates is called a lattice polyhedron or integral polyhedron. The Ehrhart polynomial of a lattice polyhedron counts how many points with integer coordinates lie within a scaled copy of the polyhedron, as a function of the scale factor. The study of these polynomials lies at the intersection of combinatorics and commutative algebra.
It is possible for some polyhedra to change their overall shape, while keeping the shapes of their faces the same, by varying the angles of their edges. A polyhedron that can do this is called a flexible polyhedron. By Cauchy's rigidity theorem, flexible polyhedra must be non-convex. The volume of a flexible polyhedron must remain constant as it flexes; this result is known as the bellows theorem.
A polyhedral compound is made of two or more polyhedra sharing a common centre. Symmetrical compounds often share the same vertices as other well-known polyhedra and may often also be formed by stellation. Some are listed in the list of Wenninger polyhedron models.
An orthogonal polyhedron is one all of whose faces meet at right angles, and all of whose edges are parallel to axes of a Cartesian coordinate system. (Jessen's icosahedron provides an example of a polyhedron meeting one but not both of these two conditions.) Aside from the rectangular boxes, orthogonal polyhedra are nonconvex. They are the 3D analogs of 2D orthogonal polygons, also known as rectilinear polygons. Orthogonal polyhedra are used in computational geometry, where their constrained structure has enabled advances on problems unsolved for arbitrary polyhedra, for example, unfolding the surface of a polyhedron to a polygonal net.
The name 'polyhedron' has come to be used for a variety of objects having similar structural properties to traditional polyhedra.
A classical polyhedral surface has a finite number of faces, joined in pairs along edges. The apeirohedra form a related class of objects with infinitely many faces. Examples of apeirohedra include:
There are objects called complex polyhedra, for which the underlying space is a complex Hilbert space rather than real Euclidean space. Precise definitions exist only for the regular complex polyhedra, whose symmetry groups are complex reflection groups. The complex polyhedra are mathematically more closely related to configurations than to real polyhedra.
Some fields of study allow polyhedra to have curved faces and edges. Curved faces can allow digonal faces to exist with a positive area.
When the surface of a sphere is divided by finitely many great arcs (equivalently, by planes passing through the center of the sphere), the result is called a spherical polyhedron. Many convex polytopes having some degree of symmetry (for example, all the Platonic solids) can be projected onto the surface of a concentric sphere to produce a spherical polyhedron. However, the reverse process is not always possible; some spherical polyhedra (such as the hosohedra) have no flat-faced analogue.
If faces are allowed to be concave as well as convex, adjacent faces may be made to meet together with no gap. Some of these curved polyhedra can pack together to fill space. Two important types are:
By forgetting the face structure, any polyhedron gives rise to a graph, called its skeleton, with corresponding vertices and edges. Such figures have a long history: Leonardo da Vinci devised frame models of the regular solids, which he drew for Pacioli's book "Divina Proportione", and similar wire-frame polyhedra appear in M.C. Escher's print "Stars". One highlight of this approach is Steinitz's theorem, which gives a purely graph-theoretic characterization of the skeletons of convex polyhedra: it states that the skeleton of every convex polyhedron is a 3-connected planar graph, and every 3-connected planar graph is the skeleton of some convex polyhedron.
An early idea of abstract polyhedra was developed in Branko Grünbaum's study of "hollow-faced polyhedra." Grünbaum defined faces to be cyclically ordered sets of vertices, and allowed them to be skew as well as planar.
The graph perspective allows one to apply graph terminology and properties to polyhedra. For example, the tetrahedron and Császár polyhedron are the only known polyhedra whose skeletons are complete graphs (K4), and various symmetry restrictions on polyhedra give rise to skeletons that are symmetric graphs.
From the latter half of the twentieth century, various mathematical constructs have been found to have properties also present in traditional polyhedra. Rather than confining the term "polyhedron" to describe a three-dimensional polytope, it has been adopted to describe various related but distinct kinds of structure.
A polyhedron has been defined as a set of points in real affine (or Euclidean) space of any dimension "n" that has flat sides. It may alternatively be defined as the intersection of finitely many half-spaces. Unlike a conventional polyhedron, it may be bounded or unbounded. In this meaning, a polytope is a bounded polyhedron.
Analytically, such a convex polyhedron is expressed as the solution set for a system of linear inequalities. Defining polyhedra in this way provides a geometric perspective for problems in linear programming.
Many traditional polyhedral forms are polyhedra in this sense. Other examples include:
A topological polytope is a topological space given along with a specific decomposition into shapes that are topologically equivalent to convex polytopes and that are attached to each other in a regular way.
Such a figure is called "simplicial" if each of its regions is a simplex, i.e. in an "n"-dimensional space each region has "n"+1 vertices. The dual of a simplicial polytope is called "simple". Similarly, a widely studied class of polytopes (polyhedra) is that of cubical polyhedra, when the basic building block is an "n"-dimensional cube.
An abstract polytope is a partially ordered set (poset) of elements whose partial ordering obeys certain rules of incidence (connectivity) and ranking. The elements of the set correspond to the vertices, edges, faces and so on of the polytope: vertices have rank 0, edges rank 1, etc. with the partially ordered ranking corresponding to the dimensionality of the geometric elements. The empty set, required by set theory, has a rank of −1 and is sometimes said to correspond to the null polytope. An abstract polyhedron is an abstract polytope having the following ranking:
Any geometric polyhedron is then said to be a "realization" in real space of the abstract poset as described above.
Polyhedra appeared in early architectural forms such as cubes and cuboids, with the earliest four-sided pyramids of ancient Egypt also dating from the Stone Age.
The Etruscans preceded the Greeks in their awareness of at least some of the regular polyhedra, as evidenced by the discovery of an Etruscan dodecahedron made of soapstone on Monte Loffa. Its faces were marked with different designs, suggesting to some scholars that it may have been used as a gaming die.
The earliest known "written" records of these shapes come from Classical Greek authors, who also gave the first known mathematical description of them. The earlier Greeks were interested primarily in the convex regular polyhedra, which came to be known as the Platonic solids. Pythagoras knew at least three of them, and Theaetetus (circa 417 B. C.) described all five. Eventually, Euclid described their construction in his "Elements". Later, Archimedes expanded his study to the convex uniform polyhedra which now bear his name. His original work is lost and his solids come down to us through Pappus.
Cubical gaming dice in China have been dated back as early as 600 B.C.
By 236 AD, Liu Hui was describing the dissection of the cube into its characteristic tetrahedron (orthoscheme) and related solids, using assemblages of these solids as the basis for calculating volumes of earth to be moved during engineering excavations.
After the end of the Classical era, scholars in the Islamic civilisation continued to take the Greek knowledge forward (see Mathematics in medieval Islam).
The 9th century scholar Thabit ibn Qurra gave formulae for calculating the volumes of polyhedra such as truncated pyramids.
Then in the 10th century Abu'l Wafa described the convex regular and quasiregular spherical polyhedra.
As with other areas of Greek thought maintained and enhanced by Islamic scholars, Western interest in polyhedra revived during the Italian Renaissance. Artists constructed skeletal polyhedra, depicting them from life as a part of their investigations into perspective. Several appear in marquetry panels of the period. Piero della Francesca gave the first written description of direct geometrical construction of such perspective views of polyhedra. Leonardo da Vinci made skeletal models of several polyhedra and drew illustrations of them for a book by Pacioli. A painting by an anonymous artist of Pacioli and a pupil depicts a glass rhombicuboctahedron half-filled with water.
As the Renaissance spread beyond Italy, later artists such as Wenzel Jamnitzer, Dürer and others also depicted polyhedra of various kinds, many of them novel, in imaginative etchings.
For almost 2,000 years, the concept of a polyhedron as a convex solid had remained as developed by the ancient Greek mathematicians.
During the Renaissance star forms were discovered. A marble tarsia in the floor of St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, depicts a stellated dodecahedron. Artists such as Wenzel Jamnitzer delighted in depicting novel star-like forms of increasing complexity.
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) used star polygons, typically pentagrams, to build star polyhedra. Some of these figures may have been discovered before Kepler's time, but he was the first to recognize that they could be considered "regular" if one removed the restriction that regular polytopes must be convex. Later, Louis Poinsot realised that star vertex figures (circuits around each corner) can also be used, and discovered the remaining two regular star polyhedra. Cauchy proved Poinsot's list complete, and Cayley gave them their accepted English names: (Kepler's) the small stellated dodecahedron and great stellated dodecahedron, and (Poinsot's) the great icosahedron and great dodecahedron. Collectively they are called the Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra.
The Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra may be constructed from the Platonic solids by a process called stellation. Most stellations are not regular. The study of stellations of the Platonic solids was given a big push by H.S.M. Coxeter and others in 1938, with the now famous paper "The 59 icosahedra".
The reciprocal process to stellation is called facetting (or faceting). Every stellation of one polytope is dual, or reciprocal, to some facetting of the dual polytope. The regular star polyhedra can also be obtained by facetting the Platonic solids. listed the simpler facettings of the dodecahedron, and reciprocated them to discover a stellation of the icosahedron that was missing from the set of "59". More have been discovered since, and the story is not yet ended.
Two other modern mathematical developments had a profound effect on polyhedron theory.
In 1750 Leonhard Euler for the first time considered the edges of a polyhedron, allowing him to discover his polyhedron formula relating the number of vertices, edges and faces. This signalled the birth of topology, sometimes referred to as "rubber sheet geometry", and Henri Poincaré developed its core ideas around the end of the nineteenth century. This allowed many longstanding issues over what was or was not a polyhedron to be resolved.
Max Brückner summarised work on polyhedra to date, including many findings of his own, in his book "Vielecke und Vielflache: Theorie und Geschichte" (Polygons and polyhedra: Theory and History). Published in German in 1900, it remained little known.
Meanwhile, the discovery of higher dimensions led to the idea of a polyhedron as a three-dimensional example of the more general polytope.
By the early years of the twentieth century, mathematicians had moved on and geometry was little studied. Coxeter's analysis in "The Fifty-Nine Icosahedra" introduced modern ideas from graph theory and combinatorics into the study of polyhedra, signalling a rebirth of interest in geometry.
Coxeter himself went on to enumerate the star uniform polyhedra for the first time, to treat tilings of the plane as polyhedra, to discover the regular skew polyhedra and to develop the theory of complex polyhedra first discovered by Shephard in 1952, as well as making fundamental contributions to many other areas of geometry.
In the second part of the twentieth century, Grünbaum published important works in two areas. One was in convex polytopes, where he noted a tendency among mathematicians to define a "polyhedron" in different and sometimes incompatible ways to suit the needs of the moment. The other was a series of papers broadening the accepted definition of a polyhedron, for example discovering many new regular polyhedra. At the close of the 20th century these latter ideas merged with other work on incidence complexes to create the modern idea of an abstract polyhedron (as an abstract 3-polytope), notably presented by McMullen and Schulte.
For natural occurrences of regular polyhedra, "see Regular polyhedron: Regular polyhedra in nature."
Irregular polyhedra appear in nature as crystals.
Notes
Sources | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23470 |
Polytope
In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with "flat" sides. It is a generalization in any number of dimensions of the three-dimensional polyhedron. Polytopes may exist in any general number of dimensions "n" as an "n"-dimensional polytope or "n"-polytope. Flat sides mean that the sides of a ("k"+1)-polytope consist of "k"-polytopes that may have ("k"−1)-polytopes in common. For example, a two-dimensional polygon is a 2-polytope and a three-dimensional polyhedron is a 3-polytope.
Some theories further generalize the idea to include such objects as unbounded apeirotopes and tessellations, decompositions or tilings of curved manifolds including spherical polyhedra, and set-theoretic abstract polytopes.
Polytopes in more than three dimensions were first discovered by Ludwig Schläfli. The German term "polytop" was coined by the mathematician Reinhold Hoppe, and was introduced to English mathematicians as polytope by Alicia Boole Stott.
The term "polytope" is nowadays a broad term that covers a wide class of objects, and different definitions are attested in mathematical literature. Many of these definitions are not equivalent, resulting in different sets of objects being called "polytopes". They represent different approaches to generalizing the convex polytopes to include other objects with similar properties.
The original approach broadly followed by Ludwig Schläfli, Thorold Gosset and others begins with the extension by analogy into four or more dimensions, of the idea of a polygon and polyhedron respectively in two and three dimensions.
Attempts to generalise the Euler characteristic of polyhedra to higher-dimensional polytopes led to the development of topology and the treatment of a decomposition or CW-complex as analogous to a polytope. In this approach, a polytope may be regarded as a tessellation or decomposition of some given manifold. An example of this approach defines a polytope as a set of points that admits a simplicial decomposition. In this definition, a polytope is the union of finitely many simplices, with the additional property that, for any two simplices that have a nonempty intersection, their intersection is a vertex, edge, or higher dimensional face of the two. However this definition does not allow star polytopes with interior structures, and so is restricted to certain areas of mathematics.
The discovery of star polyhedra and other unusual constructions led to the idea of a polyhedron as a bounding surface, ignoring its interior. In this light convex polytopes in "p"-space are equivalent to tilings of the ("p"−1)-sphere, while others may be tilings of other elliptic, flat or toroidal ("p"−1)-surfaces – see elliptic tiling and toroidal polyhedron. A polyhedron is understood as a surface whose faces are polygons, a 4-polytope as a hypersurface whose facets (cells) are polyhedra, and so forth.
The idea of constructing a higher polytope from those of lower dimension is also sometimes extended downwards in dimension, with an (edge) seen as a 1-polytope bounded by a point pair, and a point or vertex as a 0-polytope. This approach is used for example in the theory of abstract polytopes.
In certain fields of mathematics, the terms "polytope" and "polyhedron" are used in a different sense: a "polyhedron" is the generic object in any dimension (referred to as "polytope" in this Wikipedia article) and "polytope" means a bounded polyhedron. This terminology is typically confined to polytopes and polyhedra that are convex. With this terminology, a convex polyhedron is the intersection of a finite number of halfspaces and is defined by its sides while a convex polytope is the convex hull of a finite number of points and is defined by its vertices.
Polytopes in lower numbers of dimensions have standard names:
A polytope comprises elements of different dimensionality such as vertices, edges, faces, cells and so on. Terminology for these is not fully consistent across different authors. For example, some authors use "face" to refer to an ("n" − 1)-dimensional element while others use "face" to denote a 2-face specifically. Authors may use "j"-face or "j"-facet to indicate an element of "j" dimensions. Some use "edge" to refer to a ridge, while H. S. M. Coxeter uses "cell" to denote an ("n" − 1)-dimensional element.
The terms adopted in this article are given in the table below:
An "n"-dimensional polytope is bounded by a number of ("n" − 1)-dimensional "facets". These facets are themselves polytopes, whose facets are ("n" − 2)-dimensional "ridges" of the original polytope. Every ridge arises as the intersection of two facets (but the intersection of two facets need not be a ridge). Ridges are once again polytopes whose facets give rise to ("n" − 3)-dimensional boundaries of the original polytope, and so on. These bounding sub-polytopes may be referred to as faces, or specifically "j"-dimensional faces or "j"-faces. A 0-dimensional face is called a "vertex", and consists of a single point. A 1-dimensional face is called an "edge", and consists of a line segment. A 2-dimensional face consists of a polygon, and a 3-dimensional face, sometimes called a "cell", consists of a polyhedron.
A polytope may be "convex". The convex polytopes are the simplest kind of polytopes, and form the basis for several different generalizations of the concept of polytopes. A convex polytope is sometimes defined as the intersection of a set of half-spaces. This definition allows a polytope to be neither bounded nor finite. Polytopes are defined in this way, e.g., in linear programming. A polytope is "bounded" if there is a ball of finite radius that contains it. A polytope is said to be "pointed" if it contains at least one vertex. Every bounded nonempty polytope is pointed. An example of a non-pointed polytope is the set formula_1. A polytope is "finite" if it is defined in terms of a finite number of objects, e.g., as an intersection of a finite number of half-planes.
It is an integral polytope if all of its vertices have integer coordinates.
A certain class of convex polytopes are "reflexive" polytopes. An integral formula_2-polytope formula_3 is reflexive if for some integral matrix formula_4, formula_5, where formula_6 denotes a vector of all ones, and the inequality is component-wise. It follows from this definition that formula_3 is reflexive if and only if formula_8 for all formula_9. In other words, a formula_10-dilate of formula_3 differs, in terms of integer lattice points, from a formula_12-dilate of formula_3 only by lattice points gained on the boundary. Equivalently, formula_3 is reflexive if and only if its dual polytope formula_15 is an integral polytope.
Regular polytopes have the highest degree of symmetry of all polytopes. The symmetry group of a regular polytope acts transitively on its flags; hence, the dual polytope of a regular polytope is also regular.
There are three main classes of regular polytope which occur in any number of dimensions:
Dimensions two, three and four include regular figures which have fivefold symmetries and some of which are non-convex stars, and in two dimensions there are infinitely many regular polygons of "n"-fold symmetry, both convex and (for "n" ≥ 5) star. But in higher dimensions there are no other regular polytopes.
In three dimensions the convex Platonic solids include the fivefold-symmetric dodecahedron and icosahedron, and there are also four star Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra with fivefold symmetry, bringing the total to nine regular polyhedra.
In four dimensions the regular 4-polytopes include one additional convex solid with fourfold symmetry and two with fivefold symmetry. There are ten star Schläfli-Hess 4-polytopes, all with fivefold symmetry, giving in all sixteen regular 4-polytopes.
A non-convex polytope may be self-intersecting; this class of polytopes include the star polytopes. Some regular polytopes are stars.
Since a (filled) convex polytope in formula_2 dimensions is contractible to a point, its Euler characteristic formula_17 is given by the alternating sum:
This generalizes Euler's formula for polyhedra.
The Gram–Euler theorem similarly generalizes the alternating sum of internal angles formula_21 for convex polyhedra to higher-dimensional polytopes:
Not all manifolds are finite. Where a polytope is understood as a tiling or decomposition of a manifold, this idea may be extended to infinite manifolds. plane tilings, space-filling (honeycombs) and hyperbolic tilings are in this sense polytopes, and are sometimes called apeirotopes because they have infinitely many cells.
Among these, there are regular forms including the regular skew polyhedra and the infinite series of tilings represented by the regular apeirogon, square tiling, cubic honeycomb, and so on.
The theory of abstract polytopes attempts to detach polytopes from the space containing them, considering their purely combinatorial properties. This allows the definition of the term to be extended to include objects for which it is difficult to define an intuitive underlying space, such as the 11-cell.
An abstract polytope is a partially ordered set of elements or members, which obeys certain rules. It is a purely algebraic structure, and the theory was developed in order to avoid some of the issues which make it difficult to reconcile the various geometric classes within a consistent mathematical framework. A geometric polytope is said to be a realization in some real space of the associated abstract polytope.
Structures analogous to polytopes exist in complex Hilbert spaces formula_23 where "n" real dimensions are accompanied by "n" imaginary ones. Regular complex polytopes are more appropriately treated as configurations.
Every "n"-polytope has a dual structure, obtained by interchanging its vertices for facets, edges for ridges, and so on generally interchanging its ("j" − 1)-dimensional elements for ("n" − "j")-dimensional elements (for "j" = 1 to "n" − 1), while retaining the connectivity or incidence between elements.
For an abstract polytope, this simply reverses the ordering of the set. This reversal is seen in the Schläfli symbols for regular polytopes, where the symbol for the dual polytope is simply the reverse of the original. For example, {4, 3, 3} is dual to {3, 3, 4}.
In the case of a geometric polytope, some geometric rule for dualising is necessary, see for example the rules described for dual polyhedra. Depending on circumstance, the dual figure may or may not be another geometric polytope.
If the dual is reversed, then the original polytope is recovered. Thus, polytopes exist in dual pairs.
If a polytope has the same number of vertices as facets, of edges as ridges, and so forth, and the same connectivities, then the dual figure will be similar to the original and the polytope is self-dual.
Some common self-dual polytopes include:
Polygons and polyhedra have been known since ancient times.
An early hint of higher dimensions came in 1827 when August Ferdinand Möbius discovered that two mirror-image solids can be superimposed by rotating one of them through a fourth mathematical dimension. By the 1850s, a handful of other mathematicians such as Arthur Cayley and Hermann Grassmann had also considered higher dimensions.
Ludwig Schläfli was the first to consider analogues of polygons and polyhedra in these higher spaces. He described the six convex regular 4-polytopes in 1852 but his work was not published until 1901, six years after his death. By 1854, Bernhard Riemann's "Habilitationsschrift" had firmly established the geometry of higher dimensions, and thus the concept of "n"-dimensional polytopes was made acceptable. Schläfli's polytopes were rediscovered many times in the following decades, even during his lifetime.
In 1882 Reinhold Hoppe, writing in German, coined the word "" to refer to this more general concept of polygons and polyhedra. In due course Alicia Boole Stott, daughter of logician George Boole, introduced the anglicised "polytope" into the English language.
In 1895, Thorold Gosset not only rediscovered Schläfli's regular polytopes but also investigated the ideas of semiregular polytopes and space-filling tessellations in higher dimensions. Polytopes also began to be studied in non-Euclidean spaces such as hyperbolic space.
An important milestone was reached in 1948 with H. S. M. Coxeter's book "Regular Polytopes", summarizing work to date and adding new findings of his own.
Meanwhile, the French mathematician Henri Poincaré had developed the topological idea of a polytope as the piecewise decomposition (e.g. CW-complex) of a manifold. Branko Grünbaum published his influential work on "Convex Polytopes" in 1967.
In 1952 Geoffrey Colin Shephard generalised the idea as complex polytopes in complex space, where each real dimension has an imaginary one associated with it. Coxeter developed the theory further.
The conceptual issues raised by complex polytopes, non-convexity, duality and other phenomena led Grünbaum and others to the more general study of abstract combinatorial properties relating vertices, edges, faces and so on. A related idea was that of incidence complexes, which studied the incidence or connection of the various elements with one another. These developments led eventually to the theory of abstract polytopes as partially ordered sets, or posets, of such elements. Peter McMullen and Egon Schulte published their book "Abstract Regular Polytopes" in 2002.
Enumerating the uniform polytopes, convex and nonconvex, in four or more dimensions remains an outstanding problem.
In modern times, polytopes and related concepts have found many important applications in fields as diverse as computer graphics, optimization, search engines, cosmology, quantum mechanics and numerous other fields. In 2013 the amplituhedron was discovered as a simplifying construct in certain calculations of theoretical physics.
In the field of optimization, linear programming studies the maxima and minima of linear functions; these maxima and minima occur on the boundary of an "n"-dimensional polytope. In linear programming, polytopes occur in the use of generalized barycentric coordinates and slack variables.
In twistor theory, a branch of theoretical physics, a polytope called the amplituhedron is used in to calculate the scattering amplitudes of subatomic particles when they collide. The construct is purely theoretical with no known physical manifestation, but is said to greatly simplify certain calculations.
Notes
Sources | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23471 |
Problem of universals
The problem of universals is an ancient question from metaphysics which has inspired a range of philosophical topics and disputes. Should the properties an object has in common with other objects, such as colour and shape, be considered to exist beyond those objects? And if a property exists separately from objects, what is the nature of that existence?
The problem of universals relates to various inquiries closely related to metaphysics, logic, and epistemology, as far back as Plato and Aristotle, in efforts to define the mental connections a human makes when they understand a property such as shape or colour to be the same in nonidentical objects.
Universals are qualities or relations found in two or more entities. As an example, if all cup holders are "circular" in some way, "circularity" may be considered a universal property of cup holders. Further, if two daughters can be considered "female offspring of Frank", the qualities of being "female", "offspring", and "of Frank", are universal properties of the two daughters. Many properties can be universal:- being human, red, male or female, liquid or solid, big or small, etc.
Philosophers agree that human beings can talk and think about universals, but disagree on whether universals exist in reality beyond mere thought and speech.
The problem of universals is considered a central issue in traditional metaphysics and can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle's philosophy, particularly in their attempt to explain the nature and status of forms. These philosophers explored the problem through predication.
Plato believed there to be a sharp distinction between the world of perceivable objects and the world of universals or forms: one can only have mere opinions about the former, but one can have knowledge about the latter. For Plato it was not possible to have knowledge of anything that could change or was particular, since knowledge had to be forever unfailing and general. For that reason, the world of the forms is the real world, like sunlight, while the sensible world is only imperfectly or partially real, like shadows. This Platonic realism, however, in denying that the eternal Forms are mental artifacts, differs sharply with modern forms of idealism.
One of the first nominalist critiques of Plato's realism was that of Diogenes of Sinope, who said "I've seen Plato's cups and table, but not his cupness and tableness."
Plato's student Aristotle disagreed with his tutor. Aristotle transformed Plato's forms into "formal causes", the blueprints or essences of individual things. Whereas Plato idealized geometry, Aristotle emphasized nature and related disciplines and therefore much of his thinking concerns living beings and their properties. The nature of universals in Aristotle's philosophy therefore hinges on his view of natural kinds. The philosopher distinguished highest genera like animal and species like man but he maintained that both are predicated of individual men. This was considered part of an approach to the principle of things, which adheres to the criterion that what is most universal is also most real.
Consider for example a particular oak tree. This is a member of a species and it has much in common with other oak trees, past, present and future. Its universal, its oakness, is a part of it. A biologist can study oak trees and learn about oakness and more generally the intelligible order within the sensible world. Accordingly, Aristotle was more confident than Plato about coming to know the sensible world; he was a prototypical empiricist and a founder of induction. Aristotle was a new, moderate sort of realist about universals.
The problem was introduced to the medieval world by Boethius, by his translation of Porphyry's Isagoge. It begins:
"I shall omit to speak about genera and species, as to whether they subsist (in the nature of things) or in mere conceptions only; whether also if subsistent, they are bodies or incorporeal, and whether they are separate from, or in, sensibles, and subsist about these, for such a treatise is most profound, and requires another more extensive investigation".
Boethius, in his commentaries on the aforementioned translation, says that a universal, if it were to exist has to apply to several particulars entirely. He also specifies that they apply simultaneously at once and not in a temporal succession. He reasons that they cannot be mind-independent, i.e. they do not have a real existence, because a quality cannot be both one thing and common to many particulars in such a way that it forms part of a particular's substance, as it would then be partaking of universality and particularity. However, he also says that universals can't also be of the mind since a mental construct of a quality is an abstraction and understanding of something outside of the mind. He concludes that this representation is either a true understanding of the quality, in which case we revert to the earlier problem faced by those who believe universals are real. Conversely, if the mental abstractions were not a true understanding, then 'what is understood otherwise than the thing is false'.
His solution to this problem was to state that the mind is able to separate in thought what is not necessarily separable in reality. He cites the human mind's ability to abstract from concrete particulars as an instance of this. This, according to Boethius, avoids the problem of Platonic universals being out there in the real world, but also the problem of them being purely constructs of the mind in that universals are simply the mind thinking of particulars in an abstract, universal way. His assumption focuses on the problems that language create. Boethius maintained that the structure of language corresponds to the structure of things and that language creates what he called as philosophical babble of confused and contradictory accounts of the nature of things. To illustrate his view, suppose that although the mind cannot think of 2 or 4 as an odd number, as this would be a false representation, it can think of an even number that is neither 2 nor 4.
Boethius stayed quite close to Aristotle in his thinking about universals. Realism was also argued for by both Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and John Duns Scotus (1265-1308). Aquinas argued that both the essence of a thing and its existence were clearly distinct; in this regard he is also Aristotelian.
Duns Scotus argues that in a thing there is no real distinction between the essence and the existence, instead there is only a formal distinction. Scotus believed that universals exist only inside the things that they exemplify, and that they "contract" with the haecceity of the thing to create the individual. As a result of his realist position, he argued strongly against both nominalism and conceptualism, arguing instead for Scotist realism, a medieval response to the conceptualism of Abelard. That is to say, Scotus believed that such properties as 'redness' and 'roundness' exist in reality and are mind-independent entities.
Furthermore, Duns Scotus wrote about this problem in his own commentary ("Quaestiones") on Porphyry's "Isagoge", as Boethius had done. Scotus was interested in how the mind forms universals, and he believed this to be 'caused by the intellect'. This intellect acts on the basis that the nature of, say, 'humanity' that is found in other humans and also that the quality is attributable to other individual humans.
The opposing view to realism is one called nominalism, which at its strongest maintains that universals are verbal constructs and that they do not inhere in objects or pre-exist them. Therefore, universals in this view are something which are peculiar to human cognition and language. The French philosopher and theologian Roscellinus (1050–1125) was an early, prominent proponent of this view. His particular view was that universals are little more than vocal utterances ("voces").
William of Ockham (1285-1347) wrote extensively on this topic. He argued strongly that universals are a product of abstract human thought. According to Ockham, universals are just words or concepts (at best) that only exist in the mind and have no real place in the external world. His opposition to universals was not based on his eponymous Razor, but rather he found that regarding them as real was contradictory in some sense. An early work has Ockham stating that 'no thing outside the soul is universal, either through itself or through anything real or rational added on, no matter how it is considered or understood'. Nevertheless, his position did shift away from an outright opposition to accommodating them in his later works such as the "Summae Logicae" (albeit in a modified way that would not classify him as a complete realist).
The 19th-century British philosopher John Stuart Mill discussed the problem of universals in the course of a book that eviscerated the philosophy of Sir William Hamilton. Mill wrote, "The formation of a concept does not consist in separating the attributes which are said to compose it from all other attributes of the same object and enabling us to conceive those attributes, disjoined from any others. We neither conceive them, nor think them, nor cognize them in any way, as a thing apart, but solely as forming, in combination with numerous other attributes, the idea of an individual object".
However, he then proceeds to state that Berkeley's position is factually wrong by stating the following:
In other words, we may be "temporarily unconscious" of whether an image is white, black or yellow and concentrate our attention on the fact that it is a man and on just those attributes necessary to identify it as a man (but not as any particular one). It may then have the significance of a universal of manhood.
The 19th-century American logician Charles Sanders Peirce, known as the father of pragmatism, developed his own views on the problem of universals in the course of a review of an edition of the writings of George Berkeley. Peirce begins with the observation that "Berkeley's metaphysical theories have at first sight an air of paradox and levity very unbecoming to a bishop". He includes among these paradoxical doctrines Berkeley's denial of "the possibility of forming the simplest general conception". He wrote that if there is some mental fact that works "in practice" the way that a universal would, that fact is a universal. "If I have learned a formula in gibberish which in any way jogs my memory so as to enable me in each single case to act as though I had a general idea, what possible utility is there in distinguishing between such a gibberish... and an idea?" Peirce also held as a matter of ontology that what he called "thirdness", the more general facts about the world, are extra-mental realities.
William James learned pragmatism, this way of understanding an idea by its practical effects, from his friend Peirce, but he gave it new significance – which was not to Peirce's taste: he came to complain that James had "kidnapped" the term and eventually to call himself a "pragmaticist" instead. Although James certainly agreed with Peirce and against Berkeley that general ideas exist as a psychological fact, he was a nominalist in his ontology:
There are at least three ways in which a realist might try to answer James' challenge of explaining the reason why universal conceptions are more lofty than those of particulars: the moral–political answer, the mathematical–scientific answer, and the anti-paradoxical answer. Each has contemporary or near-contemporary advocates.
The moral or political response is given by the conservative philosopher Richard M. Weaver in "Ideas Have Consequences" (1948), where he describes how the acceptance of "the fateful doctrine of nominalism" was "the crucial event in the history of Western culture; from this flowed those acts which issue now in modern decadence".
The noted American philosopher, W. V. O. Quine addressed the problem of universals throughout his career. In his paper, 'On Universals', from 1947, he states the problem of universals is chiefly understood as being concerned with entities and not the linguistic aspect of naming a universal. He says that Platonists believe that our ability to form general conceptions of things is incomprehensible unless universals exist outside of the mind, whereas nominalists believe that such ideas are 'empty verbalism'. Quine himself does not propose to resolve this particular debate. What he does say however is that certain types of 'discourse' which presuppose universals which nominalists must therefore give up as potential discourse or knowledge. Quine's approach is therefore more an epistemological one, i.e. what can be known, rather than a metaphysical one, i.e. what is real.
Nino Cocchiarella put forward the idea that realism is the best response to certain logical paradoxes to which nominalism leads ("Nominalism and Conceptualism as Predicative Second Order Theories of Predication", "Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic", vol. 21 (1980)). It is noted that in a sense Cocchiarella has adopted Platonism for anti-Platonic reasons. Plato, as seen in the dialogue "Parmenides", was willing to accept a certain amount of paradox with his forms. Cocchiarella adopts the forms to avoid paradox.
The Australian philosopher David Malet Armstrong has been one of the leading realists in the twentieth century, and has used a concept of universals to build a naturalistic and scientifically realist ontology. In both "Universals and Scientific Realism" (1978) and "Universals: An Opinionated Introduction" (1989), Armstrong describes the relative merits of a number of nominalist theories which appeal either to "natural classes" (a view he ascribes to Anthony Quinton), concepts, resemblance relations or predicates, and also discusses non-realist "trope" accounts (which he describes in the "Universals and Scientific Realism" volumes as "particularism"). He gives a number of reasons to reject all of these, but also dismisses a number of realist accounts.
Roger Penrose contends that the foundations of mathematics can't be understood absent the Platonic view that "mathematical truth is absolute, external and eternal, and not based on man-made criteria ... mathematical objects have a timeless existence of their own..."
There are many philosophical positions regarding universals.
Taking "beauty" as example, each of these positions will state the following:
Extreme realism and strong realism are also known as exaggerated realism and moderate realism respectively.
The school of realism makes the claim that universals are real and that they exist distinctly from the particulars that instantiate them. Two major forms metaphysical realism are Platonic realism ("universalia ante res"), meaning "'universal before things'" and Aristotelian realism ("universalia in rebus"), meaning "'universals in things'". "Platonic realism" is the view that universals are real entities existing independent of particulars. "Aristotelian realism", on the other hand, is the view that universals are real entities, but their existence is dependent on the particulars that exemplify them.
Realists tend to argue that universals must be posited as distinct entities in order to account for various phenomena. A common realist argument said to be found in Plato's writings, is that universals are required for certain general words to have meaning and for the sentences in which they occur to be true or false. Take the sentence "Djivan Gasparyan is a musician" for instance. The realist may claim that this sentence is only meaningful and expresses a truth because there is an individual, Djivan Gasparyan, who possesses a certain quality: musicianship. Therefore, it is assumed that the property is a universal which is distinct from the particular individual who has the property.
Nominalists assert that only individuals or particulars exist and deny that universals are real (i.e. that they exist as entities or beings; "universalia post res"). The term "nominalism" comes from the Latin "nomen" ("name"). Four major forms of nominalism are predicate nominalism, resemblance nominalism, trope nominalism, and conceptualism. One with a nominalist view claims that we predicate the same property of/to multiple entities, but argues that the entities only share a name and not have a real quality in common.
Nominalists often argue this view by claiming that nominalism can account for all the relevant phenomena, and therefore—by Occam's razor, and its principle of simplicity—nominalism is preferable, since it posits fewer entities. Nominalism has been endorsed or defended by many, including Chrysippus,, Ibn Taymiyyah, William of Ockham, Ibn Khaldun, Rudolf Carnap, Nelson Goodman, David Lewis, H. H. Price, and D. C. Williams.
Conceptualism is a position that is meshed between realism and nominalism. Conceptualists believe that universals can indeed be real, but only existing as concepts within the mind. Conceptualists argue that the "concept" of universals are not mere "inventions but are reflections of similarities among particular things themselves." For example, the concept of 'man' ultimately reflects a similarity amongst Socrates and Kant.
Transcendental idealist philosopher Immanuel Kant posited that universals are not real, but are ideas in the mind of rational beings. Transcendental idealists do not reject universals as arbitrary names; rather, they treat universals as fundamental categories of pure reason (or as secondary concepts derived from those fundamental categories). Universals, in transcendental idealism, are intrinsically tied to the rationality of the subject making the judgment.
Thus, for transcendental idealists, the problem of universals is only tangentially a metaphysical problem; it is more of a problem of psychology and epistemology. Kant's position has been interpreted as a conceptualist one. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23474 |
Plea bargain
A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is any agreement in a criminal case between the prosecutor and defendant whereby the defendant agrees to plead guilty or "nolo contendere" to a particular charge in return for some concession from the prosecutor. This may mean that the defendant will plead guilty to a less serious charge, or to one of the several charges, in return for the dismissal of other charges; or it may mean that the defendant will plead guilty to the original criminal charge in return for a more lenient sentence.
A plea bargain allows both parties to avoid a lengthy criminal trial and may allow criminal defendants to avoid the risk of conviction at trial on a more serious charge. For example, in the U.S. legal system, a criminal defendant charged with a felony theft charge, the conviction of which would require imprisonment in state prison, may be offered the opportunity to plead guilty to a misdemeanor theft charge, which may not carry a custodial sentence.
In cases such as an automobile collision when there is a potential for civil liability against the defendant, the defendant may agree to plead "no contest" or "guilty with a civil reservation", which essentially is a guilty plea without admitting civil liability.
Plea bargaining can present a dilemma to defense attorneys, in that they must choose between vigorously seeking a good deal for their present client, or maintaining a good relationship with the prosecutor for the sake of helping future clients. However, defense attorneys are required by the ethics of the bar to defend the present client's interests over the interests of others. Violation of this rule may result in disciplinary sanctions being imposed against the defense attorney by the appropriate state's bar association.
In charge bargaining, defendants plead guilty to a less serious crime than the original charge that was filed against them. In count bargaining, they plead guilty to a subset of multiple original charges. In sentence bargaining, they plead guilty agreeing in advance what sentence will be given; however, this sentence can still be denied by the judge. In fact bargaining, defendants plead guilty but the prosecutor agrees to stipulate (i.e., to affirm or concede) certain facts that will affect how the defendant is punished under the sentencing guidelines.
Plea bargaining was considered a predominantly American phenomenon during the 1970s, but has since spread throughout the world.
Plea bargaining has been defended as a voluntary exchange that leaves both parties better off, in that defendants have many procedural and substantive rights, including a right to trial and to appeal a guilty verdict. By pleading guilty, defendants waive those rights in exchange for a commitment from the prosecutor, such as a reduced charge or more favorable sentence. For a defendant who believes that conviction is almost certain, a discount to the sentence is more useful than an unlikely chance of acquittal. The prosecutor secures a conviction while avoiding the need to commit time and resources to trial preparation and a possible trial. Plea bargaining similarly helps preserve money and resources for the court in which the prosecution occurs. It also means that victims and witnesses do not have to testify at the trial, which in some cases may be traumatic.
Plea bargaining is criticized, particularly outside the United States, on the grounds that its close relationship with rewards, threats and coercion potentially endanger the correct legal outcome.
Author Martin Yant discusses the use of coercion in plea bargaining:
Even when the charges are more serious, prosecutors often can still bluff defense attorneys and their clients into pleading guilty to a lesser offense. As a result, people who might have been acquitted because of lack of evidence, but also who are in fact truly innocent, will often plead guilty to the charge. Why? In a word, fear. And the more numerous and serious the charges, studies have shown, the greater the fear. That explains why prosecutors sometimes seem to file every charge imaginable against defendants.
This tactic is prohibited in some other countries—for example in the United Kingdom the prosecutor's code states:
Prosecutors should never go ahead with more charges than are necessary just to encourage a defendant to plead guilty to a few. In the same way, they should never go ahead with a more serious charge just to encourage a defendant to plead guilty to a less serious one.
although it adds that in some kinds of complex cases such as major fraud trials:
The over-riding duty of the prosecutor is ... to see that justice is done. The procedures must command public and judicial confidence. Many defendants in serious and complex fraud cases are represented by solicitors experienced in commercial litigation, including negotiation. This means that the defendant is usually protected from being put under improper pressure to plead. The main danger to be guarded against in these cases is that the prosecutor is persuaded to agree to a plea or a basis that is not in the public interest and interests of justice because it does not adequately reflect the seriousness of the offending ... Any plea agreement must reflect the seriousness and extent of the offending and give the court adequate sentencing powers. It must consider the impact of an agreement on victims and also the wider public, whilst respecting the rights of defendants.
John H. Langbein argues that the modern American system of plea bargaining is comparable to the medieval European system of torture:
There is, of course, a difference between having your limbs crushed if you refuse to confess, or suffering some extra years of imprisonment if you refuse to confess, but the difference is of degree, not kind. Plea bargaining, like torture, is coercive. Like the medieval Europeans, the Americans are now operating a procedural system that engages in condemnation without adjudication.
Theoretical work based on the prisoner's dilemma is one reason that, in many countries, plea bargaining is forbidden. Often, precisely the prisoner's dilemma scenario applies: it is in the interest of both suspects to confess and testify against the other suspect, irrespective of the innocence of the accused. Arguably, the worst case is when only one party is guilty: here, the innocent one has no incentive to confess, while the guilty one has a strong incentive to confess and give testimony (including "false" testimony) against the innocent.
A 2009 study by the European Association of Law and Economics observed that innocent defendants are consistently more likely than guilty defendants to reject otherwise-favorable pleas proposals, even when theoretically disadvantageous to do so, because of perceived unfairness, and would do so even if the expected sanction would be worse if they proceeded to trial. The study concluded that "[t]his somewhat counterintuitive 'cost of innocence', where the preferences of innocents lead them collectively to fare worse than their guilty counterparts, is further increased by the practice of imposing much harsher sentences at trial on defendants who contest the charges. This 'trial penalty' seeks to facilitate guilty pleas by guilty defendants [...and ironically...] disproportionately, collectively, penalizes innocents, who reject on fairness grounds some offers their guilty counterparts accept."
The extent to which innocent people will accept a plea bargain and plead guilty is contentious and has been subjected to considerable research. Much research has focused on the relatively few actual cases where innocence was subsequently proven, such as successful appeals for murder and rape based upon DNA evidence, which tend to be atypical of trials as a whole (being by their nature only the most serious kinds of crime). Other studies have focused on presenting hypothetical situations to subjects and asking what choice they would make. More recently some studies have attempted to examine actual reactions of innocent persons generally, when faced with actual plea bargain decisions. A study by Dervan and Edkins (2013) attempted to recreate a real-life controlled plea bargain situation, rather than merely asking theoretical responses to a theoretical situation—a common approach in previous research. It placed subjects in a situation where an accusation of academic fraud (cheating) could be made, of which some subjects were in fact by design actually guilty (and knew this), and some were innocent but faced seemingly strong evidence of guilt and no verifiable proof of innocence. Each subject was presented with the evidence of guilt and offered a choice between facing an academic ethics board and potentially a heavy penalty in terms of extra courses and other forfeits, or admitting guilt and accepting a lighter "sentence". The study found that as expected from court statistics, around 90% of accused subjects who were actually guilty chose to take the plea-bargain and plead guilty. It also found that around 56% of subjects who were actually innocent (and privately knew it) also to take the plea-bargain and plead guilty, for reasons including avoiding formal quasi-legal processes, uncertainty, possibility of greater harm to personal future plans, or deprivation of home environment due to remedial courses. The authors stated:
Previous research has argued that the innocence problem is minimal because defendants are risk-prone and willing to defend themselves before a tribunal. Our research, however, demonstrates that when study participants are placed in real, rather than hypothetical, bargaining situations and are presented with accurate information regarding their statistical probability of success, just as they might be so informed by their attorney or the government during a criminal plea negotiation, innocent defendants are highly risk-averse.
More pressure to plea bargain may be applied in weak cases (where there is less certainty of both guilt and jury conviction) than strong cases. Prosecutors tend to be strongly motivated by conviction rates, and "there are many indications that prosecutors are willing to go a long way to avoid losing cases, [and that] when prosecutors decide to proceed with such weak cases they are often willing to go a long way to assure that a plea bargain is struck". Prosecutors often have great power to procure a desired level of incentive, as they select the charges to be presented. For this reason,
[P]lea bargains are just as likely in strong and weak cases. Prosecutors only need to adjust the offer to the probability of conviction in order to reach an agreement. Thus, weaker cases result in more lenient plea bargains, and stronger ones in relative harshness, but both result in an agreement. [... W]hen the case is weak, the parties must rely on charge bargaining ... But [charge bargaining] is hardly an obstacle. Charge bargaining in weak cases is not the exception; it is the norm all around the country. Thus, even if the evidence against innocent defendants is, on average, weaker, the likelihood of plea bargains is not dependent on guilt.
Another situation in which an innocent defendant may plead guilty is in the case of a defendant who cannot raise bail, and who is being held in custody in a jail or detention facility. Because it may take months, or even years, for criminal cases to come to trial or even indictment in some jurisdictions, an innocent defendant who is offered a plea bargain that includes a sentence of less time than they would otherwise spend in jail awaiting an indictment or a trial may choose to accept the plea arrangement and plead guilty.
Agency problems sometimes arise in plea bargaining in that although the prosecutor represents the people and the defense attorney represents the defendant, these agents' goals may be far from congruent with those of their principals. Moreover, prosecutors and defense attorneys often view each other as colleagues and generally wish to maintain good relations with one another. A defense attorney often receives a flat fee or in any event will not receive enough additional money if they go to trial to cover the costs of doing so; this can create an incentive to plea bargain, even at the expense of the defense attorney's client's interests.
However, the prosecutor may wish to maintain a high conviction rate and avoid losing high-profile trials; thus, settling a case by plea bargain may further their interests, even if the resulting sentence would not effectively deter crime. As many crimes have very narrow sentencing bands, a prosecutor often has scope to propose whatever degree of "discounted" charges, or substitution of misdemeanor rather than felony charges, to whatever extent they believe would incentivise a defendant to make a guilty plea and accept a speedy conviction, regardless of actual guilt.
Another argument against plea bargaining is that it may not actually reduce the costs of administering justice. For example, if a prosecutor has only a 25% chance of winning his case and sending a defendant away to prison for 10 years, they may make a plea agreement for a sentence of one year; but if plea bargaining is unavailable, a prosecutor may drop the case completely.
Plea bargaining is a significant part of the criminal justice system in the United States; the vast majority (roughly 90%) of criminal cases in the United States are settled by plea bargain rather than by a jury trial. Plea bargains are subject to the approval of the court, and different states and jurisdictions have different rules. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines are followed in federal cases and have been created to ensure a standard of uniformity in all cases decided in the federal courts. A two- or three-level offense level reduction is usually available for those who accept responsibility by not holding the prosecution to the burden of proving its case; this usually amounts to a complete sentence reduction had they gone to trial and lost.
The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provide for two main types of plea agreements. An 11(c)(1)(B) agreement does not bind the court; the prosecutor's recommendation is merely advisory, and the defendant cannot withdraw their plea if the court decides to impose a sentence other than what was stipulated in the agreement. An 11(c)(1)(C) agreement, however, binds the court once the court accepts the agreement. When such an agreement is proposed, the court can reject it if it disagrees with the proposed sentence, in which case the defendant has an opportunity to withdraw their plea.
Plea bargains are so common in the Superior Courts of California (the general trial courts) that the Judicial Council of California has published an optional seven-page form (containing all mandatory advisements required by federal and state law) to help prosecutors and defense attorneys reduce such bargains into written plea agreements.
Certain aspects of the American justice system serve to promote plea bargaining. For example, the adversarial nature of the U.S. criminal justice system puts judges in a passive role, in which they have no independent access to information with which to assess the strength of the case against the defendant. The prosecutor and defense may thus control the outcome of a case through plea bargaining. The court must approve a plea bargain as being within the interests of justice.
The lack of compulsory prosecution also gives prosecutors greater discretion as well as the inability of crime victims to mount a private prosecution and their limited ability to influence plea agreements. Defendants who are held in custody—who either do not have the right to bail or cannot afford bail, or who do not qualify for release on their own recognizance—may get out of jail immediately following the judge's acceptance of a plea.
Generally, once a plea bargain is made and accepted by the courts, the matter is final and cannot be appealed. However, a defendant may withdraw his plea for certain legal reasons, and a defendant may agree to a "conditional" plea bargain, whereby they plead guilty and accept a sentence, but reserve the right to appeal a specific matter (such as violation of a constitutional right). If the defendant does not win on appeal the agreement is carried out; if the defendant is successful on appeal the bargain is terminated. The defendant in "Doggett v. United States" made such a bargain, reserving the right to appeal solely on the grounds that he was not given a speedy trial as required by the United States Constitution; Doggett's claim was upheld by the United States Supreme Court and he was freed.
In Canada, the courts always have the final say with regard to sentencing. Nevertheless, plea bargaining has become an accepted part of the criminal justice system although judges and Crown attorneys are often reluctant to refer to it as such. In most Canadian criminal proceedings, the Crown has the ability to recommend a lighter sentence than it would seek following a guilty verdict in exchange for a guilty plea.
Like other common law jurisdictions, the Crown can also agree to withdraw some charges against the defendant in exchange for a guilty plea. This has become standard procedure for certain offences such as impaired driving. In the case of hybrid offences, the Crown must make a binding decision as to whether to proceed summarily or by indictment prior to the defendant making his or her plea. If the Crown elects to proceed summarily and the defendant then pleads not guilty, the Crown cannot change its election. Therefore, the Crown is not in a position to offer to proceed summarily in exchange for a guilty plea.
Canadian judges are not bound by the Crown's sentencing recommendations and could impose harsher (or more lenient) penalties. Therefore, the Crown and the defence will often make a "joint submission" with respect to sentencing. While a joint submission can entail both the Crown and defence recommending exactly the same disposition of a case, this is not common except in cases that are sufficiently minor that the Crown is willing to recommend a discharge. In more serious cases, a joint submission normally call for a sentence within relatively narrow range, with the Crown arguing for a sentence at the upper end of the range and the defence arguing for a sentence at the lower end, so as to maintain the visibility of the judge's ability to exercise discretion.
Judges are not bound to impose a sentence within the range of a joint submission, and a judge's disregard for a joint submission is not in itself grounds for the sentence to be altered on appeal. However, if a judge routinely disregards joint submissions, that judge would compromise the ability of the Crown to offer meaningful incentives for defendants to plead guilty. Defence lawyers would become reluctant to enter into joint submissions if they were thought to be of little value with a particular judge, which would thus result in otherwise avoidable trials. For these reasons, Canadian judges will normally impose a sentence within the range of any joint submission.
Following a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that imposes strict time limits on the resolution of criminal cases (eighteen months for cases in provincial court and thirty months for cases in Superior Court), several provinces have initiated and intensified measures intended to maximize the number of minor criminal cases resolved by a plea bargain.
Largely particular to the Canadian justice system is that further negotiations concerning the final disposition of a criminal case may also arise even after a sentence has been passed. This is because in Canada the Crown has (by common law standards) a very broad right to appeal acquittals, and also a right to appeal for harsher sentences except in cases where the sentence imposed was maximum allowed. Therefore, in Canada, after sentencing the defence sometimes has an incentive to try and persuade the Crown to not appeal a case, in exchange for the defence also declining to appeal. While, strictly speaking, this is not plea bargaining, it is done for largely the same reasons.
Plea bargaining is permitted in the legal system of England and Wales. The guidelines by the Sentencing Council require that the discount it gives to the sentence be determined by the timing of the plea and no other factors. The guidelines state that the earlier the guilty plea is entered, the greater the discount to the sentence. The maximum discount permitted is one third, for a plea entered at the earliest stage. There is no minimum discount; a guilty plea entered on the first proper day of the trial would be expected provide a discount of one tenth. The discount can sometimes involve changing the type of punishment, such as substituting a prison sentence for community service.
Plea bargaining in Magistrates' Court trials is permitted only to the extent that the prosecutors and the defence can agree that the defendant will plead guilty to some charges and the prosecutor will drop the remainder. However, although this is not conducting a plea bargain, in cases before the Crown Court, the defence can request an indication from the judge of the likely maximum sentence that would be imposed should the defendant decide to plead guilty.
In the case of hybrid offences in England and Wales, the decision whether to deal with a case in Magistrates' Court or Crown Court is not made by magistrates until after a plea has been entered. A defendant is thus unable to plead guilty in exchange for having a case dealt with in Magistrates' Court (which has lesser sentencing powers).
Plea bargaining was introduced in India by "The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2005", which amended the Code of Criminal Procedure and introduced a new chapter, XXI(A), in the code, enforceable from July 5, 2006. It allows plea bargaining for cases in which the maximum punishment is imprisonment for seven years; however, offenses affecting the socio-economic condition of the country and offenses committed against a woman or a child below 14 are excluded.
In 2007, the Sakharam Bandekar case became the first such case in India where the accused, Sakharam Bandekar, requested lesser punishment in return for confessing to his crime (using plea bargaining). However, the court rejected his plea and accepted the CBI's argument that the accused was facing serious charges of corruption. Finally, the court convicted Bandekar and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment.
Plea bargaining as a formal legal provision was introduced in Pakistan by the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, an anti-corruption law. A special feature of this plea bargain is that the accused applies for it, accepting guilt, and offers to return the proceeds of corruption as determined by investigators and prosecutors. After an endorsement by the Chairman National Accountability Bureau, the request is presented before the court, which decides whether it should be accepted or not. If the request for plea bargain is accepted by the court, the accused stands convicted but neither is sentenced if in trial nor undergoes any sentence previously pronounced by a lower court if in appeal. The accused is disqualified to take part in elections, hold any public office, or obtain a loan from any bank; the accused is also dismissed from service if a government official.
In other cases, formal plea bargains in Pakistan are limited, but the prosecutor has the authority to drop a case or a charge in a case and, in practice, often does so, in return for a defendant pleading guilty on some lesser charge. No bargaining takes place over the penalty, which is the court's sole privilege.
In some common law jurisdictions, such as Singapore and the Australian state of Victoria, plea bargaining is practiced only to the extent that the prosecution and the defense can agree that the defendant will plead guilty to some charges or to reduced charges in exchange for the prosecutor withdrawing the remaining or more serious charges. In New South Wales, a 10-25% discount on the sentence is customarily given in exchange for an early guilty plea, but this concession is expected to be granted by the judge as a way of recognizing the utilitarian value of an early guilty plea to the justice system - it is never negotiated with a prosecutor. The courts in these jurisdictions have made it plain that they will always decide what the appropriate penalty is to be. No bargaining takes place between the prosecution and the defence over criminal penalties.
Plea bargaining is extremely difficult in jurisdictions based on the civil law. This is because, unlike common law systems, civil law systems have no concept of plea—if the defendant confesses; a confession is entered into evidence, but the prosecution is not absolved of the duty to present a full case. A court may decide that a defendant is innocent even though they presented a full confession. Also, unlike common law systems, prosecutors in civil law countries may have limited or no power to drop or reduce charges after a case has been filed, and in some countries their power to drop or reduce charges "before" a case has been filed is limited, making plea bargaining impossible. Since the 1980s, many civil law nations have adapted their systems to allow for plea bargaining.
In 2013 Brazil passed a law allowing plea bargains, which have been used in the political corruption trials taking place since then.
In the Central African Republic, witchcraft carries heavy penalties but those accused of it typically confess in exchange for a modest sentence.
In China, a plea bargaining pilot scheme was introduced by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in 2016. For defendants that face jail terms of three years or fewer, agrees to plead guilty voluntarily and agree with prosecutors' crime and sentencing proposals are given mitigated punishments.
In 2009, in a case about whether witness testimony originating from a plea deal in the United States was admissible in a Danish criminal trial "(297/2008 H)", the Supreme Court of Denmark (Danish: Højesteret) unanimously ruled that plea bargains are "prima facie" not legal under Danish law, but that the witnesses in the particular case would be allowed to testify regardless (with the caveat that the lower court consider the possibility that the testimony was untrue or at least influenced by the benefits of the plea bargain). The Supreme Court did, however, point out that Danish law contains mechanisms similar to plea bargains, such as of the Danish Penal Code (Danish: "Straffeloven") which states that a sentence may be reduced if the perpetrator of a crime provides information that helps solve a crime perpetrated by others, or of the Danish Competition Law (Danish: "Konkurrenceloven") which states that someone can apply to avoid being fined or prosecuted for participating in a cartel if they provide information about the cartel that the authorities did not know at the time.
If a defendant admits to having committed a crime, the prosecution does not have to file charges against them, and the case can be heard as a so-called "admission case" (Danish: "tilståelsessag") under of the Law on the Administration of Justice (Danish: "Retsplejeloven") provided that: the confession is supported by other pieces of evidence (meaning that a confession is not enough to convict someone on its own); both the defendant and the prosecutor consent to it; the court does not have any objections; §§ 68, 69, 70 and 73 of the penal code do not apply to the case.
In Estonia, plea bargaining was introduced in the 1990s: the penalty is reduced in exchange for confession and avoiding most of the court proceedings. Plea bargaining is permitted for the crimes punishable by no more than four years of imprisonment. Normally, a 25% reduction of the penalty is given.
The introduction of a limited form of plea bargaining ("comparution sur reconnaissance préalable de culpabilité" or CRPC, often summarized as "plaider coupable") in 2004 was highly controversial in France. In this system, the public prosecutor could propose to suspects of relatively minor crimes a penalty not exceeding one year in prison; the deal, if accepted, had to be accepted by a judge. Opponents, usually lawyers and leftist political parties, argued that plea bargaining would greatly infringe on the rights of defense, the long-standing constitutional right of presumption of innocence, the rights of suspects in police custody, and the right to a fair trial.
For instance, Robert Badinter argued that plea bargaining would give too much power to the public prosecutor and would encourage defendants to accept a sentence only to avoid the risk of a bigger sentence in a trial, even if they did not really deserve it. Only a minority of criminal cases are settled by that method: in 2009, 77,500 out of the 673,700 or 11.5% of the decisions by the correctional courts.
Plea bargaining (Georgian: საპროცესო შეთანხმება, literally "plea agreement") was introduced in Georgia in 2004. The substance of the Georgian plea bargaining is similar to the United States and other common law jurisdictions.
A plea bargaining, also called a plea agreement or negotiated plea, is an alternative and consensual way of criminal case settlement. A plea agreement means settlement of case without main hearing when the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for a lesser charge or for a more lenient sentence or for dismissal of certain related charges. (Article 209 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia)
The main principle of the plea bargaining is that it must be based on the free will of the defendant, equality of the parties and advanced protection of the rights of the defendant:
While concluding the plea agreement, the prosecutor is obliged to take into consideration public interest, severity of the penalty, and personal characteristics of the defendant. (Article 210 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia)
To avoid abuse of powers, legislation foresees written consent of the supervisory prosecutor as necessary precondition to conclude plea agreement and to amend its provisions. (Article 210 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia)
Plea agreement without the approval of the court does not have the legal effect.
The court must satisfy itself that the plea agreement is concluded on the basis of the free will of the defendant, that the defendant fully acknowledges the essence of the plea agreement and its consequences. (Article 212 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia)
A guilty plea of the defendant is not enough to render a guilty judgment. (Article 212 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia) Consequently, the court is obliged to discuss two issues:
After both criteria are satisfied the court additionally checks whether formalities related to the legislative requirements are followed and only then makes its decision.
If the court finds that presented evidence is not sufficient to support the charges or that a motion to render a judgment without substantial consideration of a case is submitted in violation of the requirements stipulated by the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia, it shall return the case to the prosecution. The court before returning the case to the prosecutor offers the parties to change the terms of the agreement. If the changed terms do not satisfy the court, then it shall return the case to the prosecution. (Article 213 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia).
If the court satisfies itself that the defendant fully acknowledges the consequences of the plea agreement, and he or she was represented by the defense council, his or her will is expressed in full compliance with the legislative requirements without deception and coercion, also if there is enough body of doubtless evidence for the conviction and the agreement is reached on legitimate sentence - the court approves the plea agreement and renders guilty judgment. If any of the abovementioned requirements are not satisfied, the court rejects to approve the plea agreement and returns the case to the prosecutor. (Article 213 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia).
The plea agreement is concluded between the parties - the prosecutor and the defendant. Notwithstanding the fact that the victim is not party to the criminal case and the prosecutor is not a tool in the hands of the victim to obtain revenge against the offender, the attitude of the victim in relation to the plea agreement is still important.
Under Article 217 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia, the prosecutor is obliged to consult with the victim prior to concluding the plea agreement and inform him or her about this. In addition, under the Guidelines of the Prosecution Service of Georgia, the prosecutor is obliged to take into consideration the interests of the victim and as a rule conclude the plea agreement after the damage is compensated.
Plea agreements have made a limited appearance in Germany. However, there is no exact equivalent of a guilty plea in German criminal procedure.
Italy has a form of bargaining, popularly known as "patteggiamento" but that has a technical name of penalty application under request of the parts. In fact, the bargaining is not about the charges, but about the penalty applied in sentence, reduced up to one third.
When the defendant deems that the punishment that would, concretely, be handed down is less than a five-year imprisonment (or that it would just be a fine), the defendant may request to plea bargain with the prosecutor. The defendant is rewarded with a reduction on the sentence and has other advantages (such as that the defendant does not pay the fees on the proceeding). The defendant must accept the penalty for the charges (even if the plea-bargained sentence has some particular matters in further compensation proceedings), no matter how serious the charges are.
Sometimes, the prosecutor agrees to reduce a charge or to drop some of multiple charges in exchange for the defendant's acceptance of the penalty. The defendant, in the request, could argue with the penalty and aggravating and extenuating circumstancing with the prosecutor, that can accept or refuse. The request could also be made by the prosecutor. The plea bargaining could be granted if the penalty that could be concretely applied is, after the reduction of one third, inferior to five-year imprisonment (so called "patteggiamento allargato", wide bargaining); When the penalty applied, after the reduction of one third, is inferior of two years imprisonment or is only a fine (so called "patteggiamento ristretto" limited bargaining), the defendant can have other advantages, like sentence suspended and the effacement of the crime if in five year of the sentence, the defendant does not commit a similar crime.
In the request, when it could be applied the conditional suspension of the penalty according to the article 163 and following of the Italian penal code, the defendant could subordinate the request to the grant of the suspension; if the judge rejects the suspension, the bargaining is refused. When both the prosecutor and the defendant have come to an agreement, the proposal is submitted to the judge, who can refuse or accept the plea bargaining.
According to Italian law, a bargain does not need a guilty plea (in Italy there is no plea declaration); for this reason, a bargaining sentence is only an acceptance of the penalty in exchange with the stop of investigation and trial and has no binding cogency in other trials, especially in civil trials in which parts argue of the same facts at the effects of civil liability and in other criminal trials in which are processed the accomplices of the defendant that had requested and got a bargaining sentence.
Poland also adopted a limited form of plea bargaining, which is applicable only to minor felonies (punishable by no more than 10 years of imprisonment). The procedure is called “voluntary submission to a penalty” and allows the court to pass an agreed sentence without reviewing the evidence, which significantly shortens the trial.
There are some specific conditions that have to be simultaneously met:
However, the court may object to the terms of proposed plea agreement (even if already agreed between the defendant, victim and prosecutor) and suggest changes (not specific but rather general). If the defendant accepts these suggestions and changes his penalty proposition, the court approves it and passes the verdict according to the plea agreement. In spite of the agreement, all the parties of the trial: prosecution, defendant and the victim as an auxiliary prosecutor (in Poland, the victim may declare that he wants to act as an "auxiliary prosecutor" and consequently gains the rights similar to official prosecutor) - have the right to appeal.
In Japan, plea bargaining was previously forbidden by law, although sources reported that prosecutors illegally offered defendants plea bargains in exchange for their confessions.
Plea bargaining was introduced in Japan in June 2018. The first case of plea bargaining under this system, in July 2018, involved allegations of bribery by Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems in Thailand. The second case was a November 2018 deal to obtain evidence of accounting and securities law violations against Nissan executives Carlos Ghosn and Greg Kelly.
Under the Japanese system, formally known as the , plea bargaining is available in prosecutions for organized crime, competition law violations, and economic crimes such as securities law violations. The prosecutor, defendant, and defense counsel each sign a written agreement, which must then be admitted into evidence in a public court without delay. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23476 |
Protest song
A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of "topical" songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre.
Among social movements that have an associated body of songs are the abolition movement, women's suffrage, the labour movement, the human rights movement, civil rights, the anti-war movement and 1960s counterculture, the feminist movement, the sexual revolution, the gay rights movement, animal rights movement, vegetarianism and veganism, gun control, and environmentalism.
Protest songs are often situational, having been associated with a social movement through context. "Goodnight Irene", for example, acquired the aura of a protest song because it was written by Lead Belly, a black convict and social outcast, although on its face it is a love song. Or they may be abstract, expressing, in more general terms, opposition to injustice and support for peace, or free thought, but audiences usually know what is being referred to. Ludwig van Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", a song in support of universal brotherhood, is a song of this kind. It is a setting of a poem by Friedrich Schiller celebrating the continuum of living beings (who are united in their capacity for feeling pain and pleasure and hence for empathy), to which Beethoven himself added the lines that all men are brothers. Songs which support the status quo do not qualify as protest songs.
Protest song texts may have significant cognitive content. The labour movement musical "Pins and Needles" summed up the definition of a protest song in a number called "Sing Me a Song of Social Significance." Phil Ochs once explained, "A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for BS."
An 18th-century example of a topical song intended as a feminist protest song is "Rights of Woman" (1795), sung to the tune of "God Save the King", written anonymously by "A Lady" and published in the "Philadelphia Minerva", October 17, 1795. There is no evidence that it was ever sung as a movement song, however.
The sociologist R. Serge Denisoff saw protest songs rather narrowly in terms of their function, as forms of persuasion or propaganda. Denisoff saw the protest song tradition as originating in the "psalms" or songs of grassroots Protestant religious revival movements, terming these hymns "protest-propaganda", as well.
Denisoff subdivided protest songs as either "magnetic" or "rhetorical". "Magnetic" protest songs were aimed at attracting people to the movement and promoting group solidarity and commitment – for example, "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" and "We Shall Overcome". "Rhetorical" protest songs, on the other hand, are often characterized by individual indignation and offer a straightforward political message designed to change political opinion. Denisoff argued that although "rhetorical" songs often are not overtly connected to building a larger movement, they should nevertheless be considered as "protest-propaganda". Examples include Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" (which contains the lines "I hope that you die / And your death'll come soon") and "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye.
Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison, in "Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Tradition in the Twentieth Century" (1998), take issue with what they consider Denisoff's reductive approach to the history and function of song (and particularly traditional song) in social movements. They point out that Denisoff had paid little attention to the song tunes of protest music, considered them strictly subordinate to the texts, a means to the message. It is true that in the highly text-oriented western European song tradition, tunes can be subordinate, interchangeable, and even limited in number (as in Portuguese "fado", which only has 64 tunes), nevertheless, Eyerman and Jamison point out that some of the most effective protest songs gain power through their appropriation of tunes that are bearers of strong cultural traditions. They also note that:There is more to music and movements than can be captured within a functional perspective, such as Denisoff's, which focuses on the use made of music within already-existing movements. Music, and song, we suggest, can maintain a movement even when it no longer has a visible presence in the form of organizations, leaders, and demonstrations, and can be a vital force in preparing the emergence of a new movement. Here the role and place of music needs to be interpreted through a broader framework in which tradition and ritual are understood as processes of identity and identification, as encoded and embodied forms of collective meaning and memory.
Martin Luther King Jr. described the freedom songs this way: "They invigorate the movement in a most significant way ... these freedom songs serve to give unity to a movement."
Raï () is a form of folk music, originated in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin shepherds, mixed with Spanish, French, African and Arabic musical forms. Its origins date back to the 1920s and has been primarily evolved by the women referred to as cheikhas, who performed in cafes, bars or bordellos, often for men. A typical performance included the cheikhas accompanied by two to four male instrumentalists playing a gasba (a wooden flute) and gallal (a metal drum). Rai was considered a rejection of the traditional Algerian music of the time, and the cheikhas " . . . used lewd lyrics focusing on the hardships of life facing peasant women in a big city, the pain of love, the lure of alcohol, immigration, and mourning."
By the 1950s, and through the 1960s, male musicians began performing rai music and incorporated the use of what was considered to be modern musical instruments of that time, such as the violin, the accordion, the lute, and the trumpet. As the genre evolved over time, it continued to have associations with political movements and organizations, such as the Algerian Freedom Fighters who rallied against the French occupation. Even after Algeria achieved independence in 1962, Rai continued to have an adverse relationship with the Algerian government, which exerted a tight grip upon its culture. In fact, Raï had been banned from broadcast media, though it thrived in underground spaces, such as cabarets. It was forbidden to the point of one popular singer, Cheb Hasni, being assassinated. However, since the government lifted its restrictions on rai in the 1980s, it has enjoyed some considerable success.
The song "Parisien Du Nord" by Cheb Mami is a recent example of how the genre has been used as a form of protest, as the song was written as a protest against the racial tensions that sparked the 2005 French riots. According to Memi: It is a song against racism, so I wanted to sing it with a North African who was born in France ... Because of that and because of his talent, I chose K-Mel. In the song, we say, 'In your eyes, I feel like foreigner.' It's like the kids who were born in France but they have Arab faces. They are French, and they should be considered French."Rai continues to be regarded, as Al-Neen states, "[the] music of rebellion and the symbol of cynicism. Rai has emerged as an outlet for voicing the frustrations of youths and placing greater emphasis on freedom and liberty."
Indigenous issues feature prominently in politically inspired Australian music and include the topics of land rights, and aboriginal deaths in custody. One of the most prominent Australian bands to confront these issues is Yothu Yindi. Other Australian bands to have confronted indigenous issues include Tiddas, Kev Carmody, Archie Roach, Christine Anu, The Herd, Neil Murray, Blue King Brown, the John Butler Trio, Midnight Oil, Warumpi Band, Paul Kelly, Powderfinger and Xavier Rudd.
In addition to Indigenous issues, many Australian protest singers have sung about the futility of war. Notable anti-war songs include "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (1972) by Eric Bogle, and "A Walk in the Light Green" (1983) by Redgum, most often remembered by its chorus "I was only nineteen".
The first famous Belorussian protest songs were created at the beginning of the 20th century during the rise of Belorussian People's Republic and war for independence from Russian Empire and Soviet Russia. This period includes such protest songs as "Advieku My Spali" ("We've slept enough", also known as Belorussian Marselliese) and "Vajaćki Marš" ("March of the Warriors"), which was an anthem of Belorussian People's Republic.
The next period of protest songs was in the 1990s, with many created by such bands as NRM, Novaje Nieba and others, which led to unspoken prohibition of these musicians. As an example, Lavon Volski, frontman of NRM, Mroja and Krambambulia, had issues with officials at the majority of his concert due to the criticism of the Belorussian political system. One of the most famous bands of Belarus, Lyapis Trubetskoy, was forbidden from performing in the country due to being critical of Aleksandr Lukashenka in his lyrics. These prohibitions lead most "forbidden" bands to organize concerts in Vilnius, which, though situated in modern Lithuania, is considered to be a Belorussian historical capital because less than a hundred years ago most dwellers of Vilnius (Vilnia, as it was called before it was given to Lithuania) were Belorussians. But in the middle of the 2010s, the situation began to change a bit and many protest bands started to organize concerts in Belarus.
English folk songs from the late medieval and early modern period reflect the social upheavals of their day. In 1944 the Marxist scholar A. L. Lloyd claimed that "The Cutty Wren" song constituted a coded anthem against feudal oppression and actually dated back to the English peasants' revolt of 1381, making it the oldest extant European protest song. He offered no evidence for his assertion, however and no trace of the song has been found before the 18th century. Despite Lloyd's dubious claim about its origins, however, the "Cutty Wren" was revived and used as a protest song in the 1950s folk revival, an example of the importance of context in determining what may be considered a protest song. In contrast, the rhyme, "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?", is attested as authentically originating in the 1381 Peasant Revolt, though no tune associated with it has survived. Ballads celebrating social bandits like Robin Hood, from the 14th century onwards, can be seen as expressions of a desire for social justice, though although social criticism is implied and there is no overt questioning of the status quo.
The era of civil and religious wars of the 17th century in Britain gave rise to the radical communistic millenarian Levellers and Diggers' movements and their associated ballads and hymns, as, for example, the "Diggers' Song". with the incendiary verse:
But the Gentry must come down,
and the poor shall wear the crown.
Stand up now, Diggers all!"
The Digger movement was violently crushed, and so it is not surprising if few overt protest songs associated with it have survived. From roughly the same period, however, songs protesting wars and the human suffering they inflict abound, though such song do not generally explicitly condemn the wars or the leaders who wage them. For example, "The Maunding Souldier" or "The Fruits of Warre is Beggery", framed as a begging appeal from a crippled soldier of the Thirty Years War. Such songs have been known, strictly speaking, as songs of complaint rather than of protest, since they offered no solution or hint of rebellion against the status quo.
The advent of industrialization in the 18th and early 19th centuries was accompanied by a series of protest movements and a corresponding increase in the number of topical social protest songs and ballads. An important example is "The Triumph of General Ludd", which built a fictional persona for the alleged leader of the early 19th century anti-technological Luddite movement in the cloth industry of the north midlands, and which made explicit reference to the Robin Hood tradition. A surprising English folk hero immortalized in song is Napoleon Bonaparte, the military figure most often the subject of popular ballads, many of them treating him as the champion of the common working man in songs such as the "Bonny Bunch of Roses" and "Napoleon's Dream". As labour became more organized songs were used as anthems and propaganda, for miners with songs such as "The Black Leg Miner", and for factory workers with songs such as "The Factory Bell".
These industrial protest songs were largely ignored during the first English folk revival of the later 19th and early 20th century, which had focused on songs that had been collected in rural areas where they were still being sung and on music education. They were revived in the 1960s and performed by figures such as A. L. Lloyd on his album "The Iron Muse" (1963). In the 1980s the anarchist rock band Chumbawamba recorded several versions of traditional English protest songs as "English Rebel Songs 1381–1914".
Colin Irwin, a journalist for "The Guardian", believes the modern British protest movement started in 1958 when the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament organized a 53-mile march from Trafalgar Square to Aldermaston, to protest Britain's participation in the arms race and recent testing of the H-bomb. The protest "fired up young musicians to write campaigning new songs to argue the case against the bomb and whip up support along the way. Suddenly many of those in skiffle groups playing American songs were changing course and writing fierce topical songs to back direct action." A song composed for the march, "The H-Bomb's Thunder", set the words of a poem by novelist John Brunner to the tune of "Miner's Lifeguard":
Men and women, stand together
Do not heed the men of war
Make your minds up now or never
Ban the bomb for evermore.
Folk singer Ewan MacColl was for some time one of the principal musical figures of the British nuclear disarmament movement. A former agitprop actor and playwright. MacColl, a prolific songwriter and committed leftist, some years earlier had penned "The Ballad of Ho Chi Minh" (1953), issued as single on Topic Records, and "The Ballad of Stalin" (1954), commemorating the death of that leader. Neither record has ever been reissued.
According to Irwin, MacColl, when interviewed in the "Daily Worker" in 1958, declared that:There are now more new songs being written than at any other time in the past eighty years—young people are finding out for themselves that folk songs are tailor-made for expressing their thoughts and comments on contemporary topics, dreams, and worries,
In 1965, folk-rock singer Donovan's cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier" was a hit on the charts. His anti-Vietnam War song "The War Drags On" appeared that same year. This was a common trend in popular music of the 1960s and 1970s. The romantic lyrics of pop songs in the 1950s gave way to words of protest.
As their fame and prestige increased in the late 1960s, The Beatles—and John Lennon in particular—added their voices to the Anti-war. In the documentary "The US Versus John Lennon", Tariq Ali attributes the Beatles' activism to the fact that, in his opinion, "The whole culture had been radicalized: [Lennon] was engaged with the world, and the world was changing him." "Revolution", 1968, commemorated the worldwide student uprisings. In 1969, when Lennon and Yoko Ono were married, they staged a week-long "bed-in for peace" in the Amsterdam Hilton, attracting worldwide media coverage. At the second "Bed-in" in Montreal, in June 1969, they recorded "Give Peace a Chance" in their hotel room. The song was sung by over half a million demonstrators in Washington, DC, at the second Vietnam Moratorium Day, on 15 October 1969. In 1972 Lennon's most controversial protest song LP was released, "Some Time In New York City", the title of whose lead single "Woman Is the Nigger of the World", a phrase coined by Ono in the late 1960s to protest sexism, set off a storm of controversy, and in consequence received little airplay and much banning. The Lennons went to great lengths (including a press conference attended by staff from "Jet" and "Ebony" magazines) to explain that they had used the word "nigger" in a symbolic sense and not as an affront to African Americans. The album also included "Attica State", about the Attica Prison riots of September 9, 1971; "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck Of The Irish", about the massacre of demonstrators in Northern Ireland and "Angela", in support of black activist Angela Davis. Lennon also performed at the "Free John Sinclair" benefit concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on December 10, 1971. on behalf of the imprisoned antiwar activist and poet who was serving 10 years in state prison for selling two joints of marijuana to an undercover cop. On this occasion Lennon and Ono appeared on stage with among others singers Phil Ochs and Stevie Wonder, plus antiwar activists Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers party. Lennon's song "John Sinclair" (which can be heard on his "Some Time In New York City" album), calls on the authorities to "Let him be, set him free, let him be like you and me". The benefit was attended by some 20,000 people, and three days later the State of Michigan released Sinclair from prison.
The 1970s saw a number of notable songs by British acts that protested against war, including "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens (1971), and "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath (1970). Sabbath also protested environmental destruction, describing people leaving a ruined Earth ("Into the Void" including, "Iron Man"). Renaissance added political repression as a protest theme with "Mother Russia" being based on "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and being joined on the second side of their 1974 album "Turn of the Cards" by two other protest songs in "Cold Is Being" (about ecological destruction) and "Black Flame" (about the Vietnam War).
As the 1970s progressed, the louder, more aggressive Punk movement became the strongest voice of protest, particularly in the UK, featuring anti-war, anti-state, and anti-capitalist themes. The punk culture, in stark contrast with the 1960s' sense of power through union, concerned itself with individual freedom, often incorporating concepts of individualism, free thought and even anarchism. According to "Search and Destroy" founder V. Vale, "Punk was a total cultural revolt. It was a hardcore confrontation with the black side of history and culture, right-wing imagery, sexual taboos, a delving into it that had never been done before by any generation in such a thorough way." The most significant protest songs of the movement included "God Save the Queen" (1977) by the Sex Pistols, "If the Kids are United" by Sham 69, "Career Opportunities" (1977) (protesting the political and economic situation in England at the time, especially the lack of jobs available to the youth), and "White Riot" (1977) (about class economics and race issues) by The Clash, and "Right to Work" by Chelsea. See also Punk ideology.
War was still the prevalent theme of British protest songs of the 1980s – such as Kate Bush's "Army Dreamers" (1980), which deals with the traumas of a mother whose son dies while away at war. However, as the 1980s progressed, it was British prime minister Margaret Thatcher who came under the greatest degree of criticism from native protest singers, mostly for her strong stance against trade unions, and especially for her handling of the UK miners' strike (1984–1985). The leading voice of protest in Thatcherite Britain in the 1980s was Billy Bragg, whose style of protest song and grass-roots political activism was mostly reminiscent of those of Woody Guthrie, however with themes that were relevant to the contemporary Briton. He summarized his stance in "Between the Wars" (1985), in which he sings: "I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage."
Also in the 1980s the band Frankie Goes to Hollywood released a political pop protest song Two Tribes a relentless bass-driven track depicting the futility and starkness of nuclear weapons and the Cold War. The video for the song depicted a wrestling match between then-President Ronald Reagan and then-Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko for the benefit of group members and an eagerly belligerent assembly of representatives from the world's nations, the event ultimately degenerating into complete global destruction. This video was played several times at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Due to some violent scenes ("Reagan" biting "Chernenko"'s ear, etc.), the unedited video could not be shown on MTV, and an edited version was substituted. The single quickly hit the number one spot in the United Kingdom.
Several mixes of the track feature actor Patrick Allen, who recreated his narration from the Protect and Survive public information films for certain 12-inch mixes (the original Protect and Survive soundtracks were sampled for the 7-inch mixes).
Irish rebel music is a subgenre of Irish folk music, played on typically Irish instruments (such as the Fiddle, tin whistle, Uilleann pipes, accordion, bodhrán etc.) and acoustic guitars. The lyrics deal with the fight for Irish freedom, people who were involved in liberation movements, the persecution and violence during Northern Ireland's Troubles and the history of Ireland's numerous rebellions.
Among the many examples of the genre, some of the most famous are "A Nation Once Again", "Come out Ye Black and Tans", "Erin go Bragh", "The Fields of Athenry", "The Men Behind the Wire" and the Republic of Ireland's national anthem "Amhrán na bhFiann" ("The Soldier's Song"). Music of this genre has often courted controversy, and some of the more outwardly anti-British songs have been effectively banned from the airwaves in both England and the Republic of Ireland.
Paul McCartney also made a contribution to the genre with his 1972 single "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", which he wrote as a reaction to Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland on January 30, 1972. The song also faced an all-out ban in the UK, and has never been re-released or appeared on any Paul McCartney or Wings best-ofs. The same year McCartney's former colleague John Lennon released two protest songs concerning the hardships of war-torn Northern Ireland: "Sunday Bloody Sunday", written shortly after the 1972 massacre of Irish civil rights activists (which differs from U2's 1983 song of the same title in that it directly supports the Irish Republican cause and does not call for peace), and "The Luck Of The Irish", both from his album "Some Time in New York City" (1972).
The Wolfe Tones have become legendary in Ireland for their contribution to the Irish rebel genre. The band has been recording since 1963 and has attracted worldwide fame and attention through their renditions of traditional Irish songs and originals, dealing with the former conflict in Northern Ireland. In 2002 the Wolfe Tones' version of "A Nation Once Again", a nationalist song from the 19th century, was voted the greatest song in the world in a poll conducted by the BBC World Service
An Irish alternative rock/post punk band from Dublin, U2 broke with the rebel musical tradition when in 1983 they wrote their song "Sunday Bloody Sunday". The song makes reference to two separate massacres in Irish history of civilians by British forces – Bloody Sunday (1920) and Bloody Sunday 1972 – however, unlike other songs dealing with those events, the lyrics call for peace as opposed to revenge.
The Cranberries' hit "Zombie", written during their English tour in 1993, is in memory of two boys, Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry, who were killed in an IRA bombing in Warrington.
Chinese-Korean Cui Jian's 1986 song "Nothing to My Name" was popular with protesters in Tiananmen Square.
Ahmed Fouad Negm is considered a key dissident figure whose poetry in colloquial Arabic gave voice to the underclass in Egypt, and inspired protesters. He teamed up in the 1960s with composer Sheikh Imam Eissa who gave music to his verses, the partnership lasting for twenty years. Lines from Negm's poem "Who Are They, and Who Are We?" were chanted at Tahrir Square in 2011 during protests against President Hosni Mubarak.
Music played a key role in mobilizing the 2011 protests at Tahrir Square against President Hosni Mubarak which led to the Egyptian revolution. "Ezzay," meaning "How come?" by Egyptian singer and actor Mohamed Mounir is considered one of the most popular songs associated with the protests. "Irhal," meaning "Leave", by Ramy Essam became an internet hit, and was subsequently described in the media as having become an anthem for the revolution.
Many of the songs performed at the Estonian Laulupidu are protest songs, particularly those written during the Singing Revolution. Due to the official position of the Soviet Union at the time, the lyrics are frequently allusive, rather than explicitly anti-Soviet, such as Tõnis Mägi's song "Koit". In contrast, "Eestlane olen ja eestlaseks jään", sung by Ivo Linna and the group In Spe is explicitly in favour of an Estonian identity.
Finland has a tradition of socialist and communist protest songs going back to the Finnish Civil War, most of which were imported and translated from Soviet Russia. In the 21st century the socialist protest song tradition is somewhat continued by left wing rap artists and to lesser degree in more traditional Taistoist form by KOM-theatre choir.
"The Internationale" (""L'Internationale"" in French) is a socialist, anarchist, communist, and social-democratic anthem.
"The Internationale" became the anthem of international socialism. Its original French refrain is "C'est la lutte finale/ Groupons-nous et demain/ L'Internationale/ Sera le genre humain." (Freely translated: "This is the final struggle/ Let us join together and tomorrow/ The Internationale/ Will be the human race.") The "Internationale" has been translated into most of the world's languages. Traditionally it is sung with the hand raised in a clenched fist salute. "The Internationale" is sung not only by communists but also (in many countries) by socialists or social democrats. The Chinese version was also a rallying song of the students and workers at the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
There is not so much a protest song trend in France, but rather of a permanent background of criticism and contestation, and individuals who personify it. World War II and its horrors forced French singers to think more critically about war in general, forcing them to question their governments and the powers who ruled their society.
Jazz trumpeter and singer Boris Vian's was one of the first to protest against the Algerian war with his anti-war song "Le déserteur" (The deserter), which was banned by the government.
Several French songwriters, such as Léo Ferré (1916–1993), Georges Brassens (1921–1981), Jacques Brel (1929–1978) (actually a Belgian singer), Maxime Le Forestier (born 1949) or interpreters (Yves Montand, Marcel Mouloudji, Serge Reggiani, Graeme Allwright ...) often wrote or sang songs aligned against majority ideas and political powers. Because racial tensions did not rise to the same levels as those in the United States, criticism was focused more toward bourgeoisie, power, religion, and songs defending liberty of thought, speech and action. After 1945, immigration became a source of inspiration for some singers: Pierre Perret (born 1934), well known for his humorous songs, started writing several more "serious" and committed songs against racism ("Lily", 1977), which critically pointed out everyday racist behaviour in French society.
Brassens wrote several songs protesting war, hate, intolerance ("Les Deux Oncles" [""The Two Uncles""], "La Guerre de 14–18" [""14–18 War""], "Mourir pour des idées" [""To Die for Ideas""] "Les Patriotes" [""The Patriots""] ...), against chauvinism ("La Ballade des gens qui sont nés quelque part" ["Ballad of People Who Are Born Somewhere"]), against bourgeoisie ("La Mauvaise Réputation" [""The bad reputation""], "Les Philistins" [""The Philistines""] ...). He was often called "anarchist" because of his songs on representatives of law and order (and religion) ("Le Gorille" [""The gorilla""] "Hécatombe" [""Slaughter""] "Le Nombril des femmes d'agents" [""The navel of cops wives""], "Le Mécréant" [""The miscreant""] ...).
Ferré was also called an "anarchist". He sang against consumerism ("Vitrines" [""Shop Fronts""], "Chanson mécanisée" [""Mechanized Song""], "Il n'y a plus rien" [""There is nothing left""] ...), against French war ("Miss guéguerre" [""Miss Squabble""], "Pacific blues", "Regardez-les" [""Look at them""], "Mon général" [""My general""], "Les Temps difficiles" [""Hard Times""], "La Marseillaise"), death penalty ("Ni Dieu ni maître" [""No God no Master""], "La Mort des loups" [""The Death of the Wolves""]), Estate control ("La Gueuse", "La Complainte de la télé" [""Lament of TV""], "La Révolution" [""Revolution""], "Le Conditionnel de variétés" [""Middle of the road music conditional mood""]), illusion of representative democracy ("Ils ont voté" [""They voted""], "La Grève" [""Strike""]), dictatorships ("Franco la muerte", "Allende", "La Violence et l'Ennui" [""Words ... Words ... Words ... ""]), sexual hypocrisy and freedom ("Le Chien" [""The Dog""], "Le Mal" [""Evil""], "Ton style" [""Your style""], "La Damnation" [""Damnation""] ...).
Brel's work is another ode to freedom ("Ces gens-là" [""These people""], "Les Bourgeois" [""The Bourgeois""], "Jaurès", "Les Bigotes" [""The bigots""], "Le Colonel" [""The colonel""], "Le Caporal Casse-Pompon" [""Corporal Break-Nots""]).
Ton Steine Scherben, one of the first and most influential German language rock bands of the 1970s and early 1980s, were well known for the highly political lyrics of vocalist Rio Reiser. The band became a musical mouthpiece of new left movements, such as the squatting movement, during that time in Germany and their hometown of West Berlin in particular. Their lyrics were, at the beginning, anti-capitalist and anarchist, and the band had connections to members of the German Red Army Faction movement before they became illegal. Later songs were about more complex issues such as unemployment ("Mole Hill Rockers") or homosexuality ("Mama war so"). They also contributed to two full-length concept album about homosexuality, which were issued under the name "Brühwarm" (literally: boiling warm) in cooperation with a gay-revue group.
A dissatisfied German youth in the late 1970s and early 1980s resulted in a strand of highly politicized German-language Punkrock ("Deutschpunk"), which mostly concerned itself with politically radical left-wing lyrics, mostly influenced by the Cold War. Probably the most important German-language punk band was Slime from Hamburg, who were the first band whose LP was banned because of political topics. Their songs "Deutschland" ("Germany"), "Bullenschweine", "Polizei SA/SS", and the anti-imperialist "Yankees raus" ("Yankees out") were banned, some of them are still banned today, because they propagated the use of violence against the police or compared the police to the SA and SS of Nazi Germany.
The Cologne-based rock group BAP is known for their committed and intelligently written lyrics, dealing with discrimination and the power games of Germany's political elites in many of their songs. The song "Kristallnaach" (1982) is a point in case. It analyses the corruptibility of the present-day masses for new forms of fascism, while referring to the "Night of Broken Glass" that took place in 1938.
In East Germany, protesting against the state was often prohibited. Despite this, the song Ermutigung by Wolf Biermann became a widely popular protest song against the SPU government.
Hong Kong rock band Beyond's "Boundless Oceans Vast Skies" (1993) and "Glory Days" (光輝歲月)(1990) have been considered as protest anthems in various social movements.
During the Anti-Extradition Bill Movements in 2019, Les Misérables' "Do You Hear The People Sing" (1980) and Thomas dgx yhl's "Glory To Hong Kong" (2019) were sung in support of the movement. The latter has been widely adopted as the anthem of these protests, with some even regarding it as the "national anthem of Hong Kong".
Cultural Activism in India has always been considered as one of the most effective tools to mobilise people into making a social change since pre-independence times. India provided many examples of protest songs throughout its struggle for freedom from Britain.
Indian rapper Raftaar's ""Mantoiyat"" lashes out at corrupt politicians, cops and brings to light all the injustices that plague the country. In the song he talks about deep rooted issues and brings light to the hypocrisy of the people and the government. Artists like Poojan Sahil, Seedhe Maut, Prabh Deep, Rapper Shaz, Sumit Roy & Ahmer usually talks about social issues in their songs.
In 2019, India's citizenship Law led to a mass protest all over the country. Artists like Varun Grover, Poojan Sahil, Rapper Shaz & Madara joined the cause with their own sonic protest.
In more contemporary times, protest music has been a regular feature of movements in India. The Dalit rights movement especially uses music to further its goals. The Kabir Kala Manch is one such well known troupe of singers who used their performances to raise awareness and support for their cause. The widely acclaimed documentary film, Jai Bhim Comrade, highlighted the work of Kabir Kala Manch and presented this form of protest music to both Indian as well as international audiences. Similar, albeit less known, Dalit musical groups exist in various parts of India.
The leftist movements of India too use protest music along with street plays as a means to propagate their message amongst the masses. Protest music was a big feature of plays organized by the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). Similar organisations formed after the break-up of IPTA and highly influenced by its work, like the Jana Natya Manch (JANAM), also made protest music a regular feature of their plays. In recent decades, however, the Left's cultural activism has increasingly been relegated to the margins of the cultural sphere. Some attribute this to the political decline of the mainstream Left in India, as well as a shift in focus to local movements and languages as identity politics took a greater hold of Indian Polity.
Protest music also features regularly in protests held by other mainstream national parties of India.
Israel's protest music has often become associated with different political factions.
During the 1967 war, Naomi Shemer added a third verse to her song "Jerusalem of Gold", sung by Shuli Natan, about the recapturing of Jerusalem after 2,000 years. Later on that year, a different point of view of the song was introduced by the folk singer Meir Ariel, who recorded an anti-war version and named it "Jerusalem of Iron".
Gush Emunim supporters have taken a repertoire of old religious songs and invested them with political meaning. An example is the song "Utsu Etsu VeTufar" (They gave counsel but their counsel was violated). The song signifies the ultimate rightness of those steadfast in their beliefs, suggesting the rightness of Gush Emunim's struggle against anti-settlement policy by the government.
Minutes before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered at a political rally in November 1995, Israeli folk singer Miri Aloni sang the Israeli pop song "Shir Lashalom" ("Song for Peace"). This song, originally written in 1969 and performed extensively at the time by an Israeli military performing group, has become one of the anthems of the Israeli peace camp.
During the Arab uprising known as the First Intifada, Israeli singer Si Heyman sang "Yorim VeBokhim" ("Shoot and Weep") to protest Israeli policy in the territories. Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" is used as a protest song by some opponents of Israel's barrier in the West Bank. The lyrics were adapted to: "We don't need no occupation. We don't need no racist wall."
Since the onset of the Oslo Process and, more recently, Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, protest songs became a major avenue for opposition activists to express sentiments. Songs protesting these policies were written and performed by Israeli musicians such as Ariel Zilber, Aharon Razel, and others.
Hadag Nahash's "Zman Lehitorer (Time To Wake Up).
While the protest song was enjoying its Golden Age in America in the 1960s, it also saw many detractors overseas who saw it as having been commercialized. Chilean singer-songwriter Víctor Jara, who played a pivotal role in the folkloric renaissance that led to the "Nueva Canción Chilena" (New Chilean Song) movement, which created a revolution in the popular music of his country, criticized the "commercialized" American protest song phenomenon that had been imported into Chile. He criticized it thus:
The cultural invasion is like a leafy tree which prevents us from seeing our own sun, sky and stars. Therefore in order to be able to see the sky above our heads, our task is to cut this tree off at the roots. US imperialism understands very well the magic of communication through music and persists in filling our young people with all sorts of commercial tripe. With professional expertise they have taken certain measures: first, the commercialization of the so-called 'protest music'; second, the creation of 'idols' of protest music who obey the same rules and suffer from the same constraints as the other idols of the consumer music industry – they last a little while and then disappear. Meanwhile, they are useful in neutralizing the innate spirit of rebellion of young people. The term 'protest song' is no longer valid because it is ambiguous and has been misused. I prefer the term 'revolutionary song'.
Nueva canción (literally "new song" in Spanish) was a type of protest/social song in Latin American music which took root in South America, especially Chile and other Andean countries, and gained extreme popularity throughout Latin America. It combined traditional Latin American folk music idioms (played on the quena, zampoña, charango or cajón with guitar accompaniment) with some popular (esp. British) rock music, and was characterized by its progressive and often politicized lyrics. It is sometimes considered a precursor to rock en español. The lyrics are typically in Spanish, with some indigenous or local words mixed in.
In 2019, "A Rapist in Your Path" () was first performed in Chile to protest rape culture and victim shaming. Videos of the song and its accompanying dance went viral, spreading across the world.
A type of Cuban protest music started in the mid-1960s when a movement in Cuban music emerged that combined traditional folk music idioms with progressive and often politicized lyrics. This movement of protest music came to be known as "Nueva trova", and was somewhat similar to that of Nueva canción, however with the advantage of support from the Cuban government, as it promoted the Cuban Revolution – and thus part of revolutionary song.
In 1966 Boudewijn de Groot released "Welterusten meneer de president" ("Good night mister president"), a song about the Vietnam War. The song spent 12 weeks in the Dutch Top 40 and to this day it remains an important song in nederpop and among Dutch protest songs. Following "Welterusten meneer de president", Boudewijn de Groot and Lennaert Nijgh, a Dutch lyricist, made more protest songs. The couple inspired other Dutch musicians, namely Armand and Robert Long.
One of the earliest protest songs in New Zealand was John Hanlon's "Damn the Dam", recorded in 1973 in support of the Save Manapouri Campaign.
During the bitterly divisive 1981 Springbok Tour, Blam Blam Blam's "There Is No Depression in New Zealand" became a favourite among anti-tour protesters. Reggae band Herbs wrote and performed songs criticising French nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean.
Protest music in Pakistan has been deeply inspired by South Asian traditions since pre-independence times.
The song "Hum Dekhenge" is just one example of protest music from Pakistan. Faiz Ahmed, a poet and a prominent Pakistani Marxist, originally penned the poem with the same title as a response to General Zia ul Haq's repressive dictatorship. The poem is considered a critical commentary of Zia’s brand of authoritarian Islam. His political beliefs set him up as a natural critic of General Zia Ul Haq. In 1985, as part of Zia's programme of forced Islamicization, the sari, part of the traditional attire for women on the subcontinent was banned. That year, Iqbal Bano, one of Pakistan's best loved singers and artists, sang Hum Dekhenge to an audience of 50,000 people in a Lahore stadium wearing a black sari. The recording was smuggled out and distributed on bootleg cassette tapes across the country. Cries of "Inquilab Zindabad" ("Long Live Revolution") and thunderous applause from the audience can be heard on the . Faiz was in prison at the time.
The song has since the fall of the Zia dictatorship, regularly featured in protests in Pakistan. More recently, a newer rendition of the song by Pakistani singer, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, was used as the title song for the political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, in the 2013 Pakistani general election, and in the Azadi march of 2014.
Palestinian music () deals with the conflict with Israel, the longing for peace, and the love of the Palestinians' land. A typical example of such a song is "Biladi, Biladi" (My Country, My Country), which has become the unofficial Palestinian national anthem. Palestinian music rarely focuses on internal divides (unlike most Israeli peace songs), and instead deals almost solely with Palestine. Additionally, there are very few Palestinian peace songs that do not indict Israel, and outwardly militaristic. Certain commentators have compared this with the general unwillingness of Palestinians to speak about internal problems, as they tend to be taboo in Palestinian society, and dissent is outlawed in Gaza, under Hamas control.
Another example is the song "Al-Quds (Jerusalem) our Land", with words by Sharif Sabri. The song, sung by Amr Diab from Port Said, Egypt, won first prize in 2003 in a contest in Egypt for video clips produced in the West Bank and Gaza. DAM is an Arabic hip-hop group, rapping in Arabic and Hebrew about the problems faced by Palestinians under occupation and calling for change. Kamilya Joubran's song "Ghareeba", a setting of a poem by Khalil Gibran, deals with a sense of isolation and loneliness felt by the Palestinian woman.
From the revolutionary songs of the Katipunan to the songs being sung by the New People's Army, Filipino protest music deals with poverty, oppression as well as anti-imperialism and independence. A typical example was during the American era, as Jose Corazon de Jesus created a well-known protest song entitled "Bayan Ko", which calls for redeeming the nation against oppression, mainly colonialism, and also became popular as a song against the Marcos regime.
However, during the 1960s, Filipino protest music became aligned with the ideas of Communism as well as of revolution. The protest song ""Ang Linyang Masa"" came from Mao Zedong and his Mass Line and ""Papuri sa Pag-aaral"" was from Bertolt Brecht. These songs, although Filipinized, rose to become another part of Filipino protest music known as Revolutionary songs that became popular during protests and campaign struggles.
The protest songs in Portugal were mostly associated with the antifascist movement and developed chiefly among students and activists. The best known are songs by Paulo de Carvalho and Zeca Afonso, respectively "E Depois do Adeus" (And After the Goodbye) and "Grândola Vila Morena"(Grândola Swarthy Town). They were chosen as a code to start the Carnation Revolution that would successfully triumph against the dictatorial regime. The first was written out of letters that the author, then fighting to maintain the colonies (a war that the general public was against) sent to his wife. Hence the title that refers to his departure "goodbye" to the war. The other song was very explicit regarding his objective: ""O Povo é quem mais ordena / dentro de ti oh cidade"" (The people is the one who orders the most/ inside of you oh city). "E Depois do Adeus" was vague enough to elude the censorship and pass as a "end of love" song, which also accounts for the order of the broadcast.
Of the two, Zeca Afonso was more prolific and more identified with the movement, so much so that another of his songs was the first choice for the code "Venham mais 5" (Let 5 more come). Other artists also used some craft to hide their meanings in the song or went into exile. One example is Adriano Correia de Oliveira that masked the explicit lyrics with the vocal tone making it difficult to distinguish the critical verse, from the refrain or even other verses. In no other song is this more noted that the ballad "Trova do Vento que Passa" (Song/Poem of the Passing Wind), whose lyrics by the writer Manuel Alegre were a direct criticism of the state. The music was by António Portugal but Correia used a typical Fado rhythm to hide such provocative verses as "Mesmo na noite mais triste/em tempo de sevidão/há sempre alguém que resiste/há sempre alguém que diz não" (even in the saddest night/in time of servitude/there is always someone who stands up/there is always someone who says No).
Not only men but also women had an active participation, albeit in lesser numbers. Emerlinda Duarte, one of those women, wrote the song "Somos Livres", for a 1972 theatre play called "Lisboa 72", masking a deep meaning with catchy children's music. Although the version of her singing the tune is the best known it was only recorded "after" the carnation revolution.
Many other songwriters and singers, in order to generate awareness, used their talents to act in all of Portugal, sometimes without pay or transport. Fausto Bordalo Dias once sang into a mike so poorly made it needed a plastic cup to work. Other singers included the priest Francisco Fanhais, the writer José Jorge Letria; Fernando Tordo; Luís Cília; Amélia Muge; Janita Salomé; Manuel Freire; José Barata-Moura; the poet Ary dos Santos; José Mário Branco, Sérgio Godinho, Carlos Alberto Moniz, Maria do Amparo and Samuel.
Protest songs in Poland were mostly associated with anti-communist movement and developed in the 1970s and 1980s. One of the most important artists was Jacek Kaczmarski, author of such famous songs as "Mury" ("The Walls"), "Przedszkole" ("The Kindergarten") and "Zbroja" ("The Armor"), criticizing both the totalitarian communist government and the opposition. Another famous Polish folk singer, Jan Pietrzak, wrote one of the best-known Polish patriotic protest songs, "Żeby Polska była Polską" ("Make Poland Polish"), in which he reminded the most heroic moments of Polish history, including Kościuszko Uprising, and called people to fight the communists as they fought other enemies of Poland before. He also recorded a musical version of the Jonasz Kofta's poem "Pamiętajcie o ogrodach" ("Remember the Gardens"), protesting against the industrialism of life promoted by the communist propaganda. Other Polish artists well known for writing protest songs include Kazimierz Staszewski and Przemysław Gintrowski.
The most famous source of Russian protest music in the 20th century has been those known locally as bards. The term (бард in Russian) came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today, to refer to singer-songwriters who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment. Many of the most famous bards wrote numerous songs about war, particularly The Great Patriotic War (World War II). Bards had various reasons for writing and singing songs about war. Bulat Okudzhava, who actually fought in the war, used his sad and emotional style to illustrate the futility of war in songs such as "The Paper Soldier" ("Бумажный Солдат").
Many political songs were written by bards under Soviet rule, and the genre varied from acutely political, "anti-Soviet" songs, to witty satire in the best traditions of Aesop. Some of Bulat Okudzhava's songs provide examples of political songs written on these themes. Vladimir Vysotsky was perceived as a political songwriter, but later he gradually made his way into more mainstream culture. It was not so with Alexander Galich, who was forced to emigrate—owning a tape with his songs could mean a prison term in the USSR. Before emigration, he suffered from KGB persecution, as did another bard, Yuliy Kim. Others, like Evgeny Kliachkin and Aleksander Dolsky, maintained a balance between outright anti-Soviet and plain romantic material.
Protest rhetoric can also be traced in the works of such rock bands as Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Naive, Tarakany!, Pilot, Noize MC and Louna.
In the 21st century, the feminist punk band Pussy Riot in particular has had frequent run-ins with the Putin presidency and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The majority of South African protest music of the 20th century concerned itself with apartheid, a system of legalized racial segregation in which blacks were stripped of their citizenship and rights from 1948 to 1994. As the apartheid regime forced Africans into townships and industrial centres, people sang about leaving their homes, the horror of the coal mines and the degradation of working as domestic servants. Examples of which include Benedict Wallet Vilakazi's "Meadowlands", the "Toyi-toyi" chant and "Bring Him Back Home" (1987) by Hugh Masekela, which became an anthem for the movement to free Nelson Mandela. The Special AKA wrote a song on Nelson Mandela called "Free Nelson Mandela". The track is upbeat and celebratory, drawing on musical influence from South Africa, was immensely popular in Africa. Masekela's song "Soweto Blues", sung by his former wife, Miriam Makeba, is a blues/jazz piece that mourns the carnage of the Soweto riots in 1976. Basil Coetzee and Abdullah Ibrahim's "Mannenberg" became an unofficial soundtrack to the anti-apartheid resistance.
In Afrikaans, the 1989 Voëlvry movement led by Johannes Kerkorrel, Koos Kombuis, and Bernoldus Niemand, provided a voice of opposition from within the white Afrikaner community. These musicians sought to redefine Afrikaner identity, and although met with opposition from the authorities, Voëlvry played to large crowds at Afrikaans university campuses and was quite popular among Afrikaner youth.
Following apartheid's demise, most Afrikaans writers and musicians followed public sentiments by embracing the new South Africa, but cracks soon emerged in the dream of the "rainbow nation" and criticism started to emerge, criticism that has grown in frequency and intensity in recent years. Violent crime put South Africa in the top category of most dangerous country in the world, along with poverty, government corruption, and the AIDS pandemic. For this reason, writers and musicians in which some of them veterans of anti-apartheid movements, are once again protesting against what they consider to be a government failing to uphold the promise of 'peace, democracy and freedom for all' that Nelson Mandela made upon his release from prison. By 2000, Johannes Kerkorrel claimed in the song "Die stad bloei vanaand" [The city bleeds tonight]: "the dream was promised, but just another lie has been sold."
Two Afrikaans compilation albums of predominantly protest music were released recently: "Genoeg is genoeg" [Enough is enough] (2007) and "Vaderland" [Fatherland] (2008), and Koos Kombuis also released a CD called "Bloedrivier" [Blood River] (2008), which is primarily a protest album. One track, "Waar is Mandela" [Where is Mandela] asks, "Where is Mandela when the shadows descend ... Where is the rainbow, where is the glory?" and another, "Die fokkol song" [The fuck all song], tells tourists who visit South Africa for the 2010 Football World Cup that there is nothing in South Africa; no jobs, no petrol, no electric power, not even jokes. However, these compilations only represent the tip of the iceberg, as many prominent musicians have included protest songs on recent albums, including Bok van Blerk, Fokofpolisiekar, and KOBUS!.
The reality of the New South Africa is decidedly violent and crime is a well-known theme in post-apartheid Afrikaans protest music. The punk group Fokofpolisiekar (which translates to "fuck off police car") sings in "Brand Suid-Afrika" [Burn South Africa]: "For you knives lie in wait, in the garden outside you house," and Radio Suid-Afrika sings in "Bid" [Pray]: "Pray that no-one will be waiting in the garden, pray for strength and for mercy in each dark day." Theirs is a country of "murder and child rape" where the only respite is alcohol abuse. In "Blaas hom" [Blow him away] by the industrial band Battery9, the narrator sings how he gleefully unloads his gun on a burglar after being robbed for the third time, and in "Siek bliksems" [Sick bastards] Kristoe Strauss asks God to help against the "sick bastards" responsible for hijackings. The metal band KOBUS! pleads for a reinstatement of the death penalty in "Doodstraf", because they feel the promise of peace has not been realized. In "Reconciliation Day", Koos Kombuis sings: "Our streets run with blood, every day a funeral procession, they steal all our goods, on Reconciliation Day." Elsewhere he states, "we're in a state of war." The video of this song features a lawless microcosm of theft, rape and abuse – a lawlessness reflected in Valiant Swart's "Sodom en Gomorra": "two cities in the north, without laws, without order, too wonderful for words." Hanru Niemand rewrites the traditional Afrikaans song Sarie Marais, turning it into a murder ballad speculating on where Sarie's body will be found. The new protest musicians also parody Voëlvry's music: Johannes Kerkorrel's "Sit dit af" [Switch it off] – a satire on P. W. Botha of the apartheid regime – is turned into "Sit dit aan" [Switch it on] by Koos Kombuis, now a song protesting mismanagement resulting in chronic power failures.
Much of the protest by Afrikaans musicians concerns the legacy of apartheid: In "Blameer dit op apartheid" [Blame it on apartheid] Koos Kombuis sings how "the whole country is evil," yet the situation is blamed on apartheid. Klopjag, in "Ek sal nie langer" [I will no longer] sings that they will no longer apologize for apartheid, a theme echoed by many others, including Koos Kombuis in "Hoe lank moet ons nog sorry sê" [For how long do we still have to say sorry]. Piet Paraat sings in "Toema Jacob Zuma" [Never mind Jacob Zuma]: "My whole life I'm punished for the sins of my father." There is also a distinct feeling that the Afrikaner is being marginalized by the ANC government: Fokofpolisiekar sings in "Antibiotika" [Antibiotics], "I'm just a tourist in the country of my birth," Bok van Blerk sings in "Die kleur van my vel" [The colour of my skin] that the country does not want him despite his willingness to work, because he is white, and in "Bloekomboom" Rian Malan uses the metaphor of a blue gum tree (an alien species) to plead that Afrikaners should not be regarded as settlers, but as part of the nation. Steve Hofmeyr has expressed concern about the statistically high murders of Afrikaner farmers, and has also appealed in several speeches to remember Afrikaner heritage. His songs "Ons Sal Dit Oorleef" (We will survive this)and "My Kreed" (My Cry) also echoes many Afrikaners' fears of losing their culture and rights. The appeals by these musicians, and several others, to be included follows a sense of exclusion manifested in the political, linguistic and economic realms, an exclusion depicted particularly vividly by Bok van Blerk's "Kaplyn" [Cut line], a song that laments that fallen South African soldiers have been omitted in one of the country's show-case memorials, the Freedom Park Memorial, despite official claims of it being a memorial for all who had fought for the country.
Commonly, protest songs in South Korea are known as "Minjung Gayo" (, literally "People's song"), and the genre of protest songs is called "Norae Undong", translating to the literal meaning"Song movement". It was raised by people in the 1970s~1980s to be against the military governments of Presidents Park Jeong-hee and Jeon Doo-hwan.
The Minjung-Gayo (Hangul: 민중가요; Hanja: 民衆歌謠) is one of Korean modern singing culture, which has been used as musical means of pro-democracy movement. It was mainly enjoyed by the people who are critical of mainstream song culture in the process of democratization movement. The term of Minjung-Gayo was naturally coined by people in the mid-1980s. Since this was the period when protest songs were grown rapidly and the singing movement began, It was needed to take care of protest songs, a new term that could be used to differentiate them from popular songs was necessary. In a broad sense, The Minjung-Gayo includes the anti-Japanese song on Japanese colonial era which is continued to the early 1970s. But Generally, the Minjung-Gayo means the culture which is matured in the late 1970s and lasted in 1990.
Korean protest song called Minjung-Gayo reflects the will of crowd and voices of criticism of the day. Korean protest song has emerged on 1980s, especially before and after of the June Democracy Movement in 1987.
The starting point of Korean protest songs was the music culture of Korean students movements around 1970. With criticizing about pop music or overcoming, it started that their own unique music culture having certain coriander layer and own existing method distinguished with pop culture. a few songs called as 'Demo-ga' (demonstration songs) and others from the 1960s was chosen as 'Minjung-Gayo' (Korean protest songs). There're 'Haebang-ga(Hangul; 해방가)',' Tana-Tana', 'Barami-bunda'(Hangul; 바람이 분다), 'Stenka Razin' and so on. After 1975, another songs like 'Hula-song', 'Jungui-ga' was added in the list.
Through the era of an emergency measure, the atmosphere of Korean universities was getting stiffer. Students who participated in the students' movements had to be prepared to die and they were required to have much stronger faith and actions. Students who participated in students' movements became to be critic against old social systems and pop culture. Due to it being the result of old social system, they started to pursue progressive and political culture. Spreading the criticism against pop music, a series of certain music culture which had such unique criticism of university students was established and it is the base of Korean protest songs.
The short 'Spring of democracy' before May, 1980 coming after 10.26 situation in 1979 was such a big opportunity to show the protest songs hidden by a few students to many students in public demonstrations. the organizers of demonstrations was spreading papers that the lyrics and sheet music was written on in continued demonstrations and in this period, the most of demonstrations were started to make the atmosphere with learning the songs.
The mainstream of Korean protest songs in 1980s could divided in three periods. The first period is the establishment of the protest songs. It is the period that many songs composed as marching song with minor like "The March for Her" (Hangeul: 임을 위한 행진곡) were being written and the number of the songs were increased massively from 1980 to 1984.
The second period started with young men fresh just out of college, who had engaged in music club. They perform a concert the story of song "Eggplant Flower" (Hangul: 가지꽃) in Aeogae little theater by lending the name of theater "Handurae" (Hangeul: 한두레). In this period, music has taken a part of social movement.
The third period is after the Democratic uprising in June 1987 and the first regular performing of 'People seeking music' held in Korean church 100th anniversary memorial in October that same year after the great labor conflict in July, August, and September 1987. In this period, they were trying to figure out how could they overcome limits that the music movement in universities had and find new ways that they should be on. After successive the great labor conflict in July to September, protest songs reflected the joys and sorrows of workers. After going through this period, protest song embraces not only the intellectuals, but also the working-class population.
From the middle of the 1990s, since the social voices of the students' demonstrations and the labor demonstrations started getting decreased, Korean protest songs have lost their popularity in many other fields except the struggle scenes. It is the period that the music groups in universities and the professional cultural demonstration groups started trying to change the form of Korean protest songs and trying new things. It was not easy to change such generalized form of the music into the new wave.
In the 2000s, the memorial candle demonstration for the middle school girls who were killed by U.S Army's tank to the demonstration against importing mad cow disease beef from U.S, such people participatory demonstration culture started being settled. In this period, the songs not having such solemn atmosphere like 'Fucking USA', 'The First Korean Constitution' was made, but the influence still could not spread wide and only stayed in the field
Born in Iksan-si, Jeonlabuk-do, he moved to Seoul before he entered primary school. He formed a group named 'Dobidoo' when he was in Seoul University and started writing music. At that time, he met Heeuen Yang, who had been his primary school friend, and gave her the song 'Morning Dew', which was released in 1970. In 1972, he was arrested for singing songs such as 'We Will Win', 'Freedom Song', 'The Child Blowing Flowers' and so on, and all of his songs were banned from broadcasting. After he got out of the Korean army, he wrote Heeuen Yang's song 'Like the Pine Needles in Wild Grassland' and also wrote the song 'The Light in the Factory' .
'People who're finding songs'[노래를 찾는 사람들] is the music group writing Korean protest songs in 1980-90s (known as 'Nochatsa'[노찾사]). There're many demonstrations against the Korean military dictatorship around Korean universities in the 1980s, and since then, lots of protest songs has been written by the students in those universities. Korean protest songs [hangul : 민중가요 Minjung-gayo] reflected the reality of the period different from typical love songs so they wouldn't expect commercial success from the songs. However, the group's albums were actually commercially successful and have left footprints in Korean pop music history. 'Meari' from Seoul univ, 'Norea-erl' from Korea univ, 'Hansori' from Ehwa women univ, 'Sori-sarang' from Sungkyunkwan univ etc were participated in the group
"Island's Sunrise" (Chinese: 島嶼天光) is the theme song of 2014 Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan. Also, the theme song of Lan Ling Wang TV drama series "Into The Array Song" (Chinese: 入陣曲), sung by Mayday, expressed all the social and political controversies during Taiwan under the president Ma Ying-jeou administration.
In Thailand, protest songs are known as "Phleng phuea chiwit" (, ; lit. "songs for life"), a music genre that originated in the '70s, by famous artists such as Caravan, Carabao, Pongthep Kradonchamnan and Pongsit Kamphee.
Emel Mathlouthi composed songs since a young age which called for freedom and dignity in a Tunisia ruled by the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, earning her scrutiny from internal security forces and forcing her to retreat to Paris. Banned from the official airwaves, her protest songs found listeners on social media. In late 2010 and early 2011, Tunisian protesters referred to her song Kelmti Horra (my word is free) as an anthem of the Tunisian Revolution.
The roots of the rebellious/protest music in Anatolia goes back to the 16th century. Asiks who lived in that era, like Pir Sultan Abdal, Koroglu and Dadaloglu who lived in the 18th century are still the inspirations. The tradition of rebellion have gone for centuries and have given many song to this geography's culture. The message in Turkish protest music has been against inequality, lack of freedom, poverty, and the freedom of expression. Milder elements in this style are referred to as progressive, while some die-hard protest musicians have been prosecuted, and sometimes persecuted, in the 20th century Turkey. More than a few Turkish singers have been forced to exile, most notably Cem Karaca, who later returned to Turkey during freer conditions and atmosphere. Typically, Protest Music bands are leftist bands with a huge following, especially in high schools and universities. The music is a crossover between folk and rock and the lyrics are about freedom, repression and uprising, capitalism and the oppressed, and the revolution that never comes. It's customary to say anti-American slogans here and there. The male singers always have a what we call Davidian voice (meaning deep and husky a la Barry White) and the females usually sing nasally with a high pitch.
Though originally and still largely Cuban, nueva trova has become popular across Latin America, especially in Puerto Rico. The movements biggest stars included Puerto Ricans such as Roy Brown, Andrés Jiménez, Antonio Cabán Vale and the group Haciendo Punto en Otro Son.
In response to Telegramgate, Puerto Rican musicians Bad Bunny, Residente, and iLE released the protest song "Afilando los cuchillos" on July 17, 2019. It is a diss track calling for the resignation of Ricardo Rosselló.
was a former Yugoslavian protest singer-songwriter. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23477 |
Professor Griff
Richard Griffin (born August 1, 1960), better known by his stage name Professor Griff, is an American rapper, spoken word artist, and lecturer currently residing in Atlanta. He was a member of the hip hop group Public Enemy, serving as the group's 'Minister of Information' before departing due to a controversy regarding alleged homophobic and anti-semitic statements made during an interview.
Griffin was born in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York. Before becoming famous and after serving in the U.S. Army he started a security company called Utility Force to do security at parties.
He is best known for his S1W security team dressed in military uniforms who toured with Public Enemy, providing security and doing choreographed military step drills on stage. Today he does lectures on politics, society and the music industry, has an internet radio show on World Star Hit Radio and teaches classes in the Kybalion and The 7 Hermetic Principles for Self-Mastery.
Before the release of "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back", Professor Griff, in his role as Minister of Information, gave interviews to UK magazines on behalf of Public Enemy, during which he made homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks. In a 1988 issue of "Melody Maker" he stated, "There's no place for gays. When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was for that sort of behaviour" and "If the Palestinians took up arms, went into Israel and killed all the Jews, it'd be alright." However, there was little controversy until May 22, 1989, when Griffin was interviewed by the "Washington Times". At the time, Public Enemy enjoyed unprecedented mainstream attention with the single "Fight the Power" from the soundtrack of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing".
During the interview with David Mills, Griffin made numerous statements such as "Jews are responsible for the majority of the wickedness in the world". When the interview was published, a media firestorm emerged, and the band found itself under intense scrutiny.
In a series of press conferences, Griffin was either fired, quit, or never left. Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin had already left the label by then; taking his place alongside Russell Simmons was Lyor Cohen, the son of Israeli immigrants who had run Rush Artist Management since 1985. Before the dust settled, Cohen claims to have arranged for a Holocaust Museum to give the band a private tour.
In an attempt to defuse the situation, Ridenhour first expressed an apology on his behalf, and fired Griffin soon thereafter. Griffin later rejoined the group, provoking more protests, causing Ridenhour to briefly disband the group. When Public Enemy reformed, due to increasing attention from the press and pressure from Def Jam hierarchy, Griffin was no longer with the band.
Griffin later publicly expressed remorse for his statements after a meeting with the National Holocaust Awareness Student Organization in 1990.
In his 2009 book, titled "Analytixz", Griff once again admitted the faults in his alleged 1989 statement: "To say the Jews are responsible for the majority of wickedness that went on around the globe, I would have to know about the majority of wickedness that went on around the globe, which is impossible...I'm not the best knower—God is. Then, not only knowing that, I would have to know who is at the crux of all of the problems in the world and then blame Jewish people, which is not correct." Griff also said that not only were his words taken out of context, but that the recording was never released to the public for an unbiased listen. In a YouTube interview on August 2, 2018, Professor Griff recalled one of his many long conversations with record executive Lyor Cohen he said he used to have respectful debates about history: "I told him about the history of him and his people about the Ashkenazi, the Ashke-Nazis and when I laid it on him he couldn't handle it and I'm like alright, which is common knowledge today everybody talking about it, you understand what I'm saying people are making books about it." (8:23)
Griffin embraces a form of Afrocentrism.
After his departure from Public Enemy, Griffin formed his own group, the Last Asiatic Disciples. Griffin's albums were of an Islamic and Afrocentric style, combined with increasingly spoken word lyrics.
He was a member of the Nation of Islam, which his lyrics and record titles as a solo artist referenced. Another general theme in his lyrics is New World Order conspiracy. On August 27, 2017, Professor Griff married longtime friend, Solé (previously married to R&B singer Ginuwine). The couple met 27 years earlier and resumed their relationship after Solé and Ginuwine divorced. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23478 |
Physicalism
In philosophy, physicalism is the metaphysical thesis that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical, or that everything supervenes on the physical. Physicalism is a form of ontological monism—a "one substance" view of the nature of reality as opposed to a "two-substance" (dualism) or "many-substance" (pluralism) view. Both the definition of "physical" and the meaning of physicalism have been debated.
Physicalism is closely related to materialism. Physicalism grew out of materialism with advancements of the physical sciences in explaining observed phenomena. The terms are often used interchangeably, although they are sometimes distinguished, for example on the basis of physics describing more than just matter (including energy and physical law).
According to a 2009 survey, physicalism is the majority view among philosophers, but there remains significant opposition to physicalism. Neuroplasticity is one such evidence that is used in support of a non-physicalist view. The philosophical zombie argument is another attempt to challenge physicalism.
The word "physicalism" was introduced into philosophy in the 1930s by Otto Neurath and Rudolf Carnap.
The use of "physical" in physicalism is a philosophical concept and can be distinguished from alternative definitions found in the literature (e.g. Karl Popper defined a physical proposition to be one which can at least in theory be denied by observation). A "physical property", in this context, may be a metaphysical or logical combination of properties which are physical in the ordinary sense. It is common to express the notion of "metaphysical or logical combination of properties" using the notion of supervenience: A property "A" is said to supervene on a property "B" if any change in "A" necessarily implies a change in "B". Since any change in a combination of properties must consist of a change in at least one component property, we see that the combination does indeed supervene on the individual properties. The point of this extension is that physicalists usually suppose the existence of various abstract concepts which are non-physical in the ordinary sense of the word; so physicalism cannot be defined in a way that denies the existence of these abstractions. Also, physicalism defined in terms of supervenience does not entail that all properties in the actual world are type identical to physical properties. It is, therefore, compatible with multiple realizability.
From the notion of supervenience, we see that, assuming that mental, social, and biological properties supervene on physical properties, it follows that two hypothetical worlds cannot be identical in their physical properties but differ in their mental, social or biological properties.
Two common approaches to defining "physicalism" are the theory-based and object-based approaches. The theory-based conception of physicalism proposes that "a property is physical if and only if it either is the sort of property that physical theory tells us about or else is a property which metaphysically (or logically) supervenes on the sort of property that physical theory tells us about". Likewise, the object-based conception claims that "a property is physical if and only if: it either is the sort of property required by a complete account of the intrinsic nature of paradigmatic physical objects and their constituents or else is a property which metaphysically (or logically) supervenes on the sort of property required by a complete account of the intrinsic nature of paradigmatic physical objects and their constituents".
Physicalists have traditionally opted for a "theory-based" characterization of the physical either in terms of current physics, or a future (ideal) physics. These two theory-based conceptions of the physical represent both horns of Hempel's dilemma (named after the late philosopher of science and logical empiricist Carl Gustav Hempel): an argument against theory-based understandings of the physical. Very roughly, Hempel's dilemma is that if we define the physical by reference to current physics, then physicalism is very likely to be false, as it is very likely (by pessimistic meta-induction) that much of current physics is false. But if we instead define the physical in terms of a future (ideal) or completed physics, then physicalism is hopelessly vague or indeterminate.
While the force of Hempel's dilemma against theory-based conceptions of the physical remains contested, alternative "non-theory-based" conceptions of the physical have also been proposed. Frank Jackson (1998) for example, has argued in favour of the aforementioned "object-based" conception of the physical. An objection to this proposal, which Jackson himself noted in 1998, is that if it turns out that panpsychism or panprotopsychism is true, then such a non-materialist understanding of the physical gives the counterintuitive result that physicalism is, nevertheless, also true since such properties will figure in a complete account of paradigmatic examples of the physical.
David Papineau and Barbara Montero have advanced and subsequently defended a "via negativa" characterization of the physical. The gist of the via negativa strategy is to understand the physical in terms of what it is not: the mental. In other words, the via negativa strategy understands the physical as "the non-mental". An objection to the via negativa conception of the physical is that (like the object-based conception) it doesn't have the resources to distinguish neutral monism (or panprotopsychism) from physicalism.
Adopting a supervenience-based account of the physical, the definition of physicalism as "all properties are physical" can be unraveled to:
1) Physicalism is true at a possible world "w" if and only if any world that is a physical duplicate of "w" is also a duplicate of "w simpliciter".
Applied to the actual world (our world), statement 1 above is the claim that physicalism is true at the actual world if and only if at "every possible world" in which the physical properties and laws of the actual world are instantiated, the non-physical (in the ordinary sense of the word) properties of the actual world are instantiated as well. To borrow a metaphor from Saul Kripke (1972), the truth of physicalism at the actual world entails that once God has instantiated or "fixed" the physical properties and laws of our world, then God's work is done; the rest comes "automatically".
Unfortunately, statement 1 fails to capture even a necessary condition for physicalism to be true at a world "w". To see this, imagine a world in which there are "only" physical properties—if physicalism is true at any world it is true at this one. But one can conceive physical duplicates of such a world that are "not" also duplicates simpliciter of it: worlds that have the same physical properties as our imagined one, but with some additional property or properties. A world might contain "epiphenomenal ectoplasm", some additional pure experience that does not interact with the physical components of the world and is not necessitated by them (does not supervene on them). To handle the epiphenomenal ectoplasm problem, statement 1 can be modified to include a "that's-all" or "totality" clause or be restricted to "positive" properties. Adopting the former suggestion here, we can reformulate statement 1 as follows:
2) Physicalism is true at a possible world "w" if and only if any world that is a "minimal" physical duplicate of "w" is a duplicate of "w simpliciter".
Applied in the same way, statement 2 is the claim that physicalism is true at a possible world "w" if and only if any world that is a physical duplicate of "w" (without any further changes), is duplicate of "w" without qualification. This allows a world in which there are only physical properties to be counted as one at which physicalism is true, since worlds in which there is some extra stuff are "not" "minimal" physical duplicates of such a world, nor are they minimal physical duplicates of worlds that contain some non-physical properties that are metaphysically necessitated by the physical.
But while statement 2 overcomes the problem of worlds at which there is some extra stuff (sometimes referred to as the "epiphenomenal ectoplasm problem") it faces a different challenge: the so-called "blockers problem". Imagine a world where the relation between the physical and non-physical properties at this world (call the world "w1") is slightly weaker than metaphysical necessitation, such that a certain kind of non-physical intervener—"a blocker"—could, were it to exist at "w1," prevent the non-physical properties in "w1" from being instantiated by the instantiation of the physical properties at "w1." Since statement 2 rules out worlds which are physical duplicates of "w1" that also contain non-physical interveners by virtue of the minimality, or that's-all clause, statement 2 gives the (allegedly) incorrect result that physicalism is true at "w1." One response to this problem is to abandon statement 2 in favour of the alternative possibility mentioned earlier in which supervenience-based formulations of physicalism are restricted to what David Chalmers (1996) calls "positive properties". A positive property is one that "...if instantiated in a world W, is also instantiated by the corresponding individual in all worlds that contain W as a proper part." Following this suggestion, we can then formulate physicalism as follows:
3) Physicalism is true at a possible world "w" if and only if any world that is a physical duplicate of "w" is a positive duplicate of "w".
On the face of it, statement 3 seems able to handle both the epiphenomenal ectoplasm problem and the blockers problem. With regard to the former, statement 3 gives the correct result that a purely physical world is one at which physicalism is true, since worlds in which there is some extra stuff are positive duplicates of a purely physical world. With regard to the latter, statement 3 appears to have the consequence that worlds in which there are blockers are worlds where positive non-physical properties of "w1" will be absent, hence "w1" will not be counted as a world at which physicalism is true. Daniel Stoljar (2010) objects to this response to the blockers problem on the basis that since the non-physical properties of "w1" aren't instantiated at a world in which there is a blocker, they are not positive properties in Chalmers' (1996) sense, and so statement 3 will count "w1" as a world at which physicalism is true after all.
A further problem for supervenience-based formulations of physicalism is the so-called "necessary beings problem". A necessary being in this context is a non-physical being that exists in all possible worlds (for example what theists refer to as God). A necessary being is compatible with all the definitions provided, because it is supervenient on everything; yet it is usually taken to contradict the notion that everything is physical. So any supervenience-based formulation of physicalism will at best state a necessary but not sufficient condition for the truth of physicalism.
Additional objections have been raised to the above definitions provided for supervenience physicalism: one could imagine an alternate world that differs only by the presence of a single ammonium molecule (or physical property), and yet based on statement 1, such a world might be completely different in terms of its distribution of mental properties. Furthermore, there are differences expressed concerning the modal status of physicalism; whether it is a necessary truth, or is only true in a world which conforms to certain conditions (i.e. those of physicalism).
Closely related to supervenience physicalism, is realisation physicalism, the thesis that every instantiated property is either physical or realised by a physical property.
Token physicalism is the proposition that "for every actual particular (object, event or process) x, there is some physical particular y such that x = y". It is intended to capture the idea of "physical mechanisms". Token physicalism is compatible with property dualism, in which all substances are "physical", but physical objects may have mental properties as well as physical properties. Token physicalism is not however equivalent to supervenience physicalism. Firstly, token physicalism does not imply supervenience physicalism because the former does not rule out the possibility of non-supervenient properties (provided that they are associated only with physical particulars). Secondarily, supervenience physicalism does not imply token physicalism, for the former allows supervenient objects (such as a "nation", or "soul") that are not equal to any physical object.
There are multiple versions of reductionism. In the context of physicalism, the reductions referred to are of a "linguistic" nature, allowing discussions of, say, mental phenomena to be translated into discussions of physics. In one formulation, every concept is analysed in terms of a physical concept. One counter-argument to this supposes there may be an additional class of expressions which is non-physical but which increases the expressive power of a theory. Another version of reductionism is based on the requirement that one theory (mental or physical) be logically derivable from a second.
The combination of reductionism and physicalism is usually called reductive physicalism in the philosophy of mind. The opposite view is non-reductive physicalism. Reductive physicalism is the view that mental states are both nothing over and above physical states and reducible to physical states. One version of reductive physicalism is type physicalism or mind-body identity theory. Type physicalism asserts that "for every actually instantiated property F, there is some physical property G such that F=G". Unlike token physicalism, type physicalism entails supervenience physicalism.
Reductive versions of physicalism are increasingly unpopular as they do not account for mental lives. The brain on this position as a physical substance has only physical attributes such as a particular volume, a particular mass, a particular density, a particular location, a particular shape, and so on. However, the brain on this position does not have any mental attributes. The brain is not overjoyed or unhappy. The brain is not in pain. When a person's back aches and he or she is in pain, it is not the brain that is suffering even though the brain is associated with the neural circuitry that provides the experience of pain. Reductive physicalism therefore cannot explain mental lives. In the event of fear, for example, doubtlessly there is neural activity that is corresponding with the experience of fear. However, the brain itself is not fearful. Fear cannot be reduced to a physical brain state even though it is corresponding with neural activity in the brain. For this reason, reductive physicalism is argued to be indefensible as it cannot be reconciled with mental experience.
Another common argument against type physicalism is multiple realizability, the possibility that a psychological process (say) could be instantiated by many different neurological processes (even non-neurological processes, in the case of machine or alien intelligence). For in this case, the neurological terms translating a psychological term must be disjunctions over the possible instantiations, and it is argued that no physical law can use these disjunctions as terms. Type physicalism was the original target of the multiple realizability argument, and it is not clear that token physicalism is susceptible to objections from multiple realizability.
There are two versions of emergentism, the strong version and the weak version. Supervenience physicalism has been seen as a strong version of emergentism, in which the subject's psychological experience is considered genuinely novel. Non-reductive physicalism, on the other side, is a weak version of emergentism because it does not need that the subject's psychological experience be novel. The strong version of emergentism is incompatible with physicalism. Since there are novel mental states, mental states are not nothing over and above physical states. However, the weak version of emergentism is compatible with physicalism.
We can see that emergentism is actually a very broad view. Some forms of emergentism appear either incompatible with physicalism or equivalent to it (e.g. posteriori physicalism), others appear to merge both dualism and supervenience. Emergentism compatible with dualism claims that mental states and physical states are metaphysically distinct while maintaining the supervenience of mental states on physical states. This proposition however contradicts supervenience physicalism, which asserts a denial of dualism.
Physicalists hold that physicalism is true. A natural question for physicalists, then, is whether the truth of physicalism is deducible a priori from the nature of the physical world (i.e., the inference is justified independently of experience, even though the nature of the physical world can itself only be determined through experience) or can only be deduced a posteriori (i.e., the justification of the inference itself is dependent upon experience). So-called "a priori physicalists" hold that from knowledge of the conjunction of all physical truths, a totality or that's-all truth (to rule out non-physical epiphenomena, and enforce the closure of the physical world), and some primitive indexical truths such as "I am A" and "now is B", the truth of physicalism is knowable a priori. Let "P" stand for the conjunction of all physical truths and laws, "T" for a that's-all truth, "I" for the indexical "centering" truths, and "N" for any [presumably non-physical] truth at the actual world. We can then, using the material conditional "→", represent a priori physicalism as the thesis that PTI → N is knowable a priori. An important wrinkle here is that the concepts in N must be possessed non-deferentially in order for PTI → N to be knowable a priori. The suggestion, then, is that possession of the concepts in the consequent, plus the empirical information in the antecedent is sufficient for the consequent to be knowable a priori.
An "a posteriori physicalist", on the other hand, will reject the claim that PTI → N is knowable a priori. Rather, they would hold that the inference from PTI to N is justified by metaphysical considerations that in turn can be derived from experience. So the claim then is that "PTI and not N" is metaphysically impossible.
One commonly issued challenge to a priori physicalism and to physicalism in general is the "conceivability argument", or zombie argument. At a rough approximation, the conceivability argument runs as follows:
P1) PTI and not Q (where "Q" stands for the conjunction of all truths about consciousness, or some "generic" truth about someone being "phenomenally" conscious [i.e., there is "something it is like" to be a person x] ) is conceivable (i.e., it is not knowable a priori that PTI and not Q is false).
P2) If PTI and not Q is conceivable, then PTI and not Q is metaphysically possible.
P3) If PTI and not Q is metaphysically possible then physicalism is false.
C) Physicalism is false.
Here proposition P3 is a direct application of the supervenience of consciousness, and hence of any supervenience-based version of physicalism: If PTI and not Q is possible, there is some possible world where it is true. This world differs from [the relevant indexing on] our world, where PTIQ is true. But the other world is a minimal physical duplicate of our world, because PT is true there. So there is a possible world which is a minimal physical duplicate of our world, but not a full duplicate; this contradicts the definition of physicalism that we saw above.
Since a priori physicalists hold that PTI → N is a priori, they are committed to denying P1) of the conceivability argument. The a priori physicalist, then, must argue that PTI and not Q, on ideal rational reflection, is incoherent or contradictory.
A posteriori physicalists, on the other hand, generally accept P1) but deny P2)--the move from "conceivability to metaphysical possibility". Some a posteriori physicalists think that unlike the possession of most, if not all other empirical concepts, the possession of consciousness has the special property that the presence of PTI and the absence of consciousness will be conceivable—even though, according to them, it is knowable a posteriori that PTI and not Q is not metaphysically possible. These a posteriori physicalists endorse some version of what Daniel Stoljar (2005) has called "the phenomenal concept strategy". Roughly speaking, the phenomenal concept strategy is a label for those a posteriori physicalists who attempt to show that it is only the "concept" of consciousness—not the "property"—that is in some way "special" or sui generis. Other a posteriori physicalists eschew the phenomenal concept strategy, and argue that even ordinary macroscopic truths such as "water covers 60% of the earth's surface" are not knowable a priori from PTI and a non-deferential grasp of the concepts "water" and "earth" "et cetera". If this is correct, then we should (arguably) conclude that conceivability does not entail metaphysical possibility, and P2) of the conceivability argument against physicalism is false.
Galen Strawson's "realistic physicalism" (or "realistic monism") entails panpsychism – or at least micropsychism. Strawson argues that "many—perhaps most—of those who call themselves physicalists or materialists [are mistakenly] committed to the thesis that physical stuff is, in itself, in its fundamental nature, something wholly and utterly non-experiential... even when they are prepared to admit with Eddington that physical stuff has, in itself, 'a nature capable of manifesting itself as mental activity', i.e. as experience or consciousness". Because experiential phenomena allegedly cannot be emergent from wholly non-experiential phenomena, philosophers are driven to substance dualism, property dualism, eliminative materialism and "all other crazy attempts at wholesale mental-to-non-mental reduction". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23479 |
Philosophy of perception
The philosophy of perception is concerned with the nature of perceptual experience and the status of perceptual data, in particular how they relate to beliefs about, or knowledge of, the world. Any explicit account of perception requires a commitment to one of a variety of ontological or metaphysical views. Philosophers distinguish internalist accounts, which assume that perceptions of objects, and knowledge or beliefs about them, are aspects of an individual's mind, and externalist accounts, which state that they constitute real aspects of the world external to the individual. The position of naïve realism—the 'everyday' impression of physical objects constituting what is perceived—is to some extent contradicted by the occurrence of perceptual illusions and hallucinations and the relativity of perceptual experience as well as certain insights in science. Realist conceptions include phenomenalism and direct and indirect realism. Anti-realist conceptions include idealism and skepticism.
We may categorize perception as "internal" or "external".
The philosophy of perception is mainly concerned with exteroception.
An object at some distance from an observer will reflect light in all directions, some of which will fall upon the corneae of the eyes, where it will be focussed upon each retina, forming an image. The disparity between the electrical output of these two slightly different images is resolved either at the level of the lateral geniculate nucleus or in a part of the visual cortex called 'V1'. The resolved data is further processed in the visual cortex where some areas have specialised functions, for instance area V5 is involved in the modelling of motion and V4 in adding colour. The resulting single image that subjects report as their experience is called a 'percept'. Studies involving rapidly changing scenes show the percept derives from numerous processes that involve time delays. Recent fMRI studies show that dreams, imaginings and perceptions of things such as faces are accompanied by activity in many of the same areas of brain as are involved with physical sight. Imagery that originates from the senses and internally generated imagery may have a shared ontology at higher levels of cortical processing.
Sound is analyzed in term of pressure waves sensed by the cochlea in the ear. Data from the eyes and ears is combined to form a 'bound' percept. The problem of how this is produced, known as the binding problem.
Perception is analyzed as a cognitive process in which information processing is used to transfer information into the mind where it is related to other information. Some psychologists propose that this processing gives rise to particular mental states (cognitivism) whilst others envisage a direct path back into the external world in the form of action (radical behaviourism). Behaviourists such as John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner have proposed that perception acts largely as a process between a stimulus and a response but have noted that Gilbert Ryle's "ghost in the machine of the brain" still seems to exist. "The objection to inner states is not that they do not exist, but that they are not relevant in a functional analysis". This view, in which experience is thought to be an incidental by-product of information processing, is known as epiphenomenalism.
Contrary to the behaviouralist approach to understanding the elements of cognitive processes, gestalt psychology sought to understand their organization as a whole, studying perception as a process of figure and ground.
Important philosophical problems derive from the epistemology of perception—how we can gain knowledge via perception—such as the question of the nature of qualia. Within the biological study of perception naive realism is unusable. However, outside biology modified forms of naive realism are defended. Thomas Reid, the eighteenth-century founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, formulated the idea that sensation was composed of a set of data transfers but also declared that there is still a direct connection between perception and the world. This idea, called direct realism, has again become popular in recent years with the rise of postmodernism.
The succession of data transfers involved in perception suggests that sense data are somehow available to a perceiving subject that is the substrate of the percept. Indirect realism, the view held by John Locke and Nicolas Malebranche, proposes that we can only be aware of mental representations of objects. However, this may imply an infinite regress (a perceiver within a perceiver within a perceiver...), though a finite regress is perfectly possible. It also assumes that perception is entirely due to data transfer and information processing, an argument that can be avoided by proposing that the percept does not depend wholly upon the transfer and rearrangement of data. This still involves basic ontological issues of the sort raised by Leibniz Locke, Hume, Whitehead and others, which remain outstanding particularly in relation to the binding problem, the question of how different perceptions (e.g. color and contour in vision) are "bound" to the same object when they are processed by separate areas of the brain.
Indirect realism (representational views) provides an account of issues such as perceptual contents, qualia, dreams, imaginings, hallucinations, illusions, the resolution of binocular rivalry, the resolution of multistable perception, the modelling of motion that allows us to watch TV, the sensations that result from direct brain stimulation, the update of the mental image by saccades of the eyes and the referral of events backwards in time. Direct realists must either argue that these experiences do not occur or else refuse to define them as perceptions.
Idealism holds that reality is limited to mental qualities while skepticism challenges our ability to know anything outside our minds. One of the most influential proponents of idealism was George Berkeley who maintained that everything was mind or dependent upon mind. Berkeley's idealism has two main strands, phenomenalism in which physical events are viewed as a special kind of mental event and subjective idealism. David Hume is probably the most influential proponent of skepticism.
A fourth theory of perception in opposition to naive realism, enactivism, attempts to find a middle path between direct realist and indirect realist theories, positing that cognition arises as a result of the dynamic interplay between an organism's sensory-motor capabilities and its environment. Instead of seeing perception as a passive process determined entirely by the features of an independently existing world, enactivism suggests that organism and environment are structurally coupled and co-determining. The theory was first formalized by Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch in "The Embodied Mind".
An aspect of perception that is common to both realists and anti-realists is the idea of mental or perceptual space. David Hume concluded that things appear extended because they have attributes of colour and solidity. A popular modern philosophical view is that the brain cannot contain images so our sense of space must be due to the actual space occupied by physical things. However, as René Descartes noticed, perceptual space has a projective geometry, things within it appear as if they are viewed from a point. The phenomenon of perspective was closely studied by artists and architects in the Renaissance, who relied mainly on the 11th century polymath, Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham), who affirmed the visibility of perceptual space in geometric structuring projections. Mathematicians now know of many types of projective geometry such as complex Minkowski space that might describe the layout of things in perception (see Peters (2000)) and it has also emerged that parts of the brain contain patterns of electrical activity that correspond closely to the layout of the retinal image (this is known as retinotopy). How or whether these become conscious experience is still unknown (see McGinn (1995)). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23483 |
Proper name (philosophy)
In the philosophy of language, a proper name, for example a name of a specific person or place, is a name which is ordinarily taken to uniquely identify its referent in the world. As such it presents particular challenges for theories of meaning and it has become a central problem in analytical philosophy. The common-sense view was originally formulated by John Stuart Mill in "A System of Logic" (1843), where he defines it as "a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about but not of telling anything about it". This view was criticized when philosophers applied principles of formal logic to linguistic propositions. Gottlob Frege pointed out that proper names may apply to imaginary and inexistent entities without becoming meaningless, and he showed that sometimes more than one proper name may identify the same entity without having the same "sense", so that the phrase "Homer believed the morning star was the evening star" could be meaningful and not tautological in spite of the fact that the morning star and the evening star identifies the same referent. This example became known as Frege's Puzzle and is a central issue in the theory of proper names.
Bertrand Russell was the first to propose a descriptivist theory of names, which held that a proper name refers not to a referent, but to a set of true propositions that uniquely describe a referent – for example, "Aristotle" refers to "the teacher of Alexander the Great". Rejecting descriptivism Saul Kripke and Keith Donnellan instead advanced causal-historical theories of reference, which hold that names come to be associated with individual referents because social groups who link the name to its reference in a naming event (e.g. a baptism), which henceforth fixes the value of the name to the specific referent within that community. Today a direct reference theory is common, which holds that proper names refer to their referents without attributing any additional information, connotative or of sense, about them.
The problem of proper names arise within a theory of meaning that is based on truth values and propositional logic, when trying to ascertain the criteria with which to determine if propositions that include proper names are true or false.
For example, in the proposition "Cicero is Roman" it is unclear what semantic content the proper name "Cicero" provides to the proposition. One may intuitively assume that the name refers to a person who may or may not be Roman, and that the truth value depends on whether that is the case or not. But from the point of view of a theory of meaning the question is "how" the word Cicero establishes its referent.
Another problem known as Frege's Puzzle, asks why it can be the case that the two names can refer to the same referent, yet not necessarily be considered entirely synonymous. His example is that the proposition "Hesperus is Hesperus" (Hesperus being the Greek name of the morning star) is tautological and vacuous while the proposition "Hesperus is Phosphorus" (Phosphorus being the Greek name of the evening star) conveys information. This puzzle suggests that there is something more to the meaning of the proper name than simply pointing out its referent.
Many theories have been proposed about proper names, each attempting to solve the problems of reference and identity inherent in the concept.
John Stuart Mill distinguished between connotative and denotative meaning, and argued that proper names included no other semantic content to a proposition than identifying the referent of the name and were hence purely denotative. Some contemporary proponents of a Millian theory of proper names argue that the process through which something becomes a proper name is exactly the gradual loss of connotation for pure denotation — such as the process that turned the descriptive propositions "long island" into the proper name Long Island.
Frege argued that one had to distinguish between the sense ("Sinn") and the reference of the name. And that different names for the same entity might identify the same referent without being formally synonymous. For example, although the Morning star and the evening star is the same astronomical object, the proposition "the morning star is the evening star" is not a tautology but provides actual information to someone who did not know this. Hence to Frege the two names for the object must have a different sense. Philosophers such as John McDowell have elaborated on Frege's theory of proper names.
The "descriptive" theory of proper names is the view that the meaning of a given use of a proper name is a set of properties that can be expressed as a description that picks out an object that satisfies the description.
Bertrand Russell espoused such a view arguing that the name refers to a description, and that description, like a definition, "picks out" the bearer of the name. The description then functions as an abbreviation or a truncated form of the description. The distinction between the embedded description and the bearer itself is similar to that between the "extension" and the "intension" (Frege's terms) of a general term, or between connotation and denotation (Mill's terms).
John Searle elaborated Russell's theory suggesting that the proper name refers to a cluster of propositions that in combination pick out a unique referent. This was meant to deal with the objection by some critics of Russell's theory that a descriptive theory of meaning would make the referent of a name dependent on the knowledge that the person saying the name has about the referent.
In 1973, Tyler Burge proposed a metalinguistic descriptivist theory of proper names which holds that names have the meaning that corresponds to the description of the individual entities to whom the name is applied. This however opens up for the possibility that names are not proper, when for example more than one person shares the same name. This leads Burge to argue that plural usages of names, such as "all the Alfreds I know have red hair", support this view.
The causal-historical theory originated by Saul Kripke in "Naming and Necessity", building on work by among others Keith Donnellan, combines the referential view with the idea that the name's referent is fixed by a baptismal act, whereupon the name becomes a rigid designator of the referent. Kripke did not emphasize causality, but rather the historical relation between the naming event and the community of speakers within which it circulates, but in spite of this the theory is often called "a causal theory of naming".
The pragmatic naming theory of Charles Sanders Peirce is sometimes considered a precursor of causal-historical naming theory. He described proper names in the following terms: "A proper name, when one meets with it for the first time, is existentially connected with some percept or other equivalent individual knowledge of the individual it names. It is then, and then only, a genuine Index. The next time one meets with it, one regards it as an Icon of that Index. The habitual acquaintance with it having been acquired, it becomes a Symbol whose Interpretant represents it as an Icon of an Index of the Individual named." Here he notes out that the baptismal event takes place for each person when a proper name is first associated with a referent (for example by pointing and saying "this is John", establishing an indexical relation between the name and the person) who is henceforth considered to be a conventional ("symbolic" in Peircean terms) references to the referent. [ "who is...a conventional...references to the referent" is grammatically incorrect, rendering the whole sentence incoherent]
Rejecting sense-based, descriptivist and causal-historical theories of naming, theories of direct reference hold that names together with demonstratives are a class of words that refer directly to their referent.
In the "Tractatus Logico Philosophicus" Ludwig Wittgenstein also held a direct reference position, arguing that names refer to a particular directly, and that this referent is its only meaning. In his later work however he has been attributed a cluster-descriptivist position based on the idea of family resemblances (for example by Kripke), although it has been argued that this misconstrues Wittgenstein's argument. Particularly his later view has been compared to that of Kripke's own view which recognizes names as stemming from a social convention and pragmatic principles of understanding others utterances.
Direct reference theory is similar to Mill's theory in that it proposes that the only meaning of a proper name is its referent. Modern proposals such as those by David Kaplan, which distinguish between Fregean and non-Fregean terms, the former which have both sense and reference and the latter which include proper names and have only reference.
Outside of the analytic tradition few continental philosophers have approached the proper name as a philosophical problem. In "Of Grammatology" Jacques Derrida specifically refutes the idea that proper names stand outside of the social construct of language as a binary relation between referent and sign. Rather he argues, the proper name as all words are caught up in a context of social, spatial and temporal differences that make it meaningful. He also notes that there are subjective elements of meaning in proper names, since they connect the bearer of a name with the sign of their own identity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23484 |
Prolog
Prolog is a logic programming language associated with artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.
Prolog has its roots in first-order logic, a formal logic, and unlike many other programming languages, Prolog is intended primarily as a declarative programming language: the program logic is expressed in terms of relations, represented as facts and rules. A computation is initiated by running a "query" over these relations.
The language was developed and implemented in Marseille, France, in 1972 by Alain Colmerauer with Philippe Roussel, based on Robert Kowalski's procedural interpretation of Horn clauses.
Prolog was one of the first logic programming languages and remains the most popular such language today, with several free and commercial implementations available. The language has been used for theorem proving, expert systems, term rewriting, type systems, and automated planning, as well as its original intended field of use, natural language processing. Modern Prolog environments support the creation of graphical user interfaces, as well as administrative and networked applications.
Prolog is well-suited for specific tasks that benefit from rule-based logical queries such as searching databases, voice control systems, and filling templates.
In Prolog, program logic is expressed in terms of relations, and a computation is initiated by running a "query" over these relations. Relations and queries are constructed using Prolog's single data type, the "term". Relations are defined by "clauses". Given a query, the Prolog engine attempts to find a resolution refutation of the negated query. If the negated query can be refuted, i.e., an instantiation for all free variables is found that makes the union of clauses and the singleton set consisting of the negated query false, it follows that the original query, with the found instantiation applied, is a logical consequence of the program. This makes Prolog (and other logic programming languages) particularly useful for database, symbolic mathematics, and language parsing applications. Because Prolog allows impure predicates, checking the truth value of certain special predicates may have some deliberate side effect, such as printing a value to the screen. Because of this, the programmer is permitted to use some amount of conventional imperative programming when the logical paradigm is inconvenient. It has a purely logical subset, called "pure Prolog", as well as a number of extralogical features.
Prolog's single data type is the "term". Terms are either "atoms", "numbers", "variables" or "compound terms".
Special cases of compound terms:
ISO Prolog provides the codice_11, codice_12, codice_13, and codice_14 predicates for type-checking.
Prolog programs describe relations, defined by means of clauses. Pure Prolog is restricted to Horn clauses. There are two types of clauses: facts and rules. A rule is of the form
Head :- Body.
and is read as "Head is true if Body is true". A rule's body consists of calls to predicates, which are called the rule's goals. The built-in logical operator codice_15 (meaning an arity 2 operator with name codice_16) denotes conjunction of goals, and codice_17 denotes disjunction. Conjunctions and disjunctions can only appear in the body, not in the head of a rule.
Clauses with empty bodies are called facts. An example of a fact is:
cat(crookshanks).
which is equivalent to the rule:
cat(crookshanks) :- true.
The built-in predicate codice_18 is always true.
Given the above fact, one can ask:
"is crookshanks a cat?"
"what things are cats?"
Clauses with bodies are called rules. An example of a rule is:
animal(X) :- cat(X).
If we add that rule and ask "what things are animals?"
Due to the relational nature of many built-in predicates, they can typically be used in several directions. For example, codice_19 can be used to determine the length of a list (codice_20, given a list codice_21) as well as to generate a list skeleton of a given length (codice_22), and also to generate both list skeletons and their lengths together (codice_23). Similarly, codice_24 can be used both to append two lists (codice_25 given lists codice_26 and codice_27) as well as to split a given list into parts (codice_28, given a list codice_21). For this reason, a comparatively small set of library predicates suffices for many Prolog programs.
As a general purpose language, Prolog also provides various built-in predicates to perform routine activities like input/output, using graphics and otherwise communicating with the operating system. These predicates are not given a relational meaning and are only useful for the side-effects they exhibit on the system. For example, the predicate codice_30 displays a term on the screen.
Execution of a Prolog program is initiated by the user's posting of a single goal, called the query. Logically, the Prolog engine tries to find a resolution refutation of the negated query. The resolution method used by Prolog is called SLD resolution. If the negated query can be refuted, it follows that the query, with the appropriate variable bindings in place, is a logical consequence of the program. In that case, all generated variable bindings are reported to the user, and the query is said to have succeeded. Operationally, Prolog's execution strategy can be thought of as a generalization of function calls in other languages, one difference being that multiple clause heads can match a given call. In that case, the system creates a choice-point, unifies the goal with the clause head of the first alternative, and continues with the goals of that first alternative. If any goal fails in the course of executing the program, all variable bindings that were made since the most recent choice-point was created are undone, and execution continues with the next alternative of that choice-point. This execution strategy is called chronological backtracking. For example:
mother_child(trude, sally).
father_child(tom, sally).
father_child(tom, erica).
father_child(mike, tom).
sibling(X, Y) :- parent_child(Z, X), parent_child(Z, Y).
parent_child(X, Y) :- father_child(X, Y).
parent_child(X, Y) :- mother_child(X, Y).
This results in the following query being evaluated as true:
This is obtained as follows: Initially, the only matching clause-head for the query codice_31 is the first one, so proving the query is equivalent to proving the body of that clause with the appropriate variable bindings in place, i.e., the conjunction codice_32. The next goal to be proved is the leftmost one of this conjunction, i.e., codice_33. Two clause heads match this goal. The system creates a choice-point and tries the first alternative, whose body is codice_34. This goal can be proved using the fact codice_35, so the binding codice_36 is generated, and the next goal to be proved is the second part of the above conjunction: codice_37. Again, this can be proved by the corresponding fact. Since all goals could be proved, the query succeeds. Since the query contained no variables, no bindings are reported to the user. A query with variables, like:
?- father_child(Father, Child).
enumerates all valid answers on backtracking.
Notice that with the code as stated above, the query codice_38 also succeeds. One would insert additional goals to describe the relevant restrictions, if desired.
Iterative algorithms can be implemented by means of recursive predicates.
The built-in Prolog predicate codice_39 provides negation as failure, which allows for non-monotonic reasoning. The goal codice_40 in the rule
legal(X) :- \+ illegal(X).
is evaluated as follows: Prolog attempts to prove codice_41. If a proof for that goal can be found, the original goal (i.e., codice_40) fails. If no proof can be found, the original goal succeeds. Therefore, the codice_39 prefix operator is called the "not provable" operator, since the query codice_44 succeeds if Goal is not provable. This kind of negation is sound if its argument is "ground" (i.e. contains no variables). Soundness is lost if the argument contains variables and the proof procedure is complete. In particular, the query codice_45 now cannot be used to enumerate all things that are legal.
In Prolog, loading code is referred to as "consulting". Prolog can be used interactively by entering queries at the Prolog prompt codice_46. If there is no solution, Prolog writes codice_47. If a solution exists then it is printed. If there are multiple solutions to the query, then these can be requested by entering a semi-colon codice_48. There are guidelines on good programming practice to improve code efficiency, readability and maintainability.
Here follow some example programs written in Prolog.
An example of a query:
?- write('Hello World!'), nl.
Hello World!
true.
Any computation can be expressed declaratively as a sequence of state transitions. As an example, an optimizing compiler with three optimization passes could be implemented as a relation between an initial program and its optimized form:
program_optimized(Prog0, Prog) :-
or equivalently using DCG notation:
program_optimized --> optimization_pass_1, optimization_pass_2, optimization_pass_3.
The quicksort sorting algorithm, relating a list to its sorted version:
partition([], _, [], []).
partition([X|Xs], Pivot, Smalls, Bigs) :-
quicksort([]) --> [].
quicksort([X|Xs]) -->
A design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design. In Prolog, design patterns go under various names: skeletons and techniques, cliches, program schemata, and logic description schemata.
An alternative to design patterns is higher order programming.
A higher-order predicate is a predicate that takes one or more other predicates as arguments. Although support for higher-order programming takes Prolog outside the domain of first-order logic, which does not allow quantification over predicates, ISO Prolog now has some built-in higher-order predicates such as codice_49, codice_50, codice_51, codice_52, codice_53, and codice_54. Furthermore, since arbitrary Prolog goals can be constructed and evaluated at run-time, it is easy to write higher-order predicates like codice_55, which applies an arbitrary predicate to each member of a given list, and codice_56, which filters elements that satisfy a given predicate, also allowing for currying.
To convert solutions from temporal representation (answer substitutions on backtracking) to spatial representation (terms), Prolog has various all-solutions predicates that collect all answer substitutions of a given query in a list. This can be used for list comprehension. For example, perfect numbers equal the sum of their proper divisors:
This can be used to enumerate perfect numbers, and also to check whether a number is perfect.
As another example, the predicate codice_57 applies a predicate codice_58 to all corresponding positions in a pair of lists:
maplist(_, [], []).
maplist(P, [X|Xs], [Y|Ys]) :-
When codice_58 is a predicate that for all codice_60, codice_61 unifies codice_62 with a single unique value, codice_63 is equivalent to applying the map function in functional programming as codice_64.
Higher-order programming style in Prolog was pioneered in HiLog and λProlog.
For programming in the large, Prolog provides a module system. The module system is standardised by ISO. However, not all Prolog compilers support modules, and there are compatibility problems between the module systems of the major Prolog compilers. Consequently, modules written on one Prolog compiler will not necessarily work on others.
There is a special notation called definite clause grammars (DCGs). A rule defined via codice_65 instead of codice_66 is expanded by the preprocessor (codice_67, a facility analogous to macros in other languages) according to a few straightforward rewriting rules, resulting in ordinary Prolog clauses. Most notably, the rewriting equips the predicate with two additional arguments, which can be used to implicitly thread state around, analogous to monads in other languages. DCGs are often used to write parsers or list generators, as they also provide a convenient interface to difference lists.
Prolog is a homoiconic language and provides many facilities for reflection. Its implicit execution strategy makes it possible to write a concise meta-circular evaluator (also called "meta-interpreter") for pure Prolog code:
solve(true).
solve((Subgoal1,Subgoal2)) :-
solve(Head) :-
where codice_68 represents an empty conjunction, and codice_69 unifies with clauses in the database of the form codice_70.
Since Prolog programs are themselves sequences of Prolog terms (codice_66 is an infix operator) that are easily read and inspected using built-in mechanisms (like codice_72), it is possible to write customized interpreters that augment Prolog with domain-specific features. For example, Sterling and Shapiro present a meta-interpreter that performs reasoning with uncertainty, reproduced here with slight modifications:
solve(true, 1) :- !.
solve((Subgoal1,Subgoal2), Certainty) :-
solve(Goal, 1) :-
solve(Head, Certainty) :-
This interpreter uses a table of built-in Prolog predicates of the form
builtin(A is B).
builtin(read(X)).
% etc.
and clauses represented as codice_73. Given those, it can be called as codice_74 to execute codice_75 and obtain a measure of certainty about the result.
Pure Prolog is based on a subset of first-order predicate logic, Horn clauses, which is Turing-complete. Turing completeness of Prolog can be shown by using it to simulate a Turing machine:
turing(Tape0, Tape) :-
perform(qf, Ls, Ls, Rs, Rs) :- !.
perform(Q0, Ls0, Ls, Rs0, Rs) :-
symbol([], b, []).
symbol([Sym|Rs], Sym, Rs).
action(left, Ls0, Ls, Rs0, Rs) :- left(Ls0, Ls, Rs0, Rs).
action(stay, Ls, Ls, Rs, Rs).
action(right, Ls0, [Sym|Ls0], [Sym|Rs], Rs).
left([], [], Rs0, [b|Rs0]).
left([L|Ls], Ls, Rs, [L|Rs]).
A simple example Turing machine is specified by the facts:
rule(q0, 1, q0, 1, right).
rule(q0, b, qf, 1, stay).
This machine performs incrementation by one of a number in unary encoding: It loops over any number of "1" cells and appends an additional "1" at the end. Example query and result:
?- turing([1,1,1], Ts).
Ts = [1, 1, 1, 1] ;
This illustrates how any computation can be expressed declaratively as a sequence of state transitions, implemented in Prolog as a relation between successive states of interest.
The ISO Prolog standard consists of two parts. ISO/IEC 13211-1, published in 1995, aims to standardize the existing practices of the many implementations of the core elements of Prolog. It has clarified aspects of the language that were previously ambiguous and leads to portable programs. There are three corrigenda: Cor.1:2007, Cor.2:2012, and Cor.3:2017. ISO/IEC 13211-2, published in 2000, adds support for modules to the standard. The standard is maintained by the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG17 working group. ANSI X3J17 is the US Technical Advisory Group for the standard.
For efficiency, Prolog code is typically compiled to abstract machine code, often influenced by the register-based Warren Abstract Machine (WAM) instruction set. Some implementations employ abstract interpretation to derive type and mode information of predicates at compile time, or compile to real machine code for high performance. Devising efficient implementation methods for Prolog code is a field of active research in the logic programming community, and various other execution methods are employed in some implementations. These include clause binarization and stack-based virtual machines.
Prolog systems typically implement a well-known optimization method called tail call optimization (TCO) for deterministic predicates exhibiting tail recursion or, more generally, tail calls: A clause's stack frame is discarded before performing a call in a tail position. Therefore, deterministic tail-recursive predicates are executed with constant stack space, like loops in other languages.
Finding clauses that are unifiable with a term in a query is linear in the number of clauses. Term indexing uses a data structure that enables sub-linear-time lookups. Indexing only affects program performance, it does not affect semantics. Most Prologs only use indexing on the first term, as indexing on all terms is expensive, but techniques based on "field-encoded words" or "superimposed codewords" provide fast indexing across the full query and head.
Some Prolog systems, such as WIN-PROLOG and SWI-Prolog, now implement hashing to help handle large datasets more efficiently. This tends to yield very large performance gains when working with large corpora such as WordNet.
Some Prolog systems, (B-Prolog, XSB, SWI-Prolog, YAP, and Ciao), implement a memoization method called "tabling", which frees the user from manually storing intermediate results. Tabling is a space–time tradeoff; execution time can be reduced by using more memory to store intermediate results:
Subgoals encountered in a query evaluation are maintained in a table, along with answers to these subgoals. If a subgoal is re-encountered, the evaluation reuses information from the table rather than re-performing resolution against program clauses.
Tabling can be extended in various directions. It can support recursive predicates through SLG-resolution or linear tabling. In a multi-threaded Prolog system tabling results could be kept private to a thread or shared among all threads. And in incremental tabling, tabling might react to changes.
During the Fifth Generation Computer Systems project, there were attempts to implement Prolog in hardware with the aim of achieving faster execution with dedicated architectures. Furthermore, Prolog has a number of properties that may allow speed-up through parallel execution. A more recent approach has been to compile restricted Prolog programs to a field programmable gate array. However, rapid progress in general-purpose hardware has consistently overtaken more specialised architectures.
Although Prolog is widely used in research and education, Prolog and other logic programming languages have not had a significant impact on the computer industry in general. Most applications are small by industrial standards, with few exceeding 100,000 lines of code. Programming in the large is considered to be complicated because not all Prolog compilers support modules, and there are compatibility problems between the module systems of the major Prolog compilers. Portability of Prolog code across implementations has also been a problem, but developments since 2007 have meant: "the portability within the family of Edinburgh/Quintus derived Prolog implementations is good enough to allow for maintaining portable real-world applications."
Software developed in Prolog has been criticised for having a high performance penalty compared to conventional programming languages. In particular, Prolog's non-deterministic evaluation strategy can be problematic when programming deterministic computations, or when even using "don't care non-determinism" (where a single choice is made instead of backtracking over all possibilities). Cuts and other language constructs may have to be used to achieve desirable performance, destroying one of Prolog's main attractions, the ability to run programs "backwards and forwards".
Prolog is not purely declarative: because of constructs like the cut operator, a procedural reading of a Prolog program is needed to understand it. The order of clauses in a Prolog program is significant, as the execution strategy of the language depends on it. Other logic programming languages, such as Datalog, are truly declarative but restrict the language. As a result, many practical Prolog programs are written to conform to Prolog's depth-first search order, rather than as purely declarative logic programs.
Various implementations have been developed from Prolog to extend logic programming capabilities in numerous directions. These include types, modes, constraint logic programming (CLP), object-oriented logic programming (OOLP), concurrency, linear logic (LLP), functional and higher-order logic programming capabilities, plus interoperability with knowledge bases:
Prolog is an untyped language. Attempts to introduce types date back to the 1980s, and as of 2008 there are still attempts to extend Prolog with types. Type information is useful not only for type safety but also for reasoning about Prolog programs.
The syntax of Prolog does not specify which arguments of a predicate are inputs and which are outputs. However, this information is significant and it is recommended that it be included in the comments. Modes provide valuable information when reasoning about Prolog programs and can also be used to accelerate execution.
Constraint logic programming extends Prolog to include concepts from constraint satisfaction. A constraint logic program allows constraints in the body of clauses, such as: codice_76 It is suited to large-scale combinatorial optimisation problems and is thus useful for applications in industrial settings, such as automated time-tabling and production scheduling. Most Prolog systems ship with at least one constraint solver for finite domains, and often also with solvers for other domains like rational numbers.
Flora-2 is an object-oriented knowledge representation and reasoning system based on F-logic and incorporates HiLog, Transaction logic, and defeasible reasoning.
Logtalk is an object-oriented logic programming language that can use most Prolog implementations as a back-end compiler. As a multi-paradigm language, it includes support for both prototypes and classes.
Oblog is a small, portable, object-oriented extension to Prolog by Margaret McDougall of EdCAAD, University of Edinburgh.
Objlog was a frame-based language combining objects and Prolog II from CNRS, Marseille, France.
Prolog++ was developed by Logic Programming Associates and first released in 1989 for MS-DOS PCs. Support for other platforms was added, and a second version was released in 1995. A book about Prolog++ by Chris Moss was published by Addison-Wesley in 1994.
Prolog systems that provide a graphics library are SWI-Prolog, Visual Prolog, WIN-PROLOG, and B-Prolog.
Prolog-MPI is an open-source SWI-Prolog extension for distributed computing over the Message Passing Interface. Also there are various concurrent Prolog programming languages.
Some Prolog implementations, notably SWI-Prolog and Ciao, support server-side web programming with support for web protocols, HTML and XML. There are also extensions to support semantic web formats such as RDF and OWL. Prolog has also been suggested as a client-side language.
Cedar is a free and basic Prolog interpreter. From version 4 and above Cedar has a FCA (Flash Cedar App) support. This provides a new platform to programming in Prolog through ActionScript.
Frameworks exist which can bridge between Prolog and other languages:
The name "Prolog" was chosen by Philippe Roussel as an abbreviation for "" (French for "programming in logic"). It was created around 1972 by Alain Colmerauer with Philippe Roussel, based on Robert Kowalski's procedural interpretation of Horn clauses. It was motivated in part by the desire to reconcile the use of logic as a declarative knowledge representation language with the procedural representation of knowledge that was popular in North America in the late 1960s and early 1970s. According to Robert Kowalski, the first Prolog system was developed in 1972 by Colmerauer and Phillipe Roussel. The first implementation of Prolog was an interpreter written in Fortran by Gerard Battani and Henri Meloni. David H. D. Warren took this interpreter to Edinburgh, and there implemented an alternative front-end, which came to define the “Edinburgh Prolog” syntax used by most modern implementations. Warren also implemented the first compiler for Prolog, creating the influential DEC-10 Prolog in collaboration with Fernando Pereira. Warren later generalised the ideas behind DEC-10 Prolog, to create the Warren Abstract Machine.
European AI researchers favored Prolog while Americans favored Lisp, reportedly causing many nationalistic debates on the merits of the languages. Much of the modern development of Prolog came from the impetus of the Fifth Generation Computer Systems project (FGCS), which developed a variant of Prolog named "Kernel Language" for its first operating system.
Pure Prolog was originally restricted to the use of a resolution theorem prover with Horn clauses of the form:
The application of the theorem-prover treats such clauses as procedures:
Pure Prolog was soon extended, however, to include negation as failure, in which negative conditions of the form not(Bi) are shown by trying and failing to solve the corresponding positive conditions Bi.
Subsequent extensions of Prolog by the original team introduced constraint logic programming abilities into the implementations.
Prolog has been used in Watson. Watson uses IBM's DeepQA software and the Apache UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture) framework. The system was written in various languages, including Java, C++, and Prolog, and runs on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 operating system using Apache Hadoop framework to provide distributed computing. Prolog is used for pattern matching over natural language parse trees. The developers have stated: "We required a language in which we could conveniently express pattern matching rules over the parse trees and other annotations (such as named entity recognition results), and a technology that could execute these rules very efficiently. We found that Prolog was the ideal choice for the language due to its simplicity and expressiveness." Prolog is being used in the Low-Code Development Platform GeneXus, which is focused around AI. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23485 |
Phil Zimmermann
Philip R. "Phil" Zimmermann (born 1954) is an American computer scientist and cryptographer. He is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone. Zimmermann is co-founder and Chief Scientist of the global encrypted communications firm Silent Circle.
He was born in Camden, New Jersey. Zimmermann received a B.S. degree in computer science from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida in 1978. In the 1980s, Zimmermann worked in Boulder, Colorado as a software engineer and was a part of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign as a military policy analyst.
In 1991, he wrote the popular Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) program, and made it available (together with its source code) through public FTP for download, the first widely available program implementing public-key cryptography. Shortly thereafter, it became available overseas via the Internet, though Zimmermann has said he had no part in its distribution outside the United States.
In 1995, he published a book ""PGP Source Code and Internals"", as a way to bypass limitation of exporting digital code. The book contains "source code to a software package called PGP"
The very first version of PGP included an encryption algorithm, BassOmatic, developed by Zimmermann.
After a report from RSA Security, who were in a licensing dispute with regard to the use of the RSA algorithm in PGP, the United States Customs Service started a criminal investigation of Zimmermann, for allegedly violating the Arms Export Control Act. The United States Government had long regarded cryptographic software as a munition, and thus subject to arms trafficking export controls. At that time, PGP was considered to be impermissible ("high-strength") for export from the United States. The maximum strength allowed for legal export has since been raised and now allows PGP to be exported. The investigation lasted three years, but was finally dropped without filing charges.
After the government dropped its case without indictment in early 1996, Zimmermann founded PGP Inc. and released an updated version of PGP and some additional related products. That company was acquired by Network Associates (NAI) in December 1997, and Zimmermann stayed on for three years as a Senior Fellow. NAI decided to drop the product line and in 2002, PGP was acquired from NAI by a new company called PGP Corporation. Zimmermann served as a special advisor and consultant to that firm until Symantec acquired PGP Corporation in 2010. Zimmermann is also a fellow at the Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society. He was a principal designer of the cryptographic key agreement protocol (the "association model") for the Wireless USB standard.
Along with Mike Janke and Jon Callas, in 2012 he co-founded Silent Circle, a secure hardware and subscription based software security company.
In October 2013, Zimmermann, along with other key employees from Silent Circle, teamed up with Lavabit founder Ladar Levison to create the Dark Mail Alliance. The goal of the organization is to work on a new protocol to replace PGP that will encrypt email metadata, among other things that PGP is not capable of.
In 2013, an article on "Zimmermann's Law" quoted Phil Zimmermann as saying "The natural flow of technology tends to move in the direction of making surveillance easier", and "the ability of computers to track us doubles every eighteen months," in reference to Moore's law.
Zimmermann has received numerous technical and humanitarian awards for his pioneering work in cryptography:
"Reason", December 2003 Retrieved April 10, 2007
Simon Singh's "The Code Book" devotes an entire chapter to Zimmermann and PGP. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23486 |
Political spectrum
A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions political compass and political map are used to refer to the political spectrum as well, especially to popular two-dimensional models of it.
Most long-standing spectra include the left–right dimension which originally referred to seating arrangements in the French parliament after the Revolution (1789–1799), with radicals on the left and aristocrats on the right. While communism and socialism are usually regarded internationally as being on the left, conservatism and fascism are regarded internationally as being on the right. Liberalism can mean different things in different contexts, being sometimes on the left (social liberalism) and other times on the right (conservative liberalism). Those with an intermediate outlook are sometimes classified as centrists. Politics that rejects the conventional left–right spectrum is often known as syncretic politics, although the label tends to mischaracterize positions that have a logical location on a two-axis spectrum because they seem randomly brought together on a one-axis left–right spectrum.
Political scientists have frequently noted that a single left–right axis is too simplistic and insufficient for describing the existing variation in political beliefs and included other axes. Although the descriptive words at polar opposites may vary, the axes of popular biaxial spectra are usually split between economic issues (on a left–right dimension) and socio-cultural issues (on an authority–liberty dimension).
The terms "right" and "left" refer to political affiliations originating early in the French Revolutionary era of 1789–1799 and referred originally to the seating arrangements in the various legislative bodies of France. As seen from the Speaker's seat at the front of the Assembly, the aristocracy sat on the right (traditionally the seat of honor) and the commoners sat on the left, hence the terms right-wing politics and left-wing politics.
Originally, the defining point on the ideological spectrum was the "Ancien Régime" ("old order"). "The Right" thus implied support for aristocratic or royal interests and the church, while "The Left" implied support for republicanism, secularism and civil liberties. Because the political franchise at the start of the revolution was relatively narrow, the original "Left" represented mainly the interests of the bourgeoisie, the rising capitalist class (with notable exceptions such as the proto-communist Gracchus Babeuf). Support for "laissez-faire" commerce and free markets were expressed by politicians sitting on the left because these represented policies favorable to capitalists rather than to the aristocracy, but outside parliamentary politics these views are often characterized as being on the Right.
The reason for this apparent contradiction lies in the fact that those "to the left" of the parliamentary left, outside official parliamentary structures (such as the "sans-culottes" of the French Revolution), typically represent much of the working class, poor peasantry and the unemployed. Their political interests in the French Revolution lay with opposition to the aristocracy and so they found themselves allied with the early capitalists. However, this did not mean that their economic interests lay with the "laissez-faire" policies of those representing them politically.
As capitalist economies developed, the aristocracy became less relevant and were mostly replaced by capitalist representatives. The size of the working class increased as capitalism expanded and began to find expression partly through trade unionist, socialist, anarchist and communist politics rather than being confined to the capitalist policies expressed by the original "left". This evolution has often pulled parliamentary politicians away from laissez-faire economic policies, although this has happened to different degrees in different countries, especially those with a history of issues with more authoritarian-left countries, such as the Soviet Union or China under Mao Zedong. Thus, the word "Left" in American political parlance may refer to "liberalism" and be identified with the Democratic Party, whereas in a country such as France these positions would be regarded as relatively more right-wing, or centrist overall, and "left" is more likely to refer to "socialist" or "social-democratic" positions rather than "liberal" ones.
For almost a century, social scientists have considered the problem of how best to describe political variation.
In 1950, Leonard W. Ferguson analyzed political values using ten scales measuring attitudes toward: birth control, capital punishment, censorship, communism, evolution, law, patriotism, theism, treatment of criminals and war. Submitting the results to factor analysis, he was able to identify three factors, which he named religionism, humanitarianism and nationalism. He defined religionism as belief in God and negative attitudes toward evolution and birth control; humanitarianism as being related to attitudes opposing war, capital punishment and harsh treatment of criminals; and nationalism as describing variation in opinions on censorship, law, patriotism and communism.
This system was derived empirically, as rather than devising a political model on purely theoretical grounds and testing it, Ferguson's research was exploratory. As a result of this method, care must be taken in the interpretation of Ferguson's three factors, as factor analysis will output an abstract factor whether an objectively real factor exists or not. Although replication of the nationalism factor was inconsistent, the finding of religionism and humanitarianism had a number of replications by Ferguson and others.
Shortly afterward, Hans Eysenck began researching political attitudes in Great Britain. He believed that there was something essentially similar about the National Socialists (Nazis) on the one hand and the communists on the other, despite their opposite positions on the left–right axis. As Hans Eysenck described in his 1956 book "Sense and Nonsense in Psychology", Eysenck compiled a list of political statements found in newspapers and political tracts and asked subjects to rate their agreement or disagreement with each. Submitting this value questionnaire to the same process of factor analysis used by Ferguson, Eysenck drew out two factors, which he named "Radicalism" (R-factor) and "Tender-Mindedness" (T-factor).
Such analysis produces a factor whether or not it corresponds to a real-world phenomenon and so caution must be exercised in its interpretation. While Eysenck's R-factor is easily identified as the classical "left–right" dimension, the T-factor (representing a factor drawn at right angles to the R-factor) is less intuitive, as high-scorers favored pacifism, racial equality, religious education and restrictions on abortion, while low-scorers had attitudes more friendly to militarism, harsh punishment, easier divorce laws and companionate marriage.
Despite the difference in methodology, location and theory, the results attained by Eysenck and Ferguson matched. Simply rotating Eysenck's two factors 45 degrees renders the same factors of religionism and humanitarianism identified by Ferguson in America.
Eysenck's dimensions of R and T were found by factor analyses of values in Germany and Sweden, France and Japan.
One interesting result Eysenck noted in his 1956 work was that in the United States and Great Britain, most of the political variance was subsumed by the left/right axis, while in France the T-axis was larger and in the Middle East the only dimension to be found was the T-axis: "Among mid-Eastern Arabs it has been found that while the tough-minded/tender-minded dimension is still clearly expressed in the relationships observed between different attitudes, there is nothing that corresponds to the radical-conservative continuum".
Eysenck's political views related to his research: Eysenck was an outspoken opponent of what he perceived as the authoritarian abuses of the left and right and accordingly he believed that with this T axis he had found the link between nazism and communism. According to Eysenck, members of both ideologies were tough-minded. Central to Eysenck's thesis was the claim that tender-minded ideologies were democratic and friendly to human freedoms, while tough-minded ideologies were aggressive and authoritarian, a claim that is open to political criticism. In this context, Eysenck carried out studies on nazism and communist groups, claiming to find members of both groups to be more "dominant" and more "aggressive" than control groups.
Eysenck left Nazi Germany to live in Britain and was not shy in attacking Stalinism, noting the anti-Semitic prejudices of the Russian government, the luxurious lifestyles of the Soviet Union leadership and the Orwellian "doublethink" of East Germany's naming itself the German Democratic Republic despite being "one of the most undemocratic regimes in the world today". While Eysenck was an opponent of Nazism, his relationship with fascist organizations was more complex. Eysenck himself lent theoretical support to the English National Party (which also opposed "Hitlerite" Nazism) and was interviewed in the first issue of their journal "The Beacon" in relation to his controversial views on relative intelligence between different races. At one point during the interview, Eysenck was asked whether or not he was of Jewish origin before the interviewer proceeded. His political allegiances were called into question by other researchers, notably Steven Rose, who alleged that his scientific research was used for political purposes.
Eysenck's conception of tough-mindedness has been criticized for a number of reasons.
Dissatisfied with Hans J. Eysenck's work, Milton Rokeach developed his own two-axis model of political values in 1973, basing this on the ideas of freedom and equality, which he described in his book, "The Nature of Human Values".
Milton Rokeach claimed that the defining difference between the left and right was that the left stressed the importance of equality more than the right. Despite his criticisms of Eysenck's tough-tender axis, Rokeach also postulated a basic similarity between communism and nazism, claiming that these groups would not value freedom as greatly as more conventional social democratics, democratic socialists and capitalists would and he wrote that "the two value model presented here most resembles Eysenck's hypothesis".
To test this model, Milton Rokeach and his colleagues used content analysis on works exemplifying nazism (written by Adolf Hitler), communism (written by Vladimir Lenin), capitalism (by Barry Goldwater) and socialism (written by various socialist authors). This method has been criticized for its reliance on the experimenter's familiarity with the content under analysis and its dependence on the researcher's particular political outlooks.
Multiple raters made frequency counts of sentences containing synonyms for a number of values identified by Rokeach—including freedom and equality—and Rokeach analyzed these results by comparing the relative frequency rankings of all the values for each of the four texts:
Later studies using samples of American ideologues and American presidential inaugural addresses attempted to apply this model.
In further research, Hans J. Eysenck refined his methodology to include more questions on economic issues. Doing this, he revealed a split in the left–right axis between social policy and economic policy, with a previously undiscovered dimension of socialism-capitalism (S-factor).
While factorially distinct from Eysenck's previous R factor, the S-factor did positively correlate with the R-factor, indicating that a basic left–right or right–left tendency underlies both social values and economic values, although S tapped more into items discussing economic inequality and big business, while R relates more to the treatment of criminals and to sexual issues and military issues.
Most research and political theory since this time has replicated the factors shown above.
Another replication came from Ronald Inglehart's research into national opinions based on the World Values Survey, although Inglehart's research described the values of countries rather than individuals or groups of individuals within nations. Inglehart's two-factor solution took the form of Ferguson's original religionism and humanitarianism dimensions; Inglehart labelled them "secularism–traditionalism", which covered issues of tradition and religion, like patriotism, abortion, euthanasia and the importance of obeying the law and authority figures, and "survivalism – self expression", which measured issues like everyday conduct and dress, acceptance of diversity (including foreigners) and innovation and attitudes towards people with specific controversial lifestyles such as homosexuality and vegetarianism, as well as willingness to engage in political activism. See for Inglehart's national chart.
In a 2003 "Psychological Bulletin" paper, Jeff Greenberg and Eva Jonas posit a model comprising the standard left–right axis and an axis representing ideological rigidity. For Greenberg and Jonas, ideological rigidity has "much in common with the related concepts of dogmatism and authoritarianism" and is characterized by "believing in strong leaders and submission, preferring one’s own in-group, ethnocentrism and nationalism, aggression against dissidents, and control with the help of police and military". Greenberg and Jonas posit that high ideological rigidity can be motivated by "particularly strong needs to reduce fear and uncertainty" and is a primary shared characteristic of "people who subscribe to any extreme government or ideology, whether it is right-wing or left-wing".
In its 4 January 2003 issue, "The Economist" discussed a chart, proposed by Ronald Inglehart and supported by the World Values Survey (associated with the University of Michigan), to plot cultural ideology onto two dimensions. On the y-axis it covered issues of tradition and religion, like patriotism, abortion, euthanasia and the importance of obeying the law and authority figures. At the bottom of the chart is the traditionalist position on issues like these (with loyalty to country and family and respect for life considered important), while at the top is the secular position. The x-axis deals with self-expression, issues like everyday conduct and dress, acceptance of diversity (including foreigners) and innovation, and attitudes towards people with specific controversial lifestyles such as vegetarianism, as well as willingness to engage in political activism. At the right of the chart is the open self-expressionist position, while at the left is its opposite position, which Inglehart calls survivalist. This chart not only has the power to map the values of individuals, but also to compare the values of people in different countries. Placed on this chart, European Union countries in continental Europe come out on the top right, Anglophone countries on the middle right, Latin American countries on the bottom right, African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries on the bottom left and ex-Communist countries on the top left.
This very distinct two-axis model was created by Jerry Pournelle in 1963 for his doctoral dissertation in political science. The Pournelle chart has liberty on one axis, with those on the left seeking freedom from control or protections for social deviance and those on the right emphasizing state authority or protections for norm enforcement (farthest right being state worship, farthest left being the idea of a state as the "ultimate evil"). The other axis is rationalism, defined here as the belief in planned social progress, with those higher up believing that there are problems with society that can be rationally solved and those lower down skeptical of such approaches.
In 2006, Brian Patrick Mitchell identified four main political traditions in Anglo-American history based on their regard for "kratos" (defined as the use of force) and "archē" or "archy" (defined as the recognition of rank). Mitchell grounded the distinction of archy and kratos in the West's historical experience of church and state, crediting the collapse of the Christian consensus on church and state with the appearance of four main divergent traditions in Western political thought:
Mitchell charts these traditions graphically using a vertical axis as a scale of kratos/akrateia and a horizontal axis as a scale of archy/anarchy. He places democratic progressivism in the lower left, plutocratic nationalism in the lower right, republican constitutionalism in the upper right, and libertarian individualism in the upper left. The political left is therefore distinguished by its rejection of archy, while the political right is distinguished by its acceptance of archy. For Mitchell, anarchy is not the absence of government but the rejection of rank. Thus there can be both anti-government anarchists (Mitchell's "libertarian individualists") and pro-government anarchists (Mitchell's "democratic progressives", who favor the use of government force against social hierarchies such as patriarchy). Mitchell also distinguishes between left-wing anarchists and right-wing anarchists, whom Mitchell renames "akratists" for their opposition to the government's use of force.
From the four main political traditions, Mitchell identifies eight distinct political perspectives diverging from a populist center. Four of these perspectives (Progressive, Individualist, Paleoconservative, and Neoconservative) fit squarely within the four traditions; four others (Paleolibertarian, Theoconservative, Communitarian, and Radical) fit between the traditions, being defined by their singular focus on rank or force.
The Nolan Chart was created by libertarian David Nolan. This chart shows what he considers as "economic freedom" (issues like taxation, free trade and free enterprise) on the horizontal axis and what he considers as "personal freedom" (issues like drug legalization, abortion and the draft) on the vertical axis. This puts left-wingers in the left quadrant, libertarians in the top, right-wingers in the right and what Nolan originally named populists in the bottom.
The spatial model of voting plots voters and candidates in a multi-dimensional space where each dimension represents a single political issue sub-component of an issue, or candidate attribute. Voters are then modeled as having an "ideal point" in this space and voting for the nearest candidates to that point. The dimensions of this model can also be assigned to non-political properties of the candidates, such as perceived corruption, health, etc.
Most of the other spectra in this article can then be considered projections of this multi-dimensional space onto a smaller number of dimensions. For example, a study of German voters found that at least four dimensions were required to adequately represent all political parties.
In 1998, political author Virginia Postrel, in her book "The Future and Its Enemies", offered another single-axis spectrum that measures views of the future, contrasting stasists, who allegedly fear the future and wish to control it, and dynamists, who want the future to unfold naturally and without attempts to plan and control. The distinction corresponds to the utopian versus dystopian spectrum used in some theoretical assessments of liberalism and the book's title is borrowed from the work of the anti-utopian classic-liberal theorist Karl Popper. It could also be seen as simply another name for conservatism versus progressivism.
Other proposed axes include:
As shown by Russian political scientist Stepan S. Sulakshin, political spectra can be used as a forecasting tool. Sulakshin offered mathematical evidence that stable development (positive dynamics of the vast number of statistic indices) depends on the width of the political spectrum: if it is too narrow or too wide, stagnation or political disasters will result. Sulakshin also showed that in the short run the political spectrum determines the statistic indices dynamic and not vice versa.
A number of studies have found that biology can be linked with political orientation. This means that biology is a possible factor in political orientation but may also mean that the ideology a person identifies with changes a person's ability to perform certain tasks. Many of the studies linking biology to politics remain controversial and unreplicated, although the overall body of evidence is growing.
Studies have found that subjects with conservative political views have larger amygdalae and are more prone to feeling disgust. Liberals have larger volume of grey matter in the anterior cingulate cortex and are better at detecting errors in recurring patterns. Conservatives have a stronger sympathetic nervous system response to threatening images and are more likely to interpret ambiguous facial expressions as threatening. In general, conservatives are more likely to report larger social networks, more happiness and better self-esteem than liberals. Liberals are more likely to report greater emotional distress, relationship dissatisfaction and experiential hardship and are more open to experience and tolerate uncertainty and disorder better.
Genetic factors account for at least some of the variation of political views. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, conflicts regarding redistribution of wealth may have been common in the ancestral environment and humans may have developed psychological mechanisms for judging their own chances of succeeding in such conflicts. These mechanisms affect political views. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23490 |
Pregnancy (mammals)
In mammals, pregnancy is the period of reproduction during which a female carries one or more live offspring from implantation in the uterus through gestation. It begins when a fertilized zygote implants in the female's uterus, and ends once it leaves the uterus.
During copulation, the male inseminates the female. The spermatozoon fertilizes an ovum or various ova in the uterus or fallopian tubes, and this results in one or multiple zygotes. Sometimes, a zygote can be created by humans outside of the animal's body in the artificial process of in-vitro fertilization. After fertilization, the newly formed zygote then begins to divide through mitosis, forming an embryo, which implants in the female's endometrium. At this time, the embryo usually consists of 50 cells.
A blastocoele is a small cavity on the center of the embryo, and the developing embryonary cells will grow around it. Then, a flat layer cell forms on the exterior of this cavity, and the zona pellucida, the blastocyst's barrier, remains the same size as before. Cells grow increasingly smaller to fit in. This new structure with a cavity in the center and the developing cells around it is known as a blastocyst.
The presence of the blastocyst means that two types of cells are forming, an inner-cell mass growing on the interior of the blastocele and cells growing on the exterior of it. In 24 to 48 hours, the zona pellucida breaches. The cells on the exterior of the blastocyst begin excreting an enzyme which erodes epithelial uterine lining and creates a site for implantation.
The cells surrounding the blastocyst now destroy cells in the uterine lining, forming small pools of blood, which in turn stimulate the production of capillaries. This is the first stage in the growth of the placenta. The inner cell mass of the blastocyst divides rapidly, forming two layers. The top layer becomes the embryo, and cells from there occupy the amniotic cavity. At the same time, the bottom layer forms a small sac (if the cells begin developing in an abnormal position, an ectopic gestation may also occur at this point).
Several days later, chorionic villi in the forming placenta anchor the implantation site to the uterus. A system of blood and blood vessels now develops at the point of the newly forming placenta, growing near the implantation site. The small sac inside the blastocyst begins producing red blood cells. For the next 24 hours, connective tissue develops between the developing placenta and the growing embryo. This later develops into the umbilical cord.
Following this, a narrow line of cells appears on the surface on the embryo. Its growth makes the embryo undergo gastrulation, in which the three primary tissue layers of the fetus, the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm, develop. The narrow line of cells begin to form the endoderm and mesoderm. The ectoderm begins to grow rapidly as a result of chemicals being produced by the mesoderm. These three layers give rise to all the various types of tissue in the body.
The endoderm later forms the lining of the tongue, digestive tract, lungs, bladder and several glands. The mesoderm forms muscle, bone, and lymph tissue, as well as the interior of the lungs, heart, and reproductive and excretory systems. It also gives rise to the spleen, and produces blood cells. The ectoderm forms the skin, nails, hair, cornea, lining of the internal and external ear, nose, sinuses, mouth, anus, teeth, pituitary gland, mammary glands, eyes, and all parts of the nervous system.
Approximately 18 days after fertilization, the embryo has divided to form much of the tissue it will need. It is shaped like a pear, where the head region is larger than the tail. The embryo's nervous system is one of the first organic systems to grow. It begins growing in a concave area known as the neural groove.
The blood system continues to grow networks which allow the blood to flow around the embryo. Blood cells are already being produced and are flowing through these developing networks. Secondary blood vessels also begin to develop around the placenta, to supply it with more nutrients. Blood cells begin to form on the sac in the center of the embryo, as well as cells which begin to differentiate into blood vessels. Endocardial cells begin to form the myocardium.
At about 24 days past fertilization, there is a primitive S-shaped tubule heart which begins beating. The flow of fluids throughout the embryo begins at this stage.
For mammals the gestation period is the time in which a fetus develops, beginning with fertilization and ending at birth. The duration of this period varies between species.
For most species, the amount a fetus grows before birth determines the length of the gestation period. Smaller species normally have a shorter gestation period than larger animals. For example, a cat's gestation normally takes 58–65 days while an elephant's takes nearly 2 years (21 months). However, growth does not necessarily determine the length of gestation for all species, especially for those with a breeding season. Species that use a breeding season usually give birth during a specific time of year when food is available.
Various other factors can come into play in determining the duration of gestation. For humans, male fetuses normally gestate several days longer than females and multiple pregnancies gestate for a shorter period. Ethnicity in humans is also a factor that may lengthen or shorten gestation. In dogs there is a positive correlation between a longer gestation time and fewer members of the litter. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23496 |
Rooster
A rooster, also known as a cockerel or cock, is a male gallinaceous bird, with cockerel being younger and rooster being an adult male chicken ("Gallus gallus domesticus").
The term "rooster" originated in the United States as a puritan euphemism to avoid the sexual connotation of the original English "cock", and is widely used throughout North America. "Roosting" is the action of perching aloft to sleep at night, which is done by both sexes.
Sperm transfer occurs by cloacal contact between the male and female, in a maneuver known as the “cloacal kiss”. The rooster is polygamous, but cannot guard several nests of eggs at once. He guards the general area where his hens are nesting, and attacks other roosters that enter his territory. During the daytime, a rooster often sits on a high perch, usually off the ground, to serve as a lookout for his group (hence the term "rooster"). He sounds a distinctive alarm call if predators are nearby and will frequently crow to assert his territory.
Roosters almost always start crowing before four months of age. Although it is possible for a hen to crow as well, crowing (together with hackles development) is one of the clearest signs of being a rooster.
The rooster is often portrayed as crowing at the break of dawn ("cock-a-doodle-doo"). However, while many roosters crow shortly after waking up, this idea is not exactly true. A rooster can and will crow at any time of the day. Some roosters are especially vociferous, crowing almost constantly, while others only crow a few times a day. These differences are dependent both upon the rooster's breed and individual personality. A rooster can often be seen sitting on fence posts or other objects, where he crows to proclaim his territory.
Roosters have several other calls as well, and can cluck, similar to the hen. Roosters occasionally make a patterned series of clucks to attract hens to a source of food, the same way a mother hen does for her chicks.
Rooster crowing contests are a traditional sport in several countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States, Indonesia and Japan. The oldest contests are held with longcrowers. Depending on the breed, either the duration of the crowing or the times the rooster crows within a certain time is measured.
A capon is a castrated rooster. In the caponization procedure, the bird's testes are completely removed; a surgical procedure is required for this as the rooster's sexual organs are internal. As a result of this procedure, certain male physical characteristics will experience stunted development:
Caponization also affects the disposition of the bird. Removal of the bird's testes eliminates the male sex hormones, lessening the male sex instincts and changing their behaviour: the birds become more docile, less active, and tend not to fight.
This procedure produces a unique type of poultry meat which is favoured by a specialized market. The meat of normal uncastrated roosters has a tendency to become coarse, stringy and tough as the birds age. This process does not occur in the capon. As caponized roosters grow more slowly than intact males, they accumulate more body fat. The concentration of fat in both the light and dark areas of the capon meat is greater than in that of the uncastrated males. Overall, it is often thought that capon meat is more tender, juicy, and flavorful than regular chicken.
A cockfight is a contest held in a ring called a cockpit between two gamecocks or cocks, with the first use of the word gamecock (denoting use of the cock in game, sport, pastime or entertainment) appearing in 1646. after the term "cock of the game" used by George Wilson, in the earliest known book on the secular sport of cockfighting in "The Commendation of Cocks and Cock Fighting" in 1607. Gamecocks are not typical farm chickens. The cocks are specially bred and trained for increased stamina and strength. The comb and wattle are removed from a young gamecock because, if left intact, they would be a disadvantage during a match. This process is called dubbing. Sometimes the cocks are given drugs to increase their stamina or thicken their blood, which increases their chances of winning. Cockfighting is considered a traditional sporting event by some, and an example of animal cruelty by others and is therefore outlawed in most countries. Usually wagers are made on the outcome of the match, with the surviving or last-bird-standing being declared the winner.
There are religious significance and aspects of the rooster and the cockfight which are exampled by the religious belief of Tabuh Rah, a religious and spiritual cockfight where a rooster is used in religious custom by allowing him to fight against another rooster in the Balinese Hinduism spiritual appeasement exercise of Tabuh Rah, a form of animal sacrifice, where ritual fights usually take place outside the temple and follow an ancient and complex ritual as set out in the sacred lontar manuscripts. Similarly within the religious schema of Christianity and the cockfight within a religious, spiritual and sacred context, there are numerous representations of the rooster or the cock and the cockfight as a religious vessel found in the Catacombs from the earliest period as well as similar illustrations of cocks in fighting stance taken from the Vivian Bible.
The cockerel "waltz", when the cockerel struts in a half circle with one wing extended down, is an aggressive approach signifying to females his dominance, and usually, the female will submit by running or moving away from the cockerel in acknowledgement. On rare occasions, the hen will attempt to fight the cockerel for dominance. Once dominance is established, the cockerel will rarely waltz again. When other cockerels are in the hen yard, this waltz is used significantly more and most cockerels will waltz together if dominance has not been established; either one will back off, or the two cockerels will fight. Note also that the cockerel will waltz again if he is taken out of the pen for a period, usually 24 hours, and put back.
Some more aggressive cockerels will drop and extend both wings and puff out all their body feathers to give the hens or other cocks the impression of a larger size, and charge through the hen yard.
Since antiquity, the rooster has been, and still is, a sacred animal in some cultures and deeply embedded within various religious belief systems and religious worship. The term "Persian bird" for the cock would appear to have been given by the Greeks after Persian contact "because of his great importance and his religious use among the Persians", but even long before that time, in Iran, during the Kianian Period, from about 2000 BC to about 700 BC, "the cock was the most sacred".
In Southeast Asia, understandings and interpretations of indigenous beliefs of the veneration of spirits and deities remain strong and for many who are practicing Christians there is still the veneration of the traditional spirits (anito) as in northern Philippines. Animist beliefs extend to the rooster and the cockfight, "a popular form of fertility worship among almost all Southeast Asians" further considered by some within the Judeo-Christian ethic as a form of Baal or Baalim. Aluk or Aluk To Dolo a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma as a part of religion in Indonesia, within the Toraja society and the people of Tana Toraja, embrace religious rituals such as the funeral ceremony where a sacred cockfight is an integral part of the religious ceremony and considered sacred within that spiritual realm.
In several myths the cock has the power to revive the dead or to make a wish come true and is well known in Torajan cosmology. Kaharingan, an animist folk religion of the Iban branch of the Dayak people, accepted as a form of Hinduism by the Indonesian government, includes the belief of a supreme deity as well as the rooster and cockfight in relation to that of the spiritual and religious and some with the belief that humans become the fighting cocks of god, with the Iban further believing the rooster and cockfight was introduced to them by god. Gawai Dayak a festival of the Dayaks includes the cockfight and the waving of a rooster over offerings while asking for guidance and blessings with the rooster being sacrificed and the blood included in spiritual offering, while the "Tiwah" festival involves the sacrifice of many animals including the chicken as offerings to the Supreme God. Ikenga, an alusi of the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria requires consecration before religious use with offerings which include the sacrificial blood of a rooster or ram for the spirit.
Miao (i.e. Hmong) are animists, shamanists and ancestor worshipers with beliefs being affected in varying degrees by Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity. At the Miao New Year there may be the sacrifice of domestic animals and there may be cockfights. The Hmong of Southeast Guizhou will cover the rooster with a piece of red cloth and then hold it up to worship and sacrifice to the Heaven and the Earth. In Shamanism in the Hmong culture, a shaman may use a rooster in religious ceremony as it is said that the rooster shields the shaman from "evil" spirits by making him invisible as the evil spirits only see the rooster's spirit. In a 2010 trial of a Sheboygan Wisconsin Hmong who was charged with staging a cockfight, it was stated that the roosters were "kept for both food and religious purposes", resulting in an acquittal. In Viet Nam fighting roosters or fighting cocks are colloquially called "sacred chickens".
Santería which originated in Cuba from native Caribbean culture, Catholicism, and the Yoruba religion of West Africa "ritually sacrifices chickens". Khasi people believe the rooster is sacrificed as a substitute for man, it being thought that the cock when sacrificed "bears the sins of the man" (See also similarity of Kapport in Judaism) Yoruba oral history tells of God lowering Oduduwa down from the sky, the ancestor of all people, bringing with him a rooster, some dirt, and a palm seed. The dirt was thrown into the water and the cock scratched it to form land, and the seed grew into a tree with sixteen limbs, the original sixteen kingdoms. "The sacrifice of a cock and a ritual cockfight was part of the Imbolc festivities in honour of the pan-Celtic goddess Brighid". In the 20th century, Imbolc was resurrected as a religious festival in Neopaganism, specifically in Wicca, Neo-druidry and Celtic Reconstructionism.
It is understood that the constellations of the zodiac within the belief system of astrology, "the religion of the stars", originated in the ancient land of Babylonia (including modern day Iraq). The lore of the True Shepherd of Anu (SIPA.ZI.AN.NA – Orion and his accompanying animal symbol, the Rooster, with both representing the herald of the gods, being their divinely ordained role to communicate messages of the gods. "The Heavenly Shepherd" or "True Shepherd of Anu" – Anu being the chief god of the heavenly realms. On the star map the figure of the Rooster was shown below and behind the figure of the True Shepherd, both representing the herald of the gods, in his bird and human forms respectively. Nergal, an idol of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Persians, whose name means, "a dunghill cock". (Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Brewer, 1900) Astrological mythology of the Assyrians and Babylonians was that the idol "Nergal represents the planet Mars, which was ever the emblem of bloodshed". The Rooster is the tenth of the twelve animal symbols in the Chinese zodiac. It is suggested that the Pleiades are called the hens of Frigg or of Freya by Norse peoples. That the three stars of Orion's belt was called the Distaff of Frigg seems undoubtable -. See also Kukkuta Sastra in Divination.
In Norse mythology, the crowing of three particular roosters occur at the beginning of the foretold events of Ragnarök. In the "Poetic Edda" poem "Völuspá", references to Ragnarök begin from stanza 40 until 58, with the rest of the poem describing the aftermath. In the poem, a "völva"—a Nore seeress—recites information to the wisdom-seeking god Odin. In stanza 41, the völva says:
The völva then describes three roosters crowing: In stanza 42, the jötunn herdsman Eggthér sits on a mound and cheerfully plays his harp while the crimson rooster Fjalar (Old Norse "hider, deceiver") crows in the forest Gálgviðr. The golden rooster Gullinkambi crows to the Æsir in Valhalla, and the third, unnamed soot-red rooster crows in the halls of the underworld location of Hel in stanza 43. The poem "Fjölsvinnsmál" also mentions a rooster by the name of Víðópnir. According to the poem, the rooster sits atop the tree Mímameiðr, likely another name for the central cosmological tree Yggdrasil.
Bayon Temple is an ancient Buddhist temple that also incorporates elements of Hindu cosmology includes "a depiction of a cockfight" within the walls of the temple. which continues today within a debate of "religious sanctity" With the rambling strutting roosters of the Buddhist temple of Wat Suwankhiri on a Payathonsu cliff nearby, during April, Three Pagodas Pass becomes a site of the Songkran Festival with cockfights. Sacred Buddhist amulets are made within that religious schema, created and blessed in various temples in Thailand, many depicting Buddha with cocks in fighting stance, sacred within that religion. The bird that symbolises greed in is sometimes said to be a cock.
Divination, a part of many religions is derived from the Latin "divinare" "to foresee, to be inspired by a god" and as a part of divination comes alectryomancy, which means rooster and divination respectively, with the intent of communication between the gods and man in which the diviner observes a cock, pecking at grain, with Judaism forbidding acts of divination in the Hebrew Bible . Alectormancy though is also sacrificing a sacred rooster, with the use of the sacred rooster through alectryomancy further understood within that religious character and likewise defined as the rooster fight or cockfight or cockfighting with the intent of communication between the gods and man. Kukkuta Sastra (Cock Astrology) is a form of divination based on the rooster fight and commonly believed in coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is prevalent in the state, especially in the districts of Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari and West Godavari and the Sankranti festival.
Hindu war god Karthikeya is depicted with a rooster on his flag. A demon Surapadman was split into two and the halves turned into the peacock (his mount) and the rooster in his flag. Balinese Hinduism includes the religious belief of Tabuh Rah, a religious cockfight where a rooster is used to fight against another rooster. The altar and deity Ida Ratu Saung may be seen with a fighting cock in his hand with the spilling of blood being necessary as purification to appease the evil spirits. Ritual fights usually take place outside the temple proper and follow an ancient and complex ritual as set out in the sacred lontar manuscripts. Likewise a popular Hindu ritual form of worship of North Malabar in Kerala, India is the blood offering to the Theyyam gods. Despite being forbidden in the Vedic philosophy of sattvic Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, Theyyam deities are propitiated through the rooster sacrifice where the religious cockfight is a religious exercise of offering blood to the Theyyam gods. Pongal or Makar Sankranti is a Hindu harvest festival. In southern state of Tamil Nadu and western state of Gujarat, an event of the celebrations is rooster fighting also known as Seval Sandai or Kozhi kettu. It is also practiced in Tulunadu. Kozhi kettu organized as part of religious events are permitted.
The Samaritans or 'Cutheans' are an ethnic group with a long history, once widely distributed and powerful. From Assyria they extended to India, China, Arabia Petraea and Abyssinia. They were also introduced by the Assyrian Empire into Samaria, in a policy of mass deportations. They had their Samaritan Temple on Mount Gerizim, opposite the Temple in Jerusalem, and they worshipped the Mesopotamian deity Nergal: his emblem was a "cock" (rooster).
The Zohar (iii. 22b, 23a, 49b), the book of Jewish mysticism and collection of writings on the Torah written by first century tannaic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), tells of a celestial manifestation, which causes the crowing of the roosters; known also in the Talmud, is "blessed be He who has given the cock intelligence", (Ber. 60b). and as well as Job 38:36 in the Douay-Rheims Bible. Not only "In the rabbinic literature, the cockcrow is used as general marking of time", but also some of the Sages interpreted the "cockcrow" to mean the voice of the Temple officer who summoned all priests, Levites, and Israelites to their duties and used as such because the Hebrew gever was used also to mean a "rooster" in addition to the meaning of "man, strong man".
The Talmud likewise provides the statement "Had the Torah not been given to us, we would have learned modesty from cats, honest toil from ants, chastity from doves and gallantry from cocks" – (Jonathan ben Nappaha. Talmud: Erubin 100b), which may be further understood as to that of the gallantry of cocks being taken in the context of a religious instilling vessel of "a girt one of the loins" (Young's Literal Translation) that which is "stately in his stride" and "move with stately bearing" within the Book of Proverbs 30:29-31. Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon (Saadia Gaon) identifies the definitive trait of "a cock girded about the loins" within Proverbs 30:31(Douay–Rheims Bible) as "the honesty of their behavior and their success", identifying a spiritual purpose of a religious vessel within that religious and spiritual instilling schema of purpose and use, within Judeo-Christian traditions. The Hebrew term zarzir, which literally means "girt"; "that which is girt in the loins" (BDB 267 s.v.) is recognized in the Targum as well as the Chaldaic, Syriac, Arabic, LXX and Vulgate with all referencing the fighting rooster or fighting cock as the religious vessel.
The ancient Hebrew versions identified the Hebrew "a girt one of the loins" of Proverbs 30:31 as a rooster, "which most of the old translations and Rabbis understood to be a fighting cock", with also the Arabic sarsar or sirsir being an onomatopoeticon or onomatopoeia for rooster (alektor) as the Hebrew zarzir of Proverbs 30:31. "Rooster (Gallus domesticus) bones were identified at Lachish dating to early Iron II", but even earlier not to be ruled out, which corresponds was well with "as for Palestine, the earliest chicken bones are present in Iron Age I strata in Lachish and Tell Hasben". Further we see the rooster placed within the Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David and recognized of Jewish identity and Judaism. In excavations at Gibeon, near Jerusalem, dating to the seventh century B.C., potsherds were found incised with cocks and "some of them placed within the six-pointed star of the Magen David". The seal of Jaazaniah carries the insignia of a rooster from the ruins of the biblical Judean kingdom at Mizpah, with the inscription of "belonging to Jaazaniah, servant to the king"., the first known representation of the chicken in Palestine, and from II Kings 25:23, we know of one Jaazaniah the Maschathit, who was an official under Gedalish at Mizpah.
Plutarch said the inhabitants of Caria carried the emblem of the rooster on the end of their lances and relates that origin to Artaxerxes, who awarded a Carian who was said to have killed Cyrus the Younger at the battle of Cunaxa in 401 B.C "the privilege of carrying ever after a golden cock upon his spear before the first ranks of the army in all expeditions" and the Carians also wore crested helmets at the time of Herodotus, for which reason "the Persians gave the Carians the name of cocks". It is Carites in 2 Kings 11 who were used by Jehoiada to protect Joash son of Ahaziah of the line of David, ancestor to Christ from Athaliah. In the Jewish religious practice of Kapparos, a rooster as a religious vessel is swung around the head and then slaughtered on the afternoon before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The meat is the distributed among the poor for their pre-fast meal. The purpose of the ritual is the expiation of sins of the man as the animal symbolically receives all the man's sins, which is based on the reconciliation of Isaiah 1:18. The religious practice is mentioned for the first time by Natronai ben Hilai, Gaon of the Academy of Sura in Babylonia, in 853 C.E., who describes it as a custom of the Babylonian Jews and further explained by Jewish scholars in the ninth century by that since the Hebrew word geber (Gever) means both "man" and "rooster" the rooster may act or serve as a palpable substitute as a religious vessel in place of the man with the practice also having been as a custom of the Persian Jews.
In East Timor, one of the two predominately Christian nations in southeast Asia (the Philippines being the other), for some, the roof of the house is reserved for gods and spirits of ancestors, the lower portion remains for the nature spirit and usually occupied by animals, and the cock is admired because of courage and perseverance, with the courage of a man compared with that of the cock, with the cockfight occurring regularly and "many tais designs include the cock". Reverend Dr. Kosuke Koyama's thoughts and words spreading the Christian gospel while in Indonesia of, this morning I say to myself, "I will try to bring the gospel of Christ through the medium of cockfighting!" may be further understood not only in the spiritual understandings of many in Indonesia but further in the light of numerous representations of the rooster or cock as a religious vessel found in the Catacombs from the earliest period including a painting from the Catacomb of St. Priscilla (mentioned in all the ancient liturgical sources and known as the "Queen of the Catacombs" in antiquity) reproduced in Giovanni Gaetano Bottari's folio of 1754, where the Good Shepherd is depicted as feeding the lambs, with a crowing cock on His right and left hand.
Likewise as well within the Christian "Tomb of the Cocks" in Beit Jibrin, which was a Palestinian Arab village located 13 miles northwest of the city of Hebron and part of the Kingdom of Israel, "we find two spirited cocks painted in red in the spandrels with a cross just over the center of the arch". Similarly a multitude of sarcophagi are found with the rooster and the sacred cockfight with the understanding of striving for resurrection and eternal life in Christianity. This sacred subject carved on early Christian tombs, where the sepulchral carvings have an important purpose, "a faithful wish for immortality, with the victory of the cock and his supporting genius analogous to the hope of resurrection, the victory of the soul over death".
Similar illustrations of cocks in fighting stance are found within the Vivian Bible as well as the fighting cocks capitals in the Basilica of St. Andoche in Saulieu and the Cathédrale Saint-Lazare d'Autun provides "alternate documentation" of the rooster and the religious, spiritual and sacred cockfight. All four canonical gospels state that, either during or after the Last Supper, Jesus foretold of Peter's denial (Saint Peter) and that he would deny Christ three times before the cock's crow. Augustine of Hippo, Catholic saint and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church understood "a visible sign of an invisible reality" of the rooster to include that as described by St. Augustine in DeOrdine as that which "in every motion of these animals unendowed with reason there was nothing ungraceful since, of course, another higher reason was guiding everything they did". In the sixth century, it is reputed that Pope Gregory I declared the cock the emblem of Christianity saying the rooster was "the most suitable emblem of Christianity", being "the emblem of St Peter". Some say that it was as a result of this that the cock began to be used as a weather vane on church steeples, and some a Papal enactment of the ninth century ordered the figure of the cock to be placed on every church steeple.
It is known that Pope Leo IV had the figure of the cock placed on the Old St. Peter's Basilica or old Constantinian basilica and has served as a religious icon and reminder of Peter's denial of Christ since that time, with some churches still having the rooster on the steeple today. Alternative theories about the origin of weathercocks on church steeples are that it was an emblem of the vigilance of the clergy calling the people to prayer, that it was derived from the Goths and is only possibly a Christian symbol, and that it is an emblem of the sun. The Vatican Persian cock denoting a sacred and religious vessel acknowledged by and from the Vatican, "a girt one of the loins" of Proverbs 30:31, the Hebrew zarzir, Arabic sarsar, Greek alektor, French coq, Persian bird, Persian cock or the acknowledged rooster from the Hebrew Torah, the Christian Old Testament, the Holy Scriptures of Job, Isaiah and of the Apostles John, Luke, Matthew and Mark.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ may still further be viewed through "A Dictionary of the Bible" which tells us that "Pindar (ca. 522–443 BC), mentions the cock, Homer (ca. 800–750 BC) names a man "gever" the word for a cock and Aristophanes (ca. 446 BC – ca. 386 BC) calls it a Persian bird." In the Bayeux Tapestry of the 1070s, originally of the Bayeux Cathedral and now exhibited at "Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux" in Bayeux, Normandy, there is a depiction of a man installing a rooster on Westminster Abbey. The cornerstone is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation and over time it became a ceremonial stone with the laying of the stone being generally important metaphorically in sacred architecture. Frazer (2006: p. 106) in "The Golden Bough" tells us that, "In modern Greece, when the foundation of a new building is being laid, it is the custom to kill a cock, a ram, or a lamb, and to let its blood flow on the foundation-stone".
The understanding of the divine spiritual endowment of the rooster within Islam, may be evidenced in the words of Muhammad of that Abrahamic religion in one of the six canonical hadith collections of Sunni Islam, stating that of "when you hear the crowing of cocks, ask for Allah's Blessings for they have seen an angel".
Many roosters are found around Shinto shrines, with the rooster being associated with the sun goddess Amaterasu.
In Taoism, Hanshi and the spring Hanshi festival were when fires were not used and then relit. Since fire, like the cock a yang symbol and symbol of the sun, was temporarily extinguished and then relit. In a Tao religious aspect, to have a rooster fight another rooster, was the same in substance as a fire-renewal custom, where the rooster and the cockfight then takes its place as an indispensable spring ritual, and "Taoism, which assessed it positively in this form, can be thought to have guaranteed its continued existence". The Hanshi festival was eventually moved to coincide with the Qingming Festival or the Pure Brightness Festival which still includes the rooster and cockfight.
Zoroastrianism, claimed to be "the oldest of the revealed world-religions" and founded by the Prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) opposed animal sacrifices but held the rooster as a "symbol of light" and associated the cock with "good against evil" because of his heraldic actions. In Iran during the Kianian Period, from about 2000 B.C. to about 700 B.C., among domestic birds, "the cock was the most sacred" and within that religion, the devout, "had a cock to guard him and ward off evil spirits".
The cockerel was already of symbolic importance in Gaul at the time of the invasion of Julius Caesar and was associated with the god Lugus. Today the Gallic rooster is an emblem of France. The rooster is also an emblem of Wallonia and the Turkish city of Denizli. Among Roman deities, Priapus was sometimes represented as a cock, with its beak as a phallus and its wattles as testicles. The cock or a man with rooster attributes was similarly used as an erotic symbol, "Priapus Gallinaceus" The Cockburn clan in Scotland use the cock as their badge. Their canting coat-of-arms is "Argent three cocks gules", and their motto is ACCENDIT CANTU (Latin: He rouses us with song). A fighting cockerel on a ball is the symbol of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. The cockerel wears a pair of spurs which is a reference to the club's nickname. It has been present on their crest and shield since 1901.
Additionally, the cockerel is the emblem of Turkish sports club Denizlispor, which was founded in 1966. Also, the supporters of the club are called cockerels. Another soccer club that uses a rooster as its symbol is the Clube Atlético Mineiro, from Brazil. The supporters of the club and the supporters of other Brazilian clubs, often refer to Mineiro as "Galo", which means rooster in Portuguese. The "Crazy Rooster", a symbol of Clube Atlético Mineiro. In Australia, the Sydney Roosters, who play in the National Rugby League have adopted the cockerel as its emblem. The Roosters' emblem is a cock with its comb fashioned to represent the Sydney Opera House. Jesus College in the University of Cambridge features roosters on its coat of arms, which is a pun on the name of the college's founder, John Alcock. The University of South Carolina features a Gamecock, or fighting cockerel, as its mascot for all athletic programs. The Coat of arms of Kenya features a rooster holding an axe. The emblem of Chianti Classico is a black rooster. A black cockerel was believed in medieval times to be a symbol of witchcraft along with the black cat, with the rooster "used as symbols of either virtue or vice" until modern times. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26574 |
Robert Moog
Robert Arthur Moog ( ; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and pioneer of electronic music. He was the founder of Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, debuted in 1964. This was followed in 1970 by a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history.
Moog created fundamental synthesizer concepts such as the pitch wheel, modularity, envelope generation, and voltage control. He is credited for helping bring synthesizers to a wider audience and influencing the development of popular music. His only patent was on his filter design; commentators have speculated that he would have become extremely wealthy had he patented his other innovations, but that their availablity in the public domain helped the synthesizer industry flourish.
In 1971, Moog sold Moog Music to Norlin Musical Instruments, where he remained as a designer until 1977. In 1978, he founded the company Big Briar, and in 2002 renamed it Moog Music after buying back the rights to the name. In later years, Moog taught at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and worked on designs for further instruments.
Robert Moog was born in New York City on May 23, 1934, and grew up in Flushing, Queens. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1952.
As a boy, Moog's parents forced him to study the piano, but he preferred his time in the workroom of his father, a Consolidated Edison engineer. He became fascinated by the theremin, an electronic instrument controlled by moving the hands over radio antennae. In 1949, aged 14, he built a theremin from plans printed in "Electronics World".
Moog completed a bachelor's degree in physics from Queens College and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University before earning a Ph.D. in engineering physics from Cornell University in 1965.
In 1953, Moog produced his own theremin design, and the following year he published an article on the theremin in "Radio and Television News." In the same year, he founded RA Moog, selling theremins and theremin kits by mail order from his home. One of his customers, Raymond Scott, rewired Moog's theremin for control by keyboard, creating the Clavivox.
At Cornell, Moog began work on his first synthesizer modules with composer Herb Deutsch. At the time, synthesizers were enormous, room-filling instruments; Moog hoped to build a more compact synthesizer that would appeal to musicians. He believed that practicality and affordability were the most important parameters.
In 1964, Moog began creating the Moog synthesizer. The synthesizer was composed of separate modules which created and shaped sounds, connected by patch cords. One innovative feature was its envelope, which controlled how notes swell and fade. Moog debuted the instrument at the 1964 Audio Engineering Society convention in New York. It was much smaller than other synthesizers, such as the RCA Synthesizer introduced a decade earlier, and much cheaper, at $10,000USD compared to the six-figure sums of other synthesizers. Whereas the RCA Synthesizer was programmed with punchcards, Moog's synthesizer could be played via keyboard, making it attractive to musicians. "New Scientist" described it as the first commercial synthesizer.
Moog's development was driven by requests and suggestions from musicians including Richard Teitelbaum, Herb Deutsch, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and Wendy Carlos. His other early customers included choreographer Alwin Nikolais and composer John Cage. Moog described himself as a toolmaker, designing things for his users, not himself. Universities established electronic music laboratories with Moog synthesizers. The synthesizer was followed in 1970 by a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history.
Though commentators have praised Moog's engineering abilities, they described him as a poor businessman. He only patented his filter design; David Borden, one of the first users of the Minimoog, felt that if Moog had patented his pitch wheel design he would have become extremely wealthy. According to "Sound on Sound", if Moog had created a monopoly on other synthesizer ideas he created, such as modularity, envelope generation, and voltage control, "it's likely the synth industry as we know it today would never have happened".
In 1971, following a recession, Moog Music took on investors, merged with another company, and moved to "less than ideal" premises in Buffalo. Moog sold the company to Norlin Musical Instruments, where he remained employed as a designer until 1977. He said he would have left earlier if his contract had not required him to remain employed there for four years to cash his stock. By the end of the decade, Moog Music was facing competition from cheaper, easier-to-use instruments by competitors including Arp, Aries, Roland and E-mu.
In 1978, Moog moved to North Carolina and founded a new electronic instrument company, Big Briar. He also worked as a consultant and vice president for new product research at Kurzweil Music Systems from 1984 to 1988. In the early 1990s, he was a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. In 2002, he renamed Big Briar to Moog Music after buying back the rights to the name. In later years, he designed electronic instruments including a piano operated by touchscreen.
Moog was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor on April 28, 2005. He died on August 21, 2005 at the age of 71 in Asheville, North Carolina.
Moog's first marriage, to Shirleigh Moog, ended in divorce in 1994. He was survived by his second wife, Ileana, four children, one stepdaughter, and five grandchildren.
Moog has had a lasting influence on music. The BBC describes him as a pioneer of synthesized sound. According to the "Guardian", his inventions "changed the complexion of the pop and classical music worlds". Moog's name became so associated with electronic music that it was sometimes used as a generic term for any synthesizer. In 2004, Moog was the subject of "Moog", a documentary by Hans Fjellestad, who said in 2004 that Moog "embodies the archetypal American maverick inventor".
Moog's awards include honorary doctorates from Polytechnic Institute of New York University (New York City), Lycoming College (Williamsport, Pennsylvania), and Berklee College of Music. Moog received a Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 1970. He received the Polar Music Prize in 2001 and a Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award in 2002. In 2013, Moog was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 2012, to celebrate Moog's birthday, Google created an interactive version of the Minimoog as its Google Doodle.
On July 18, 2013, Moog's widow Ileana Grams-Moog said she planned to give her husband's archives, maintained by the Bob Moog Foundation, to Cornell University. The foundation offered her $100,000, but Grams-Moog said she would not sell them. She said Cornell could provide better access for researchers, and that the foundation had not made enough progress toward a planned museum to be worthy of keeping the collection. The foundation responded that it had sufficiently preserved the collection and made efforts to improve storage, though it could not yet afford to build the museum.
In August 2019, the Bob Moog Foundation opened the Moogseum, a museum dedicated to Moog's work, in Asheville, North Carolina. The displays include rare theremins, prototype synthesizer modules, and Moog's documents. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26581 |
Robert the Bruce
Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Medieval Gaelic: '; modern Scottish Gaelic: '; Norman French: ' or '; Early Scots: "Robert Brus"; ), was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. Robert was one of the most famous warriors of his generation, and eventually led Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against England. He fought successfully during his reign to regain Scotland's place as an independent country and is today revered in Scotland as a national hero.
His paternal fourth great-grandfather was King David I. His maternal line is descended from Aoife MacMurrough of Leinster Robert's grandfather, Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, was one of the claimants to the Scottish throne during the "Great Cause". As Earl of Carrick, Robert the Bruce supported his family's claim to the Scottish throne and took part in William Wallace's revolt against Edward I of England. Appointed in 1298 as a Guardian of Scotland alongside his chief rival for the throne, John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, and William Lamberton, Bishop of St Andrews, Robert later resigned in 1300 due to his quarrels with Comyn and the apparently imminent restoration of John Balliol to the Scottish throne. After submitting to Edward I in 1302 and returning to "the king's peace", Robert inherited his family's claim to the Scottish throne upon his father's death.
In February 1306, Bruce, having wounded Comyn, rushed from the church where they had met and encountered his attendants outside.
He told them what had happened and said, "I must be off, for I doubt I have slain the Red Comyn." "Doubt?", Roger de Kirkpatrick of Closeburn answered. "I mak sikker," ("I'll make sure," or "I make sure"). Kirkpatrick then rushed into the church and killed Comyn. For this, Bruce was then excommunicated by the Pope (although he received absolution from Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow). Bruce moved quickly to seize the throne, and was crowned king of Scots on 25 March 1306. Edward I's forces defeated Robert in the battle of Methven, forcing him to flee into hiding before re-emerging in 1307 to defeat an English army at Loudoun Hill and wage a highly successful guerrilla war against the English. Bruce defeated his other Scots enemies, destroying their strongholds and devastating their lands, and in 1309 held his first parliament. A series of military victories between 1310 and 1314 won him control of much of Scotland, and at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, Robert defeated a much larger English army under Edward II of England, confirming the re-establishment of an independent Scottish kingdom. The battle marked a significant turning point, with Robert's armies now free to launch devastating raids throughout northern England, while also extending his war against the English to Ireland by sending an army to invade there and by appealing to the Irish to rise against Edward II's rule.
Despite Bannockburn and the capture of the final English stronghold at Berwick in 1318, Edward II refused to renounce his claim to the overlordship of Scotland. In 1320, the Scottish nobility submitted the Declaration of Arbroath to Pope John XXII, declaring Robert as their rightful monarch and asserting Scotland's status as an independent kingdom. In 1324, the Pope recognised Robert I as king of an independent Scotland, and in 1326, the Franco-Scottish alliance was renewed in the Treaty of Corbeil. In 1327, the English deposed Edward II in favour of his son, Edward III, and peace was concluded between Scotland and England with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328, by which Edward III renounced all claims to sovereignty over Scotland.
Robert died in June 1329. His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while his heart was interred in Melrose Abbey and his internal organs embalmed and placed in St Serf's Chapel, Dumbarton, site of the medieval Cardross Parish church.
Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale, the first of the Bruce (de Brus) line, arrived in Scotland with David I in 1124 and was given the lands of Annandale in Dumfries and Galloway. Several members of the Bruce family were called Robert, the future king was one of ten children, and the eldest son, of Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale, and Marjorie, Countess of Carrick, and claimed the Scottish throne as a fourth great-grandson of David I. His mother was by all accounts a formidable woman who, legend would have it, kept Robert Bruce's father captive until he agreed to marry her. From his mother, he inherited the Earldom of Carrick, and through his father, a royal lineage that would give him a claim to the Scottish throne. The Bruces also held substantial estates in Aberdeenshire, County Antrim, County Durham, Essex, Middlesex and Yorkshire.
Although Robert the Bruce's date of birth is known, his place of birth is less certain, although it is most likely to have been Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire, the head of his mother's earldom. However, there are claims that he may have been born in Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire, or Writtle in Essex.
Very little is known of his youth. He was probably brought up in a mixture of the Anglo-Norman culture of northern England and south-eastern Scotland, and the Gaelic culture of southwest Scotland and most of Scotland north of the River Forth. Annandale was thoroughly feudalised, and the form of Northern Middle English that would later develop into the Scots language was spoken throughout the region. Carrick was historically an integral part of Galloway, and though the earls of Carrick had achieved some feudalisation, the society of Carrick at the end of the thirteenth century remained emphatically Celtic and Gaelic speaking.
Robert the Bruce would most probably have become trilingual at an early age. He would have been schooled to speak, read and possibly write in the Anglo-Norman language of his Scots-Norman peers and his father's family. He would also have spoken both the Gaelic language of his Carrick birthplace and his mother's family, and the early Scots language (inasmuch, Scots differed from Anglo-Norman by Anglo-Norman's addition of Norman elements). As the heir to a considerable estate and a pious layman, Robert would also have been given working knowledge of Latin, the language of charter lordship, liturgy and prayer. This would have afforded Robert and his brothers access to basic education in the law, politics, scripture, saints' Lives ("vitae"), philosophy, history and chivalric instruction and romance. That Robert took personal pleasure in such learning and leisure is suggested in a number of ways. Barbour reported that Robert read aloud to his band of supporters in 1306, reciting from memory tales from a twelfth-century romance of Charlemagne, "Fierabras", as well as relating examples from history such as Hannibal's defiance of Rome.
As king, Robert certainly commissioned verse to commemorate Bannockburn and his subjects' military deeds. Contemporary chroniclers Jean Le Bel and Thomas Grey would both assert that they had read a history of his reign 'commissioned by King Robert himself.' In his last years, Robert would pay for Dominican friars to tutor his son, David, for whom he would also purchase books. A parliamentary briefing document of c.1364 would also assert that Robert 'used continually to read, or have read in his presence, the histories of ancient kings and princes, and how they conducted themselves in their times, both in wartime and in peacetime; from these he derived information about aspects of his own rule.'
Tutors for the young Robert and his brothers were most likely drawn from unbeneficed clergy or mendicant friars associated with the churches patronised by their family. However, as growing noble youths, outdoor pursuits and great events would also have held a strong fascination for Robert and his brothers. They would have had masters drawn from their parents' household to school them in the arts of horsemanship, swordsmanship, the joust, hunting and perhaps aspects of courtly behaviour, including dress, protocol, speech, table etiquette, music and dance, some of which may have been learned before the age of ten while serving as pages in their father's or grandfather's household. As many of these personal and leadership skills were bound up within a code of chivalry, Robert's chief tutor was surely a reputable, experienced knight, drawn from his grandfather's crusade retinue. This grandfather, known to contemporaries as Robert the Noble, and to history as "Bruce the Competitor", seems to have been an immense influence on the future king. Robert's later performance in war certainly underlines his skills in tactics and single combat.
The family would have moved between the castles of their lordships—Lochmaben Castle, the main castle of the lordship of Annandale, and Turnberry and Loch Doon Castle, the castles of the earldom of Carrick. A significant and profound part of the childhood experience of Robert, Edward and possibly the other Bruce brothers (Neil, Thomas and Alexander), was also gained through the Gaelic tradition of being fostered to allied Gaelic kindreds—a traditional practice in Carrick, southwest and western Scotland, the Hebrides and Ireland. There were a number of Carrick, Ayrshire, Hebridean and Irish families and kindreds affiliated with the Bruces who might have performed such a service (Robert's foster-brother is referred to by Barbour as sharing Robert's precarious existence as an outlaw in Carrick in 1307–08). This Gaelic influence has been cited as a possible explanation for Robert the Bruce's apparent affinity for "hobelar" warfare, using smaller sturdy ponies in mounted raids, as well as for sea-power, ranging from oared war-galleys ("birlinns") to boats.
According to historians such as Barrow and Penman, it is also likely that when Robert and Edward Bruce reached the male age of consent of twelve and began training for full knighthood, they were sent to reside for a period with one or more allied English noble families, such as the de Clares of Gloucester, or perhaps even in the English royal household. Sir Thomas Grey asserted in his "Scalacronica" that in about 1292, Robert the Bruce, then aged eighteen, was a "young bachelor of King Edward's Chamber". While there remains little firm evidence of Robert's presence at Edward's court, on 8 April 1296, both Robert and his father were pursued through the English Chancery for their private household debts of £60 by several merchants of Winchester. This raises the possibility that young Robert the Bruce was on occasion resident in a royal centre which Edward I himself would visit frequently during his reign.
Robert's first appearance in history is on a witness list of a charter issued by Alexander Og MacDonald, Lord of Islay. His name appears in the company of the Bishop of Argyll, the vicar of Arran, a Kintyre clerk, his father, and a host of Gaelic notaries from Carrick. Robert Bruce, the king to be, was sixteen years of age when Margaret, Maid of Norway died in 1290. It is also around this time that Robert would have been knighted, and he began to appear on the political stage in the Bruce dynastic interest.
Robert's mother died early in 1292. In November of the same year, Edward I of England, on behalf of the Guardians of Scotland and following the Great Cause, awarded the vacant Crown of Scotland to his grandfather's first cousin once removed, John Balliol. Almost immediately, Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, resigned his lordship of Annandale and transferred his claim to the Scottish throne to his son, antedating this statement to 7 November. In turn, that son, Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale, resigned his earldom of Carrick to his eldest son, Robert, the future king, so as to protect the Bruce's kingship claim while their middle lord (Robert the Bruce's father) now held only English lands. While the Bruces' bid for the throne had ended in failure, the Balliols' triumph propelled the eighteen-year-old Robert the Bruce onto the political stage in his own right.
Even after John's accession, Edward still continued to assert his authority over Scotland, and relations between the two kings soon began to deteriorate. The Bruces sided with King Edward against King John and his Comyn allies. Robert the Bruce and his father both considered John a usurper. Against the objections of the Scots, Edward I agreed to hear appeals on cases ruled on by the court of the Guardians that had governed Scotland during the interregnum. A further provocation came in a case brought by Macduff, son of Malcolm, Earl of Fife, in which Edward demanded that John appear in person before the English Parliament to answer the charges. This the Scottish king did, but the final straw was Edward's demand that the Scottish magnates provide military service in England's war against France. This was unacceptable; the Scots instead formed an alliance with France.
The Comyn-dominated council acting in the name of King John summoned the Scottish host to meet at Caddonlee on 11 March. The Bruces and the earls of Angus and March refused, and the Bruce family withdrew temporarily from Scotland, while the Comyns seized their estates in Annandale and Carrick, granting them to John Comyn, Earl of Buchan. Edward I thereupon provided a safe refuge for the Bruces, having appointed the Lord of Annandale to the command of Carlisle Castle in October 1295. At some point in early 1296, Robert married his first wife, Isabella of Mar, the daughter of Domhnall I, Earl of Mar and his wife Helen.
Almost the first blow in the war between Scotland and England was a direct attack on the Bruces. On 26 March 1296, Easter Monday, seven Scottish earls made a surprise attack on the walled city of Carlisle, which was not so much an attack against England as the Comyn Earl of Buchan and their faction attacking their Bruce enemies. Both his father and grandfather were at one time Governors of the Castle, and following the loss of Annandale to Comyn in 1295, it was their principal residence. Robert Bruce would have gained first-hand knowledge of the city's defences. The next time Carlisle was besieged, in 1315, Robert the Bruce would be leading the attack.
Edward I responded to King John's alliance with France and the attack on Carlisle by invading Scotland at the end of March 1296 and taking the town of Berwick in a particularly bloody attack upon the flimsy palisades. At the Battle of Dunbar, Scottish resistance was effectively crushed. Edward deposed King John, placed him in the Tower of London, and installed Englishmen to govern the country. The campaign had been very successful, but the English triumph would only be temporary.
Although the Bruces were by now back in possession of Annandale and Carrick, in August 1296 Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale, and his son, Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick and future king, were among the more than 1,500 Scots at Berwick who swore an oath of fealty to King Edward I of England. When the Scottish revolt against Edward I broke out in July 1297, James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland, led into rebellion a group of disaffected Scots, including Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, Macduff of Fife, and the young Robert Bruce. The future king was now twenty-two, and in joining the rebels he seems to have been acting independently of his father, who took no part in the rebellion and appears to have abandoned Annandale once more for the safety of Carlisle. It appears that Robert Bruce had fallen under the influence of his grandfather's friends, Wishart and Stewart, who had inspired him to resistance. With the outbreak of the revolt, Robert left Carlisle and made his way to Annandale, where he called together the knights of his ancestral lands and, according to the English chronicler Walter of Guisborough, addressed them thus:
No man holds his own flesh and blood in hatred and I am no exception. I must join my own people and the nation in which I was born. I ask that you please come with me and you will be my councillors and close comrades"
Urgent letters were sent ordering Bruce to support Edward's commander, John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey (to whom Bruce was related), in the summer of 1297; but instead of complying, Bruce continued to support the revolt against Edward I. That Bruce was in the forefront of inciting rebellion is shown in a letter written to Edward by Hugh Cressingham on 23 July 1292, which reports the opinion that "if you had the earl of Carrick, the Steward of Scotland and his brother...you would think your business done". On 7 July, Bruce and his friends made terms with Edward by a treaty called the Capitulation of Irvine. The Scottish lords were not to serve beyond the sea against their will and were pardoned for their recent violence in return for swearing allegiance to King Edward. The Bishop of Glasgow, James the Steward, and Sir Alexander Lindsay became sureties for Bruce until he delivered his infant daughter Marjorie as a hostage, which he never did.
When King Edward returned to England after his victory at the Battle of Falkirk, the Bruce's possessions were excepted from the Lordships and lands that Edward assigned to his followers. The reason for this is uncertain, though Fordun records Robert fighting for Edward, at Falkirk, under the command of Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham, Annandale and Carrick. This participation is contested as no Bruce appears on the Falkirk roll of nobles present in the English army, and two 19th Century antiquarians, Alexander Murison and George Chalmers, have stated Bruce did not participate and in the following month decided to lay waste to Annandale and burn Ayr Castle, to prevent it being garrisoned by the English.
William Wallace resigned as Guardian of Scotland after his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk. He was succeeded by Robert Bruce and John Comyn as joint Guardians, but they could not see past their personal differences. As a nephew and supporter of King John, and as someone with a serious claim to the Scottish throne, Comyn was Bruce's enemy. In 1299, William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, was appointed as a third, neutral Guardian to try to maintain order between Bruce and Comyn. The following year, Bruce finally resigned as joint Guardian and was replaced by Sir Gilbert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus. In May 1301, Umfraville, Comyn, and Lamberton also resigned as joint Guardians and were replaced by Sir John de Soules as sole Guardian. Soules was appointed largely because he was part of neither the Bruce nor the Comyn camps and was a patriot. He was an active Guardian and made renewed efforts to have King John returned to the Scottish throne.
In July 1301 King Edward I launched his sixth campaign into Scotland. Though he captured the castles of Bothwell and Turnberry, he did little to damage the Scots' fighting ability, and in January 1302 he agreed to a nine-month truce. It was around this time that Robert the Bruce submitted to Edward, along with other nobles, even though he had been on the side of the Scots until then. There were rumours that John Balliol would return to regain the Scottish throne. Soules, who had probably been appointed by John, supported his return, as did most other nobles. But it was no more than a rumour and nothing came of it.
In March 1302, Bruce sent a letter to the monks at Melrose Abbey apologising for having called tenants of the monks to service in his army when there had been no national call-up. Bruce pledged that, henceforth, he would "never again" require the monks to serve unless it was to "the common army of the whole realm", for national defence. Bruce also married his second wife that year, Elizabeth de Burgh, the daughter of Richard de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster. By Elizabeth he had four children: David II, John (died in childhood), Matilda (who married Thomas Isaac and died at Aberdeen 20 July 1353), and Margaret (who married William de Moravia, 5th Earl of Sutherland in 1345).
In 1303, Edward invaded again, reaching Edinburgh before marching to Perth. Edward stayed in Perth until July, then proceeded via Dundee, Brechin, and Montrose to Aberdeen, where he arrived in August. From there he marched through Moray to Badenoch before re-tracing his path back south to Dunfermline. With the country now under submission, all the leading Scots, except for William Wallace, surrendered to Edward in February 1304. John Comyn, who was by now Guardian again, submitted to Edward. The laws and liberties of Scotland were to be as they had been in the days of Alexander III, and any that needed alteration would be with the assent of King Edward and the advice of the Scots nobles.
On 11 June 1304, Bruce and William Lamberton made a pact that bound them, each to the other, in "friendship and alliance against all men." If one should break the secret pact, he would forfeit to the other the sum of ten thousand pounds. The pact is often interpreted as a sign of their patriotism despite both having already surrendered to the English. Homage was again obtained from the nobles and the burghs, and a parliament was held to elect those who would meet later in the year with the English parliament to establish rules for the governance of Scotland. The Earl of Richmond, Edward's nephew, was to head up the subordinate government of Scotland. While all this took place, William Wallace was finally captured near Glasgow, and he was hanged, drawn, and quartered in London on 23 August 1305.
In September 1305, Edward ordered Robert Bruce to put his castle at Kildrummy, "in the keeping of such a man as he himself will be willing to answer for," suggesting that King Edward suspected Robert was not entirely trustworthy and may have been plotting behind his back. However, an identical phrase appears in an agreement between Edward and his lieutenant and lifelong friend, Aymer de Valence. A further sign of Edward's distrust occurred on 10 October 1305, when Edward revoked his gift of Sir Gilbert de Umfraville's lands to Bruce that he had made only six months before.
Robert Bruce as Earl of Carrick, and now 7th Lord of Annandale, held huge estates and property in Scotland and a barony and some minor properties in England, and a strong claim to the Scottish throne.
Bruce, like all his family, had a complete belief in his right to the throne. His ambition was further thwarted by John Comyn, who supported John Balliol. Comyn was the most powerful noble in Scotland and was related to many other powerful nobles both within Scotland and England, including relatives that held the earldoms of Buchan, Mar, Ross, Fife, Angus, Dunbar, and Strathearn; the Lordships of Kilbride, Kirkintilloch, Lenzie, Bedrule, and Scraesburgh; and sheriffdoms in Banff, Dingwall, Wigtown, and Aberdeen. He also had a powerful claim to the Scottish throne through his descent from Donald III on his father's side and David I on his mother's side. Comyn was the nephew of John Balliol.
According to Barbour and Fordoun, in the late summer of 1305, in a secret agreement sworn, signed, and sealed, John Comyn agreed to forfeit his claim to the Scottish throne in favour of Robert Bruce upon receipt of the Bruce lands in Scotland should an uprising occur led by Bruce. Whether the details of the agreement with Comyn are correct or not, King Edward moved to arrest Bruce while Bruce was still at the English court. Ralph de Monthermer learned of Edward's intention and warned Bruce by sending him twelve pence and a pair of spurs. Bruce took the hint, and he and a squire fled the English court during the night. They made their way quickly for Scotland.
According to Barbour, Comyn betrayed his agreement with Bruce to King Edward I, and when Bruce arranged a meeting for 10 February 1306 with Comyn in the Chapel of Greyfriars Monastery in Dumfries and accused him of treachery, they came to blows. Bruce stabbed Comyn before the high altar. The Scotichronicon says that on being told that Comyn had survived the attack and was being treated, two of Bruce's supporters, Roger de Kirkpatrick (uttering the words "I mak siccar" ("I make sure")) and John Lindsay, went back into the church and finished Bruce's work. Barbour, however, tells no such story. The Flores Historiarum which was written c. 1307 says Bruce and Comyn disagreed and Bruce drew his sword and struck Comyn over the head. Bruce supporters then ran up and stabbed Comyn with their swords. Bruce asserted his claim to the Scottish crown and began his campaign by force for the independence of Scotland.
Bruce and his party then attacked Dumfries Castle where the English garrison surrendered. Bruce hurried from Dumfries to Glasgow, where his friend and supporter Bishop Robert Wishart granted him absolution and subsequently adjured the clergy throughout the land to rally to Bruce. Nonetheless, Bruce was excommunicated for this crime.
Six weeks after Comyn was killed in Dumfries, Bruce was crowned King of Scots by Bishop William de Lamberton at Scone, near Perth, on Palm Sunday 25 March 1306 with all formality and solemnity. The royal robes and vestments that Robert Wishart had hidden from the English were brought out by the bishop and set upon King Robert. The bishops of Moray and Glasgow were in attendance, as were the earls of Atholl, Menteith, Lennox, and Mar. The great banner of the kings of Scotland was planted behind Bruce's throne.
Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan and wife of John Comyn, 3rd Earl of Buchan (a cousin of the murdered John Comyn) arrived the next day, too late for the coronation. She claimed the right of her family, the MacDuff Earl of Fife, to crown the Scottish king for her brother, Donnchadh IV, Earl of Fife, who was not yet of age, and in English hands. So a second coronation was held and once more the crown was placed on the brow of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, Lord of Annandale, King of the Scots.
In June 1306 Bruce was defeated at the Battle of Methven. His wife and daughters and other women of the party were sent to Kildrummy in August 1306 under the protection of Bruce's brother, Neil Bruce, and the Earl of Atholl and most of his remaining men. Bruce fled with a small following of his most faithful men, including Sir James Douglas and Gilbert Hay, Bruce's brothers Thomas, Alexander, and Edward, as well as Sir Neil Campbell and the Earl of Lennox.
A strong force under Edward, Prince of Wales, captured Kildrummy Castle on 13 September taking prisoner the King's youngest brother, Nigel de Bruce, as well as Robert Boyd and Alexander Lindsay, and Sir Simon Fraser. Boyd managed to escape but both Nigel de Bruce and Lindsay were executed shortly after at Berwick following King Edward's orders to execute all followers of Robert de Bruce. Fraser was taken to London to suffer the same fate. Shortly before the fall of Kildrummy Castle, the Earl of Athol made a desperate attempt to take Queen Elizabeth de Burgh, Margery de Bruce, as well as King Robert's sisters and Isabella of Fife. They were betrayed a few days later and also fell into English hands, Atholl to be executed in London and the women to be held under the harshest possible circumstances.
Edward I marched north again in the spring. On his way, he granted the Scottish estates of Bruce and his adherents to his own followers and had published a bill excommunicating Bruce.
On 7 July 1307, King Edward I died, leaving Bruce opposed by the king's son, Edward II.
It is still uncertain where Bruce spent the winter of 1306–07. Most likely he spent it in the Hebrides, possibly sheltered by Christina of the Isles. The latter was married to a member of the Mar kindred, a family to which Bruce was related (not only was his first wife a member of this family but her brother, Gartnait, was married to a sister of Bruce). Ireland is also a serious possibility, and Orkney (under Norwegian rule at the time) or Norway proper (where his sister Isabel Bruce was queen dowager) are unlikely but not impossible. Bruce and his followers returned to the Scottish mainland in February in two groups. One, led by Bruce and his brother Edward, landed at Turnberry Castle and began a guerrilla war in south-west Scotland. The other, led by his brothers Thomas and Alexander, landed slightly further south in Loch Ryan, but they were soon captured and executed. In April, Bruce won a small victory over the English at the Battle of Glen Trool, before defeating Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, at the Battle of Loudoun Hill. At the same time, James Douglas made his first foray for Bruce into south-western Scotland, attacking and burning his own castle in Douglasdale. Leaving his brother Edward in command in Galloway, Bruce travelled north, capturing Inverlochy and Urquhart Castles, burning to the ground Inverness Castle and Nairn, then unsuccessfully threatening Elgin.
Transferring operations to Aberdeenshire in late 1307, he threatened Banff before falling seriously ill, probably owing to the hardships of the lengthy campaign. Recovering, leaving John Comyn, 3rd Earl of Buchan unsubdued at his rear, Bruce returned west to take Balvenie and Duffus Castles, then Tarradale Castle on the Black Isle. Looping back via the hinterlands of Inverness and a second failed attempt to take Elgin, Bruce finally achieved his landmark defeat of Comyn at the Battle of Inverurie in May 1308; he then overran Buchan and defeated the English garrison at Aberdeen. The Harrying of Buchan in 1308 was ordered by Bruce to make sure all Comyn family support was extinguished. Buchan had a very large population because it was the agricultural capital of northern Scotland, and much of its population was loyal to the Comyn family even after the defeat of the Earl of Buchan. Most of the Comyn castles in Moray, Aberdeen and Buchan were destroyed and their inhabitants killed. In less than a year Bruce had swept through the north and destroyed the power of the Comyns who had held vice-regal power in the north for nearly one hundred years. How this dramatic success was achieved, especially the taking of northern castles so quickly, is difficult to understand. Bruce lacked siege weapons and it's unlikely his army had substantially greater numbers or was better armed than his opponents. The morale and leadership of the Comyns and their northern allies appeared to be inexplicably lacking in the face of their direst challenge. He then crossed to Argyll and defeated the isolated MacDougalls (allies of the Comyns) at the Battle of Pass of Brander and took Dunstaffnage Castle, the last major stronghold of the Comyns and their allies. Bruce then ordered harryings in Argyle and Kintyre, in the territories of Clan MacDougall
In March 1309, Bruce held his first parliament at St. Andrews and by August he controlled all of Scotland north of the River Tay. The following year, the clergy of Scotland recognised Bruce as king at a general council. The support given him by the church, in spite of his excommunication, was of great political importance. On 1 October 1310 Bruce wrote Edward II of England from Kildrum in Cumbernauld Parish in an unsuccessful attempt to establish peace between Scotland and England. Over the next three years, one English-held castle or outpost after another was captured and reduced: Linlithgow in 1310, Dumbarton in 1311, and Perth, by Bruce himself, in January 1312. Bruce also made raids into northern England and, landing at Ramsey in the Isle of Man, laid siege to Castle Rushen in Castletown, capturing it on 21 June 1313 and denying the English the island's strategic importance.
The eight years of exhausting but deliberate refusal to meet the English on even ground have caused many to consider Bruce one of the great guerrilla leaders of any age. This represented a transformation for one raised as a feudal knight.
By 1314, Bruce had recaptured most of the castles in Scotland held by the English and was sending raiding parties into northern England as far as Carlisle. In response, Edward II planned a major military campaign with the support of Lancaster and the barons, mustering a large army of between 15,000 and 20,000 men. In the spring of 1314, Edward Bruce laid siege to Stirling Castle, a key fortification in Scotland whose governor, Philip de Mowbray, agreed to surrender if not relieved before 24 June 1314. In March, James Douglas captured Roxburgh, and Randolph captured Edinburgh Castle, while in May, Bruce again raided England and subdued the Isle of Man. News of the agreement regarding Stirling Castle reached the English king in late May, and he decided to speed his march north from Berwick to relieve the castle. Robert, with between 5,500 and 6,500 troops, predominantly spearmen, prepared to prevent Edward's forces from reaching Stirling.
The battle began on 23 June as the English army attempted to force its way across the high ground of the Bannock Burn, which was surrounded by marshland. Skirmishing between the two sides broke out, resulting in the death of Sir Henry de Bohun, whom Robert killed in personal combat. Edward continued his advance the following day, and encountered the bulk of the Scottish army as they emerged from the woods of New Park. The English appear not to have expected the Scots to give battle here, and as a result had kept their forces in marching, rather than battle, order, with the archers − who would usually have been used to break up enemy spear formations − at the back, rather than the front, of the army. The English cavalry found it hard to operate in the cramped terrain and were crushed by Robert's spearmen. The English army was overwhelmed and its leaders were unable to regain control.
Edward II was dragged from the battlefield, hotly pursued by the Scottish forces, and only just escaped the heavy fighting. The historian Roy Haines describes the defeat as a "calamity of stunning proportions" for the English, whose losses were huge. In the aftermath of the defeat, Edward retreated to Dunbar, then travelled by ship to Berwick, and then back to York; in his absence, Stirling Castle quickly fell.
Freed from English threats, Scotland's armies could now invade northern England. Bruce also drove back a subsequent English expedition north of the border and launched raids into Yorkshire and Lancashire. Buoyed by his military successes, Robert also sent his brother Edward to invade Ireland in 1315, in an attempt assist the Irish lords repel English incursions of in their kingdoms and to regain all the lands they had lost to the Crown (having received a reply to offers of assistance from Domhnall Ó Néill, king of Tír Eoghain), and to open a second front in the continuing wars with England. Edward was even crowned as High King of Ireland in 1316. Robert later went there with another army to assist his brother.
In conjunction with the invasion, Bruce popularised an ideological vision of a "Pan-Gaelic Greater Scotia" with his lineage ruling over both Ireland and Scotland. This propaganda campaign was aided by two factors. The first was his marriage alliance from 1302 with the de Burgh family of the Earldom of Ulster in Ireland; second, Bruce himself, on his mother's side of Carrick, was descended from Gaelic royalty in Scotland as well as Ireland. Bruce's Irish ancestors included Aoife of Leinster (d.1188), whose ancestors included Brian Boru of Munster and the kings of Leinster. Thus, lineally and geopolitically, Bruce attempted to support his anticipated notion of a pan-Gaelic alliance between Scottish-Irish Gaelic populations, under his kingship. This is revealed by a letter he sent to the Irish chiefs, where he calls the Scots and Irish collectively "nostra nacio" (our nation), stressing the common language, customs and heritage of the two peoples:
The diplomacy worked to a certain extent, at least in Ulster, where the Scots had some support. The Irish chief, Domhnall Ó Néill, for instance, later justified his support for the Scots to Pope John XXII by saying "the Kings of Lesser Scotia all trace their blood to our "Greater Scotia" and retain to some degree our language and customs."
Initially, the Scot-Irish army seemed unstoppable as the defeated the English again and again and levelled their towns. However, the Scots failed to win over the non-Ulster chiefs or to make any other significant gains in the south of the island, where people couldn't see the difference between English and Scottish occupation. This was because a famine struck Ireland and the army struggled to sustain itself. They resorted to pillaging and razing entire settlements as they searched for supplies, regardless of whether they were English or Irish. Eventually it was defeated when Edward Bruce was killed at the Battle of Faughart. The Irish Annals of the period described the defeat of the Bruces by the English as one of the greatest things ever done for the Irish nation due to the fact it brought an end to the famine and pillaging wrought upon the Irish by both the Scots and the English.
The reign of Robert Bruce also included some significant diplomatic achievements. The Declaration of Arbroath of 1320 strengthened his position, particularly in relation to the Papacy, and Pope John XXII eventually lifted Bruce's excommunication. In May 1328 King Edward III of England signed the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, which recognised Scotland as an independent kingdom, and Bruce as its king.
In 1325 Robert I exchanged lands at Cardross for those of Old Montrose in Angus with Sir David Graham. It was to be here that Robert would build the manor house that would serve as his favoured residence during the final years of his reign. The extant chamberlain's accounts for 1328 detail a manor house at Cardross with king's and queen's chambers and glazed windows, a chapel, kitchens, bake- and brew-houses, falcon aviary, medicinal garden, gatehouse, protective moat and a hunting park. There was also a jetty and beaching area for the 'king's coble' (for fishing) alongside the 'king's great ship'.
As most of mainland Scotland's major royal castles had remained in their razed state since around 1313–14, Cardross manor was perhaps built as a modest residence sympathetic to Robert's subjects' privations through a long war, repeated famines and livestock pandemics. Before Cardross became habitable in 1327, Robert's main residence had been Scone Abbey.
Robert had been suffering from a serious illness from at least 1327. The "Lanercost Chronicle" and "Scalacronica" state that the king was said to have contracted and died of leprosy. Jean Le Bel also stated that in 1327 the king was a victim of 'la grosse maladie', which is usually taken to mean leprosy. However, the ignorant use of the term 'leprosy' by fourteenth-century writers meant that almost any major skin disease might be called leprosy. The earliest mention of this illness is to be found in an original letter written by an eye-witness in Ulster at the time the king made a truce with Sir Henry Mandeville on 12 July 1327. The writer of this letter reported that Robert was so feeble and struck down by illness that he would not live, 'for he can scarcely move anything but his tongue'. Barbour writes of the king's illness that 'it began through a benumbing brought on by his cold lying', during the months of wandering from 1306 to 1309. It has been proposed that, alternatively, he may have suffered from eczema, tuberculosis, syphilis, motor neurone disease, cancer or a series of strokes. There does not seem to be any evidence as to what the king himself or his physicians believed his illness to be. Nor is there any evidence of an attempt in his last years to segregate the king in any way from the company of friends, family, courtiers, or foreign diplomats.
In October 1328 the Pope finally lifted the interdict from Scotland and the excommunication of Robert. The king's last journey appears to have been a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Ninian at Whithorn; this was possibly in search of a miraculous cure, or to make his peace with God. With Moray by his side, Robert set off from his manor at Cardross for Tarbert on his 'great ship', thence to the Isle of Arran, where he celebrated Christmas of 1328 at the hall of Glenkill near Lamlash. Thence he sailed to the mainland to visit his son and his bride, both mere children, now installed at Turnberry Castle, the head of the earldom of Carrick and once his own main residence. He journeyed overland, being carried on a litter, to Inch in Wigtownshire: houses were built there and supplies brought to that place, as though the king's condition had deteriorated. At the end of March 1329 he was staying at Glenluce Abbey and at Monreith, from where St Ninian's cave was visited. Early in April he arrived at the shrine of St Ninian at Whithorn. He fasted four or five days and prayed to the saint, before returning by sea to Cardross.
Barbour and other sources relate that Robert summoned his prelates and barons to his bedside for a final council at which he made copious gifts to religious houses, dispensed silver to religious foundations of various orders, so that they might pray for his soul, and repented of his failure to fulfil a vow to undertake a crusade to fight the 'Saracens' in the Holy Land. Robert's final wish reflected conventional piety, and was perhaps intended to perpetuate his memory. After his death his heart was to be removed from his body and, accompanied by a company of knights led by Sir James Douglas, taken on pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, before being interred in Melrose Abbey upon its return from the Holy Land:
"I will that as soone as I am trespassed out of this worlde that ye take my harte owte of my body, and embawme it, and take of my treasoure as ye shall thynke sufficient for that enterprise, both for your selfe and suche company as ye wyll take with you, and present my hart to the holy Sepulchre where as our Lorde laye, seyng my body can nat come there".
Robert also arranged for perpetual soul masses to be funded at the chapel of Saint Serf, at Ayr and at the Dominican friary in Berwick, as well as at Dunfermline Abbey.
Robert died on 7 June 1329, at the Manor of Cardross, near Dumbarton. Apart from failing to fulfill a vow to undertake a crusade he died utterly fulfilled, in that the goal of his lifetime's struggle—untrammelled recognition of the Bruce right to the crown—had been realised, and confident that he was leaving the kingdom of Scotland safely in the hands of his most trusted lieutenant, Moray, until his infant son reached adulthood. Six days after his death, to complete his triumph still further, papal bulls were issued granting the privilege of unction at the coronation of future Kings of Scots.
It remains unclear just what caused the death of Robert, a month before his fifty-fifth birthday. Contemporary accusations that Robert suffered from leprosy, the "unclean sickness"—the present-day, treatable Hansen's disease—derived from English and Hainault chroniclers. None of the Scottish accounts of his death hint at leprosy. Penman states that it is very difficult to accept the notion of Robert as a functioning king serving in war, performing face-to-face acts of lordship, holding parliament and court, travelling widely and fathering several children, all while displaying the infectious symptoms of a leper. Along with suggestions of eczema, tuberculosis, syphilis, motor neurone disease, cancer or stroke, a diet of rich court food has also been suggested as a possible contributory factor in Robert's death. His Milanese physician, Maino De Maineri, did criticise the king's eating of eels as dangerous to his health in advancing years.
A team of researchers, headed by Professor Andrew Nelson from University of Western Ontario have determined that Robert the Bruce did not have leprosy. They examined the original casting of the skull belonging to Robert the Bruce's descendant Lord Andrew Douglas Alexander Thomas Bruce, and a foot bone that had not been re-interred. They determined that skull and foot bone showed no signs of leprosy, such as an eroded nasal spine and a pencilling of the foot bone.
The king's body was embalmed, and his sternum sawn open to allow extraction of the heart, which Sir James Douglas placed in a silver casket to be worn on a chain around his neck, with Sir Simon Locard holding the key. Robert's viscera were interred in the chapel of Saint Serf (the ruins of which are located in the present-day Levengrove Park in Dumbarton), his regular place of worship and close to his manor house in the ancient Parish of Cardross. The king's body was carried east from Cardross by a carriage decked in black lawn cloth, with stops recorded at Dunipace and Cambuskenneth Abbey. The funeral was a grand affair, with of wax having been purchased for the making of funerary candles. A file of mourners on foot, including Robert Stewart and a number of knights dressed in black gowns, accompanied the funeral party into Dunfermline Abbey. A canopy chapel or 'hearse' of imported Baltic wood was erected over the grave. Robert I's body, in a wooden coffin, was then interred within a stone vault beneath the floor, underneath a box tomb of white Italian marble purchased in Paris by Thomas of Chartres after June 1328. A plinth of black fossiliferous limestone from Frosterley topped this structure, and atop this plinth was a white alabaster effigy of Robert I, painted and gilded. The following Latin epitaph was inscribed around the top of the tomb: "Hic jacet invictus Robertus Rex benedictus qui sua gesta legit repetit quot bella peregit ad libertatem perduxit per probitatem regnum scottorum: nunc vivat in arce polorum" ("Here lies the invincible blessed King Robert / Whoever reads about his feats will repeat the many battles he fought / By his integrity he guided to liberty the Kingdom of the Scots: May he now live in Heaven"). Ten alabaster fragments from the tomb are on display in the National Museum of Scotland and traces of gilding still remain on some of them. Robert had bequeathed sufficient funds to pay for thousands of obituary masses in Dunfermline Abbey and elsewhere, and his tomb would thus be the site of daily votive prayers.
When a projected international crusade failed to materialise, Sir James Douglas and his company, escorting the casket containing Bruce's heart, sailed to Spain where Alfonso XI of Castile was mounting a campaign against the Moorish kingdom of Granada. According to John Barbour, Douglas and his companions, including Sir William de Keith, Sir Kenneth Moir, Sir Simon Locard, Sir William de St. Clair and John de St. Clair of Rosslyn and the brothers Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig and Sir Walter Logan, were welcomed cordially by King Alfonso. In August 1330 the Scots contingent formed part of the Castilian army besieging the frontier castle of Teba. Under circumstances which are still disputed, Sir James and most of his companions were killed. The sources all agree that, outnumbered and separated from the main Christian army, a group of Scots knights led by Douglas was overwhelmed and wiped out. The surviving members including Sir Simon Locard of the company recovered Douglas' body together with the casket containing Bruce's heart. The heart, together with Douglas' bones were brought back to Scotland.
In accordance with Bruce's written request, the heart was buried at Melrose Abbey in Roxburghshire. In 1920, the heart was discovered by archaeologists and was reburied, but the location was not marked. In 1996, a casket was unearthed during construction work. Scientific study by AOC archaeologists in Edinburgh demonstrated that it did indeed contain human tissue and it was of appropriate age. It was reburied in Melrose Abbey in 1998, pursuant to the dying wishes of the King.
On 17 February 1818, workmen breaking ground on the new parish church to be built on the site of the eastern choir of Dunfermline Abbey uncovered a vault before the site of the former abbey high altar. The vault was covered by two large, flat stones—one forming a headstone, and a larger stone six feet (182 cm) in length, with six iron rings or handles set in it. When these stones were removed, the vault was found to be seven feet (214 cm) in length, 56 cm wide and 45 cm deep. Within the vault, inside the remnants of a decayed oak coffin, there was a body entirely enclosed in lead, with a decayed shroud of cloth of gold over it. Over the head of the body the lead was formed into the shape of a crown. Fragments of marble and alabaster had been found in the debris around the site of the vault several years earlier, which were linked to Robert the Bruce's recorded purchase of a marble and alabaster tomb made in Paris.
The Barons of Exchequer ordered that the vault was to be secured from all further inspection with new stones and iron bars and guarded by the town constables, and that once the walls of the new church were built up around the site, an investigation of the vault and the remains could take place. Accordingly, on 5 November 1819, the investigation took place. The cloth of gold shroud and the lead covering were found to be in a rapid state of decay since the vault had first been opened 21 months earlier. The body was raised up and placed on a wooden coffin board on the edge of the vault. It was found to be covered in two thin layers of lead, each around 5 mm thick. The lead was removed and the skeleton was inspected by James Gregory and Alexander Monro, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh. The sternum was found to have been sawn open from top to bottom, permitting removal of the king's heart after death. A plaster cast was taken of the detached skull by artist William Scoular. The bones were measured and drawn, and the king's skeleton was measured to be . It has been estimated that Bruce may have stood at around tall as a young man, which by medieval standards was impressive. At this height he would have stood almost as tall as Edward I ().
The skeleton, lying on the wooden coffin board, was then placed upon the top of a lead coffin and the large crowd of curious people who had assembled outside the church were allowed to file past the vault to view the king's remains. It was at this point in the proceedings that some small relics—teeth and finger bones—were allegedly removed from the skeleton. The published accounts of eyewitnesses such as Henry Jardine and James Gregory confirm the removal of small objects at this time. Robert the Bruce's remains were ceremonially re-interred in the vault in Dunfermline Abbey on 5 November 1819. They were placed in a new lead coffin, into which was poured 1,500 lbs of molten pitch to preserve the remains, before the coffin was sealed.
A number of reconstructions of the face of Robert the Bruce have been produced, including those by Richard Neave from the University of Manchester, Peter Vanezis from the University of Glasgow and Dr Martin McGregor (University of Glasgow) and Prof Caroline Wilkinson (Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University).
Bruce's descendants include all later Scottish monarchs and all British monarchs since the Union of the Crowns in 1603. A large number of families definitely are descended from him.
Robert I was originally buried in Dunfermline Abbey, traditional resting-place of Scottish monarchs since the reign of Malcolm III. His tomb, imported from Paris, was extremely elaborate, carved from gilded alabaster. It was destroyed at the Reformation, but some fragments were discovered in the 19th century (now in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh).
The site of the tomb in Dunfermline Abbey was marked by large carved stone letters spelling out "King Robert the Bruce" around the top of the bell tower, when the eastern half of the abbey church was rebuilt in the first half of the 19th century. In 1974 the Bruce Memorial Window was installed in the north transept, commemorating the 700th anniversary of the year of his birth. It depicts stained glass images of the Bruce flanked by his chief men, Christ, and saints associated with Scotland.
A 1929 statue of Robert the Bruce is set in the wall of Edinburgh Castle at the entrance, along with one of William Wallace. In Edinburgh also, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery has statues of Bruce and Wallace in niches flanking the main entrance. The building also contains several frescos depicting scenes from Scots history by William Brassey Hole in the entrance foyer, including a large example of Bruce marshalling his men at Bannockburn.
A bust of Bruce is in the Hall of Heroes of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling.
A statue of Robert Bruce stands in the High Street in Lochmaben and another in Annan (erected 2010) in front of the town's Victorian hall.
An annual commemorative dinner has been held in his honour in Stirling since 2006.
Swords inscribed with Robert's name probably date from the 16th century rather than earlier. There is one in the Wallace Collection and a missing one in Ireland.
According to a legend, at some point while he was on the run after the 1305 Battle of Methven, Bruce hid in a cave where he observed a spider spinning a web, trying to make a connection from one area of the cave's roof to another. It tried and failed twice, but began again and succeeded on the third attempt. Inspired by this, Bruce returned to inflict a series of defeats on the English, thus winning him more supporters and eventual victory. The story serves to illustrate the maxim: "if at first you don't succeed, try try try again." Other versions have Bruce in a small house watching the spider try to make its connection between two roof beams.
This legend first appears in a much later account, "Tales of a Grandfather" by Sir Walter Scott (published between 1828 and 1830). This may have originally been told about his companion-in-arms Sir James Douglas (the "Black Douglas"), who had spent time hiding out in caves within his manor of Lintalee, which was then occupied by the English. The entire account may in fact be a version of a literary trope used in royal biographical writing. A similar story is told, for example, in Jewish sources about King David, in Polish accounts about Bruce's contemporary Władysław I the Elbow-High, and in Persian folklore about the Mongolian warlord Tamerlane and an ant.
It is said that before the Battle of Bannockburn, Bruce was attacked by the English Knight Sir Henry de Bohun. Riding with the heavy cavalry, de Bohun caught sight of Bruce, who was armed only with his battle-axe. De Bohun lowered his lance and charged, and Bruce stood his ground. At the last moment, Bruce swiftly dodged the lance, raised in his saddle, and with one mighty swing of his axe, struck Bohun so hard that he split de Bohun's iron helmet and his head in two, a blow so powerful that it shattered the very weapon into pieces. Afterwards the King merely expressed regret that he had broken the shaft of his favourite axe. To this day, the story stands in folklore as a testament of the determination of the Scottish people and their culture. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26582 |
Rhythm guitar
In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drumkit, bass guitar); and to provide all or part of the harmony, i.e. the chords from a song's chord progression, where a chord is a group of notes played together. Therefore, the basic technique of rhythm guitar is to hold down a series of chords with the fretting hand while strumming or fingerpicking rhythmically with the other hand. More developed rhythm techniques include arpeggios, damping, riffs, chord solos, and complex strums.
In ensembles or bands playing within the acoustic, country, blues, rock or metal genres (among others), a guitarist playing the rhythm part of a composition plays the role of supporting the melodic lines and improvised solos played on the lead instrument or instruments, be they strings, wind, brass, keyboard or even percussion instruments, or simply the human voice, in the sense of playing steadily throughout the piece, whereas lead instruments and singers switch between carrying the main or countermelody and falling silent. In big band music, the guitarist is considered part of the rhythm section, alongside bass and drums.
In some musical situations, such as a solo singer-guitarist, the guitar accompaniment provides all the rhythmic drive; in large ensembles it may be only a small part (perhaps one element in a polyrhythm). Likewise, rhythm guitar can supply all of the harmonic input to a singer-guitarist or small band, but in ensembles that have other harmony instruments (such as keyboards) or vocal harmonists, its harmonic input will be less important.
In the most commercially available and consumed genres, electric guitars tend to dominate their acoustic cousins in both the recording studio and live venues. However the acoustic guitar remains a popular choice in country, western and especially bluegrass music, and almost exclusively in folk music.
Most rhythms in rock and blues are based on 4/4 time with a backbeat; however, many variations are possible. A backbeat is a syncopated accentuation on the "off" beat. In a simple 4/4 rhythm these are beats 2 and 4. Emphasized back beat, a feature of some African styles, defined rhythm and blues recordings in the late 1940s and so became one of the defining characteristics of rock and roll and much of contemporary popular music.
Harmonically, in rock music, the most common way to construct chord progressions is to play major and minor "triads", each comprising a root, third and fifth note of a given scale. An example of a major triad is C major, which contains the notes C, E and G. An example of a minor triad is the A minor chord, which includes the notes A, C and E. Interspersed are some four-note chords, which include the root, third and fifth, as well as a sixth, seventh or ninth note of the scale. The most common chord with four different notes is the dominant seventh chord, which include a root, a major third above the root, a perfect fifth above the root and a flattened seventh. In the key of C major, the dominant seventh chord is a G7, which consists of the notes G, B, D and F.
Three-chord progressions are common in earlier pop and rock, using various combinations of the I, IV and V chords, with the twelve-bar blues particularly common. A four chord progression popular in the 1950s is I-vi-ii-V, which in the key of C major is the chords C major, a minor, d minor and G7. Minor and modal chord progressions such as I-bVII-bVI (in the key of E, the chords E major, D major, C major) feature in popular music.
In heavy metal music, rhythm guitarists often play power chords, which feature a root note and a fifth above, or with an octave doubling the root. There actually is no third of the chord. Power chords are usually played with distortion.
One departure from the basic strummed chord technique is to play arpeggios, i.e. to play individual notes in a chord separately. If this is rapidly done enough, listeners will still hear the sequence as harmony rather than melody. Arpeggiation is often used in folk, country, and heavy metal, sometimes in imitation of older banjo technique. It is also prominent in 1960s pop, such as The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun", and jangle pop from the 1980s onwards. Rhythm guitarists who use arpeggio often favor semi-acoustic guitars and twelve string guitars to get bright, undistorted "jangly" sound.
The Soukous band TPOK Jazz additionally featured the unique role of "mi-solo", (meaning "half solo") guitarist, playing arpeggio patterns and filling a role "between" the lead and rhythm guitars.
In some cases, the chord progression is implied with a simplified sequence of two or three notes, sometimes called a "riff". That sequence is repeated throughout the composition. In heavy metal (or just "metal") music, this is typically expanded to more complex sequences comprising a combination of chords, single notes and palm muting. The rhythm guitar part in compositions performed by more technically oriented bands often include riffs employing complex lead guitar techniques. In some genres, especially metal, the audio signal from the rhythm guitar's output is often subsequently heavily distorted by overdriving the guitar's amplifier to create a thicker, "crunchier" sound for the palm-muted rhythms.
In bands with two or more guitarists, the guitarists may exchange or even duplicate roles for various songs or several sections within a song. In those with a single guitarist, the guitarist may play lead and rhythm at numerous times or simultaneously, by overlaying the rhythm sequence with a lead line.
The availability of electronic effects units such as delay pedals and reverb units enables electric guitarists to play arpeggios and take over some of the role of a synthesizer player in performing sustained "pads". Those serve as sonic backgrounds in modern pop. Creating a pad sound differs from usual rhythm guitar roles in that it is not rhythmic. Some bands have a synthesizer performer play pads. In bands without a synth player, a guitarist can take over this role.
Some rhythm techniques cross over into lead guitar playing. In guitar-bass-and-drums power trios guitarists must double up between rhythm and lead. For instance Jimi Hendrix combined full chords with solo licks, double stops and arpeggios. In the 2010s, "looping pedals" are used to record a chord sequence or riff over which musicians can then play the lead line, simulating the sound achieved by having two guitarists.
Rhythm guitarists usually aim to generate a stronger rhythmic and chordal sound, in contrast to the lead guitarists' goal of producing a sustained, high-pitched melody line that listeners can hear over the top of the band. As a result, rhythm and lead players may use different guitars and amplifiers. Rhythm guitarists may employ an electric acoustic guitar or a humbucker-equipped electric guitar for a richer and fatter output. Also, rhythm guitarists may use strings of a larger gauge than those used by lead guitarists. However, while these may be practices, they are not necessarily the rule and are subject to the style of the song and the preference of the individual guitarist.
While rhythm guitarists in metal bands use distortion effects, they tend to use less of the modulation effects such as flangers used by lead guitar players. Whereas the lead guitarist in a metal band is trying to make the solo tone more prominent, and thus uses a range of colorful effects, the rhythm guitarist is typically trying to provide a thick, solid supporting sound that blends in with the overall sound of the group. In alternative rock and post punk bands, however, where the band is trying to create an ambient soundscape rather than an aggressive Motörhead-style "Wall of Sound", the rhythm guitarist may use flanging and delay effects to create a shimmering background.
Rhythm guitar has been especially important in the development of jazz. The guitar took over the role previously occupied by the banjo to provide rhythmic chordal accompaniment.
Early jazz guitarists like Freddie Green tended to emphasize the percussive quality of the instrument. The ability to keep a steady rhythm while playing through complicated chord patterns made the guitar invaluable to many rhythm sections. Jazz guitarists are expected to have deep knowledge of harmony.
Jazz guitarists use their knowledge of harmony and jazz theory to create jazz chord "voicings", which emphasize the 3rd and 7th notes of the chord. Unlike pop and rock guitarists, who typically include the root of a chord (even, with many open chords and barre chords, doubling the root), jazz guitarists typically omit the root. Some more sophisticated chord voicings also include the 9th, 11th, and 13th notes of the chord. A typical jazz voicing for the chord G7 would be the individual notes B, E, F, and A. This voicing uses the 3rd (the note B), the 7th (the note F), along with the 6th (the note E) and the 9th (the note A).
In some modern jazz styles, dominant 7th chords in a tune may contain altered 9ths (either flattened by a semitone, which is called a "flat 9th", or sharpened by a semitone, which is called a "sharp 9th"); 11ths (sharpened by a semitone, which is called a "sharp 11th"); 13ths (typically flattened by a semitone, which is called a "flat 13th").
Jazz guitarists need to learn about a range of different chords, including major 7th, major 6th, minor 7th, minor/major 7th, dominant 7th, diminished, half-diminished, and augmented chords. As well, they need to learn about chord transformations (e.g., altered chords, such as "alt dominant chords" described above), chord substitutions, and re-harmonization techniques. Some jazz guitarists use their knowledge of jazz scales and chords to provide a walking bass-style accompaniment.
Jazz guitarists learn to perform these chords over the range of different chord progressions used in jazz, such as the II-V-I progression, the jazz-style blues progression, the minor jazz-style blues form, the "rhythm changes" progression, and the variety of chord progressions used in jazz ballads, and jazz standards. Guitarists may also learn to use the chord types, strumming styles, and effects pedals (e.g., chorus effect or fuzzbox) used in 1970s-era jazz-Latin, jazz-funk, and jazz-rock fusion music.
In jazz big bands, popular during the 1930s and 1940s, the guitarist is considered an integral part of the rhythm section (guitar, drums and bass). They usually played a regular four chords to the bar, although an amount of harmonic improvisation is possible. Freddie Green, guitarist in the Count Basie orchestra, was a noted exponent of this style. The harmonies are often minimal; for instance, the root note is often omitted on the assumption that it will be supplied by the bassist.
When jazz guitarists play chords underneath a song's melody or another musician's solo improvisations, it is called "comping", short for "accompanying" The accompanying style in most jazz styles differs from the way chordal instruments accompany in many popular styles of music. In many popular styles of music, such as rock and pop, the rhythm guitarist usually performs the chords in rhythmic fashion which sets out the beat or groove of a tune. In contrast, in many modern jazz styles within smaller, the guitarist plays much more sparsely, intermingling periodic chords and delicate voicings into pauses in the melody or solo, and using periods of silence. Jazz guitarists commonly use a wide variety of inversions when comping, rather than only using standard voicings.
Gypsy jazz is acoustic music, usually played without a drummer. Rhythm guitar in gypsy jazz uses a special form of strumming known as "la pompe", i.e. "the pump". This form of percussive rhythm is similar to the "boom-chick" in bluegrass styles; it is what gives the music its fast swinging feeling. The strumming hand, which never touches the top of the guitar, must make a quick up-down strum followed by a down strum. The up-down part of la pompe must be done extremely fast, regardless of the tempo of the music. It is very similar to a grace note in classical music, albeit the fact that an entire chord is used. This pattern is usually played in unison by two or more guitarists in the rhythm section.
Jazz guitar soloists are not limited to playing single notes by their instrument. This allows them to create "chord solos" by adding the song's melody on top of the chord voicings. Wes Montgomery was noted for playing successive choruses in single notes, octaves and finally a chord solo. This technique differs from chord-melody soloing in that it is not intended to be used unaccompanied
Funk utilized the same extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths. However, unlike bebop jazz, with its complex, rapid-fire chord changes, funk virtually abandoned chord changes, creating static single chord vamps with little harmonic movement, but with a complex and driving rhythmic feel. Some have jazz backgrounds. The chords used in funk songs typically imply a dorian or mixolydian mode, as opposed to the major or natural minor tonalities of most popular music. Melodic content was derived by mixing these modes with the blues scale.
In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a percussive style, often using the wah-wah sound effect and muting the notes in their riffs to create a percussive sound. Guitarists Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic were notably influenced by Jimi Hendrix's improvised solos. Eddie Hazel, who worked with George Clinton, is a notable guitar soloist in funk. Ernie Isley was tutored at an early age by Jimi Hendrix himself, when he was a part of The Isley Brothers backing band and lived in the attic temporarily at the Isleys' household. Jimmy Nolen and Phelps Collins are famous funk rhythm guitarists who both worked with James Brown.
The guitar in reggae usually plays the chords on beats two and four, a musical figure known as skank or the 'bang'. It has a very dampened, short and scratchy chop sound, almost like a percussion instrument. Sometimes a double chop is used when the guitar still plays the off beats, but also plays the following 16th or 8th beat on the up-stroke. Depending on the amount of swing or groove, this next secondary stab is often the 16th note sounding closer to an 8th placement in the rhythm. An example is the intro to "Stir It Up" by The Wailers. Artist and producer Derrick Harriott says, "What happened was the musical thing was real widespread, but only among a certain sort of people. It was always a down-town thing, but more than just hearing the music. The equipment was so powerful and the vibe so strong that we feel it." Reggae chords are typically played without overdrive or distortion. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26587 |
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers (commonly abbreviated as RHCP) are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983. Their music incorporates elements of alternative rock, funk, punk rock and psychedelic rock. The band consists of vocalist Anthony Kiedis, guitarist John Frusciante, bassist Flea, and drummer Chad Smith. With over 80 million records sold worldwide, Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the best-selling bands of all time. They are the most successful band in the history of alternative rock, with the records for most number-one singles (13), most cumulative weeks at number one (85) and most top-ten songs (25) on the "Billboard" Alternative Songs chart. They have won six Grammy Awards, and in 2012 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Red Hot Chili Peppers were formed in Los Angeles by Kiedis, Flea, guitarist Hillel Slovak, and drummer Jack Irons. Because of commitments to other bands, Slovak and Irons did not play on the band's 1984 self-titled debut album; instead, the album featured Jack Sherman on guitar and Cliff Martinez on drums. However, Slovak rejoined shortly after its release and performed on the albums "Freaky Styley" (1985) and "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan" (1987), the latter of which saw a reunion of the original lineup. Slovak died of a drug overdose on June 25, 1988; Irons, devastated, left the band.
With new recruits Frusciante and Smith, Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded "Mother's Milk" (1989) and their first major commercial success, "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" (1991). Frusciante was uncomfortable with their newfound popularity and left abruptly during the 1992 "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" tour. His replacement, Dave Navarro, played on the sixth Red Hot Chili Peppers album, "One Hot Minute" (1995). Although commercially successful, the album failed to match the critical or popular acclaim of "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", selling less than half as many copies.
In 1998, following Navarro's dismissal, Frusciante returned to Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their seventh album, "Californication" (1999), became their biggest commercial success, with 16 million copies sold worldwide. Their next albums, "By the Way" (2002) and "Stadium Arcadium" (2006), were also successful; "Stadium Arcadium" was the band's first album to reach number one on the "Billboard" 200 chart. After the "Stadium Arcadium" tour, Red Hot Chili Peppers went on an extended hiatus. Frusciante left again in 2009 to focus on his solo career; he was replaced by Josh Klinghoffer, who appeared on the albums "I'm with You" (2011) and "The Getaway" (2016), before Frusciante rejoined in 2019.
Red Hot Chili Peppers were formed in Los Angeles by singer Anthony Kiedis, guitarist Hillel Slovak, bassist Flea, and drummer Jack Irons, classmates at Fairfax High School. Their early names included Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem, and their first performance was at the Rhythm Lounge club to a crowd of approximately 30, opening for Gary and Neighbor's Voices. Inspired by punk funk acts like Contortions and Defunkt, they improvised music while Kiedis rapped.
At the time, Slovak and Irons were already committed to another group, What Is This?; however, the band was asked to return the following week. The band changed its name to Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing several shows at LA venues. Six songs from these initial shows were on the band's first demo tape. In November 1983, manager Lindy Goetz struck a seven-album deal with EMI America and Enigma Records. Two weeks earlier, however, What Is This? had also obtained a record deal with MCA, and in December Slovak and Irons quit Red Hot Chili Peppers to focus on What Is This?. Flea and Keidis recruited Weirdos drummer Cliff Martinez and guitarist Jack Sherman.
The band released their debut album, "The Red Hot Chili Peppers," in August 1984. Airplay on college radio and MTV helped build a fan base, and the album sold 300,000 copies. Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill, who produced the album, pushed the band to play with a cleaner, more radio-friendly sound, and the band was disappointed with the result, finding it over-polished. The album included backing vocals by Gwen Dickey, the singer for the 1970s disco funk group Rose Royce. The band embarked on a gruelling tour, performing 60 shows in 64 days. During the tour, continuing musical and lifestyle tension between Kiedis and Sherman complicated the transition between concert and daily band life. Sherman was fired in February 1985. Hillel Slovak, who had just quit What Is This?, rejoined in early 1985.
George Clinton produced the second album, "Freaky Styley" (1985). Clinton combined various elements of punk and funk into the band's repertoire, allowing their music to incorporate a variety of distinct styles. The album featured Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley. The band often indulged in heavy heroin use while recording the album, which influenced the lyrics and musical direction of the album. The band had a much better relationship with Clinton than with Gill, but "Freaky Styley", released on August 16, 1985, also achieved little success, failing to make an impression on any chart. The subsequent tour was also considered unproductive by the band. Despite the lack of success, the band was satisfied with "Freaky Styley"; Kiedis reflected that "it so surpassed anything we thought we could have done that we were thinking we were on the road to enormity." Around this time, the band appeared in the 1986 films "Thrashin'", playing the song "Blackeyed Blonde" from "Freaky Styley," and "Tough Guys", performing "Set It Straight".
In early 1986, EMI gave the Chili Peppers $5,000 to record a demo tape for their next album. They chose to work with producer Keith Levene from PIL, as he shared their interest in drugs. Levene and Slovak put aside $2,000 of the budget to spend on heroin and cocaine, which created tension between the band members. Martinez's "heart was no longer in the band", but he did not quit, so Kiedis and Flea fired him in April 1986. Irons rejoined the band, to their surprise; it marked the first time all four founding members were together since 1983. During the recording and subsequent tour of "Freaky Styley", Kiedis and Slovak were dealing with debilitating heroin addictions. Due to his addiction, Kiedis "didn't have the same drive or desire to come up with ideas or lyrics" and appeared at rehearsal "literally asleep".
For their third album, the Chili Peppers attempted to hire Rick Rubin to produce, but he declined due to the band's increasing drug problems. They eventually hired Michael Beinhorn from the art funk project Material, their last choice. The early attempts at recording were halted due to Kiedis's worsening drug problems, and Kiedis was briefly fired. After the band were named "band of the year" by "LA Weekly", Kiedis entered drug rehabilitation. The band auditioned new singers, but Kiedis, now sober, rejoined the recording sessions with new enthusiasm. Songs formed quickly, blending the funk feel and rhythms as "Freaky Styley" with a harder, more immediate approach to punk rock. The album was recorded in the basement of the Capitol Records Building. The recording process was difficult; Kiedis would frequently disappear to seek drugs. After fifty days of sobriety, Kiedis decided to take drugs again to celebrate his new music.
The third Red Hot Chili Peppers album, "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan", was released in September 1987. It peaked at No. 148 on the "Billboard" 200, a significant improvement over their earlier albums. During this period, however, Kiedis and Slovak had both developed serious drug addictions, often disappearing for days on end. Slovak died from a heroin overdose on June 25, 1988, soon after the conclusion of the "Uplift" tour. Kiedis fled the city and did not attend Slovak's funeral. Irons, troubled by the death, decided to leave the band; following years of depression, he became a member of Seattle grunge band Pearl Jam in 1994.
DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, a former member of Parliament-Funkadelic, was hired as guitarist, and D. H. Peligro of the punk rock band Dead Kennedys replaced Irons. Kiedis re-entered rehab, and visited Slovak's grave as part of his rehabilitation, finally confronting his grief. Thirty days later, Kiedis left rehab and was ready to resume his career with the band. Three dates into the tour, McKnight was fired, having lacked chemistry with the band. McKnight was so unhappy he threatened to burn down Kiedis' house.
Peligro introduced Kiedis and Flea to teenage guitarist and Chili Peppers fan John Frusciante. Frusciante performed his first show with the band in September 1988. The new lineup began writing for the next album and went on a short tour, the Turd Town Tour. In November, Kiedis and Flea fired Peligro due to his drug and alcohol problems. Following open auditions, they hired drummer Chad Smith in December 1988, who has remained since.
The Chili Peppers began work on their fourth album in 1989. Unlike the stop-start sessions for "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan," preproduction went smoothly. However, the sessions were made tense by Beinhorn's desire to create a hit, frustrating Frusciante and Kiedis. Released on August 16, 1989, "Mother's Milk" peaked at number 52 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200. The record failed to chart in the United Kingdom and Europe, but climbed to number 33 in Australia. "Knock Me Down" reached number six on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks, whereas "Higher Ground" charted at number eleven and reached number 54 in the UK and 45 in Australia and France. "Mother's Milk" was certified gold in March 1990 and was the first Chili Peppers album to ship over 500,000 units.
In 1990, after the success of "Mother's Milk", the Chili Peppers left EMI and entered a major-label bidding war. They signed with Warner Bros. Records and hired producer Rick Rubin. Rubin had turned the band down in 1987 because of their drug problems but felt they were now healthier and more focused. He would go on to produce five more of their albums. The writing process was more productive than it had been for "Mother's Milk", with Kiedis saying, "[every day], there was new music for me to lyricize". At Rubin's suggestion, they recorded in the Mansion, a studio in a house where magician Harry Houdini once lived.
In September 1991, "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" was released. "Give It Away" was the first single; it became one of the band's best known songs, and in 1992 won a Grammy Award for "Best Hard Rock Performance With Vocal". It became the band's first number-one single on the Modern Rock chart. The ballad "Under the Bridge" was released as a second single, and went on to reach No. 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, the highest the band had reached on that chart as of 2016.
The album sold over 12 million copies. "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" was listed at number 310 on the "Rolling Stone" magazine list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and in 1992 it rose to No. 3 on the U.S. album charts, almost a year after its release. The album was accompanied by a documentary, "Funky Monks". The band kicked off their Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour, which featured Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, three of the era's biggest upcoming bands in alternative music, as opening acts.
Frusciante was troubled by his newfound fame, and began falling out with Kiedis. Unknown to others, Frusciante was also starting a drug habit and isolating himself. Frusciante abruptly quit the band hours before a show during the Blood Sugar Japanese tour in May 1992. The band contacted guitarist Dave Navarro, who had just split from Jane's Addiction, but Navarro was involved in his drug battles. After failed auditions with Zander Schloss, Arik Marshall of Los Angeles band, Marshall Law was hired, and the Chili Peppers headlined the Lollapalooza festival in 1992. Marshall would also appear in the music videos for "Breaking the Girl" and "If You Have to Ask", as well as in "The Simpsons" episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled". In September 1992, the Chili Peppers, with Marshall, performed "Give It Away" at the MTV Video Music Awards. The band was nominated for seven awards, winning three, including Viewer's Choice. In February 1993, they performed "Give It Away" at the Grammy Awards, and the song won the band their first Grammy later that evening.
The Chili Peppers dismissed Marshall as he was too busy to attend rehearsals. They held auditions for new guitarists, including Buckethead, whom Flea felt was not right for the band. Guitarist Jesse Tobias of the Los Angeles-based band Mother Tongue was briefly hired, but dismissed as "the chemistry wasn't right". However, Navarro said he was now ready to join the band. In August 1993, the non-album single "Soul to Squeeze" was released and featured on the soundtrack to the film "Coneheads". The song topped the Billboard US Modern Rock chart.
Navarro first appeared with the band at Woodstock '94, performing early versions of new songs. This was followed by a brief tour, including headlining appearances at Pukkelpop and Reading Festivals as well as two performances as the opening act for the Rolling Stones. The relationship between Navarro and the band began to deteriorate; Navarro admitted he did not care for funk music or jamming. Kiedis had relapsed into heroin addiction following a dental procedure in which an addictive sedative, Valium, was used, though the band did not discover this until later.
Without Frusciante, songs were written at a far slower rate. Kiedis said: "John had been a true anomaly when it came to songwriting ... I just figured that was how all guitar players were, that you showed them your lyrics and sang a little bit and the next thing you knew you had a song. That didn't happen right off the bat with Dave." With Kiedis often absent from recording due to his drug problems, Flea took a larger role in the writing process, and sang lead on his song, "Pea".
"One Hot Minute" was released in September 1995 after several delays. It departed from the band's previous sound, with Navarro's guitar work incorporating heavy metal riffs and psychedelic rock. The band described the album as a darker, sadder record. Kiedis's lyrics addressed drugs, including the lead single, "Warped", and broken relationships and deaths of loved ones, including "Tearjerker," written about Kurt Cobain. Despite mixed reviews, the album sold eight million copies worldwide and produced the band's third number-one single, "My Friends". The band also contributed to soundtracks including "" and "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America."
The band began the tour for "One Hot Minute" in Europe in 1995; the US tour was postponed after Smith broke his wrist. In 1997, several shows were cancelled following deteriorating band relations, injuries, and Navarro and Kiedis's drug use. They played their only show of the year at the first Fuji Rock Festival, in Japan. In April 1998, the band announced that Navarro had left due to creative differences; Kiedis stated that the decision was "mutual". Reports at the time, however, indicated that Navarro's departure came after he attended a band practice under the influence of drugs.
With no guitarist, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were on the verge of breaking up. In the years following Frusciante's departure, it became public that he had developed a heroin addiction that left him in poverty and near death. Flea convinced Frusciante to admit himself to Las Encinas Drug Rehabilitation Center in January 1998. His addiction left him with permanent scarring on his arms, a restructured nose, and dental implants following an oral infection. In April 1998, Flea visited the recovered Frusciante and asked him to rejoin the band; Frusciante began sobbing and said nothing would make him happier.
In June 1999, after more than a year of production, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released "Californication", their seventh studio album. It sold over 16 million copies, and remains their most successful album. "Californication" contained fewer rap songs than its predecessors, instead integrating textured and melodic guitar riffs, vocals and basslines. It produced three more number one modern rock hits, "Scar Tissue", "Otherside" and "Californication". "Californication" received stronger reviews than "One Hot Minute", and was a greater success worldwide. While many critics credited the success of the album to Frusciante's return, they also felt Kiedis's vocals had also improved. It was later listed at number 399 on the "Rolling Stone" magazine list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
"Californication" was supported with a two-year international world tour, producing the first Chili Peppers concert DVD, "Off the Map" (2001). In July 1999, the Chili Peppers played the closing show at Woodstock 1999. During the set, a small fire escalated into violence and vandalism, resulting in the intervention of riot control squads. ATMs and several semi-tractor trailers were looted and destroyed. The band was blamed in the media for inciting the riots after performing a cover of the Hendrix song "Fire". In his memoir, Keidis wrote: "It was clear that this situation had nothing to do with Woodstock anymore. It wasn't symbolic of peace and love, but of greed and cashing in."
The Chili Peppers began writing their next album in early 2001, immediately following the "Californication" tour. Frusciante and Kiedis would collaborate for days straight, discussing and sharing guitar progressions and lyrics. For Kiedis, "writing "By the Way" ... was a whole different experience from "Californication". John was back to himself and brimming with confidence." The recording was difficult for Flea, who felt his role was being diminished and fought with Frusciante about the musical direction. Flea considered quitting the band after the album, but the two worked out their problems.
"By the Way" was released in July 2002 and produced four singles; "By the Way", "The Zephyr Song", "Can't Stop" and "Universally Speaking". The album was their most subdued to date, focusing on melodic ballads over rap and funk, with layered textures, more keyboards, and string arrangements. The album was followed by an eighteen-month world tour, a concert DVD, "Live at Slane Castle", and the band's first live album, "Red Hot Chili Peppers Live in Hyde Park". More than 258,000 fans paid over $17,100,000 for tickets over three nights, a 2004 record; the event ranked No. 1 on "Billboard"s Top Concert Boxscores of 2004. In November 2003, the Chili Peppers released their "Greatest Hits" album, which featured new songs "Fortune Faded" and "Save the Population".
In 2006, the Chili Peppers released their ninth album, "Stadium Arcadium". Although they initially planned to release a trilogy of albums, they chose to release a 28-track double album and released nine of the ten as B-sides. It was their first album to debut at number one on the US charts, where it stayed for two weeks, and debuted at number one in the UK and 25 other countries. "Stadium Arcadium" sold over seven million units. It won five Grammys: Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song ("Dani California"), Best Rock Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal ("Dani California"), Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package, and Best Producer (Rick Rubin).
The first single, "Dani California", was the band's fastest-selling single, debuting on top of the Modern Rock chart in the U.S., peaking at number six on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and reaching number 2 in the UK. "Tell Me Baby", released next, also topped the charts in 2006. "Snow (Hey Oh)" was released in late 2006, breaking multiple records by 2007. The song became their eleventh number-one single, giving the band a cumulative total of 81 weeks at number one. It was also the first time three consecutive singles by the band made it to number one. "Desecration Smile" was released internationally in February 2007 and reached number 27 on the UK charts. "Hump de Bump" was planned to be the next single for the US, Canada, and Australia only, but due to positive feedback from the music video, it was released as a worldwide single in May 2007.
The Stadium Arcadium World Tour began in 2006, including several festival dates. Frusciante's friend and frequent musical collaborator Josh Klinghoffer joined the touring band, contributing guitar, backing vocals, and keyboards. The band was the musical guest for "Saturday Night Live", which aired in May 2006 with featured host Tom Hanks.
Following the last leg of the Stadium Arcadium tour, the Chili Peppers took an extended break. Kiedis attributed this to the band being worn out from their years of nonstop work since "Californication" (1999). Their only recording during this time was in 2008 with George Clinton on his album "George Clinton and His Gangsters of Love;" accompanied by Kim Manning, they recorded a new version of Shirley and Lee's classic "Let the Good Times Roll".
Kiedis, who had recently become a father, planned to spend the time off taking care of his son and developing a television series based on his autobiography, "Spider and Son." Flea began taking music theory classes at the University of Southern California, and revealed plans to release a mainly instrumental solo record; guest musicians include Patti Smith and a choir from the Silverlake Conservatory. He also joined Thom Yorke and touring Chili Peppers percussionist Mauro Refosco in the supergroup Atoms for Peace. Frusciante released his solo album, "The Empyrean". Smith worked with Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, and Michael Anthony in the supergroup Chickenfoot, as well as on his solo project, Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats.
In July 2009, Frusciante left the Chili Peppers, though no announcement was made until December 2009. Frusciante explained on his Myspace page that there was no ill feeling about his departure this time, and that he wanted to focus on his solo work. In October 2009, the Chili Peppers entered the studio to begin writing their tenth studio album, with Klinghoffer replacing Frusciante.
In January 2010, the Chili Peppers, with Klinghoffer on guitar, made their live comeback in January 2010, paying tribute to Neil Young with a cover of "A Man Needs a Maid" at MusiCares. In February, after months of speculation, Klinghoffer was confirmed as Frusciante's replacement.
The band began recording their tenth studio album with producer Rick Rubin in September, and finished in March 2011. They decided against releasing another double album, reducing the album to 14 tracks. "I'm with You", the tenth Red Hot Chili Peppers album, was released in the US in August 2011. It topped the charts in 18 countries, and received mostly positive reviews. "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie", became the band's 12th number-one single. "Monarchy of Roses", "Look Around" and "Did I Let You Know" (released only in Brazil), and "Brendan's Death Song" were also released as singles.
In July 2011, the Chili Peppers played three invitation-only warm-up shows in California, their first since 2007 and their first with Klinghoffer as guitarist. The band kicked off a month-long promotional tour in August 2011, starting in Asia. The I'm With You World Tour began in September 2011, lasting into 2013. The North American leg, expected to begin in January 2012, was postponed to March due to a surgery Kiedis required for foot injuries he had suffered through since the Stadium Arcadium tour. Following the "I'm with You World Tour", the band set out on another small tour, including their first shows in Alaska, Paraguay, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Recordings from the tours were released in 2012 on the free "2011 Live EP." During the band's break, Flea and touring Chili Peppers percussionist Mauro Refosco toured with their project Atoms For Peace.
The Chili Peppers were nominated for two MTV Europe Music Awards for "Best Rock Band" and "Best Live Artist" and nominated for "Best Group" at the 2012 People's Choice Awards "I'm with You" was also nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. In April 2012, the Chili Peppers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. May saw the release of the download-only "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Covers EP", comprising previously released studio and live covers of artists that had influenced the band. From August 2012, the band began releasing a series of singles as the "I'm with You Sessions," which were compiled on the "I'm Beside You" LP in November 2013 as a Record Store Day exclusive.
In February 2014, the Chili Peppers joined Bruno Mars as performers at the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show, watched by a record 115.3 million viewers. The performance was met with mixed reviews for its use of backing music; Flea responded that it was a NFL rule for bands to pre-record music due to time and technical issues, and that they had agreed because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He said Kiedis's vocals were completely live and the band had recorded "Give it Away" during rehearsals. The band began another tour in May 2013, which ended in June 2014. "2012-13 Live EP" was released in July 2014 through their website as a free download.
The Chili Peppers released "Fandemonium" in November 2014, a book dedicated to their fans. That December, they began work on their eleventh album, their first without producer Rick Rubin since 1989; it was instead produced by Danger Mouse. Flea suffered a broken arm during a skiing trip which delayed the recording for several months. The band announced in May that "Dark Necessities", the first single from their upcoming album, would be released on May 5. On that same day, it was announced that the band's eleventh album would be titled "The Getaway", and would be released in June. Kiedis said many of the songs were influenced by a two-year relationship that fell apart. "Dark Necessities" became the band's 25th top-ten single on the "Billboard" Alternative Songs chart, a record they hold over U2. In February 2016, "Circle of the Noose", an unreleased song recorded with Navarro in 1998, was recorded in March 1998.
In May, the band released "The Getaway", the title track on their upcoming album. The music video for "Dark Necessities", directed by actress Olivia Wilde, was released in June 2016. "The Getaway" made its debut at number 2 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, behind Drake, who had the number-one album for eight consecutive weeks. "The Getaway" outsold Drake its opening week with album sales of 108,000 to 33,000 (actually placing him at 4th in sales for the week) though due to album streaming, Drake managed to top the band for the top position in the charts. In July 2016, the "Live In Paris EP" was released exclusively through the music streaming website Deezer. "Go Robot" was announced as the second single from "The Getaway". In the same month, the band members started to post images from the set of the music video. "The Getaway" was re-issued on limited edition pink vinyl in September, as part of 10 Bands 1 Cause. All money from sales of the re-issue went to Gilda's Club NYC an organization that provides community support for both those diagnosed with cancer and their caretakers. It is named after comedian Gilda Radner.
The band began the headlining portion of The Getaway World Tour in September with the North American leg, featuring Jack Irons, the band's original drummer as an opening act on all dates, beginning in January 2017. Dave Rat, the band's sound engineer since 1991, announced that following the band's show of January 22, 2017 he would no longer be working with the band.
The Getaway World Tour concluded in October 2017. The tour consisted of 151 shows lasting a year and almost five months. In December, the band headlined the Band Together 2 Benefit Concert at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Money raised from the concert went to the Tipping Point Emergency Relief Fund which between 2005 and 2017 raised $150 million to educate, employ, house and support those in need in the Bay Area.
Work on a new album began in 2018, with plans to release it in 2019. The recording was delayed due to the Woolsey Fire; the band performed a benefit show for fire victims on January 13, 2019. In February, the band performed "Dark Necessities" with rapper Post Malone at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. They appeared in Malone's music video for "Wow", released in March 2019.
In February 2019, the Chili Peppers began a month-long tour, featuring their first headlining shows in Australia in twelve years, including their first show in Tasmania, which was briefly halted due to a power outage. On March 15, 2019, they performed in Egypt, becoming one of the few acts allowed to perform at the Pyramids of Giza. The performance was live-streamed on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. On June 28, 2019, the Chili Peppers performed an unannounced private show in East Hampton, New York which was also livestreamed. On July 12, 2019, they played a four-song show for the kids at Edwin Markham Middle School in Watts, Los Angeles. The band performed in Abu Dhabi on September 4, 2019 as part of the UFC 242 event Abu Dhabi Showdown Week.
On October 26, 2019, photographer David Mushegain announced that a Chili Peppers documentary was in the works. Klinghoffer released his debut solo album, "To Be One With You", on November 22, 2019, featuring Flea and former Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons. On November 2, 2019, the Chili Peppers performed at a charity event at the Silverlake Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles; it was their final show with Klinghoffer. On December 15, 2019, the Chili Peppers released a statement via Instagram that, after 10 years, they had split with Klinghoffer and that Frusciante had rejoined the band. They wrote that Klinghoffer was "a beautiful musician who we respect and love". In an interview on the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron", Klinghoffer said there was no animosity: "It's absolutely John's place to be in that band ... I'm happy that he's back with them."
In January 2020, Smith confirmed that the Chili Peppers had been working on a new album with Frusciante. On February 8, Frusciante performed with the band for the first time in 13 years, at a memorial service held by the Tony Hawk Foundation for late film producer Andrew Burkle, son of billionaire Ronald Burkle. The band's first full shows with Frusciante were scheduled for festivals in May, but were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chili Peppers' mix of hard rock, funk and hip hop has influenced genres such as funk metal, rap metal, rap rock and nu metal. In a 2002 interview with "Penthouse", Kiedis said "We were early in creating the combination of hardcore funk with hip-hop-style vocals", and suggested they had influenced Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, and Linkin Park.
In an interview with Jason Tanamor, Smith said, "Certainly Anthony's singing style and voice lends itself to being unique, and nobody sounds like him. The cool thing about it is we can play any style of music whether it's hard and fast, or loud or quiet, slow or medium, whatever it is; rock or funk, and it still sounds like us. I'm proud of that because sometimes bands don't have that strong personality where you go, 'Oh, that's boom, right away.'"
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame In April 2012. The induction lineup was Kiedis, Flea, Smith, Klinghoffer, Frusciante, Slovak (represented by his brother James), Irons and Martinez; Frusciante was invited, but did not attend. Navarro and Sherman were not inducted; Sherman said he felt "dishonored". The band performed "By the Way", "Give It Away" and "Higher Ground", which included Irons and Martinez on drums. It was the first time Kiedis and Flea had performed with Irons in 24 years and Martinez in 26 years.
In 2012, "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", "Californication", and "By the Way" were ranked among "Rolling Stone" 500 Greatest Albums of All Time at 310, 399, and 304, respectively.
In 1990, the Chili Peppers appeared in PSA ads for Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization in the United States geared toward increasing voter turnout in the United States Presidential Election among voters ages 18 to 24.
The band was invited by the Beastie Boys and the Milarepa Fund to perform at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June 1996 in San Francisco. They also performed at the June 1998 Washington, D.C. concert as well. The concerts, which were held worldwide, were to support the cause of Tibetan independence. In September 2005, the band performed "Under the Bridge" at the benefit which was held to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The live event raised $30 million.
In July 2007, the band performed on behalf of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore who invited the band to perform at the London version of his Live Earth concerts which were held to raise awareness towards global warming and solving the most critical environmental issues of our time. The band performed a free concert in downtown Cleveland, Ohio in April 2012 in support of President Obama's re-election campaign. The requirement for getting into the concert was agreeing to volunteer for the Obama 2012 phone bank. The event quickly met its capacity limit after being announced.
In May 2013, the band performed a special concert in Portland, Oregon for the Dalai Lama as part of the Dalai Lama Environmental Summit. In January 2015, they performed their first show of the new year for the "Sean Penn & Friends Help Haiti Home" fundraiser in support of the J/P Haitian Relief Organization. The band were among over 120 entertainers and celebrities to sign up and announce that they would be voting for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election in September. The band performed at a fundraiser event at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach in the same month. All money was donated to A Reason To Survive (ARTS), Heartbeat Music Academy, San Diego Young Artists Music Academy, and the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. In October, Kiedis and Flea hosted the annual benefit for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. The band performed a special rare acoustic set.
In February 2016, the band headlined a fundraiser concert in support of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. In April, the band performed at a private function on behalf of Facebook and Napster founder Sean Parker for his launch of The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Chad Smith and Will Ferrell hosted the "Red Hot Benefit Comedy + Music Show & Quinceanera" in the same month. The benefit featured a performance by the Chili Peppers along with comedy acts selected by Ferrell and Funny or Die. A portion of the proceeds went to Ferrell's Cancer for College and Smith's Silverlake Conservatory of Music.
In February 2018, Smith once again joined Ferrell at his One Classy Night benefit at the Moore Theater in Seattle to help raise money for Cancer for College. The event raised $300,000 in college scholarship money for students who have survived cancer.
The musical style of the Red Hot Chili Peppers has been characterized as funk rock, alternative rock, funk metal and rap rock, with influences from hard, psychedelic and punk rock. The band's influences include Parliament-Funkadelic, Defunkt, Jimi Hendrix, the Misfits, Black Sabbath, Metallica, James Brown, Gang of Four, Bob Marley, Big Boys, Bad Brains, Sly and the Family Stone, Ohio Players, Queen, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Presley, Deep Purple, the Beach Boys, Black Flag, Ornette Coleman, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Fugazi, Fishbone, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holiday, Santana, Elvis Costello, the Stooges, the Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Devo, and Miles Davis.
Kiedis provided multiple vocal styles. His primary approach up to "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" was spoken verse and rapping, which he complemented with traditional vocals. This helped the band to maintain a consistent style. As the group matured, notably with "Californication" (1999), they reduced the number of rapped verses. "By the Way" (2002) contained only two songs with a rap-driven verse and melodic chorus. Kiedis's more recent style was developed through ongoing coaching.
Original guitarist Slovak's style was strongly based on blues and funk. Slovak was primarily influenced by hard-rock artists such as Hendrix, Kiss and Led Zeppelin, while his playing method was based on improvisation common in funk. He was noted for an aggressive playing style; he would often play with such force, that his fingers would "come apart". Kiedis observed that his playing evolved during his time away from the group in What Is This?, when Slovak adopted a more fluid style featuring "sultry" elements compared to his earlier hard-rock techniques. On "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan" (1987), Slovak experimented with genres outside of traditional funk music including reggae and speed metal. His guitar riffs would often serve as the basis of the group's songs, with the other members writing their parts to complement his guitar work. His melodic riff featured in the song "Behind the Sun" inspired the group to create "pretty" songs with an emphasis on melody. Kiedis describes the song as "pure Hillel inspiration". Slovak also used a talk box on songs such as "Green Heaven" and "Funky Crime", in which he would sing into a tube while playing to create psychedelic effects.
Frusciante's musical style has evolved over the course of his career. His guitar playing employs melody and emotion rather than virtuosity. Although virtuoso influences can be heard throughout his career, he has said that he often minimizes this. Frusciante brought a melodic and textured sound, notably on "Californication", "By the Way" and "Stadium Arcadium" (2006). This contrasts with his earlier abrasive approach in "Mother's Milk", as well as his dry, funky and more docile arrangements on "Blood Sugar Sex Magik". On "Californication"and "By the Way", Frusciante derived the technique of creating tonal texture through chord patterns from post-punk guitarist Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column, and bands such as Fugazi and The Cure. On "By The Way", he wanted people to be able to sing the lead guitar part, influenced by John McGeoch of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Johnny Marr of The Smiths and Bernard Sumner of Joy Division. He initially wanted this album to be composed of "these punky, rough songs", drawing inspiration from early punk artists such as The Germs and The Damned. However, this was discouraged by producer Rick Rubin, and he instead built upon "Californication"s melodically driven style. During the recording of "Stadium Arcadium" (2006), he moved away from his new-wave influences and concentrated on emulating flashier guitar players such as Hendrix and Van Halen.
Navarro brought his own sound to the band during his tenure, with his style based on heavy metal, progressive rock and psychedelia.
Klinghoffer's style employed a wide range of unconventional guitar effects and vocal treatments. In his debut Chili Peppers album, "I'm with You" (2011), he focused heavily on producing a textured, emotional sound to complement the vocals and atmosphere of each song. He has stated that he is a fan of jazz and funk.
Flea's bass guitar style can be considered an amalgamation of funk, psychedelic, punk, and hard rock. The groove-heavy melodies, played through either finger-picking or slapping, contributed to their signature style. While Flea's slap bass style was prominent in earlier albums, albums after "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" have more melodic and funk-driven bass lines. He has also used double stops on some newer songs. Flea's bass playing has changed considerably throughout the years. When he joined Fear, his technique centered largely around traditional punk-rock bass lines. However, he changed this style when Red Hot Chili Peppers formed. He began to incorporate a "slap" bass style that drew influence largely from Bootsy Collins. "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" saw a notable shift in style as it featured none of his signature technique but focused more on traditional and melodic roots. His intellectual beliefs as a musician also shifted: "I was trying to play simply on "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" because I had been playing too much prior to that, so I thought, 'I've really got to chill out and play half as many notes'. When you play less, it's more exciting—there's more room for everything. If I do play something busy, it stands out, instead of the bass being a constant onslaught of notes. Space is good."
Drummer Smith blends rock with funk, mixing metal and jazz to his beats. Influences include Buddy Rich and John Bonham. He brought a different sound to "Mother's Milk", playing tight and fast. In "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", he displays greater power. He is recognized for his ghost notes, his beats and his fast right foot. MusicRadar put him in sixth place on their list of the "50 Greatest Drummers Of All Time".
Early in the group's career, Kiedis wrote comical songs filled with sexual innuendos and songs inspired by friendship and the band members' personal experiences. However, after the death of his close friend and bandmate Hillel Slovak, Kiedis's lyrics became much more introspective and personal, as exemplified by the "Mother's Milk" song "Knock Me Down", which was dedicated to Slovak along with the "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" song "My Lovely Man".
When the band recorded "One Hot Minute" (1995) Kiedis had turned to drugs once again, which resulted in darker lyrics. He began to write about anguish, and the self-mutilating thoughts he would experience as a result of his heroin and cocaine addiction. The album also featured tributes to close friends the band lost during the recording process including Kurt Cobain on the song "Tearjerker" and River Phoenix on the song "Transcending".
After witnessing Frusciante's recovery from his heroin addiction, Kiedis wrote many songs inspired by rebirth and the meaning of life on "Californication". He was also intrigued by the life lessons that the band had learned, including Kiedis's experience with meeting a young mother at the YMCA, who was attempting to battle her crack addiction while living with her infant daughter.
On "By the Way", Kiedis was lyrically influenced by love, his girlfriend, and the emotions expressed when one fell in love. Drugs also played an integral part in Kiedis's writings, as he had only been sober since 2000. Tracks like "This Is the Place" and "Don't Forget Me" expressed his intense dislike for narcotics and the harmful physical and emotional effects they caused him. "Stadium Arcadium" (2006) continued the themes of love and romance; Kiedis stated, that "love and women, pregnancies and marriages, relationship struggles—those are real and profound influences on this record. And it's great, because it wasn't just me writing about the fact that I'm in love. It was everybody in the band. We were brimming with energy based on falling in love." "I'm with You" (2011) again featured Kiedis writing about the loss of a close friend, this time in the song "Brendan's Death Song", a tribute to club owner Brendan Mullen who gave the band some of their earliest shows and showed support to them throughout their career.
Themes within Kiedis's repertoire include love and friendship, teenage angst, good-time aggression, various sexual topics and the link between sex and music, political and social commentary (Native American issues in particular), romance, loneliness, globalization and the cons of fame and Hollywood, poverty, drugs, alcohol, dealing with death, and California.
Kiedis was convicted of indecent exposure and sexual battery in 1989 after he exposed himself to a woman following a show in Virginia. In Daytona Beach, Florida, Smith and Flea were arrested after filming an MTV Spring Break performance in 1990. They sexually harassed a 20-year-old woman during their show, after Flea walked into the crowd and carried her away. In 2016, a former music executive accused two members of the band of sexually harassing her during a business meeting in 1991.
In his autobiography, published in 2005, Kiedis admits to sex with a minor. The girl was 14 at the time while Keidis was 23. Kiedis continued the sexual relationship even after learning her age. Kiedis himself in his autobiography also admitted to being a minor, at the age of 12, when he lost his virginity to a woman who was 18 years old. The sexual encounter was set up by Kiedis' father Blackie Dammett. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26589 |
Relay
A relay is an electrically operated switch. It consists of a set of input terminals for a single or multiple control signals, and a set of operating contact terminals. The switch may have any number of contacts in multiple contact forms, such as make contacts, break contacts, or combinations thereof.
Relays are used where it is necessary to control a circuit by an independent low-power signal, or where several circuits must be controlled by one signal. Relays were first used in long-distance telegraph circuits as signal repeaters: they refresh the signal coming in from one circuit by transmitting it on another circuit. Relays were used extensively in telephone exchanges and early computers to perform logical operations.
The traditional form of a relay uses an electromagnet to close or open the contacts, but other operating principles have been invented, such as in solid-state relays which use semiconductor properties for control without relying on moving parts. Relays with calibrated operating characteristics and sometimes multiple operating coils are used to protect electrical circuits from overload or faults; in modern electric power systems these functions are performed by digital instruments still called "protective relays".
Latching relays require only a single pulse of control power to operate the switch persistently. Another pulse applied to a second set of control terminals, or a pulse with opposite polarity, resets the switch, while repeated pulses of the same kind have no effects. Magnetic latching relays are useful in applications when interrupted power should not affect the circuits that the relay is controlling.
In 1809 Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring designed an electrolytic relay as part of his electrochemical telegraph.
American scientist Joseph Henry is often claimed to have invented a relay in 1835 in order to improve his version of the electrical telegraph, developed earlier in 1831.
It is claimed that English inventor Edward Davy ""certainly invented the electric relay"" in his electric telegraph c.1835.
A simple device, which is now called a relay, was included in the original 1840 telegraph patent of Samuel Morse. The mechanism described acted as a digital amplifier, repeating the telegraph signal, and thus allowing signals to be propagated as far as desired.
The word "relay" appears in the context of electromagnetic operations from 1860.
A simple electromagnetic relay consists of a coil of wire wrapped around a soft iron core (a solenoid), an iron yoke which provides a low reluctance path for magnetic flux, a movable iron armature, and one or more sets of contacts (there are two contacts in the relay pictured). The armature is hinged to the yoke and mechanically linked to one or more sets of moving contacts. The armature is held in place by a spring so that when the relay is de-energized there is an air gap in the magnetic circuit. In this condition, one of the two sets of contacts in the relay pictured is closed, and the other set is open. Other relays may have more or fewer sets of contacts depending on their function. The relay in the picture also has a wire connecting the armature to the yoke. This ensures continuity of the circuit between the moving contacts on the armature, and the circuit track on the printed circuit board (PCB) via the yoke, which is soldered to the PCB.
When an electric current is passed through the coil it generates a magnetic field that activates the armature, and the consequent movement of the movable contact(s) either makes or breaks (depending upon construction) a connection with a fixed contact. If the set of contacts was closed when the relay was de-energized, then the movement opens the contacts and breaks the connection, and vice versa if the contacts were open. When the current to the coil is switched off, the armature is returned by a force, approximately half as strong as the magnetic force, to its relaxed position. Usually this force is provided by a spring, but gravity is also used commonly in industrial motor starters. Most relays are manufactured to operate quickly. In a low-voltage application this reduces noise; in a high voltage or current application it reduces arcing.
When the coil is energized with direct current, a diode is often placed across the coil to dissipate the energy from the collapsing magnetic field at deactivation, which would otherwise generate a voltage spike dangerous to semiconductor circuit components. Such diodes were not widely used before the application of transistors as relay drivers, but soon became ubiquitous as early germanium transistors were easily destroyed by this surge. Some automotive relays include a diode inside the relay case.
If the relay is driving a large, or especially a reactive load, there may be a similar problem of surge currents around the relay output contacts. In this case a snubber circuit (a capacitor and resistor in series) across the contacts may absorb the surge. Suitably rated capacitors and the associated resistor are sold as a single packaged component for this commonplace use.
If the coil is designed to be energized with alternating current (AC), some method is used to split the flux into two out-of-phase components which add together, increasing the minimum pull on the armature during the AC cycle. Typically this is done with a small copper "shading ring" crimped around a portion of the core that creates the delayed, out-of-phase component, which holds the contacts during the zero crossings of the control voltage.
Contact materials for relays vary by application. Materials with low contact resistance may be oxidized by the air, or may tend to "stick" instead of cleanly parting when opening. Contact material may be optimized for low electrical resistance, high strength to withstand repeated operations, or high capacity to withstand the heat of an arc. Where very low resistance is required, or low thermally-induced voltages are desired, gold-plated contacts may be used, along with palladium and other non-oxidizing, semi-precious metals. Silver or silver-plated contacts are used for signal switching. Mercury-wetted relays make and break circuits using a thin, self-renewing film of liquid mercury. For higher-power relays switching many amperes, such as motor circuit contactors, contacts are made with a mixtures of silver and cadmium oxide, providing low contact resistance and high resistance to the heat of arcing. Contacts used in circuits carrying scores or hundreds of amperes may include additional structures for heat dissipation and management of the arc produced when interrupting the circuit. Some relays have field-replaceable contacts, such as certain machine tool relays; these may be replaced when worn out, or changed between normally open and normally closed state, to allow for changes in the controlled circuit.
Where radio transmitters and receivers share one antenna, often a coaxial relay is used as a TR (transmit-receive) relay, which switches the antenna from the receiver to the transmitter. This protects the receiver from the high power of the transmitter. Such relays are often used in transceivers which combine transmitter and receiver in one unit. The relay contacts are designed not to reflect any radio frequency power back toward the source, and to provide very high isolation between receiver and transmitter terminals. The characteristic impedance of the relay is matched to the transmission line impedance of the system, for example, 50 ohms.
A contactor is a heavy-duty relay with higher current ratings, used for switching electric motors and lighting loads. Continuous current ratings for common contactors range from 10 amps to several hundred amps. High-current contacts are made with alloys containing silver. The unavoidable arcing causes the contacts to oxidize; however, silver oxide is still a good conductor. Contactors with overload protection devices are often used to start motors.
A force-guided contacts relay has relay contacts that are mechanically linked together, so that when the relay coil is energized or de-energized, all of the linked contacts move together. If one set of contacts in the relay becomes immobilized, no other contact of the same relay will be able to move. The function of force-guided contacts is to enable the safety circuit to check the status of the relay. Force-guided contacts are also known as "positive-guided contacts", "captive contacts", "locked contacts", "mechanically linked contacts", or "safety relays".
These safety relays have to follow design rules and manufacturing rules that are defined in one main machinery standard EN 50205 : Relays with forcibly guided (mechanically linked) contacts. These rules for the safety design are the one that are defined in type B standards such as EN 13849-2 as Basic safety principles and Well-tried safety principles for machinery that applies to all machines.
Force-guided contacts by themselves can not guarantee that all contacts are in the same state, however they do guarantee, subject to no gross mechanical fault, that no contacts are in opposite states. Otherwise, a relay with several normally open (NO) contacts may stick when energised, with some contacts closed and others still slightly open, due to mechanical tolerances. Similarly, a relay with several normally closed (NC) contacts may stick to the unenergised position, so that when energised, the circuit through one set of contacts is broken, with a marginal gap, while the other remains closed. By introducing both NO and NC contacts, or more commonly, changeover contacts, on the same relay, it then becomes possible to guarantee that if any NC contact is closed, all NO contacts are open, and conversely, if any NO contact is closed, all NC contacts are open. It is not possible to reliably ensure that any particular contact is closed, except by potentially intrusive and safety-degrading sensing of its circuit conditions, however in safety systems it is usually the NO state that is most important, and as explained above, this is reliably verifiable by detecting the closure of a contact of opposite sense.
Force-guided contact relays are made with different main contact sets, either NO, NC or changeover, and one or more auxiliary contact sets, often of reduced current or voltage rating, used for the monitoring system. Contacts may be all NO, all NC, changeover, or a mixture of these, for the monitoring contacts, so that the safety system designer can select the correct configuration for the particular application. Safety relays are used as part of an engineered safety system.
A latching relay, also called "impulse", "bistable", "keep", or "stay" relay, or simply "latch", maintains either contact position indefinitely without power applied to the coil. The advantage is that one coil consumes power only for an instant while the relay is being switched, and the relay contacts retain this setting across a power outage. A latching relay allows remote control of building lighting without the hum that may be produced from a continuously (AC) energized coil.
In one mechanism, two opposing coils with an over-center spring or permanent magnet hold the contacts in position after the coil is de-energized. A pulse to one coil turns the relay on and a pulse to the opposite coil turns the relay off. This type is widely used where control is from simple switches or single-ended outputs of a control system, and such relays are found in avionics and numerous industrial applications.
Another latching type has a remanent core that retains the contacts in the operated position by the remanent magnetism in the core. This type requires a current pulse of opposite polarity to release the contacts. A variation uses a permanent magnet that produces part of the force required to close the contact; the coil supplies sufficient force to move the contact open or closed by aiding or opposing the field of the permanent magnet. A polarity controlled relay needs changeover switches or an H bridge drive circuit to control it. The relay may be less expensive than other types, but this is partly offset by the increased costs in the external circuit.
In another type, a ratchet relay has a ratchet mechanism that holds the contacts closed after the coil is momentarily energized. A second impulse, in the same or a separate coil, releases the contacts. This type may be found in certain cars, for headlamp dipping and other functions where alternating operation on each switch actuation is needed.
A stepping relay is a specialized kind of multi-way latching relay designed for early automatic telephone exchanges.
An earth leakage circuit breaker includes a specialized latching relay.
Very early computers often stored bits in a magnetically latching relay, such as ferreed or the later remreed in the 1ESS switch.
Some early computers used ordinary relays as a kind of latch—they store bits in ordinary wire spring relays or reed relays by feeding an output wire back as an input, resulting in a feedback loop or sequential circuit. Such an electrically latching relay requires continuous power to maintain state, unlike magnetically latching relays or mechanically racheting relays.
In computer memories, latching relays and other relays were replaced by delay line memory, which in turn was replaced by a series of ever-faster and ever-smaller memory technologies.
A machine tool relay is a type standardized for industrial control of machine tools, transfer machines, and other sequential control. They are characterized by a large number of contacts (sometimes extendable in the field) which are easily converted from normally open to normally closed status, easily replaceable coils, and a form factor that allows compactly installing many relays in a control panel. Although such relays once were the backbone of automation in such industries as automobile assembly, the programmable logic controller (PLC) mostly displaced the machine tool relay from sequential control applications.
A relay allows circuits to be switched by electrical equipment: for example, a timer circuit with a relay could switch power at a preset time. For many years relays were the standard method of controlling industrial electronic systems. A number of relays could be used together to carry out complex functions (relay logic). The principle of relay logic is based on relays which energize and de-energize associated contacts. Relay logic is the predecessor of ladder logic, which is commonly used in programmable logic controllers.
A mercury relay is a relay that uses mercury as the switching element. They are used where contact erosion would be a problem for conventional relay contacts. Owing to environmental considerations about significant amount of mercury used and modern alternatives, they are now comparatively uncommon.
A mercury-wetted reed relay is a form of reed relay that employs a mercury switch, in which the contacts are wetted with mercury. Such relays are used to switch low-voltage signals (one volt or less). Mercury reduces the contact resistance and mitigates the associated voltage drop. Surface contamination may result in poor conductivity for low-current signals. For high-speed applications, the mercury eliminates contact bounce, and provides virtually instantaneous circuit closure. Mercury wetted relays are position-sensitive and must be mounted according to the manufacturer's specifications. Because of the toxicity and expense of liquid mercury, these relays have increasingly fallen into disuse.
The high speed of switching action of the mercury-wetted relay is a notable advantage. The mercury globules on each contact coalesce, and the current rise time through the contacts is generally considered to be a few picoseconds. However, in a practical circuit it may be limited by the inductance of the contacts and wiring. It was quite common, before restrictions on the use of mercury, to use a mercury-wetted relay in the laboratory as a convenient means of generating fast rise time pulses, however although the rise time may be picoseconds, the exact timing of the event is, like all other types of relay, subject to considerable jitter, possibly milliseconds, due to mechanical imperfections.
The same coalescence process causes another effect, which is a nuisance in some applications. The contact resistance is not stable immediately after contact closure, and drifts, mostly downwards, for several seconds after closure, the change perhaps being 0.5 ohm.
Multi-voltage relays are devices designed to work for wide voltage ranges such as 24 to 240 VAC and VDC and wide frequency ranges such as 0 to 300 Hz. They are indicated for use in installations that do not have stable supply voltages.
Electric motors need overcurrent protection to prevent damage from over-loading the motor, or to protect against short circuits in connecting cables or internal faults in the motor windings. The overload sensing devices are a form of heat operated relay where a coil heats a bimetallic strip, or where a solder pot melts, to operate auxiliary contacts. These auxiliary contacts are in series with the motor's contactor coil, so they turn off the motor when it overheats.
This thermal protection operates relatively slowly allowing the motor to draw higher starting currents before the protection relay will trip. Where the overload relay is exposed to the same ambient temperature as the motor, a useful though crude compensation for motor ambient temperature is provided.
The other common overload protection system uses an electromagnet coil in series with the motor circuit that directly operates contacts. This is similar to a control relay but requires a rather high fault current to operate the contacts. To prevent short over current spikes from causing nuisance triggering the armature movement is damped with a dashpot. The thermal and magnetic overload detections are typically used together in a motor protection relay.
Electronic overload protection relays measure motor current and can estimate motor winding temperature using a "thermal model" of the motor armature system that can be set to provide more accurate motor protection. Some motor protection relays include temperature detector inputs for direct measurement from a thermocouple or resistance thermometer sensor embedded in the winding.
A polarized relay places the armature between the poles of a permanent magnet to increase sensitivity. Polarized relays were used in middle 20th Century telephone exchanges to detect faint pulses and correct telegraphic distortion.
A reed relay is a reed switch enclosed in a solenoid. The switch has a set of contacts inside an evacuated or inert gas-filled glass tube that protects the contacts against atmospheric corrosion; the contacts are made of magnetic material that makes them move under the influence of the field of the enclosing solenoid or an external magnet.
Reed relays can switch faster than larger relays and require very little power from the control circuit. However, they have relatively low switching current and voltage ratings. Though rare, the reeds can become magnetized over time, which makes them stick "on", even when no current is present; changing the orientation of the reeds or degaussing the switch with respect to the solenoid's magnetic field can resolve this problem.
Sealed contacts with mercury-wetted contacts have longer operating lives and less contact chatter than any other kind of relay.
Safety relays are devices which generally implement protection functions. In the event of a hazard, the task of such a safety function is to use appropriate measures to reduce the existing risk to an acceptable level.
A solid-state contactor is a heavy-duty solid state relay, including the necessary heat sink, used where frequent on-off cycles are required, such as with electric heaters, small electric motors, and lighting loads. There are no moving parts to wear out and there is no contact bounce due to vibration. They are activated by AC control signals or DC control signals from programmable logic controllers (PLCs), PCs, transistor-transistor logic (TTL) sources, or other microprocessor and microcontroller controls.
A solid-state relay (SSR) is a solid state electronic component that provides a function similar to an electromechanical relay but does not have any moving components, increasing long-term reliability. A solid-state relay uses a thyristor, TRIAC or other solid-state switching device, activated by the control signal, to switch the controlled load, instead of a solenoid. An optocoupler (a light-emitting diode (LED) coupled with a photo transistor) can be used to isolate control and controlled circuits.
A static relay consists of electronic circuitry to emulate all those characteristics which are achieved by moving parts in an electro-magnetic relay.
Timing relays are arranged for an intentional delay in operating their contacts. A very short (a fraction of a second) delay would use a copper disk between the armature and moving blade assembly. Current flowing in the disk maintains magnetic field for a short time, lengthening release time. For a slightly longer (up to a minute) delay, a dashpot is used. A dashpot is a piston filled with fluid that is allowed to escape slowly; both air-filled and oil-filled dashpots are used. The time period can be varied by increasing or decreasing the flow rate. For longer time periods, a mechanical clockwork timer is installed. Relays may be arranged for a fixed timing period, or may be field adjustable, or remotely set from a control panel. Modern microprocessor-based timing relays provide precision timing over a great range.
Some relays are constructed with a kind of "shock absorber" mechanism attached to the armature which prevents immediate, full motion when the coil is either energized or de-energized. This addition gives the relay the property of time-delay actuation. Time-delay relays can be constructed to delay armature motion on coil energization, de-energization, or both.
Time-delay relay contacts must be specified not only as either normally open or normally closed, but whether the delay operates in the direction of closing or in the direction of opening. The following is a description of the four basic types of time-delay relay contacts.
First we have the normally open, timed-closed (NOTC) contact. This type of contact is normally open when the coil is unpowered (de-energized). The contact is closed by the application of power to the relay coil, but only after the coil has been continuously powered for the specified amount of time. In other words, the direction of the contact's motion (either to close or to open) is identical to a regular NO contact, but there is a delay in closing direction. Because the delay occurs in the direction of coil energization, this type of contact is alternatively known as a normally open, on-delay.
A vacuum relay is a sensitive relay having its contacts mounted in an evacuated glass housing, to permit handling radio-frequency voltages as high as 20,000 volts without flashover between contacts even though contact spacing is as low as a few hundredths of an inch when open.
Since relays are switches, the terminology applied to switches is also applied to relays; a relay switches one or more "poles", each of whose contacts can be "thrown" by energizing the coil. Normally open (NO) contacts connect the circuit when the relay is activated; the circuit is disconnected when the relay is inactive. Normally closed (NC) contacts disconnect the circuit when the relay is activated; the circuit is connected when the relay is inactive. All of the contact forms involve combinations of NO and NC connections.
The National Association of Relay Manufacturers and its successor, the Relay and Switch Industry Association define 23 distinct electrical contact forms found in relays and switches. Of these, the following are commonly encountered:
The "S" ("single") or "D" ("double") designator for the pole count may be replaced with a number, indicating multiple contacts connected to a single actuator. For example, 4PDT indicates a four-pole double-throw relay that has 12 switching terminals.
EN 50005 are among applicable standards for relay terminal numbering; a typical EN 50005-compliant SPDT relay's terminals would be numbered 11, 12, 14, A1 and A2 for the C, NC, NO, and coil connections, respectively.
DIN 72552 defines contact numbers in relays for automotive use;
Relays are used wherever it is necessary to control a high power or high voltage circuit with a low power circuit, especially when galvanic isolation is desirable. The first application of relays was in long telegraph lines, where the weak signal received at an intermediate station could control a contact, regenerating the signal for further transmission. High-voltage or high-current devices can be controlled with small, low voltage wiring and pilots switches. Operators can be isolated from the high voltage circuit. Low power devices such as microprocessors can drive relays to control electrical loads beyond their direct drive capability. In an automobile, a starter relay allows the high current of the cranking motor to be controlled with small wiring and contacts in the ignition key.
Electromechanical switching systems including Strowger and Crossbar telephone exchanges made extensive use of relays in ancillary control circuits. The Relay Automatic Telephone Company also manufactured telephone exchanges based solely on relay switching techniques designed by . The first public relay based telephone exchange in the UK was installed in Fleetwood on 15 July 1922 and remained in service until 1959.
The use of relays for the logical control of complex switching systems like telephone exchanges was studied by Claude Shannon, who formalized the application of Boolean algebra to relay circuit design in A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits. Relays can perform the basic operations of Boolean combinatorial logic. For example, the boolean AND function is realised by connecting normally open relay contacts in series, the OR function by connecting normally open contacts in parallel. Inversion of a logical input can be done with a normally closed contact. Relays were used for control of automated systems for machine tools and production lines. The Ladder programming language is often used for designing relay logic networks.
Early electro-mechanical computers such as the ARRA, Harvard Mark II, Zuse Z2, and Zuse Z3 used relays for logic and working registers. However, electronic devices proved faster and easier to use.
Because relays are much more resistant than semiconductors to nuclear radiation, they are widely used in safety-critical logic, such as the control panels of radioactive waste-handling machinery. Electromechanical protective relays are used to detect overload and other faults on electrical lines by opening and closing circuit breakers.
Selection of an appropriate relay for a particular application requires evaluation of many different factors:
A. C. Keller.
"Recent Developments in Bell System Relays -- Particularly Sealed Contact and Miniature Relays".
The Bell System Technical Journal.
1964.
Larger relays often handle higher voltage and current than smaller relays.
There are many considerations involved in the correct selection of a control relay for a particular application, including factors such as speed of operation, sensitivity, and hysteresis. Although typical control relays operate in the 5 ms to 20 ms range, relays with switching speeds as fast as 100 μs are available. Reed relays which are actuated by low currents and switch fast are suitable for controlling small currents.
As with any switch, the contact current (unrelated to the coil current) must not exceed a given value to avoid damage. In high-inductance circuits such as motors, other issues must be addressed. When an inductance is connected to a power source, an input surge current or electromotor starting current larger than the steady-state current exists. When the circuit is broken, the current cannot change instantaneously, which creates a potentially damaging arc across the separating contacts.
Consequently, for relays used to control inductive loads, we must specify the maximum current that may flow through the relay contacts when it actuates, the "make rating"; the continuous rating; and the "break rating". The make rating may be several times larger than the continuous rating, which is larger than the break rating.
Switching while "wet" (under load) causes undesired arcing between the contacts, eventually leading to contacts that weld shut or contacts that fail due to a buildup of surface damage caused by the destructive arc energy.
Inside the Number One Electronic Switching System (1ESS) crossbar switch and certain other high-reliability designs, the reed switches are always switched "dry" (without load) to avoid that problem, leading to much longer contact life.
Without adequate contact protection, the occurrence of electric current arcing causes significant degradation of the contacts, which suffer significant and visible damage. Every time the relay contacts open or close under load, an electrical arc can occur between the contacts of the relay, either a "break" arc (when opening), or a "make" / "bounce" arc (when closing). In many situations, the "break" arc is more energetic and thus more destructive, in particular with inductive loads, but this can be mitigated by bridging the contacts with a snubber circuit. The inrush current of tungsten filament incandescent lamps is typically ten times the normal operating current. Thus, relays intended for tungsten loads may use special contact composition, or the relay may have lower contact ratings for tungsten loads than for purely resistive loads.
An electrical arc across relay contacts can be very hot — thousands of degrees Fahrenheit — causing the metal on the contact surfaces to melt, pool, and migrate with the current. The extremely high temperature of the arc splits the surrounding gas molecules, creating ozone, carbon monoxide, and other compounds. Over time, the arc energy slowly destroys the contact metal, causing some material to escape into the air as fine particulate matter. This action causes the material in the contacts to degrade, resulting in device failure. This contact degradation drastically limits the overall life of a relay to a range of about 10,000 to 100,000 operations, a level far below the mechanical life of the device, which can be in excess of 20 million operations.
For protection of electrical apparatus and transmission lines, electromechanical relays with accurate operating characteristics were used to detect overload, short-circuits, and other faults. While many such relays remain in use, digital protective relays now provide equivalent and more complex protective functions.
Railway signalling relays are large considering the mostly small voltages (less than 120 V) and currents (perhaps 100 mA) that they switch. Contacts are widely spaced to prevent flashovers and short circuits over a lifetime that may exceed fifty years.
Since rail signal circuits must be highly reliable, special techniques are used to detect and prevent failures in the relay system. To protect against false feeds, double switching relay contacts are often used on both the positive and negative side of a circuit, so that two false feeds are needed to cause a false signal. Not all relay circuits can be proved so there is reliance on construction features such as carbon to silver contacts to resist lightning induced contact welding and to provide AC immunity.
Opto-isolators are also used in some instances with railway signalling, especially where only a single contact is to be switched. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26590 |
Spain
Spain (, ), officially the Kingdom of Spain (), is a country in Southwestern Europe with some pockets of territory across the Strait of Gibraltar and the Atlantic Ocean. Its continental European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula. Its territory also includes two archipelagos: the Canary Islands off the coast of North Africa, and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, makes Spain the only European country to have a physical border with an African country (Morocco). Several small islands in the Alboran Sea are also part of Spanish territory. The country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean respectively.
With an area of , Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second-largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, and the fourth-largest country by area on the European continent. With a population exceeding 47.3 million, Spain is the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the fourth-most populous country in the European Union. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid; other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Málaga, and Bilbao.
Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Iberian cultures along with ancient Phoenician, Greek, Celtic and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after which the region was named "Hispania", based on the earlier Phoenician name "Sp(a)n" or "Spania". At the end of the Western Roman Empire, Germanic tribal confederations migrated from Central Europe, invaded the Iberian peninsula and established relatively independent realms in its western provinces. One of them, the Visigoths, forcibly integrated all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including the Byzantine province of Spania, into the Visigothic Kingdom.
In the early eighth century the Visigothic Kingdom was conquered by the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate. The Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus) soon became autonomous from Baghdad. A handful of small Christian pockets in the north were left out of Muslim rule, along the presence of the Carolingian Empire near the Pyrenées, eventually led to the emergence of the Christian kingdoms of León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal and Navarre. Over seven centuries, an intermittent southwards expansion of these kingdoms (metahistorically dubbed as a reconquest: the "Reconquista") culminated with the Christian seizure of the last Muslim polity (the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada) in 1492, the same year Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. A process of political conglomeration among the Christian kingdoms also ensued, and the late 15th-century saw the dynastic union of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs, sometimes considered to be the emergence of Spain as a unified country. The Conquest of Navarre occurred in 1512, while the Kingdom of Portugal was also ruled by the Hapsburg Dynasty between 1580 and 1640.
In the early modern period, Spain ruled one of the largest empires in history which was also one of the first global empires, spawning a large cultural and linguistic legacy that includes over 570 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese. Spain hosts the world's third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a parliamentary monarchy, with King Felipe VI as head of state. It is a major developed country and a high income country, with the world's fourteenth-largest economy by nominal GDP and the sixteenth-largest by PPP. It is a member of the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the Eurozone, the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), the Union for the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Schengen Area, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and many other international organisations. While not an official member, Spain has a "Permanent Invitation" to the G20 summits, participating in every summit, which makes it a "de facto" member of the group.
The origins of the Roman name "Hispania", and the modern "España", are uncertain, although the Phoenicians and Carthaginians referred to the region as "Spania", therefore the most widely accepted etymology is a Semitic-Phoenician one. There have been a number of accounts and hypotheses of its orgin:
The Renaissance scholar Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word "Hispania" evolved from the Iberian word "Hispalis", meaning "city of the western world".
"Hispania" may derive from the poetic use of the term "Hesperia", reflecting the Greek perception of Italy as a "western land" or "land of the setting sun" ("Hesperia", "Ἑσπερία" in Greek) and Spain, being still further west, as "Hesperia ultima".
There is the claim that "Hispania" derives from the Basque word "Ezpanna" meaning "edge" or "border", another reference to the fact that the Iberian Peninsula constitutes the southwest corner of the European continent.
Two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. Phiros was a Grecian by birth, but who had been given a kingdom in Spain. Phiros became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, who also ruled over a kingdom in Spain. Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of "España" (Spain) took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c. 350 BCE.
Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe's most ancient cities Cádiz and Málaga. Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theatre of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman rule. During the early Middle Ages it came under Visigothic rule, and then much of it was conquered by Muslim invaders from North Africa. In a process that took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Muslim state fell in 1492, the same year Columbus reached the Americas. A global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries.
Continued wars and other problems eventually led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic conflict in Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire and left the country politically unstable. Spain suffered a devastating civil war in the 1930s and then came under the rule of an authoritarian government, which oversaw a period of stagnation that was followed by a surge in the growth of the economy. Eventually democracy was restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a cultural renaissance and steady economic growth until the beginning of the 21st century, that started a new globalised world with economic and ecological challenges.
Archaeological research at Atapuerca indicates the Iberian Peninsula was populated by hominids 1.2 million years ago. In Atapuerca fossils have been found of the earliest known hominins in Europe, the Homo antecessor. Modern humans first arrived in Iberia, from the north on foot, about 35,000 years ago. The best known artefacts of these prehistoric human settlements are the famous paintings in the Altamira cave of Cantabria in northern Iberia, which were created from 35,600 to 13,500 BCE by Cro-Magnon. Archaeological and genetic evidence suggests that the Iberian Peninsula acted as one of several major refugia from which northern Europe was repopulated following the end of the last ice age.
The largest groups inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula before the Roman conquest were the Iberians and the Celts. The Iberians inhabited the Mediterranean side of the peninsula, from the northeast to the southeast. The Celts inhabited much of the inner and Atlantic sides of the peninsula, from the northwest to the southwest. Basques occupied the western area of the Pyrenees mountain range and adjacent areas, the Phoenician-influenced Tartessians culture flourished in the southwest and the Lusitanians and Vettones occupied areas in the central west. A number of cities were founded along the coast by Phoenicians, and trading outposts and colonies were established by Greeks in the East. Eventually, Phoenician-Carthaginians expanded inland towards the meseta; however, due to the bellicose inland tribes, the Carthaginians got settled in the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula.
During the Second Punic War, roughly between 210 and 205 BC the expanding Roman Republic captured Carthaginian trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast. Although it took the Romans nearly two centuries to complete the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, they retained control of it for over six centuries. Roman rule was bound together by law, language, and the Roman road.
The cultures of the Celtic and Iberian populations were gradually Romanised (Latinised) at different rates depending on what part of Hispania they lived in, with local leaders being admitted into the Roman aristocratic class. Hispania served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbours exported gold, wool, olive oil, and wine. Agricultural production increased with the introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use. Emperors Hadrian, Trajan, Theodosius I, and the philosopher Seneca were born in Hispania. Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century AD and it became popular in the cities in the 2nd century AD. Most of Spain's present languages and religion, and the basis of its laws, originate from this period.
The weakening of the Western Roman Empire's jurisdiction in Hispania began in 409, when the Germanic Suebi and Vandals, together with the Sarmatian Alans entered the peninsula at the invitation of a Roman usurper. These tribes had crossed the Rhine in early 407 and ravaged Gaul. The Suebi established a kingdom in what is today modern Galicia and northern Portugal whereas the Vandals established themselves in southern Spain by 420 before crossing over to North Africa in 429 and taking Carthage in 439. As the western empire disintegrated, the social and economic base became greatly simplified: but even in modified form, the successor regimes maintained many of the institutions and laws of the late empire, including Christianity and assimilation to the evolving Roman culture.
The Byzantines established an occidental province, Spania, in the south, with the intention of reviving Roman rule throughout Iberia. Eventually, however, Hispania was reunited under Visigothic rule. These Visigoths, or Western Goths, after sacking Rome under the leadership of Alaric (410), turned towards the Iberian Peninsula, with Athaulf for their leader, and occupied the northeastern portion. Wallia extended his rule over most of the peninsula, keeping the Suebians shut up in Galicia. Theodoric I took part, with the Romans and Franks, in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, where Attila was routed. Euric (466), who put an end to the last remnants of Roman power in the peninsula, may be considered the first monarch of Spain, though the Suebians still maintained their independence in Galicia. Euric was also the first king to give written laws to the Visigoths. In the following reigns the Catholic kings of France assumed the role of protectors of the Hispano-Roman Catholics against the Arianism of the Visigoths, and in the wars which ensued Alaric II and Amalaric lost their lives.
Athanagild, having risen against King Agila, called in the Byzantines and, in payment for the succour they gave him, ceded to them the maritime places of the southeast (554). Liuvigild restored the political unity of the peninsula, subduing the Suebians, but the religious divisions of the country, reaching even the royal family, brought on a civil war. St. Hermengild, the king's son, putting himself at the head of the Catholics, was defeated and taken prisoner, and suffered martyrdom for rejecting communion with the Arians. Recared, son of Liuvigild and brother of St. Hermengild, added religious unity to the political unity achieved by his father, accepting the Catholic faith in the Third Council of Toledo (589). The religious unity established by this council was the basis of that fusion of Goths with Hispano-Romans which produced the Spanish nation. Sisebut and Suintila completed the expulsion of the Byzantines from Spain.
Intermarriage between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans was prohibited, though in practice it could not be entirely prevented and was eventually legalised by Liuvigild. The Spanish-Gothic scholars such as Braulio of Zaragoza and Isidore of Seville played an important role in keeping the classical Greek and Roman culture. Isidore was one of the most influential clerics and philosophers in the Middle Ages in Europe, and his theories were also vital to the conversion of the Visigothic Kingdom from an Arian domain to a Catholic one in the Councils of Toledo. Isidore created the first western encyclopedia which had a huge impact during the Middle Ages.
In the 8th century, nearly all of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered (711–718) by largely Moorish Muslim armies from North Africa. These conquests were part of the expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate. Only a small area in the mountainous north-west of the peninsula managed to resist the initial invasion. Legend has it that Count Julian, the governor of Ceuta, in revenge for the violation of his daughter, Florinda, by King Roderic, invited the Muslims and opened to them the gates of the peninsula.
Under Islamic law, Christians and Jews were given the subordinate status of dhimmi. This status permitted Christians and Jews to practice their religions as "People of the Book" but they were required to pay a special tax and had legal and social rights inferior to those of Muslims.
Conversion to Islam proceeded at an increasing pace. The "muladíes" (Muslims of ethnic Iberian origin) are believed to have formed the majority of the population of Al-Andalus by the end of the 10th century.
The Muslim community in the Iberian Peninsula was itself diverse and beset by social tensions. The Berber people of North Africa, who had provided the bulk of the invading armies, clashed with the Arab leadership from the Middle East. Over time, large Moorish populations became established, especially in the Guadalquivir River valley, the coastal plain of Valencia, the Ebro River valley and (towards the end of this period) in the mountainous region of Granada.
Córdoba, the capital of the caliphate since Abd-ar-Rahman III, was the largest, richest and most sophisticated city in western Europe. Mediterranean trade and cultural exchange flourished. Muslims imported a rich intellectual tradition from the Middle East and North Africa. Some important philosophers at the time were Averroes, Ibn Arabi and Maimonides. The Romanised cultures of the Iberian Peninsula interacted with Muslim and Jewish cultures in complex ways, giving the region a distinctive culture. Outside the cities, where the vast majority lived, the land ownership system from Roman times remained largely intact as Muslim leaders rarely dispossessed landowners and the introduction of new crops and techniques led to an expansion of agriculture introducing new produces which originally came from Asia or the former territories of the Roman Empire.
In the 11th century, the Muslim holdings fractured into rival Taifa states (Arab, Berber, and Slav), allowing the small Christian states the opportunity to greatly enlarge their territories. The arrival from North Africa of the Islamic ruling sects of the Almoravids and the Almohads restored unity upon the Muslim holdings, with a stricter, less tolerant application of Islam, and saw a revival in Muslim fortunes. This re-united Islamic state experienced more than a century of successes that partially reversed Christian gains.
The "Reconquista" (Reconquest) was the centuries-long period in which Christian rule was re-established over the Iberian Peninsula. The Reconquista is viewed as beginning with the Battle of Covadonga won by Don Pelayo in 722 and was concurrent with the period of Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula. The Christian army's victory over Muslim forces led to the creation of the Christian Kingdom of Asturias along the northwestern coastal mountains. Shortly after, in 739, Muslim forces were driven from Galicia, which was to eventually host one of medieval Europe's holiest sites, Santiago de Compostela and was incorporated into the new Christian kingdom.
The Vikings invaded Galicia in 844, but were heavily defeated by Ramiro I of Asturias at A Coruña. Many of the Vikings' casualties were caused by the Galicians' ballistas – powerful torsion-powered projectile weapons that looked rather like giant crossbows. 70 Viking ships were captured and burned. Vikings raided Galicia in 859, during the reign of Ordoño I of Asturias. Ordoño was at the moment engaged against his constant enemies the Moors; but a count of the province, Don Pedro, attacked the Vikings and defeated them.
The Kingdom of León was the strongest Christian kingdom for centuries. In 1188 the first modern parliamentary session in Europe was held in León (Cortes of León). The Kingdom of Castile, formed from Leonese territory, was its successor as strongest kingdom. The kings and the nobility fought for power and influence in this period. The example of the Roman emperors influenced the political objective of the Crown, while the nobles benefited from feudalism.
Muslim armies had also moved north of the Pyrenees but they were defeated by Frankish forces at the Battle of Poitiers, Frankia and pushed out of the very southernmost region of France along the seacoast by the 760s. Later, Frankish forces established Christian counties on the southern side of the Pyrenees. These areas were to grow into the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon. For several centuries, the fluctuating frontier between the Muslim and Christian controlled areas of Iberia was along the Ebro and Douro valleys.
The Islamic transmission of the classics is the main Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe. The Castilian language—more commonly known (especially later in history and at present) as "Spanish" after becoming the national language and "lingua franca" of Spain—evolved from Vulgar Latin, as did other Romance languages of Spain like the Catalan, Asturian and Galician languages, as well as other Romance languages in Latin Europe. Basque, the only non-Romance language in Spain, continued evolving from Early Basque to Medieval. The "Glosas Emilianenses" (found at the Monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla and written in Latin, Basque and Romance) hold a great value as one of the first written examples of Iberian Romance.
The break-up of Al-Andalus into the competing taifa kingdoms helped the long embattled Iberian Christian kingdoms gain the initiative. The capture of the strategically central city of Toledo in 1085 marked a significant shift in the balance of power in favour of the Christian kingdoms. Following a great Muslim resurgence in the 12th century, the great Moorish strongholds in the south fell to Castile in the 13th century—Córdoba in 1236 and Seville in 1248. The County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon entered in a dynastic union and gained territory and power in the Mediterranean. In 1229 Majorca was conquered, so was Valencia in 1238. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Marinid dynasty of Morocco invaded and established some enclaves on the southern coast but failed in their attempt to re-establish North African rule in Iberia and were soon driven out.
After 800 years of Muslim presence in Spain, the last Nasrid sultanate of Granada, a tributary state would finally surrender in 1492 to the Catholic monarchs Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon.
From the mid 13th century, literature and philosophy started to flourish again in the Christian peninsular kingdoms, based on Roman and Gothic traditions. An important philosopher from this time is Ramon Llull. Abraham Cresques was a prominent Jewish cartographer. Roman law and its institutions were the model for the legislators. The king Alfonso X of Castile focused on strengthening this Roman and Gothic past, and also on linking the Iberian Christian kingdoms with the rest of medieval European Christendom. Alfonso worked for being elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and published the Siete Partidas code. The Toledo School of Translators is the name that commonly describes the group of scholars who worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries, to translate many of the philosophical and scientific works from Classical Arabic, Ancient Greek, and Ancient Hebrew.
The 13th century also witnessed the Crown of Aragon, centred in Spain's north east, expand its reach across islands in the Mediterranean, to Sicily and Naples. Around this time the universities of Palencia (1212/1263) and Salamanca (1218/1254) were established. The Black Death of 1348 and 1349 devastated Spain.
The Catalans and Aragonese offered themselves to the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus to fight the Turks. Having conquered these, they turned their arms against the Byzantines, who treacherously slew their leaders; but for this treachery the Spaniards, under Bernard of Rocafort and Berenguer of Entenca, exacted the terrible penalty celebrated in history as "The Catalan Vengeance" and moreover seized the Frankish Duchy of Athens (1311). The royal line of Aragon became extinct with Martin the Humane, and the Compromise of Caspe gave the Crown to the House of Trastámara, already reigning in Castile.
As in the rest of Europe during the Late Middle Ages, Antisemitism greatly increased during the 14th century in the Christian kingdoms (a key event in that regard was the Black Death, as Jews were accused of poisoning the waters). There were mass killings in Aragon in the mid-14th century, and 12,000 Jews were killed in Toledo. In 1391, Christian mobs went from town to town throughout Castile and Aragon, killing an estimated 50,000 Jews. Women and children were sold as slaves to Muslims, and many synagogues were converted into churches. According to Hasdai Crescas, about 70 Jewish communities were destroyed. St. Vincent Ferrer converted innumerable Jews, among them the Rabbi Josuah Halorqui, who took the name of Jerónimo de Santa Fe and in his town converted many of his former coreligionists in the famous Disputation of Tortosa (1413–14).
In 1469, the crowns of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united by the marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. 1478 commenced the completion of the conquest of the Canary Islands and in 1492, the combined forces of Castile and Aragon captured the Emirate of Granada from its last ruler Muhammad XII, ending the last remnant of a 781-year presence of Islamic rule in Iberia.
That same year, Spain's Jews were ordered to convert to Catholicism or face expulsion from Spanish territories during the Spanish Inquisition. As many as 200,000 Jews were expelled from Spain. This was followed by expulsions in 1493 in Aragonese Sicily and Portugal in 1497. The Treaty of Granada guaranteed religious tolerance towards Muslims, for a few years before Islam was outlawed in 1502 in the Kingdom of Castile and 1527 in the Kingdom of Aragon, leading to Spain's Muslim population becoming nominally Christian Moriscos. A few decades after the Morisco rebellion of Granada known as the War of the Alpujarras, a significant proportion of Spain's formerly-Muslim population was expelled, settling primarily in North Africa. From 1609–14, over 300,000 Moriscos were sent on ships to North Africa and other locations, and, of this figure, around 50,000 died resisting the expulsion, and 60,000 died on the journey.
The year 1492 also marked the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World, during a voyage funded by Isabella. Columbus's first voyage crossed the Atlantic and reached the Caribbean Islands, beginning the European exploration and conquest of the Americas, although Columbus remained convinced that he had reached the Orient. Large numbers of indigenous Americans died in battle against the Spaniards during the conquest, while others died from various other causes. Some scholars consider the initial period of the Spanish conquest— from Columbus's first landing in the Bahamas until the middle of the sixteenth century—as marking the most egregious case of genocide in the history of mankind. The death toll may have reached some 70 million indigenous people (out of 80 million) in this period, as diseases such as smallpox, measles, influenza, and typhus, brought to the Americas by the conquest, decimated the pre-Columbian population.
The colonisation of the Americas started with "conquistadores" like Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro. Miscegenation was the rule between the native and the Spanish cultures and people. Juan Sebastian Elcano completed the first voyage around the world in human history, the Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation. Florida was colonised by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés when he founded St. Augustine, Florida and then defeated an attempt led by the French Captain Jean Ribault to establish a French foothold in Spanish Florida territory. St. Augustine became a strategic defensive base for Spanish ships full of gold and silver sailing to Spain. Andrés de Urdaneta discovered the tornaviaje or return route from the Philippines to Mexico, making possible the Manila galleon trading route. The Spanish once again encountered Islam, but this time in Southeast Asia and in order to incorporate the Philippines, Spanish expeditions organised from newly Christianised Mexico had invaded the Philippine territories of the Sultanate of Brunei. The Spanish considered the war with the Muslims of Brunei and the Philippines, a repeat of the Reconquista. The Spanish explorer Blas Ruiz intervened in Cambodia's succession and installed Crown Prince Barom Reachea II as puppet.
As Renaissance New Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand centralised royal power at the expense of local nobility, and the word "España", whose root is the ancient name "Hispania", began to be commonly used to designate the whole of the two kingdoms.
With their wide-ranging political, legal, religious and military reforms, Spain emerged as the first world power. The death of their son Prince John caused the Crown to pass to Charles I (the Emperor Charles V), son of Juana la Loca.
The unification of the crowns of Aragon and Castile by the marriage of their sovereigns laid the basis for modern Spain and the Spanish Empire, although each kingdom of Spain remained a separate country socially, politically, legally, and in currency and language.
There were two big revolts against the new Habsburg monarch and the more authoritarian and imperial-style crown: Revolt of the Comuneros in Castile and Revolt of the Brotherhoods in Majorca and Valencia. After years of combat, Comuneros Juan López de Padilla, Juan Bravo and Francisco Maldonado were executed and María Pacheco went into exile. Germana de Foix also finished with the revolt in the Mediterranean.
Habsburg Spain was one of the leading world powers throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th century, a position reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions and became the world's leading maritime power. It reached its apogee during the reigns of the first two Spanish Habsburgs—Charles I (1516–1556) and Philip II (1556–1598). This period saw the Italian Wars, the Schmalkaldic War, the Dutch Revolt, the War of the Portuguese Succession, clashes with the Ottomans, intervention in the French Wars of Religion and the Anglo-Spanish War.
Through exploration and conquest or royal marriage alliances and inheritance, the Spanish Empire expanded to include vast areas in the Americas, islands in the Asia-Pacific area, areas of Italy, cities in Northern Africa, as well as parts of what are now France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The first circumnavigation of the world was carried out in 1519–1521. It was the first empire on which it was said that the sun never set. This was an Age of Discovery, with daring explorations by sea and by land, the opening-up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginnings of European colonialism. Spanish explorers brought back precious metals, spices, luxuries, and previously unknown plants, and played a leading part in transforming the European understanding of the globe. The cultural efflorescence witnessed during this period is now referred to as the Spanish Golden Age. The expansion of the empire caused immense upheaval in the Americas as the collapse of societies and empires and new diseases from Europe devastated American indigenous populations. The rise of humanism, the Counter-Reformation and new geographical discoveries and conquests raised issues that were addressed by the intellectual movement now known as the School of Salamanca, which developed the first modern theories of what are now known as international law and human rights. Juan Luis Vives was another prominent humanist during this period.
Spain's 16th century maritime supremacy was demonstrated by the victory over the Ottomans at Lepanto in 1571, and then after the setback of the Spanish Armada in 1588, in a series of victories against England in the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604. However, during the middle decades of the 17th century Spain's maritime power went into a long decline with mounting defeats against the United Provinces and then England; that by the 1660s it was struggling grimly to defend its overseas possessions from pirates and privateers.
The Protestant Reformation dragged the kingdom ever more deeply into the mire of religiously charged wars. The result was a country forced into ever expanding military efforts across Europe and in the Mediterranean. By the middle decades of a war- and plague-ridden 17th-century Europe, the Spanish Habsburgs had enmeshed the country in continent-wide religious-political conflicts. These conflicts drained it of resources and undermined the economy generally. Spain managed to hold on to most of the scattered Habsburg empire, and help the imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire reverse a large part of the advances made by Protestant forces, but it was finally forced to recognise the separation of Portugal and the United Provinces, and eventually suffered some serious military reverses to France in the latter stages of the immensely destructive, Europe-wide Thirty Years' War. In the latter half of the 17th century, Spain went into a gradual decline, during which it surrendered several small territories to France and England; however, it maintained and enlarged its vast overseas empire, which remained intact until the beginning of the 19th century.
The decline culminated in a controversy over succession to the throne which consumed the first years of the 18th century. The War of the Spanish Succession was a wide-ranging international conflict combined with a civil war, and was to cost the kingdom its European possessions and its position as one of the leading powers on the Continent.
During this war, a new dynasty originating in France, the Bourbons, was installed. Long united only by the Crown, a true Spanish state was established when the first Bourbon king, Philip V, united the crowns of Castile and Aragon into a single state, abolishing many of the old regional privileges and laws.
The 18th century saw a gradual recovery and an increase in prosperity through much of the empire. The new Bourbon monarchy drew on the French system of modernising the administration and the economy. Enlightenment ideas began to gain ground among some of the kingdom's elite and monarchy. Bourbon reformers created formal disciplined militias across the Atlantic. Spain needed every hand it could take during the seemingly endless wars of the eighteenth century—the Spanish War of Succession or Queen Anne's War (1702–13), the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–42) which became the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and the Anglo-Spanish War (1779–83)—and its new disciplined militias served around the Atlantic as needed.
In 1793, Spain went to war against the revolutionary new French Republic as a member of the first Coalition. The subsequent War of the Pyrenees polarised the country in a reaction against the gallicised elites and following defeat in the field, peace was made with France in 1795 at the Peace of Basel in which Spain lost control over two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola. The Prime Minister, Manuel Godoy, then ensured that Spain allied herself with France in the brief War of the Third Coalition which ended with the British naval victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In 1807, a secret treaty between Napoleon and the unpopular prime minister led to a new declaration of war against Britain and Portugal. Napoleon's troops entered the country to invade Portugal but instead occupied Spain's major fortresses. The Spanish king abdicated in favour of Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte.
Joseph Bonaparte was seen as a puppet monarch and was regarded with scorn by the Spanish. The 2 May 1808 revolt was one of many nationalist uprisings across the country against the Bonapartist regime. These revolts marked the beginning of a devastating war of independence against the Napoleonic regime. The most celebrated battles of this war were those of Bruch, in the highlands of Montserrat, in which the Catalan peasantry routed a French army; Bailén, where Castaños, at the head of the army of Andalusia, defeated Dupont; and the sieges of Zaragoza and Girona, which were worthy of the ancient Spaniards of Saguntum and Numantia.
Napoleon was forced to intervene personally, defeating several Spanish armies and forcing a British army to retreat. However, further military action by Spanish armies, guerrillas and Wellington's British-Portuguese forces, combined with Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, led to the ousting of the French imperial armies from Spain in 1814, and the return of King Ferdinand VII.
During the war, in 1810, a revolutionary body, the Cortes of Cádiz, was assembled to co-ordinate the effort against the Bonapartist regime and to prepare a constitution. It met as one body, and its members represented the entire Spanish empire. In 1812, a constitution for universal representation under a constitutional monarchy was declared, but after the fall of the Bonapartist regime, Ferdinand VII dismissed the Cortes Generales and was determined to rule as an absolute monarch. These events foreshadowed the conflict between conservatives and liberals in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Spain's conquest by France benefited Latin American anti-colonialists who resented the Imperial Spanish government's policies that favoured Spanish-born citizens (Peninsulars) over those born overseas (Criollos) and demanded retroversion of the sovereignty to the people. Starting in 1809 Spain's American colonies began a series of revolutions and declared independence, leading to the Spanish American wars of independence that ended Spanish control over its mainland colonies in the Americas. King Ferdinand VII's attempt to re-assert control proved futile as he faced opposition not only in the colonies but also in Spain and army revolts followed, led by liberal officers. By the end of 1826, the only American colonies Spain held were Cuba and Puerto Rico.
The Napoleonic War left Spain economically ruined, deeply divided and politically unstable. In the 1830s and 1840s, Carlism (a reactionary legitimist movement supportive of the branch issued from Carlos María Isidro of Bourbon, younger brother of Ferdinand VII), fought against the "cristinos" or "isabelinos" (supportive of Queen Isabella II, daughter of Ferdinand VII) in the Carlist Wars. "Isabelline" forces prevailed, but the conflict between "progressives" and "moderates" ended in a weak early constitutional period. After the Glorious Revolution of 1868 and the short-lived First Spanish Republic, the latter yielded to a stable monarchic period, the Restoration, a rigid bipartisan regime fuelled up by the "turnismo" (the prearranged rotation of government control between liberals and conservatives) and the form of political representation at the countryside (based on clientelism) known as .
In the late 19th century nationalist movements arose in the Philippines and Cuba. In 1895 and 1896 the Cuban War of Independence and the Philippine Revolution broke out and eventually the United States became involved. The Spanish–American War was fought in the spring of 1898 and resulted in Spain losing the last of its once vast colonial empire outside of North Africa. "El Desastre" (the Disaster), as the war became known in Spain, gave added impetus to the Generation of '98 who were conducting an analysis of the country.
Although the period around the turn of the century was one of increasing prosperity, the 20th century brought little social peace; Spain played a minor part in the scramble for Africa, with the colonisation of Western Sahara, Spanish Morocco and Equatorial Guinea. It remained neutral during World War I (see Spain in World War I). The heavy losses suffered during the Rif War in Morocco brought discredit to the government and undermined the monarchy.
Industrialisation, the development of rail-ways and incipient capitalism developed in several areas of the country, particularly in Barcelona, as well as Labour movement and socialist and anarchist ideas. The 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition and the 1870 Barcelona Labour Congress are good examples of this. In 1879, Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is founded. Linked trade union to this party, Unión General de Trabajadores, was founded in 1888. In the anarcho-sindicalist trend of the labour movement in Spain, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo was founded in 1910 and Federación Anarquista Ibérica in 1927.
Catalanism and vasquism, alongside other nationalisms and regionalisms in Spain, arose in that period, being the Basque Nationalist Party formed in 1895 and Regionalist League of Catalonia in 1901.
Political corruption and repression weakened the democratic system of the constitutional monarchy of a two-parties system. The Tragic Week (Spain) events and repression examples the social instability of the time.
The La Canadiense strike in 1919 led to the first law limiting the working day to eight hours.
After a period of dictatorship during the governments of Generals Miguel Primo de Rivera and Dámaso Berenguer and Admiral Aznar-Cabañas (1923–1931), the first elections since 1923, largely understood as a plebiscite on Monarchy, took place: the 12 April 1931 municipal elections. These gave a resounding victory to the Republican-Socialist candidacies in large cities and provincial capitals, with a majority of monarchist councillors in rural areas. The king left the country and the proclamation of the Republic on 14 April ensued, with the formation of a provisional government.
A constitution for the country was passed in October 1931 following the June 1931 Constituent general election, and a series of cabinets presided by Manuel Azaña supported by republican parties and the PSOE followed. In the election held in 1933 the right triumphed and in 1936, the left. During the Second Republic there was a great political and social upheaval, marked by a sharp radicalisation of the left and the right. The violent acts during this period included the burning of churches, the 1932 failed coup d'état led by José Sanjurjo, the Revolution of 1934 and numerous attacks against rival political leaders. On the other hand, it is also during the Second Republic when important reforms in order to modernise the country were initiated: a democratic constitution, agrarian reform, restructuring of the army, political decentralisation or women's right to vote.
The Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936: on 17 and 18 July, part of the military carried out a coup d'état that triumphed in only part of the country. The situation led to a civil war, in which the territory was divided into two zones: one under the authority of the Republican government, that counted on outside support from the Soviet Union and Mexico (and from International Brigades), and the other controlled by the putschists (the Nationalist or rebel faction), most critically supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The Republic was not supported by the Western powers due to the British-led policy of non-intervention. General Francisco Franco was sworn in as the supreme leader of the rebels in the Autumn of 1936. An uneasy relation between the Republican government and the grassroots anarchists who had initiated a partial Social revolution also ensued.
The civil war was viciously fought and there were many atrocities committed by all sides. The war claimed the lives of over 500,000 people and caused the flight of up to a half-million citizens from the country. On 1 April 1939, five months before the beginning of World War II, the rebel side led by Franco emerged victorious, imposing a dictatorship over the whole country.
The regime remained chiefly "neutral" from a nominal standpoint in the Second World War (it briefly switched its position to "non-belligerent"), although it was sympathetic to the Axis and provided the Nazi Wehrmacht with Spanish volunteers in the Eastern Front. The only legal party under Franco's dictatorship was the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS (FET y de las JONS), formed in 1937 upon the merging of the Fascist Falange Española de las JONS and the Carlist traditionalists and to which the rest of right-wing groups supporting the rebels also added. The name of "Movimiento Nacional", sometimes understood as a wider structure than the FET y de las JONS proper, largely imposed over the later's name in official documents along the 1950s.
After World War II Spain was politically and economically isolated, and was kept out of the United Nations. This changed in 1955, during the Cold War period, when it became strategically important for the US to establish a military presence on the Iberian Peninsula as a counter to any possible move by the Soviet Union into the Mediterranean basin. In the 1960s, Spain registered an unprecedented rate of economic growth which was propelled by industrialisation, a mass internal migration from rural areas to Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque Country and the creation of a mass tourism industry. Franco's rule was also characterised by authoritarianism, promotion of a unitary national identity, the favouring of a very conservative form of Roman Catholicism known as National Catholicism, and discriminatory language policies.
On 17 January 1966, a fatal collision occurred between a B-52G and a KC-135 Stratotanker over Palomares. The conventional explosives in two of the Mk28-type hydrogen bombs detonated upon impact with the ground, dispersing plutonium over nearby farms.
In 1962, a group of politicians involved in the opposition to Franco's regime inside the country and in exile met in the congress of the European Movement in Munich, where they made a resolution in favour of democracy.
With Franco's death in November 1975, Juan Carlos succeeded to the position of King of Spain and head of state in accordance with the franquist law. With the approval of the new Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the restoration of democracy, the State devolved much authority to the regions and created an internal organisation based on autonomous communities. The Spanish 1977 Amnesty Law let people of Franco's regime continue inside institutions without consequences, even perpetrators of some crimes during transition to democracy like the Massacre of 3 March 1976 in Vitoria or 1977 Massacre of Atocha.
In the Basque Country, moderate Basque nationalism coexisted with a radical nationalist movement led by the armed organisation ETA until the latter's dissolution in May 2018. The group was formed in 1959 during Franco's rule but has continued to wage its violent campaign even after the restoration of democracy and the return of a large measure of regional autonomy.
On 23 February 1981, rebel elements among the security forces seized the Cortes in an attempt to impose a military-backed government. King Juan Carlos took personal command of the military and successfully ordered the coup plotters, via national television, to surrender.
During the 1980s the democratic restoration made possible a growing open society. New cultural movements based on freedom appeared, like La Movida Madrileña and a culture of human rights arose with Gregorio Peces-Barba. On 30 May 1982 Spain joined NATO, followed by a referendum after a strong social opposition. That year the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) came to power, the first left-wing government in 43 years. In 1986 Spain joined the European Economic Community, which later became the European Union. The PSOE was replaced in government by the Partido Popular (PP) in 1996 after scandals around participation of the government of Felipe González in the Dirty war against ETA; at that point the PSOE had served almost 14 consecutive years in office.
On 1 January 2002, Spain fully adopted the euro, and Spain experienced strong economic growth, well above the EU average during the early 2000s. However, well-publicised concerns issued by many economic commentators at the height of the boom warned that extraordinary property prices and a high foreign trade deficit were likely to lead to a painful economic collapse.
In 2002 the Prestige oil spill occurred with big ecological consequences along Spain's Atlantic coastline. In 2003 José María Aznar supported US president George W. Bush in the Iraq War, and a strong movement against war rose in Spanish society. On 11 March 2004 a local Islamist terrorist group inspired by Al-Qaeda carried out the largest terrorist attack in Spanish history when they killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 others by bombing commuter trains in Madrid. Though initial suspicions focused on the Basque terrorist group ETA, evidence soon emerged indicating Islamist involvement. Because of the proximity of the 2004 election, the issue of responsibility quickly became a political controversy, with the main competing parties PP and PSOE exchanging accusations over the handling of the incident. The elections on 14 March were won by the PSOE, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
The proportion of Spain's foreign born population increased rapidly during its economic boom in the early 2000s, but then declined due to the financial crisis. In 2005 the Spanish government legalised same sex marriage. Decentralisation was supported with much resistance of Constitutional Court and conservative opposition, so did gender politics like quotas or the law against gender violence. Government talks with ETA happened, and the group announced its permanent cease of violence in 2010.
The bursting of the Spanish property bubble in 2008 led to the 2008–16 Spanish financial crisis. High levels of unemployment, cuts in government spending and corruption in Royal family and People's Party served as a backdrop to the 2011–12 Spanish protests. Catalan independentism also rose. In 2011, Mariano Rajoy's conservative People's Party won the election with 44.6% of votes. As prime minister, he continued to implement austerity measures required by the EU Stability and Growth Pact. On 19 June 2014, the monarch, Juan Carlos, abdicated in favour of his son, who became Felipe VI.
A Catalan independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 and then, on 27 October, the Catalan parliament voted to unilaterally declare independence from Spain to form a Catalan Republic on the day the Spanish Senate was discussing approving direct rule over Catalonia as called for by the Spanish Prime Minister. Later that day the Senate granted the power to impose direct rule and Mr Rajoy dissolved the Catalan parliament and called a new election. No country recognised Catalonia as a separate state.
On 1 June 2018 the Congress of Deputies passed a motion of no-confidence against Rajoy and replaced him with the PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez.
At , Spain is the world's fifty-second largest country and Europe's fourth largest country. It is some smaller than France and larger than the US state of California. Mount Teide (Tenerife) is the highest mountain peak in Spain and is the third largest volcano in the world from its base. Spain is a transcontinental country, having territory in both Europe and Africa.
Spain lies between latitudes 27° and 44° N, and longitudes 19° W and 5° E.
On the west, Spain is bordered by Portugal; on the south, it is bordered by Gibraltar (a British overseas territory) and Morocco, through its exclaves in North Africa (Ceuta and Melilla, and the peninsula of Vélez de la Gomera). On the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it is bordered by France and the Principality of Andorra. Along the Pyrenees in Girona, a small exclave town called Llívia is surrounded by France.
Extending to , the Portugal–Spain border is the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union.
Spain also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and a number of uninhabited islands on the Mediterranean side of the Strait of Gibraltar, known as ("places of sovereignty", or territories under Spanish sovereignty), such as the Chafarinas Islands and Alhucemas. The peninsula of Vélez de la Gomera is also regarded as a "plaza de soberanía". The isle of Alborán, located in the Mediterranean between Spain and North Africa, is also administered by Spain, specifically by the municipality of Almería, Andalusia. The little Pheasant Island in the River Bidasoa is a Spanish-French condominium.
Largest inhabited islands of Spain (2019):
Mainland Spain is a mountainous country, dominated by high plateaus and mountain chains. After the Pyrenees, the main mountain ranges are the Cordillera Cantábrica (Cantabrian Range), Sistema Ibérico (Iberian System), Sistema Central (Central System), Montes de Toledo, Sierra Morena and the Sistema Bético (Baetic System) whose highest peak, the Mulhacén, located in Sierra Nevada, is the highest elevation in the Iberian Peninsula. The highest point in Spain is the Teide, a active volcano in the Canary Islands. The Meseta Central (often translated as "Inner Plateau") is a vast plateau in the heart of peninsular Spain.
There are several major rivers in Spain such as the Tagus ("Tajo"), Ebro, Guadiana, Douro ("Duero"), Guadalquivir, Júcar, Segura, Turia and Minho ("Miño"). Alluvial plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia.
Three main climatic zones can be separated, according to geographical situation and orographic conditions:
Apart from these main types, other sub-types can be found, like the alpine climate in areas with very high altitude, the humid subtropical climate in areas of northeastern Spain and the continental climates ("Dfc", "Dfb" / "Dsc", "Dsb") in the Pyrenees as well as parts of the Cantabrian Range, the Central System, Sierra Nevada and the Iberian System, and a typical desert climate ("BWk", "BWh") in the zone of Almería, Murcia and eastern Canary Islands. Low-lying areas of the Canary Islands average above during their coldest month, thus having a tropical climate.
The fauna presents a wide diversity that is due in large part to the geographical position of the Iberian peninsula between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and between Africa and Eurasia, and the great diversity of habitats and biotopes, the result of a considerable variety of climates and well differentiated regions.
The vegetation of Spain is varied due to several factors including the diversity of the relief, the climate and latitude. Spain includes different phytogeographic regions, each with its own floristic characteristics resulting largely from the interaction of climate, topography, soil type and fire, biotic factors.
According to the Democracy Index of the EIU, Spain is one of the 19 full democracies in the world.
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 is the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy.
The constitutional history of Spain dates back to the constitution of 1812. In June 1976, Spain's new King Juan Carlos dismissed Carlos Arias Navarro and appointed the reformer Adolfo Suárez as Prime Minister. The resulting general election in 1977 convened the "Constituent Cortes" (the Spanish Parliament, in its capacity as a constitutional assembly) for the purpose of drafting and approving the constitution of 1978. After a national referendum on 6 December 1978, 88% of voters approved of the new constitution.
As a result, Spain is now composed of 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities with varying degrees of autonomy thanks to its Constitution, which nevertheless explicitly states the indivisible unity of the Spanish nation. The constitution also specifies that Spain has no state religion and that all are free to practice and believe as they wish.
The Spanish administration approved the "Gender Equality Act" in 2007 aimed at furthering equality between genders in Spanish political and economic life. According to Inter-Parliamentary Union data as of Sept 1, 2018, 137 of the 350 members of the Congress were women (39.1%), while in the Senate, there were 101 women out of 266 (39.9%), placing Spain 16th on their list of countries ranked by proportion of women in the lower (or single) House. The Gender Empowerment Measure of Spain in the United Nations Human Development Report is 0.794, 12th in the world.
Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the "Cortes Generales" (General Courts).
The legislative branch is made up of the Congress of Deputies ("Congreso de los Diputados"), a lower house with 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation to serve four-year terms, and the Senate ("Senado"), an upper house with 259 seats of which 208 are directly elected by popular vote, using a limited voting method, and the other 51 appointed by the regional legislatures to also serve four-year terms.
The executive branch consists of a Council of Ministers presided over by the Prime Minister, who is nominated as candidate by the monarch after holding consultations with representatives from the different parliamentary groups, voted in by the members of the lower house during an investiture session and then formally appointed by the monarch.
The Prime Minister, deputy prime ministers and the rest of ministers convene at the Council of Ministers.
Spain is organisationally structured as a so-called "Estado de las Autonomías" ("State of Autonomies"); it is one of the most decentralised countries in Europe, along with Switzerland, Germany and Belgium; for example, all autonomous communities have their own elected parliaments, governments, public administrations, budgets, and resources. Health and education systems among others are managed by the Spanish communities, and in addition, the Basque Country and Navarre also manage their own public finances based on foral provisions. In Catalonia, the Basque Country, Navarre and the Canary Islands, a full-fledged autonomous police corps replaces some of the State police functions (see "Mossos d'Esquadra", "Ertzaintza", "Policía Foral/Foruzaingoa" and "Policía Canaria").
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 "protect all Spaniards and all the peoples of Spain in the exercise of human rights, their cultures and traditions, languages and institutions".
According to Amnesty International (AI), government investigations of alleged police abuses are often lengthy and punishments were light. Violence against women was a problem, which the Government took steps to address.
Spain provides one of the highest degrees of liberty in the world for its LGBT community. Among the countries studied by Pew Research Center in 2013, Spain is rated first in acceptance of homosexuality, with 88% of those surveyed saying that homosexuality should be accepted.
The Spanish State is divided into 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities, both groups being the highest or first-order administrative division in the country. Autonomous communities are divided into provinces, of which there are 50 in total, and in turn, provinces are divided into municipalities. In Catalonia, two additional divisions exist, the "comarques" (sing. "comarca") and the "vegueries" (sing. "vegueria") both of which have administrative powers; "comarques" being aggregations of municipalities, and the "vegueries" being aggregations of "comarques". The concept of a "comarca" exists in all autonomous communities, however, unlike Catalonia, these are merely historical or geographical subdivisions.
Spain's autonomous communities are the first level administrative divisions of the country. They were created after the current constitution came into effect (in 1978) in recognition of the right to self-government of the ""nationalities" and regions of Spain". The autonomous communities were to comprise adjacent provinces with common historical, cultural, and economic traits. This territorial organisation, based on devolution, is literally known in Spain as the "State of Autonomies".
The basic institutional law of each autonomous community is the Statute of Autonomy. The Statutes of Autonomy establish the name of the community according to its historical and contemporary identity, the limits of its territories, the name and organisation of the institutions of government and the rights they enjoy according to the constitution.
The governments of all autonomous communities must be based on a division of powers and comprise
Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country, which identified themselves as "nationalities", were granted self-government through a rapid process. Andalusia also took that denomination in its first Statute of Autonomy, even though it followed the longer process stipulated in the constitution for the rest of the country. Progressively, other communities in revisions to their Statutes of Autonomy have also taken that denomination in accordance to their historical and modern identities, such as the Valencian Community, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, and Aragon.
The autonomous communities have wide legislative and executive autonomy, with their own parliaments and regional governments. The distribution of powers may be different for every community, as laid out in their Statutes of Autonomy, since devolution was intended to be asymmetrical. Only two communities—the Basque Country and Navarre—have full fiscal autonomy. Beyond fiscal autonomy, the "nationalities"—Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia—were devolved more powers than the rest of the communities, among them the ability of the regional president to dissolve the parliament and call for elections at any time. In addition, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Navarre have police corps of their own: Ertzaintza, Mossos d'Esquadra and the Policía Foral respectively. Other communities have more limited forces or none at all, like the "Policía Autónoma Andaluza" in Andalusia or the BESCAM in Madrid.
Nonetheless, recent amendments to existing Statutes of Autonomy or the promulgation of new Statutes altogether, have reduced the asymmetry between the powers originally granted to the "nationalities" and the rest of the regions.
Finally, along with the 17 autonomous communities, two autonomous cities are also part of the State of Autonomies and are first-order territorial divisions: Ceuta and Melilla. These are two exclaves located in the northern African coast.
Autonomous communities are divided into provinces, which served as their territorial building blocks. In turn, provinces are divided into municipalities. The existence of both the provinces and the municipalities is guaranteed and protected by the constitution, not necessarily by the Statutes of Autonomy themselves. Municipalities are granted autonomy to manage their internal affairs, and provinces are the territorial divisions designed to carry out the activities of the State.
The current provincial division structure is based—with minor changes—on the 1833 territorial division by Javier de Burgos, and in all, the Spanish territory is divided into 50 provinces. The communities of Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, the Balearic Islands, Madrid, Murcia and Navarre are the only communities that comprise a single province, which is coextensive with the community itself. In these cases, the administrative institutions of the province are replaced by the governmental institutions of the community.
After the return of democracy following the death of Franco in 1975, Spain's foreign policy priorities were to break out of the diplomatic isolation of the Franco years and expand diplomatic relations, enter the European Community, and define security relations with the West.
As a member of NATO since 1982, Spain has established itself as a participant in multilateral international security activities. Spain's EU membership represents an important part of its foreign policy. Even on many international issues beyond western Europe, Spain prefers to co-ordinate its efforts with its EU partners through the European political co-operation mechanisms.
Spain has maintained its special relations with Hispanic America and the Philippines. Its policy emphasises the concept of an Ibero-American community, essentially the renewal of the concept of ""Hispanidad"" or ""Hispanismo"", as it is often referred to in English, which has sought to link the Iberian Peninsula with Hispanic America through language, commerce, history and culture. It is fundamentally "based on shared values and the recovery of democracy."
Spain claims Gibraltar, a Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom in the southernmost part of the Iberian Peninsula. Then a Spanish town, it was conquered by an Anglo-Dutch force in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession on behalf of Archduke Charles, pretender to the Spanish throne.
The legal situation concerning Gibraltar was settled in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht, in which Spain ceded the territory in perpetuity to the British Crown stating that, should the British abandon this post, it would be offered to Spain first. Since the 1940s Spain has called for the return of Gibraltar. The overwhelming majority of Gibraltarians strongly oppose this, along with any proposal of shared sovereignty. UN resolutions call on the United Kingdom and Spain to reach an agreement over the status of Gibraltar.
The Spanish claim makes a distinction between the isthmus that connects the Rock to the Spanish mainland on the one hand, and the Rock and city of Gibraltar on the other. While the Rock and city were ceded by the Treaty of Utrecht, Spain asserts that the "occupation of the isthmus is illegal and against the principles of International Law". The United Kingdom relies on "de facto" arguments of possession by prescription in relation to the isthmus, as there has been "continuous possession [of the isthmus] over a long period".
Another claim by Spain is about the Savage Islands, part of Portugal. In clash with the Portuguese position, Spain claims that they are rocks rather than islands, and therefore Spain does not accept any extension of the Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone (200 nautical miles) generated by the islands, while acknowledging the "Selvagens" having territorial waters (12 nautical miles). On 5 July 2013, Spain sent a letter to the UN expressing these views.
Spain claims the sovereignty over the Perejil Island, a small, uninhabited rocky islet located in the South shore of the Strait of Gibraltar. The island lies just off the coast of Morocco, from Ceuta and from mainland Spain. Its sovereignty is disputed between Spain and Morocco. It was the subject of an armed incident between the two countries in 2002. The incident ended when both countries agreed to return to the status quo ante which existed prior to the Moroccan occupation of the island. The islet is now deserted and without any sign of sovereignty.
Besides the Perejil Island, the Spanish-held territories claimed by other countries are two: Morocco claims the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the "plazas de soberanía" islets off the northern coast of Africa. Portugal does not recognise Spain's sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza which was annexed by Spain in 1801 after the War of the Oranges. Portugal stance has been the territory being "de iure" Portuguese territory and "de facto" Spanish.
The armed forces of Spain are known as the Spanish Armed Forces ("Fuerzas Armadas Españolas"). Their Commander-in-chief is the King of Spain, Felipe VI. The next military authorities in line are the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence. The fourth military authority of the State is the Chief of the Defence Staff (JEMAD). The Defence Staff ("Estado Mayor de la Defensa") assists the JEMAD as auxiliary body.
The Spanish Armed Forces are divided into three branches:
Military conscription was suppressed in 2001.
Since 1996, CO2 emissions have risen notably, not reaching the reduction emissions promised in the Kyoto Protocol for fighting climate change. In the period 1880–2000 more than half of the years have been qualified as dry or very dry. Spain is the country in Europe more exposed to climate change effects, according to Al Gore.
Electricity from renewable sources in Spain represented 42.8% of electricity demand coverage during 2014. The country has a very large wind power capability built up over many years and is one of the world leaders in wind power generation. Spain also positioned itself as a European leader in Solar power, by 2007–2010 the country was second only to Germany in installed capacity.
Vitoria-Gasteiz was awarded with the European Green Capital in 2012 after implementining good practices by the Agenda 21 and recovering Salburua wetland, protected by Ramsar Convention and Natura 2000 and a part of Green Belt of Vitoria-Gasteiz, funded partially with The LIFE Programme.
Spain's capitalist mixed economy is the 14th largest worldwide and the 5th largest in the European Union, as well as the Eurozone's 4th largest.
The centre-right government of former prime minister José María Aznar worked successfully to gain admission to the group of countries launching the euro in 1999. Unemployment stood at 17.1% in June 2017, below Spain's early 1990s unemployment rate of at over 20%. The youth unemployment rate (35% in March 2018) is extremely high compared to EU standards. Perennial weak points of Spain's economy include a large informal economy, and an education system which OECD reports place among the poorest for developed countries, together with the United States and UK.
By the mid-1990s the economy had commenced the growth that had been disrupted by the global recession of the early 1990s. The strong economic growth helped the government to reduce the government debt as a percentage of GDP and Spain's high unemployment rate began to steadily decline. With the government budget in balance and inflation under control Spain was admitted into the Eurozone in 1999.
Since the 1990s some Spanish companies have gained multinational status, often expanding their activities in culturally close Latin America. Spain is the second biggest foreign investor there, after the United States. Spanish companies have also expanded into Asia, especially China and India. This early global expansion is a competitive advantage over its competitors and European neighbours. The reason for this early expansion is the booming interest towards Spanish language and culture in Asia and Africa and a corporate culture that learned to take risks in unstable markets.
Spanish companies invested in fields like renewable energy commercialisation (Iberdrola was the world's largest renewable energy operator), technology companies like Telefónica, Abengoa, Mondragon Corporation (which is the world's largest worker-owned cooperative), Movistar, Hisdesat, Indra, train manufacturers like CAF, Talgo, global corporations such as the textile company Inditex, petroleum companies like Repsol or Cepsa and infrastructure, with six of the ten biggest international construction firms specialising in transport being Spanish, like Ferrovial, Acciona, ACS, OHL and FCC.
In 2005 the Economist Intelligence Unit's quality of life survey placed Spain among the top 10 in the world. In 2013 the same survey (now called the "Where-to-be-born index"), ranked Spain 28th in the world.
In 2010, the Basque city of Bilbao was awarded with the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, and its mayor at the time, Iñaki Azkuna, was awarded the World Mayor Prize in 2012. The Basque capital city of Vitoria-Gasteiz received the European Green Capital Award in 2012.
The automotive industry is one of the largest employers in the country. In 2015 Spain was the 8th largest automobile producer country in the world and the 2nd largest car manufacturer in Europe after Germany.
By 2016, the automotive industry was generating 8.7 percent of Spain's gross domestic product, employing about nine percent of the manufacturing industry. By 2008 the automobile industry was the 2nd most exported industry while in 2015 about 80% of the total production was for export.
German companies poured €4.8 billion into Spain in 2015, making the country the second-largest destination for German foreign direct investment behind only the U.S. The lion's share of that investment—€4 billion—went to the country's auto industry.
Crop areas were farmed in two highly diverse manners. Areas relying on non-irrigated cultivation ("secano"), which made up 85% of the entire crop area, depended solely on rainfall as a source of water. They included the humid regions of the north and the northwest, as well as vast arid zones that had not been irrigated. The much more productive regions devoted to irrigated cultivation ("regadío") accounted for 3 million hectares in 1986, and the government hoped that this area would eventually double, as it already had doubled since 1950. Particularly noteworthy was the development in Almería—one of the most arid and desolate provinces of Spain—of winter crops of various fruits and vegetables for export to Europe.
Though only about 17% of Spain's cultivated land was irrigated, it was estimated to be the source of between 40–45% of the gross value of crop production and of 50% of the value of agricultural exports. More than half of the irrigated area was planted in corn, fruit trees, and vegetables. Other agricultural products that benefited from irrigation included grapes, cotton, sugar beets, potatoes, legumes, olive trees, mangos, strawberries, tomatoes, and fodder grasses. Depending on the nature of the crop, it was possible to harvest two successive crops in the same year on about 10% of the country's irrigated land.
Citrus fruits, vegetables, cereal grains, olive oil, and wine—Spain's traditional agricultural products—continued to be important in the 1980s. In 1983 they represented 12%, 12%, 8%, 6%, and 4%, respectively, of the country's agricultural production. Because of the changed diet of an increasingly affluent population, there was a notable increase in the consumption of livestock, poultry, and dairy products. Meat production for domestic consumption became the single most important agricultural activity, accounting for 30% of all farm-related production in 1983. Increased attention to livestock was the reason that Spain became a net importer of grains. Ideal growing conditions, combined with proximity to important north European markets, made citrus fruits Spain's leading export. Fresh vegetables and fruits produced through intensive irrigation farming also became important export commodities, as did sunflower seed oil that was produced to compete with the more expensive olive oils in oversupply throughout the Mediterranean countries of the European Community.
In 2017, Spain was the second most visited country in the world, recording 82 million tourists which marked the fifth consecutive year of record-beating numbers. The headquarters of the World Tourism Organization are located in Madrid.
Spain's geographic location, popular coastlines, diverse landscapes, historical legacy, vibrant culture, and excellent infrastructure has made the country's international tourist industry among the largest in the world. In the last five decades, international tourism in Spain has grown to become the second largest in the world in terms of spending, worth approximately 40 billion Euros or about 5% of GDP in 2006.
Castile and Leon is the Spanish leader in rural tourism linked to its environmental and architectural heritage.
Spain is one of the world's leading countries in the development and production of renewable energy. In 2010 Spain became the solar power world leader when it overtook the United States with a massive power station plant called La Florida, near Alvarado, Badajoz. Spain is also Europe's main producer of wind energy. In 2010 its wind turbines generated 42,976 GWh, which accounted for 16.4% of all electrical energy produced in Spain. On 9 November 2010, wind energy reached an instantaneous historic peak covering 53% of mainland electricity demand and generating an amount of energy that is equivalent to that of 14 nuclear reactors. Other renewable energies used in Spain are hydroelectric, biomass and marine (2 power plants under construction).
Non-renewable energy sources used in Spain are nuclear (8 operative reactors), gas, coal, and oil. Fossil fuels together generated 58% of Spain's electricity in 2009, just below the OECD mean of 61%. Nuclear power generated another 19%, and wind and hydro about 12% each.
The Spanish road system is mainly centralised, with six highways connecting Madrid to the Basque Country, Catalonia, Valencia, West Andalusia, Extremadura and Galicia. Additionally, there are highways along the Atlantic (Ferrol to Vigo), Cantabrian (Oviedo to San Sebastián) and Mediterranean (Girona to Cádiz) coasts. Spain aims to put one million electric cars on the road by 2014 as part of the government's plan to save energy and boost energy efficiency. The former Minister of Industry Miguel Sebastián said that "the electric vehicle is the future and the engine of an industrial revolution."
Spain has the most extensive high-speed rail network in Europe, and the second-most extensive in the world after China. As of 2019, Spain has a total of over of high-speed tracks linking Málaga, Seville, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Valladolid, with the trains operated at commercial speeds up to . On average, the Spanish high-speed train is the fastest one in the world, followed by the Japanese bullet train and the French TGV. Regarding punctuality, it is second in the world (98.5% on-time arrival) after the Japanese Shinkansen (99%). Should the aims of the ambitious AVE programme (Spanish high speed trains) be met, by 2020 Spain will have of high-speed trains linking almost all provincial cities to Madrid in less than three hours and Barcelona within four hours.
There are 47 public airports in Spain. The busiest one is the airport of Madrid (Barajas), with 50 million passengers in 2011, being the world's 15th busiest airport, as well as the European Union's fourth busiest. The airport of Barcelona (El Prat) is also important, with 35 million passengers in 2011, being the world's 31st-busiest airport. Other main airports are located in Majorca (23 million passengers), Málaga (13 million passengers), Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) (11 million passengers), Alicante (10 million passengers) and smaller, with the number of passengers between 4 and 10 million, for example Tenerife (two airports), Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura. Also, more than 30 airports with the number of passengers below 4 million.
In the 19th and 20th centuries science in Spain was held back by severe political instability and consequent economic underdevelopment. Despite the conditions, some important scientists and engineers emerged. The most notable were Miguel Servet, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Narcís Monturiol, Celedonio Calatayud, Juan de la Cierva, Leonardo Torres y Quevedo, Margarita Salas and Severo Ochoa.
The Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) is the leading public agency dedicated to scientific research in the country. It ranked as the 5th top governmental scientific institution worldwide (and 32nd overall) in the 2018 SCImago Institutions Rankings.
Since 2006 the Mobile World Congress has taken place in Barcelona.
In 2019 the population of Spain officially reached 47 million people, as recorded by the "Padrón municipal" (Spain's Municipal Register). Spain's population density, at 91/km² (235/sq mi), is lower than that of most Western European countries and its distribution across the country is very unequal. With the exception of the region surrounding the capital, Madrid, the most populated areas lie around the coast. The population of Spain has risen 2 1/2 times since 1900, when it stood at 18.6 million, principally due to the spectacular demographic boom in the 1960s and early 1970s.
In 2017 the average total fertility rate (TFR) across Spain was 1.33 children born per woman, one of the lowest in the world, below the replacement rate of 2.1, it remains considerably below the high of 5.11 children born per woman in 1865. Spain subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 43.1 years.
Native Spaniards make up 88% of the total population of Spain. After the birth rate plunged in the 1980s and Spain's population growth rate dropped, the population again trended upward initially upon the return of many Spaniards who had emigrated to other European countries during the 1970s, and more recently, fuelled by large numbers of immigrants who make up 12% of the population. The immigrants originate mainly in Latin America (39%), North Africa (16%), Eastern Europe (15%), and Sub-Saharan Africa (4%). In 2005, Spain instituted a three-month amnesty programme through which certain hitherto undocumented aliens were granted legal residency.
In 2008, Spain granted citizenship to 84,170 persons, mostly to people from Ecuador, Colombia and Morocco. A sizeable portion of foreign residents in Spain also comes from other Western and Central European countries. These are mostly British, French, German, Dutch, and Norwegian. They reside primarily on the Mediterranean coast and the Balearic islands, where many choose to live their retirement or telecommute.
Substantial populations descended from Spanish colonists and immigrants exist in other parts of the world, most notably in Latin America. Beginning in the late 15th century, large numbers of Iberian colonists settled in what became Latin America and at present most white Latin Americans (who make up about one-third of Latin America's population) are of Spanish or Portuguese origin. Around 240,000 Spaniards emigrated in the 16th century, mostly to Peru and Mexico. Another 450,000 left in the 17th century. The estimate between 1492–1832 is 1.86 million. Between 1846 and 1932 it is estimated that nearly 5 million Spaniards emigrated to the Americas, especially to Argentina and Brazil. Approximately two million Spaniards migrated to other Western European countries between 1960 and 1975. During the same period perhaps 300,000 went to Latin America.
Source: ""Áreas urbanas +50"", Ministry of Public Works and Transport (2013)
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The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognises several contemporary entities—"nationalities"— and regions, within the context of the Spanish nation.
Spain has been described as a "de facto" plurinational state. The identity of Spain rather accrues of an overlap of different territorial and ethnolinguistic identities than of a sole Spanish identity. In some cases some of the territorial identities may conflict with the dominant Spanish culture. Distinct traditional identities within Spain include the Basques, Catalans, Galicians, Andalusians and Valencians, although to some extent all of the 17 autonomous communities may claim a distinct local identity.
It is this last feature of "shared identity" between the more local level or autonomous community and the Spanish level which makes the identity question in Spain complex and far from univocal.
Spain has a number of descendants of populations from former colonies, especially Latin America and North Africa. Smaller numbers of immigrants from several Sub-Saharan countries have recently been settling in Spain. There are also sizeable numbers of Asian immigrants, most of whom are of Middle Eastern, South Asian and Chinese origin. The single largest group of immigrants are European; represented by large numbers of Romanians, Britons, Germans, French and others.
The arrival of the "gitanos", a Romani people, began in the 16th century; estimates of the Spanish Roma population range from 750,000 to over one million. There are also the "mercheros" (also "quinquis"), a formerly nomadic minority group. Their origin is unclear.
Historically, Sephardi Jews and Moriscos are the main minority groups originated in Spain and with a contribution to Spanish culture. The Spanish government is offering Spanish nationality to Sephardi Jews.
According to the Spanish government there were 5.7 million foreign residents in Spain in 2011, or 12% of the total population. According to residence permit data for 2011, more than 860,000 were Romanian, about 770,000 were Moroccan, approximately 390,000 were British, and 360,000 were Ecuadorian. Other sizeable foreign communities are Colombian, Bolivian, German, Italian, Bulgarian, and Chinese. There are more than 200,000 migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa living in Spain, principally Senegaleses and Nigerians. Since 2000, Spain has experienced high population growth as a result of immigration flows, despite a birth rate that is only half the replacement level. This sudden and ongoing inflow of immigrants, particularly those arriving illegally by sea, has caused noticeable social tension.
Within the EU, Spain had the 2nd highest immigration rate in percentage terms after Cyprus, but by a great margin, the highest in absolute numbers, up to 2008. The number of immigrants in Spain had grown up from 500,000 people in 1996 to 5.2 million in 2008 out of a total population of 46 million. In 2005 alone, a regularisation programme increased the legal immigrant population by 700,000 people. There are a number of reasons for the high level of immigration, including Spain's cultural ties with Latin America, its geographical position, the porosity of its borders, the large size of its underground economy and the strength of the agricultural and construction sectors, which demand more low cost labour than can be offered by the national workforce.
Another statistically significant factor is the large number of residents of EU origin typically retiring to Spain's Mediterranean coast. In fact, Spain was Europe's largest absorber of migrants from 2002 to 2007, with its immigrant population more than doubling as 2.5 million people arrived. In 2008, prior to the onset of the economic crisis, the "Financial Times" reported that Spain was the most favoured destination for Western Europeans considering a move from their own country and seeking jobs elsewhere in the EU.
In 2008, the government instituted a "Plan of Voluntary Return" which encouraged unemployed immigrants from outside the EU to return to their home countries and receive several incentives, including the right to keep their unemployment benefits and transfer whatever they contributed to the Spanish Social Security. The programme had little effect; during its first two months, just 1,400 immigrants took up the offer. What the programme failed to do, the sharp and prolonged economic crisis has done from 2010 to 2011 in that tens of thousands of immigrants have left the country due to lack of jobs. In 2011 alone, more than half a million people left Spain. For the first time in decades the net migration rate was expected to be negative, and nine out of 10 emigrants were foreigners.
Spain is legally multilingual, and the constitution establishes that the nation will protect "all Spaniards and the peoples of Spain in the exercise of human rights, their cultures and traditions, languages and institutions.
Spanish ("español")— recognised in the constitution as Castilian ("castellano")—is the official language of the entire country, and it is the right and duty of every Spaniard to know the language. The constitution also establishes that "the other Spanish languages"—that is, the other languages of Spain—will also be official in their respective autonomous communities in accordance to their Statutes, their organic regional legislations, and that the "richness of the distinct linguistic modalities of Spain represents a patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection."
The other official languages of Spain, co-official with Spanish are:
As a percentage of the general population of all Spain, Spanish is natively spoken by 74%, Catalan by 17%, Galician by 7% and Basque by 2% of all Spaniards. Occitan is spoken by less than 5,000 people, only in the small region of "Val d'Aran".
Other Romance minority languages, though not official, have special recognition, such as the Astur-Leonese language ("asturianu", "bable" or "llionés") in Asturias and in northwestern Castile and León, and Aragonese ("aragonés") in Aragon.
In the North African Spanish autonomous city of Melilla, Riff Berber is spoken by a significant part of the population. Similarly, in Ceuta Darija Arabic is spoken by a significant percentage of the population. In the tourist areas of the Mediterranean coast and the islands, English and German are widely spoken by tourists, foreign residents, and tourism workers.
State education in Spain is free and compulsory from the age of six to sixteen. The current education system is regulated by the 2006 educational law, LOE ("Ley Orgánica de Educación"), or Fundamental Law for the Education. In 2014, the LOE was partially modified by the newer and controversial LOMCE law ("Ley Orgánica para la Mejora de la Calidad Educativa"), or Fundamental Law for the Improvement of the Education System, commonly called "Ley Wert" (Wert Law). Since 1970 to 2014, Spain has had seven different educational laws (LGE, LOECE, LODE, LOGSE, LOPEG, LOE and LOMCE).
Institución Libre de Enseñanza was an educational project that developed in Spain for the half a century of about 1876–1936 by Francisco Giner de los Ríos and Gumersindo de Azcárate. The institute was inspired by the philosophy of Krausism. Concepción Arenal in feminism and Santiago Ramón y Cajal in neuroscience were in the movement.
The health care system of Spain (Spanish National Health System) is considered one of the best in the world, in 7th position in the ranking elaborated by the World Health Organization. The health care is public, universal and free for any legal citizen of Spain. The total health spending is 9.4% of the GDP, slightly above the average of 9.3% of the OECD.
Roman Catholicism, which has a long history in Spain, remains the dominant religion. Although it no longer has official status by law, in all public schools in Spain students have to choose either a religion or ethics class. Catholicism is the religion most commonly taught, although the teaching of Islam, Judaism, and evangelical Christianity is also recognised in law. According to a June 2016 study by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research about 70% of Spaniards self-identify as Catholics, 2% other faith, and about 25% identify with no religion. Most Spaniards do not participate regularly in religious services. This same study shows that of the Spaniards who identify themselves as religious, 59% hardly ever or never go to church, 16% go to church some times a year, 9% some time per month and 15% every Sunday or multiple times per week. Recent polls and surveys have revealed that 20% to 27% of the Spanish population is irreligious.
The Spanish constitution enshrines secularism in governance, as well as freedom of religion or belief for all, saying that no religion should have a "state character," while allowing for the state to "cooperate" with religious groups.
There have been four Spanish Popes. Damasus I, Calixtus III, Alexander VI and Benedict XIII. Spanish mysticism provided an important intellectual resource against Protestantism with Carmelites like Teresa of Ávila, a reformist nun and John of the Cross, a priest, taking the lead in their reform movement. Later, they became Doctors of the Church. The Society of Jesus was co-founded by Ignatius of Loyola, whose Spiritual Exercises and movement led to the establishment of hundreds of colleges and universities in the world, including 28 in the United States alone. The Society's co-founder, Francis Xavier, was a missionary who reached India and later Japan. In the 1960s, Jesuits Pedro Arrupe and Ignacio Ellacuría supported the movement of Liberation Theology.
Protestant churches have about 1,200,000 members. There are about 105,000 Jehovah's Witnesses. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has approximately 46,000 adherents in 133 congregations in all regions of the country and has a temple in the Moratalaz District of Madrid.
A study made by the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain demonstrated that there were about 1,700,000 inhabitants of Muslim background living in Spain , accounting for 3–4% of the total population of Spain. The vast majority was composed of immigrants and descendants originating from Morocco and other African countries. More than 514,000 (30%) of them had Spanish nationality.
The recent waves of immigration have also led to an increasing number of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Muslims.
After the Reconquista in 1492, Muslims did not live in Spain for centuries. Late 19th-century colonial expansion in northwestern Africa gave a number of residents in Spanish Morocco and Western Sahara full citizenship. Their ranks have since been bolstered by recent immigration, especially from Morocco and Algeria.
Judaism was practically non-existent in Spain from the 1492 expulsion until the 19th century, when Jews were again permitted to enter the country. Currently there are around 62,000 Jews in Spain, or 0.14% of the total population. Most are arrivals in the past century, while some are descendants of earlier Spanish Jews. Approximately 80,000 Jews are thought to have lived in Spain prior to its expulsion. However the Jewish Encyclopedia states the number over 800,000 to be too large and 235,000 as too small: 165,000 is given as expelled as possibly too small in favour or 200,000, and the numbers of converts after the 1391 pogroms as less. Other sources suggest 200,000 converts mostly after the pogroms of 1391 and upwards of 100,000 expelled. Descendants of these Sephardic Jews expelled in 1492 are given Spanish nationality if they request it.
Spain is a Western country. Almost every aspect of Spanish life is permeated by its Roman heritage, making Spain one of the major Latin countries of Europe. Spanish culture is marked by strong historic ties to Catholicism, which played a pivotal role in the country's formation and subsequent identity. Spanish art, architecture, cuisine, and music have been shaped by successive waves of foreign invaders, as well as by the country's Mediterranean climate and geography. The centuries-long colonial era globalised Spanish language and culture, with Spain also absorbing the cultural and commercial products of its diverse empire.
Spain has 47 World Heritage Sites. These include the landscape of Monte Perdido in the Pyrenees, which is shared with France, the Prehistoric Rock Art Sites of the Côa Valley and Siega Verde, which is shared with Portugal, the Heritage of Mercury, shared with Slovenia and the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests, shared with other countries of Europe. In addition, Spain has also 14 Intangible cultural heritage, or "Human treasures".
The earliest recorded examples of vernacular Romance-based literature date from the same time and location, the rich mix of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures in Muslim Spain, in which Maimonides, Averroes, and others worked, the Kharjas ("Jarchas")
During the Reconquista, the epic poem "Cantar de Mio Cid" was written about a real man—his battles, conquests, and daily life. The Valencian chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanch written in Valencian is also remarkable.
Other major plays from the medieval times were "Mester de Juglaría", "Mester de Clerecía", "Coplas por la muerte de su padre" or "El Libro de buen amor" (The Book of Good Love).
During the Renaissance the major plays are "La Celestina" and "El Lazarillo de Tormes", while many religious literature was created with poets as Luis de León, San Juan de la Cruz, Santa Teresa de Jesús, etc.
The Baroque is the most important period for Spanish culture. We are in the times of the Spanish Empire. The famous "Don Quijote de La Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes was written in this time. Other writers from the period are: Francisco de Quevedo, Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca or Tirso de Molina.
During the Enlightenment we find names such as Leandro Fernández de Moratín, Benito Jerónimo Feijóo, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos or Leandro Fernández de Moratín.
During the Romantic period, José Zorrilla created one of the most emblematic figures in European literature in Don Juan Tenorio. Other writers from this period are Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, José de Espronceda, Rosalía de Castro or Mariano José de Larra.
Artists such as Benito Pérez Galdós, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Leopoldo Alas (Clarín), Concepción Arenal, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and Menéndez Pelayo created Realist artworks. Realism offered depictions of contemporary life and society 'as they were'. In the spirit of general "Realism", Realist authors opted for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of romanticised or stylised presentations.
The group that has become known as the Generation of 1898 was marked by the destruction of Spain's fleet in Cuba by US gunboats in 1898, which provoked a cultural crisis in Spain. The "Disaster" of 1898 led established writers to seek practical political, economic, and social solutions in essays grouped under the literary heading of "Regeneracionismo". For a group of younger writers, among them Miguel de Unamuno, Pío Baroja, and José Martínez Ruiz (Azorín), the Disaster and its cultural repercussions inspired a deeper, more radical literary shift that affected both form and content. These writers, along with Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Antonio Machado, Ramiro de Maeztu, and Ángel Ganivet, came to be known as the Generation of '98.
The Generation of 1914 or "Novecentismo". The next supposed "generation" of Spanish writers following those of '98 already calls into question the value of such terminology. By the year 1914—the year of the outbreak of the First World War and of the publication of the first major work of the generation's leading voice, José Ortega y Gasset—a number of slightly younger writers had established their own place within the Spanish cultural field.
Leading voices include the poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, the academics and essayists Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Gregorio Marañón, Manuel Azaña, Maria Zambrano, Eugeni d'Ors, Clara Campoamor and Ortega y Gasset, and the novelists Gabriel Miró, Ramón Pérez de Ayala, and Ramón Gómez de la Serna. While still driven by the national and existential questions that obsessed the writers of '98, they approached these topics with a greater sense of distance and objectivity. Salvador de Madariaga, another prominent intellectual and writer, was one of the founders of the College of Europe and the composer of the constitutive manifest of the Liberal International.
The Generation of 1927, where poets Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Federico García Lorca, Vicente Aleixandre, Dámaso Alonso. All were scholars of their national literary heritage, again evidence of the impact of the calls of "regeneracionistas" and the Generation of 1898 for Spanish intelligence to turn at least partially inwards.
The two main writers in the second half of the 20th century were the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Camilo José Cela and Miguel Delibes from Generation of '36. Spain is one of the countries with the most number of laureates with the Nobel Prize in Literature, and with Latin American laureates they made the Spanish language literature one of the most laureates of all. The Spanish writers are: José Echegaray, Jacinto Benavente, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Vicente Aleixandre and Camilo José Cela. The Portuguese writer José Saramago, also awarded with the prize, lived for many years in Spain and spoke both Portuguese and Spanish. Saramago was also well known by his Iberist ideas.
The Generation of '50 are also known as the children of the civil war. Rosa Chacel, Gloria Fuertes, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Juan Goytisolo, Carmen Martín Gaite, Ana María Matute, Juan Marsé, Blas de Otero, Gabriel Celaya, Antonio Gamoneda, Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio or Ignacio Aldecoa.
Premio Planeta de Novela and Miguel de Cervantes Prize are the two main awards nowadays in Spanish literature.
Seneca was a philosopher residing in Spain during the time of the Roman Empire.
During the period of Muslim rule in Al-Andalus, Muslim, Jewish and Christian philosophies flourished, including the works of such philosophers such as Ibn Arabi, Averroes and Maimonides.
In the Middle Ages Ramon Llull flourished in Spain.
Humanist Luis Vives worked in Spain during the Renaissance, as did Francisco de Vitoria (creator of the School of Salamanca and scholar on international law) and Bartolomé de las Casas.
The Enlightenment in Spain arrived later and was less strong than in other European countries, but during the XIX century liberal ideas arrived in Spanish society. At the end of the century, socialist and libertarian ideas also flourished, with thinkers such as Francisco Pi i Margall, Ricardo Mella and Francisco Ferrer Guardia.
In the first half of the 20th century among the most prominent philosophers were Maria Zambrano and José Ortega y Gasset.
Contemporary philosophers include Fernando Savater and Adela Cortina, creator of the term "aporophobia".
Artists from Spain have been highly influential in the development of various European and American artistic movements. Due to historical, geographical and generational diversity, Spanish art has known a great number of influences. The Mediterranean heritage with Greco-Roman and some Moorish and influences in Spain, especially in Andalusia, is still evident today. European influences include Italy, Germany and France, especially during the Renaissance, Spanish Baroque and Neoclassical periods. There are many other autochthonous styles such as the Pre-Romanesque art and architecture, Herrerian architecture or the Isabelline Gothic.
During the Golden Age painters working in Spain included El Greco, José de Ribera, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Francisco Zurbarán. Also in the Baroque period Diego Velázquez created some of the most famous Spanish portraits, such as "Las Meninas" and "Las Hilanderas".
Francisco Goya painted during a historical period that includes the Spanish Independence War, the fights between liberals and absolutists, and the rise of contemporary nations-states.
Joaquín Sorolla is a well-known modern impressionist painter and there are many important Spanish painters belonging to the modernism art movement, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Juan Gris and Joan Miró.
The Plateresque style extended from beginnings of the 16th century until the last third of the century and its stylistic influence pervaded the works of all great Spanish artists of the time. Alonso Berruguete (Valladolid School) is called the "Prince of Spanish sculpture". His main works were the upper stalls of the choir of the Cathedral of Toledo, the tomb of Cardinal Tavera in the same Cathedral, and the altarpiece of the Visitation in the church of Santa Úrsula in the same locality. Other notable sculptors were Bartolomé Ordóñez, Diego de Siloé, Juan de Juni and Damián Forment.
There were two Schools of special flair and talent: the Seville School, to which Juan Martínez Montañés belonged, whose most celebrated works are the Crucifix in the Cathedral of Seville, another in Vergara, and a Saint John; and the Granada School, to which Alonso Cano belonged, to whom an Immaculate Conception and a Virgin of Rosary, are attributed.
Other notable Andalusian Baroque sculptors were Pedro de Mena, Pedro Roldán and his daughter Luisa Roldán, Juan de Mesa and Pedro Duque Cornejo. In the 20th century the most important Spanish sculptors were Julio González, Pablo Gargallo, Eduardo Chillida, and Pablo Serrano.
Spanish cinema has achieved major international success including Oscars for recent films such as "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Volver". In the long history of Spanish cinema, the great filmmaker Luis Buñuel was the first to achieve world recognition, followed by Pedro Almodóvar in the 1980s (La Movida Madrileña). Mario Camus and Pilar Miró worked together in Curro Jiménez.
Spanish cinema has also seen international success over the years with films by directors like Segundo de Chomón, Florián Rey, Luis García Berlanga, Carlos Saura, Julio Medem, Isabel Coixet, Alejandro Amenábar, Icíar Bollaín and brothers David Trueba and Fernando Trueba.
Actresses Sara Montiel and Penélope Cruz or actor Antonio Banderas are among those who have become Hollywood stars.
International Film Festivals of Valladolid and San Sebastian are the oldest and more relevant in Spain.
Due to its historical and geographical diversity, Spanish architecture has drawn from a host of influences. An important provincial city founded by the Romans and with an extensive Roman era infrastructure, Córdoba became the cultural capital, including fine Arabic style architecture, during the time of the Islamic Umayyad dynasty. Later Arab style architecture continued to be developed under successive Islamic dynasties, ending with the Nasrid, which built its famed palace complex in Granada.
Simultaneously, the Christian kingdoms gradually emerged and developed their own styles; developing a pre-Romanesque style when for a while isolated from contemporary mainstream European architectural influences during the earlier Middle Ages, they later integrated the Romanesque and Gothic streams. There was then an extraordinary flowering of the Gothic style that resulted in numerous instances being built throughout the entire territory. The Mudéjar style, from the 12th to 17th centuries, was developed by introducing Arab style motifs, patterns and elements into European architecture.
The arrival of Modernism in the academic arena produced much of the architecture of the 20th century. An influential style centred in Barcelona, known as modernisme, produced a number of important architects, of which Gaudí is one. The International style was led by groups like GATEPAC. Spain is currently experiencing a revolution in contemporary architecture and like Rafael Moneo, Santiago Calatrava, Ricardo Bofill as well as many others have gained worldwide renown.
Spanish music is often considered abroad to be synonymous with flamenco, a West Andalusian musical genre, which, contrary to popular belief, is not widespread outside that region. Various regional styles of folk music abound in Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Castile, the Basque Country, Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias. Pop, rock, hip hop and heavy metal are also popular.
In the field of classical music, Spain has produced a number of noted composers such as Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla and Enrique Granados and singers and performers such as Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Montserrat Caballé, Alicia de Larrocha, Alfredo Kraus, Pablo Casals, Ricardo Viñes, José Iturbi, Pablo de Sarasate, Jordi Savall and Teresa Berganza. In Spain there are over forty professional orchestras, including the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, Orquesta Nacional de España and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid. Major opera houses include the Teatro Real, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Arriaga and the El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.
Thousands of music fans also travel to Spain each year for internationally recognised summer music festivals Sónar which often features the top up and coming pop and techno acts, and Benicàssim which tends to feature alternative rock and dance acts. Both festivals mark Spain as an international music presence and reflect the tastes of young people in the country.
Vitoria-Gasteiz jazz festival is one of the main ones on its genre.
The most popular traditional musical instrument, the guitar, originated in Spain. Typical of the north are the traditional bag pipers or "gaiteros", mainly in Asturias and Galicia.
Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week is one of the most important fashion weeks in Europe.
Zara is one of the biggest prêt-a-porter fashion companies in the world.
Fashion designers such as Cristóbal Balenciaga are among the most influential of the 20th century.
Spanish cuisine consists of a great variety of dishes which stem from differences in geography, culture and climate. It is heavily influenced by seafood available from the waters that surround the country, and reflects the country's deep Mediterranean roots. Spain's extensive history with many cultural influences has led to a unique cuisine. In particular, three main divisions are easily identified:
Mediterranean Spain – all such coastal regions, from Catalonia to Andalusia – heavy use of seafood, such as "pescaíto frito" (fried fish); several cold soups like "gazpacho"; and many rice-based dishes like "paella" from Valencia and "arròs negre" (black rice) from Catalonia.
Inner Spain – Castile – hot, thick soups such as the bread and garlic-based "Castilian soup", along with substantial stews such as "cocido madrileño". Food is traditionally conserved by salting, such as Spanish ham, or immersed in olive oil, such as Manchego cheese.
Atlantic Spain – the whole Northern coast, including Asturian, Basque, Cantabrian and Galician cuisine – vegetable and fish-based stews like "caldo gallego" and "marmitako". Also, the lightly cured "lacón" ham. The best known cuisine of the northern countries often rely on ocean seafood, as in the Basque-style cod, albacore or anchovy or the Galician octopus-based "polbo á feira" and shellfish dishes.
While varieties of football have been played in Spain as far back as Roman times, sport in Spain has been dominated by football since the early 20th century. Real Madrid C.F. and FC Barcelona are two of the most successful football clubs in the world. The country's national football team won the UEFA European Football Championship in 1964, 2008 and 2012 and the FIFA World Cup in 2010, and is the first team ever to win three back-to-back major international tournaments.
Basketball, tennis, cycling, handball, futsal, motorcycling and, lately, Formula One also can boast of Spanish champions. Today, Spain is a major world sports powerhouse, especially since the 1992 Summer Olympics that were hosted in Barcelona, which stimulated a great deal of interest in sports in the country. The tourism industry has led to an improvement in sports infrastructure, especially for water sports, golf and skiing. In their respective regions, the traditional games of Basque pelota and Valencian pilota both are popular.
Public holidays celebrated in Spain include a mix of religious (Roman Catholic), national and regional observances. Each municipality is allowed to declare a maximum of 14 public holidays per year; up to nine of these are chosen by the national government and at least two are chosen locally. Spain's National Day ("Fiesta Nacional de España") is 12 October, the anniversary of the Discovery of America and commemorate Our Lady of the Pillar feast, patroness of Aragon and throughout Spain.
There are many festivals and festivities in Spain. Some of them are known worldwide, and every year millions of people from all over the world go to Spain to experience one of these festivals. One of the most famous is San Fermín, in Pamplona. While its most famous event is the "encierro", or the running of the bulls, which happens at 8:00 am from 7 to 14 July, the week-long celebration involves many other traditional and folkloric events. Its events were central to the plot of The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, which brought it to the general attention of English-speaking people. As a result, it has become one of the most internationally renowned fiestas in Spain, with over 1,000,000 people attending every year.
Other festivals include: La Tomatina tomato festival in Buñol, Valencia, the carnivals in the Canary Islands, the Falles in Valencia or the Holy Week in Andalusia and Castile and León. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26667 |
Sumba
Sumba () is an island in eastern Indonesia. It is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands and is in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Sumba has an area of , and the population was estimated to be 755,849 in 2015. To the northwest of Sumba is Sumbawa, to the northeast, across the Sumba Strait (Selat Sumba), is Flores, to the east, across the Savu Sea, is Timor, and to the south, across part of the Indian Ocean, is Australia.
Before colonization by western Europeans in the 1500s, Sumba was inhabited by Melanesian and Austronesian people.
In 1522, through the Portuguese, the first ships from Europe arrived. By 1866 Sumba belonged to the Dutch East Indies, although the island did not come under real Dutch administration until the 20th century. The Dutch mission started in 1886. One of the missionary was Douwe Wielenga. Jesuits opened a mission in Laura, West Sumba.
Historically, this island exported sandalwood and was known as "Sandalwood Island", or "Sandel Island".
Despite contact with western cultures, Sumba is one of the few places in the world where megalithic burials are used as a 'living tradition' to inter prominent individuals when they die. Burial in megaliths is a practice that was used in many parts of the world during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. It has survived to this day in Sumba and has raised significant interest from scholars. At Anakalang, for instance, quadrangular adzes have been unearthed.
Another long-lasting tradition is the sometimes lethal game of pasola, in which teams of often several hundred horse-riders fight with spears.
On August 19, 1977, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale occurred and caused a tsunami. 316 people were killed on the island and islands off the west coast.
The largest town on the island is the main port of Waingapu, with a population of about 52,755.
The landscape is low, limestone hills, rather than the steep volcanoes of many Indonesian islands. There is a dry season from May to November and a rainy season from December to April. The western side of the island is more fertile and more heavily populated than the east.
Due to its distinctive flora and fauna Sumba has been categorised by the World Wildlife Fund as the Sumba deciduous forests ecoregion. Although generally thought to be originally part of the Gondwana southern hemisphere supercontinent, recent research suggests that it might have detached from the South East Asia margin. Sumba is in the Wallacea ecozone, having a mixture of plants and animals of Asian and Australasian origin. Most of the island was originally covered in deciduous monsoon forest while the south-facing slopes, which remain moist during the dry season, were evergreen rainforest.
There are a number of mammals, but the island is particularly rich in bird-life with nearly 200 birds, of which seven endemic species and a number of others are found only here and on some nearby islands. The endemic birds include four vulnerable species — the secretive Sumba boobook owl, Sumba buttonquail, red-naped fruit-dove, and Sumba hornbill — as well as three more common species: the Sumba green pigeon, Sumba flycatcher, and apricot-breasted sunbird. Saltwater crocodiles can still be found in some areas.
The Sumba hornbill or "Julang Sumba" ("Rhyticeros everetti") is under increasing threat of extinction. Indiscriminate deforestation is threatening their survival. The population is estimated at less than 4,000 with an average density of six individuals per square kilometer. A hornbill can fly to and from over an area of up to 100 square kilometers.
Most of the original forest has been cleared for the planting of maize, cassava, and other crops so only small isolated patches remain. Furthermore, this clearance is ongoing due to the growing population of the island and this represents a threat to the birds.
In 1998 two national parks were designated on the island for the protection of endangered species: the Laiwangi Wanggameti National Park and Manupeu Tanah Daru National Park.
Sumba is part of the East Nusa Tenggara province. The island and the very small islands administered with it are split into four regencies (local government regions), following re-organisation in 2007. These are Sumba Barat (West Sumba), Sumba Barat Daya (Southwest Sumba), Sumba Tengah (Central Sumba) and Sumba Timur (East Sumba). The island had 685,186 inhabitants at the 2010 Census, which accounted for 14.6% of the provincial population in 2010. The provincial capital is not on Sumba Island, but in Kupang on West Timor.
Sumba has a highly stratified society based on castes. This is especially true of East Sumba, whereas West Sumba is more ethnically and linguistically diverse.
The Sumbanese people speak a variety of closely related Austronesian languages and have a mixture of Austronesian and Melanesian ancestry. The largest language group is the Kambera language, spoken by a quarter of a million people in the eastern half of Sumba.
Twenty-five to thirty percent of the population practices the animist Marapu religion. The remainder are Christian, a majority being Dutch Calvinist with a substantial minority being Roman Catholic. A small number of Sunni Muslims can be found along the coastal areas.
Sumba is famous for "ikat" textiles, particularly very detailed hand-woven "ikat". The process of dying and weaving "ikat" is labor-intensive and one piece can take months to prepare.
Sumba is one of the poorer islands of Indonesia.
A relatively high percentage of the population suffers from malaria, although the illness is almost eradicated in the west part of the island. Infant mortality is high.
Access to water is one of the major challenges in Sumba. During the dry season, many streams dry up and villagers depend on wells for scarce supplies of water. Many villagers have to travel several kilometres several times a day to fetch water. It is mainly the women and children who are sent for water, while the men are at work. The Sumba Foundation has been active in raising sponsorship to drill wells in villages and attempting to reduce poverty on the island. As of February 2013, the Sumba Foundation were responsible for 48 wells and 191 water stations, a supplying 15 schools with water and sanitation, and reducing malaria rates by some 85%.
Electricity mainly comes from diesel generators. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26668 |
Sabbath in Christianity
Sabbath in Christianity is the inclusion or adoption in Christianity of a sabbath in the sense of a day set aside for rest and worship. This practice was established within Judaism through Mosaic Law, as expressed through the commandment to "remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" and God's blessing of the seventh day (Saturday) making it holy, "because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation". The practice was associated with the assembly of the people to worship in synagogues on the day known as the Sabbath.
The position now dominant in Christianity is that observance of Sunday, called the Lord's Day, has supplanted or superseded the Jewish seventh-day sabbath commandment.
The at first mainly Jewish Early Christians observed the seventh-day sabbath with prayer and rest, but shows that soon they saw it as no more obligatory than Jewish rules on diet and festivals. They gathered on the first day, Sunday, reckoned in Jewish tradition as beginning, like the other days, at sunset on what would now be considered the previous evening. At the beginning of the second century Ignatius of Antioch approved non-observance of the Sabbath.
Possibly because of a movement initiated in the early 14th century by Ewostatewos, which gained approval under Emperor Zara Yaqob,
Christians in Ethiopia observe a two-day sabbath covering both Saturday and Sunday. Influenced by ideas of the 16th and 17th-century Puritans, the Presbyterian and Congregationalist, as well as Methodist and Baptist Churches, enshrined first-day (Sunday) Sabbatarian views in their confessions of faith, observing the Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath.
Beginning about the 17th century, a few groups of Restorationist Christians took issue with some of the practices of the churches around them, sometimes also questioning the theology that had been so widely accepted throughout 16 centuries. Mostly Seventh-day Sabbatarians, they broke away from their former churches to form communities that followed Seventh-day Sabbath-based practices that differed from the rest of Christianity, often also adopting a more literal interpretation of law, either Christian or Mosaic.
The Hebrew Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, is often spoken of loosely as "Saturday" but in the Hebrew calendar a day begins at sunset and not at midnight. The Sabbath therefore coincides with what is now commonly identified as Friday sunset to Saturday night when three stars are visible in the night sky. Similarly, the Hebrew first day of the week ("Sunday") extends from sunset on (in common parlance) Saturday evening to sunset on what is generally called Sunday evening. The Sabbath continued to be observed on the seventh day in the early Christian church. To this day, the liturgical day continues to be observed in line with the Hebrew reckoning in the church calendars in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy. In the Latin Church, "the liturgical day runs from midnight to midnight. However, the celebration of Sundays and of Solemnities begins already on the evening of the previous day".
In non-liturgical matters, the canon law of the Latin Church defines a day as beginning at midnight.
Early Christians largely continued to pray and rest on the seventh day but soon also observed Sunday, the day of the week on which Jesus had risen from the dead and on which the Holy Spirit had come to the apostles. Paul the Apostle and the Christians of Troas, for example, gathered on Sunday "to break bread" (Acts 20:7) and Paul indicated Sunday as the day on which the Corinthian Christians were to put their alms aside (1 Corinthians 16:2). Soon some Christians were observing only Sunday and not the Sabbath. Patristic writings attest that by the second century, it had become commonplace to celebrate the Eucharist in a corporate day of worship on the first day. A Church Father, Eusebius, stated that for Christians, "the sabbath had been transferred to Sunday".
In his book "From Sabbath to Sunday", Adventist theologian Samuele Bacchiocchi contended that the transition from the Saturday Sabbath to Sunday in the early Christian church was due to pagan and political factors, and the decline of standards for the Sabbath day.
While the Lord's Day observance of the Eucharist was established separately from the Jewish Sabbath, the centrality of the Eucharist itself made it the commonest early observance whenever Christians gathered for worship. In many places and times as late as the 4th century, they did continue to gather weekly on the Sabbath, often in addition to the Lord's Day, celebrating the Eucharist on both days. No disapproval of Sabbath observance of the Christian festival was expressed at the early church councils that dealt with Judaizing. The Council of Laodicea (363-364), for example, mandated only that Sabbath Eucharists must be observed in the same manner as those on the first day. Neander has suggested that Sabbath Eucharists in many places were kept "as a feast in commemoration of the Creation".
The issues about Hebrew practices that continued into the 2nd century tended to relate mostly to the Sabbath. Justin Martyr, who attended worship on the first day, wrote about the cessation of Hebrew Sabbath observance and stated that the Sabbath was enjoined as a temporary sign to Israel to teach it of human sinfulness (), no longer needed after Christ came without sin. He rejected the need to keep a literal seventh-day Sabbath, arguing instead that "the new law requires you to keep the sabbath constantly." With Christian corporate worship so clearly aligned with the Eucharist and allowed on the seventh day, Hebrew Sabbath practices primarily involved the observance of a day of rest.
A common theme in criticism of Hebrew Sabbath rest was idleness, found not to be in the Christian spirit of rest. Irenaeus (late 2nd century), also citing continuous Sabbath observance, wrote that the Christian "will not be commanded to leave idle one day of rest, who is constantly keeping sabbath", and Tertullian (early 3rd century) argued "that we still more ought to observe a sabbath from all servile work always, and not only every seventh-day, but through all time". This early metaphorical interpretation of Sabbath applied it to the entire Christian life.
Ignatius, cautioning against "Judaizing" in his letter to the Magnesians, contrasts the Jewish Sabbath practices with the Christian life which includes the Lord's Day: "Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness. ...But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's [Day, "Dominicam"] as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days."
The 2nd and 3rd centuries solidified the early church's emphasis upon Sunday worship and its rejection of a Jewish (Mosaic Law-based) observation of the Sabbath and manner of rest. Christian practice of following Sabbath after the manner of the Hebrews declined, prompting Tertullian to note "to [us] Sabbaths are strange" and unobserved. Even as late as the 4th century, Judaizing was still sometimes a problem within the Church, but by this time it was repudiated strongly as heresy.
Sunday was another work day in the Roman Empire. On March 7, 321, however, Roman Emperor Constantine I issued a civil decree making Sunday a day of rest from labor, stating:
While established only in civil law rather than religious principle, the Church welcomed the development as a means by which Christians could the more easily attend Sunday worship and observe Christian rest. At Laodicea also, the Church encouraged Christians to make use of the day for Christian rest where possible, without ascribing to it any of the regulation of Mosaic Law, and indeed anathematizing Hebrew observance on the Sabbath. The civil law and its effects made possible a pattern in Church life that has been imitated throughout the centuries in many places and cultures, wherever possible.
Augustine of Hippo followed the early patristic writers in spiritualizing the meaning of the Sabbath commandment, referring it to eschatological rest rather than observance of a literal day. Such writing, however, did serve to deepen the idea of Christian rest on Sunday, and its practice increased in prominence throughout the early Middle Ages.
Thomas Aquinas taught that the Decalogue is an expression of natural law which binds all men, and therefore the Sabbath commandment is a moral requirement along with the other nine. Thus in the West, Sunday rest became more closely associated with a Christian application of the Sabbath, a development towards the idea of a "Christian Sabbath" rather than a Hebrew one. While Sunday worship and Sunday rest combined powerfully to relate to Sabbath commandment precepts, the application of the commandment to Christian life was nevertheless a response within the law of liberty, not restricted to a single day but continuous, and not a displacement of the Sabbath in time.
Seventh-day Sabbath was observed at least sporadically by a minority of groups during the Middle Ages.
In the early church in Ireland, there is evidence that a sabbath-rest on Saturday may have been kept along with Mass on Sunday as the 'Lord's day'. It appears that many of the canon laws in Ireland from that period were derived from parts of the laws of Moses. In Adomnan of Iona's biography of St Columba it describes Columba's death by having Columba say on a Saturday, "Today is truly my sabbath, for it is my last day in this wearisome life, when I shall keep the Sabbath after my troublesome labours. At midnight this Sunday, as Scripture saith, 'I shall go the way of my fathers'" and he then dies that night. The identification of this sabbath day as a Saturday in the narrative is clear in the context, because Columba is recorded as seeing an angel at the Mass on the previous Sunday and the narrative claims he dies in the same week, on the sabbath day at the end of the week, during the 'Lord's night' (referring to Saturday night-Sunday morning).
An Eastern body of Christian Sabbath-keepers mentioned from the 8th century to the 12th is called Athenians ("touch-not") because they abstained from uncleanness and intoxicating drinks, called Athinginians in Neander: "This sect, which had its principal seat in the city of Armorion, in upper Phrygia, where many Jews resided, sprung out of a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. They united baptism with the observance of all the rites of Judaism, circumcision excepted. We may perhaps recognize a branch of the older Judaizing sects."
Cardinal Hergenrother says that they stood in intimate relation with Emperor Michael II (AD 821-829), and testifies that they observed Sabbath. As late as the 11th century Cardinal Humbert still referred to the Nazarenes as a Sabbath-keeping Christian body existing at that time. But in the 10th and 11th centuries, there was a great extension of sects from the East to the West. Neander states that the corruption of the clergy furnished a most important vantage-ground on which to attack the dominant church. The abstemious life of these Christians, the simplicity and earnestness of their preaching and teaching, had their effect. "Thus we find them emerging at once in the 11th century, in countries the most diverse, and the most remote from each other, in Italy, France, and even in the Harz districts in Germany." Likewise, also, "traces of Sabbath-keepers are found in the times of Gregory I, Gregory VII, and in the 12th century in Lombardy."
The Orthodox Tewahedo churches celebrate the Sabbath, a practice proselytised in the Oriental Orthodox church in Ethiopia in the 1300s by Ewostatewos (, ). In response to colonial pressure by missionaries of the Catholic Church in the 1500s, the emperor Saint Gelawdewos wrote his "Confession", an apologia of traditional beliefs and practices including observation of the Sabbath and a theological defense of the Miaphysitism of Oriental Orthodoxy.
Protestant reformers, beginning in the 16th century, brought new interpretations of Christian law to the West. The Heidelberg Catechism of the Reformed Churches founded by John Calvin teaches that the moral law as contained in the Ten Commandments is binding for Christians and that it instructs Christians how to live in service to God in gratitude for His grace shown in redeeming mankind. Likewise, Martin Luther, in his work against the Antinomians, rejected the idea of the abolition of the Ten Commandments. They also viewed Sunday rest as a civic institution established by human authority, which provided an occasion for bodily rest and public worship. Another Protestant, John Wesley, stated "This 'handwriting of ordinances' our Lord did blot out, take away, and nail to His cross (). But the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He did not take away. ...The moral law stands on an entirely different foundation from the ceremonial or ritual law. ...Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages."
Sabbatarianism arose and spread among both the continental and English Protestants during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Puritans of England and Scotland brought a new rigorism into the observance of the Christian Lord's Day in reaction to the customary Sunday observance of the time, which they regarded as lax. They appealed to Sabbath ordinances with the idea that only the Bible can bind men's consciences on whether or how they will take a break from work, or to impose an obligation to meet at a particular time. Their influential reasoning spread to other denominations also, and it is primarily through their influence that "Sabbath" has become the colloquial equivalent of "Lord's Day" or "Sunday". Sunday Sabbatarianism is enshrined in its most mature expression, the "Westminster Confession of Faith" (1646), in the Calvinist theological tradition. Paragraphs 7 and 8 of Chapter 21 ("Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day") read:7. As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord's day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.8. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe a holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.The confession holds that not only is work forbidden on Sunday, but also "works, words, and thoughts" about "worldly employments and recreations." Instead, the whole day should be taken up with "public and private exercises of [one's] worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy."
Strict Sunday Sabbatarianism is sometimes called "Puritan Sabbath", which may be contrasted with "Continental Sabbath". The latter follows the reformed confessions of faith of Continental Europe such as the "Heidelberg Catechism", which emphasize rest and worship on the Lord's Day, but do not explicitly forbid recreational activities. However, in practice, many continental Reformed Christians also abstain from recreation on the Sabbath, following the admonition by the Heidelberg Catechism's author Zacharaias Ursinus that "To keep holy the Sabbath, is not to spend the day in slothfulness and idleness".
Though first-day Sabbatarian practice declined in the 18th century, the First Great Awakening in the 19th century led to a greater concern for strict Sunday observance. The founding of the Day One Christian Ministries in 1831 was influenced by the teaching of Daniel Wilson.
Many Christian theologians believe that Sabbath observance is not binding for Christians today, citing for instance .
Some Christian non-Sabbatarians advocate physical Sabbath rest on any chosen day of the week, and some advocate Sabbath as a symbolic metaphor for rest in Christ; the concept of "Lord's Day" is usually treated as synonymous with "Sabbath". This non-Sabbatarian interpretation usually states that Jesus's obedience and the New Covenant fulfilled the laws of Sabbath, the Ten Commandments, and the Law of Moses, which are thus considered not to be binding moral laws, and sometimes considered abolished or abrogated. While Sunday is often observed as the day of Christian assembly and worship, in accordance with church tradition, Sabbath commandments are dissociated from this practice.
Non-Sabbatarian Christians also cite , in which believers are compared to "a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written ... not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts"; this interpretation states that Christians accordingly no longer follow the Ten Commandments with dead orthodoxy ("tablets of stone"), but follow a new law written upon "tablets of human hearts". In we read that "if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory ..., will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ...And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!" This is interpreted as teaching that New Covenant Christians are not bound by the Mosaic Law, and that Sabbath-keeping is not required. Further, because "love is the fulfillment of the law" (), the new-covenant "law" is considered to be based entirely upon love and to rescind Sabbath requirements.
Non-Sabbatarians who affirm that Sabbath-keeping remains for God's people (as in ) frequently regard this as present weeklong spiritual rest or future heavenly rest rather than as physical weekly rest. For instance, Irenaeus saw Sabbath rest from secular affairs for one day each week as a sign of the way that Christians were called to permanently devote themselves to God, and an eschatological symbol. One such interpretation of Hebrews states that seventh-day Sabbath is no longer relevant as a regular, literal day of rest, but instead is a symbolic metaphor for the eternal salvation "rest" that Christians enjoy in Christ, which was in turn prefigured by the promised land of Canaan.
Much of Western Christianity came to view Sunday as a transference of Sabbath observance to the first day, identifying Sunday with a first-day "Christian Sabbath". While first-day Sabbatarian practice declined during the 18th century, leaving few modern followers, its concern for stricter Sunday observances did have influence in the West, shaping the origin of the Christian Sabbath. The term no longer applies to a specific set of practices, but tends to be used to describe the general establishment of Sunday worship and rest observances within Christianity. It does not necessarily imply the displacement of the Sabbath itself, which is often recognized as remaining on Saturday. As such, the Christian Sabbath generally represents a reinterpretation of the meaning of the Sabbath in the light of Christian law, emphases of practice, and values.
In 1998 Pope John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter "Dies Domini", "on keeping the Lord's day holy". He encourages Catholics to remember the importance of keeping Sunday holy, urging that it not lose its meaning by being blended with a frivolous "weekend" mentality.
Going beyond the traditional Catholic position and seeing to uphold the Lord's Day Act in French Quebec, the Catholic Sunday League was formed in 1923 to promote first-day sabbatarian restrictions in the province, especially against movie theaters.
In the Latin Church, Sunday is kept in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus and celebrated with the Eucharist (Catholic Catechism 2177). It is also the day of leisure. The Lord's Day is considered both the first day and the "eighth day" of the week, symbolizing both first creation and new creation (2174). Roman Catholics view the first day as a day for assembly for worship (2178, ), but consider a day of rigorous rest not obligatory on Christians (, ). Catholic recommendations to rest on Sunday do not hinder participation in "ordinary and innocent occupations". In the spirit of the Sabbath, Catholics ought to observe a day of rest from servile work, which also becomes "a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money" (Catholic Catechism 2172). This day is often (traditionally) observed on Sunday in conjunction with the Lord's Day (Catholic Catechism 2176).
Cardinal James Gibbons affirmed Sunday observances as one of the examples of the Roman Catholic Church's sufficiency as guide:
Orthodox Sunday worship is not a direct Sabbath observance. The Eastern Orthodox Church observes the first day (liturgical Sunday, beginning Saturday evening) as a weekly feast, the remembrance of Christ's resurrection, and a mini-Pascha. As such, it tends to hold the first place within a week's observances, sharing that place only with other major feasts which occur from time to time. The Divine Liturgy is always celebrated, joining the participants on earth with those who offer the worship in God's kingdom, and hence joining the first day to the eighth day, wherein the communion of the whole Church with Christ is fully realized. As such, it is never surpassed as a time for the Orthodox to assemble in worship.
The Church affirms its authority to appoint the time of this feast (and all observances) as deriving from the authority given to the apostles and passed to the bishops through the laying-on of hands, for the sake of the governance of the Church on earth, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (, , , ). It does not treat Sunday worship as a transference of Sabbath worship, but identifies the Sabbath, still on Saturday, as a Biblical "type", a precursor, realized fully only after Christ's fulfillment of the Mosaic Law (). Thus, the Sabbath and the Mosaic Law both remain as a teacher, reminding Christians to worship in holiness, but now according to grace, in Christian observations and Sunday worship.
The grace received in baptism binds the Church to Christ, who has given his people the freedom to seek him directly in relationship, not to pursue whatever suits one's fancy. The goal of that freedom is always union with Christ in theosis, and the maintenance of that union all the time, throughout this life and into the next, which is sometimes described as the "sanctification of time". Grace therefore never permits of whatever is sinful or unhelpful to salvation, such as laziness or hedonistic revelry. Rather, it becomes a stricter guide for behavior than any legal code, even the Mosaic, and disciplines the believer in some degree of ascetic endeavor ().
Orthodoxy recognizes no mandated time for rest, a day or any other span, but the Church leads the individual to holiness in different ways, and recognizes the need for economy and for rest. Activities such as sleep, relaxation, and recreation become a matter of balance and proper handling, and acceptance of God's mercy. St. Basil the Great expresses thanks for this in a prayer often said by Orthodox Christians in the morning, after rising: "You do we bless, O Most High God and Lord of mercy, ... Who has given unto us sleep for rest from our infirmity, and for repose of our much-toiling flesh." In recognition of God's gifts, therefore, the Church welcomes and supports civil laws that provide a day away from labor, which then become opportunities for Christians to pray, rest, and engage in acts of mercy. In grace do Christians respond, remembering both the example of the Sabbath rest, and Christ's lordship ().
Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches distinguish between the "Sabbath" (Saturday) and the "Lord's Day" (Sunday), and both continue to play a special role for the faithful. Many parishes and monasteries will serve the Divine Liturgy on both Saturday morning and Sunday morning. The church never allows strict fasting on any Saturday (except Holy Saturday) or Sunday, and the fasting rules on those Saturdays and Sundays which fall during one of the fasting seasons (such as Great Lent, Apostles' Fast, etc.) are always relaxed to some degree. During Great Lent, when the celebration of the Liturgy is forbidden on weekdays, there is always Liturgy on Saturday as well as Sunday. The church also has a special cycle of Bible readings (Epistle and Gospel) for Saturdays and Sundays which is different from the cycle of readings allotted to weekdays. However, the Lord's Day, being a celebration of the Resurrection, is clearly given more emphasis. For instance, in the Russian Orthodox Church Sunday is always observed with an all-night vigil on Saturday night, and in all of the Eastern Churches it is amplified with special hymns which are chanted only on Sunday. If a feast day falls on a Sunday it is always combined with the hymns for Sunday (unless it is a Lord's Great Feast). Saturday is celebrated as a sort of afterfeast for the previous Sunday, on which several of the hymns from the previous Sunday are repeated.
In part, Eastern Christians continue to celebrate Saturday as Sabbath because of its role in the history of salvation: it was on a Saturday that Jesus "rested" in the cave tomb after the Passion. For this reason also, Saturday is a day for general commemoration of the departed, and special requiem hymns are often chanted on this day. Orthodox Christians make time to help the poor and needy as well on this day.
Lutheran founder Martin Luther stated "I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of Ten Commandments. ...Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity abrogate sin also." The Lutheran Augsburg Confession, speaking of changes made by Roman Catholic pontiffs, states: "They refer to the Sabbath-day as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalog, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath-day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!" Lutheran church historian Augustus Neander states "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance".
Lutheran writer Marva Dawn keeps a whole day as Sabbath, advocating for rest during any weekly complete 24-hour period and favoring rest from Saturday sunset to Sunday sunset, but regarding corporate worship as "an essential part of God's Sabbath reclamation."
In 1831, Joseph Smith published a revelation commanding his related movement, the formative Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints), to go to the house of prayer, offer up their sacraments, rest from their labors, and pay their devotions on the Lord's day (D&C 59:9–12). Latter Day Saints believe this means performing no labor that would keep them from giving their full attention to spiritual matters (Ex. 20:10). LDS prophets have described this as meaning they should not shop, hunt, fish, attend sports events, or participate in similar activities on that day. Elder Spencer W. Kimball wrote in his "The Miracle of Forgiveness" that mere idle lounging on the Sabbath does not keep the day holy, and that it calls for constructive thoughts and acts.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are encouraged to prepare their meals with "singleness of heart" on the Sabbath and believe the day is only for righteous activities (Is. 58:13). In most areas of the world, Latter-day Saints worship on Sunday.
The observance of the Lord's Day (Sunday) as the Christian Sabbath is known as first-day Sabbatarianism and this view was historically heralded by nonconformist denominations, such as Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists, as well as many Episcopalians. First-day sabbatarianism impacted popular Western Christian culture, with influences remaining to the present day, e.g. Sunday laws.
For example, The Westminster Confession, historically upheld by Presbyterians, commands the belief of first-day Sabbatarian doctrine:
The Savoy Declaration, upheld by Puritan Congregationalists, as well as the Second London Baptist Confession, upheld by Reformed Baptists, advanced first-day Sabbatarian views identical to those expressed in the Westminster Confession. General Baptists also advocate first-day Sabbatarian doctrine in their confessions of faith; for example, the Treatise on the Faith and Practice of the Free Will Baptists states:
In keeping with historic Methodism, the "Discipline" of the Bible Methodist Connection of Churches enshrines first-day Sabbatarianism:
Organizations that promote Sunday Sabbatarianism include Day One Christian Ministries (formerly known as the Lord's Day Observance Society) in the UK. With unwavering support by mainstream Christian denominations, Sabbatarian organizations were formed, such as the American Sabbath Union (also known as the Lord's Day Alliance) and the Sunday League of America, following the American Civil War, to preserve the importance of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. Founded in 1888, the Lord's Day Alliance continues to "encourage all people to recognize and observe a day of Sabbath rest and to worship the risen Lord Jesus Christ, on the Lord’s Day, Sunday". The Board of Managers of the Lord's Day Alliance is composed of clergy and laity from Christian churches, including Baptist, Catholic, Episcopalian, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist, Non-Denominationalist, Orthodox, Presbyterian, and Reformed traditions. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union also supports Sabbatarian views and worked to reflect these in the public sphere. In Canada, the Lord's Day Alliance (renamed the People for Sunday Association of Canada) was founded there and it lobbied successfully to pass in 1906 the Lord's Day Act, which was not repealed until 1985. Throughout their history, Sabbatarian organizations, such as the Lord's Day Alliance, have mounted campaigns, with support in both Canada and Britain from labour unions with the goals of preventing secular and commercial interests from hampering freedom of worship and preventing them from exploiting workers.
The founder of the Moody Bible Institute declares, "Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word 'remember,' showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?"
Seventh-day Protestants regard Sabbath as a day of rest for all mankind and not Israel alone, based on Jesus's statement, "the Sabbath was made for man" (i.e., purposed for humankind at the time of its creation, , cf. ), and on early-church Sabbath meetings. Seventh-day Sabbatarianism has been criticized as an effort to combine Old Testament laws, practiced in Judaism, with Christianity, or to revive the Judaizers of the Epistles or the Ebionites.
Seventh-day Sabbatarians practice a strict seventh-day Sabbath observance, similar to "Shabbat" in Judaism. John Traske (1586–1636) and Thomas Brabourne first advocated seventh-day Sabbatarianism in England. Their ideas gave rise to the Seventh Day Baptists, formed in early 17th-century in England. Samuel and Tacy Hubbard began the first American congregation on Rhode Island in 1671.
Grace Communion International (Armstrongism) taught seventh-day Sabbath observance. The United Church of God teaches seventh-day Sabbath observance.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church arose in the mid-19th century in America after Rachel Oakes, a Seventh Day Baptist, gave a tract about the Sabbath to an Adventist Millerite, who passed it on to Ellen G. White.
Fundamental Belief # 20 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church states:
By synecdoche the term "Sabbath" in the New Testament may also mean simply a "se'nnight" or seven-day week, namely, the interval between two Sabbaths. Jesus's parable of the Pharisee and the Publican describes the Pharisee as fasting "twice a week" (Greek "dis tou sabbatou", literally, "twice of the Sabbath").
Seven annual Biblical festivals, called by the name "miqra" ("called assembly") in Hebrew and "High Sabbath" in English, serve as supplemental testimonies to Sabbath. These are recorded in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy and do not necessarily occur on the Sabbath. They are observed by Jews and a minority of Christians. Three of them occur in spring: the first and seventh days of Passover, and Pentecost. Four occur in fall, in the seventh month, and are also called "Shabbaton": the Feast of Trumpets; Yom Kippur, "Sabbath of Sabbaths"; and the first and eighth days of Tabernacles.
The year of "Shmita" (Hebrew שמיטה, literally, "release"), also called Sabbatical Year, is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel. During "Shmita", the land is to be left to lie fallow. A second aspect of "Shmita" concerns debts and loans: when the year ends, personal debts are considered nullified and forgiven.
Jewish "Shabbat" is a weekly day of rest cognate to Christian Sabbath, observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night; it is also observed by a minority of Christians. Customarily, "Shabbat" is ushered in by lighting candles shortly before sunset, at halakhicallly calculated times that change from week to week and from place to place.
The new moon, occurring every 29 or 30 days, is an important separately sanctioned occasion in Judaism and some other faiths. It is not widely regarded as Sabbath, but some Hebrew Roots and Pentecostal churches, such as the native New Israelites of Peru and the Creation Seventh Day Adventist Church, do keep the day of the new moon as Sabbath or rest day, from evening to evening. New-moon services can last all day.
In South Africa, Christian Boers have celebrated December 16, the Day of the Vow (now called the Day of Reconciliation, as annual Sabbath (holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838, commemorating a famous Boer victory over the Zulu Kingdom.
Many early Christian writers from the 2nd century, such as pseudo-Barnabas, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr and Hippolytus of Rome followed rabbinic Judaism (the "Mishna") in interpreting Sabbath not as a literal day of rest but as a thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, which would follow six millennia of world history.
Secular use of "Sabbath" for "rest day", while it usually refers to Sunday, is often stated in North America to refer to different purposes for the rest day than those of Christendom. In "McGowan v. Maryland" (1961), the Supreme Court of the United States held that contemporary Maryland blue laws (typically, Sunday rest laws) were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding with majority Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26671 |
SHA-1
In cryptography, SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1) is a cryptographic hash function which takes an input and produces a 160-bit (20-byte) hash value known as a message digest – typically rendered as a hexadecimal number, 40 digits long. It was designed by the United States National Security Agency, and is a U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard.
Since 2005 SHA-1 has not been considered secure against well-funded opponents, as of 2010 many organizations have recommended its replacement.
NIST formally deprecated use of SHA-1 in 2011 and disallowed its use for digital signatures in 2013. As of 2020, chosen-prefix attacks against SHA-1 are now practical as such, it is recommended to remove SHA-1 from products as soon as possible and use instead SHA-256 or SHA-3. Replacing SHA-1 is urgent where it is used for signatures.
All major web browser vendors ceased acceptance of SHA-1 SSL certificates in 2017. In February 2017, CWI Amsterdam and Google announced they had performed a collision attack against SHA-1, publishing two dissimilar PDF files which produced the same SHA-1 hash. But SHA-1 is still secure for HMAC.
SHA-1 produces a message digest based on principles similar to those used by Ronald L. Rivest of MIT in the design of the MD2, MD4 and MD5 message digest algorithms, but generates a larger hash value (160 bits vs. 128 bits).
SHA-1 was developed as part of the U.S. Government's Capstone project. The original specification of the algorithm was published in 1993 under the title "Secure Hash Standard", FIPS PUB 180, by U.S. government standards agency NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). This version is now often named "SHA-0". It was withdrawn by the NSA shortly after publication and was superseded by the revised version, published in 1995 in FIPS PUB 180-1 and commonly designated "SHA-1". SHA-1 differs from SHA-0 only by a single bitwise rotation in the message schedule of its compression function. According to the NSA, this was done to correct a flaw in the original algorithm which reduced its cryptographic security, but they did not provide any further explanation. Publicly available techniques did indeed demonstrate a compromise of SHA-0, in 2004, before SHA-1 in 2017. "See" #Attacks
SHA-1 forms part of several widely used security applications and protocols, including TLS and SSL, PGP, SSH, S/MIME, and IPsec. Those applications can also use MD5; both MD5 and SHA-1 are descended from MD4.
SHA-1 and SHA-2 are the hash algorithms required by law for use in certain U.S. government applications, including use within other cryptographic algorithms and protocols, for the protection of sensitive unclassified information. FIPS PUB 180-1 also encouraged adoption and use of SHA-1 by private and commercial organizations. SHA-1 is being retired from most government uses; the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology said, "Federal agencies should stop using SHA-1 for...applications that require collision resistance as soon as practical, and must use the SHA-2 family of hash functions for these applications after 2010" (emphasis in original), though that was later relaxed to allow SHA-1 to be used for verifying old digital signatures and time stamps.
A prime motivation for the publication of the Secure Hash Algorithm was the Digital Signature Standard, in which it is incorporated.
The SHA hash functions have been used for the basis of the SHACAL block ciphers.
Revision control systems such as Git, Mercurial, and Monotone use SHA-1, not for security, but to identify revisions and to ensure that the data has not changed due to accidental corruption. Linus Torvalds said about Git:
For a hash function for which "L" is the number of bits in the message digest, finding a message that corresponds to a given message digest can always be done using a brute force search in approximately 2"L" evaluations. This is called a preimage attack and may or may not be practical depending on "L" and the particular computing environment. However, a "collision", consisting of finding two different messages that produce the same message digest, requires on average only about evaluations using a birthday attack. Thus the strength of a hash function is usually compared to a symmetric cipher of half the message digest length. SHA-1, which has a 160-bit message digest, was originally thought to have 80-bit strength.
In 2005, cryptographers Xiaoyun Wang, Yiqun Lisa Yin, and Hongbo Yu produced collision pairs for SHA-0 and have found algorithms that should produce SHA-1 collisions in far fewer than the originally expected 280 evaluations.
Some of the applications that use cryptographic hashes, like password storage, are only minimally affected by a collision attack. Constructing a password that works for a given account requires a preimage attack, as well as access to the hash of the original password, which may or may not be trivial. Reversing password encryption (e.g. to obtain a password to try against a user's account elsewhere) is not made possible by the attacks. (However, even a secure password hash can't prevent brute-force attacks on weak passwords.)
In the case of document signing, an attacker could not simply fake a signature from an existing document: The attacker would have to produce a pair of documents, one innocuous and one damaging, and get the private key holder to sign the innocuous document. There are practical circumstances in which this is possible; until the end of 2008, it was possible to create forged SSL certificates using an MD5 collision.
Due to the block and iterative structure of the algorithms and the absence of additional final steps, all SHA functions (except SHA-3) are vulnerable to length-extension and partial-message collision attacks. These attacks allow an attacker to forge a message signed only by a keyed hash – or – by extending the message and recalculating the hash without knowing the key. A simple improvement to prevent these attacks is to hash twice: (the length of 0"b", zero block, is equal to the block size of the hash function).
In early 2005, Rijmen and Oswald published an attack on a reduced version of SHA-1 – 53 out of 80 rounds – which finds collisions with a computational effort of fewer than 280 operations.
In February 2005, an attack by Xiaoyun Wang, Yiqun Lisa Yin, and Hongbo Yu was announced. The attacks can find collisions in the full version of SHA-1, requiring fewer than 269 operations. (A brute-force search would require 280 operations.)
The authors write: "In particular, our analysis is built upon the original differential attack on SHA-0, the near collision attack on SHA-0, the multiblock collision techniques, as well as the message modification techniques used in the collision search attack on MD5. Breaking SHA-1 would not be possible without these powerful analytical techniques." The authors have presented a collision for 58-round SHA-1, found with 233 hash operations. The paper with the full attack description was published in August 2005 at the CRYPTO conference.
In an interview, Yin states that, "Roughly, we exploit the following two weaknesses: One is that the file preprocessing step is not complicated enough; another is that certain math operations in the first 20 rounds have unexpected security problems."
On 17 August 2005, an improvement on the SHA-1 attack was announced on behalf of Xiaoyun Wang, Andrew Yao and Frances Yao at the CRYPTO 2005 Rump Session, lowering the complexity required for finding a collision in SHA-1 to 263. On 18 December 2007 the details of this result were explained and verified by Martin Cochran.
Christophe De Cannière and Christian Rechberger further improved the attack on SHA-1 in "Finding SHA-1 Characteristics: General Results and Applications," receiving the Best Paper Award at ASIACRYPT 2006. A two-block collision for 64-round SHA-1 was presented, found using unoptimized methods with 235 compression function evaluations. Since this attack requires the equivalent of about 235 evaluations, it is considered to be a significant theoretical break. Their attack was extended further to 73 rounds (of 80) in 2010 by Grechnikov. In order to find an actual collision in the full 80 rounds of the hash function, however, tremendous amounts of computer time are required. To that end, a collision search for SHA-1 using the distributed computing platform BOINC began August 8, 2007, organized by the Graz University of Technology. The effort was abandoned May 12, 2009 due to lack of progress.
At the Rump Session of CRYPTO 2006, Christian Rechberger and Christophe De Cannière claimed to have discovered a collision attack on SHA-1 that would allow an attacker to select at least parts of the message.
In 2008, an attack methodology by Stéphane Manuel reported hash collisions with an estimated theoretical complexity of 251 to 257 operations. However he later retracted that claim after finding that local collision paths were not actually independent, and finally quoting for the most efficient a collision vector that was already known before this work.
Cameron McDonald, Philip Hawkes and Josef Pieprzyk presented a hash collision attack with claimed complexity 252 at the Rump Session of Eurocrypt 2009. However, the accompanying paper, "Differential Path for SHA-1 with complexity "O"(252)" has been withdrawn due to the authors' discovery that their estimate was incorrect.
One attack against SHA-1 was Marc Stevens with an estimated cost of $2.77M(2012) to break a single hash value by renting CPU power from cloud servers. Stevens developed this attack in a project called HashClash, implementing a differential path attack. On 8 November 2010, he claimed he had a fully working near-collision attack against full SHA-1 working with an estimated complexity equivalent to 257.5 SHA-1 compressions. He estimated this attack could be extended to a full collision with a complexity around 261.
On , Marc Stevens, Pierre Karpman, and Thomas Peyrin published a freestart collision attack on SHA-1's compression function that requires only 257 SHA-1 evaluations. This does not directly translate into a collision on the full SHA-1 hash function (where an attacker is "not" able to freely choose the initial internal state), but undermines the security claims for SHA-1. In particular, it was the first time that an attack on full SHA-1 had been "demonstrated"; all earlier attacks were too expensive for their authors to carry them out. The authors named this significant breakthrough in the cryptanalysis of SHA-1 "The SHAppening".
The method was based on their earlier work, as well as the auxiliary paths (or boomerangs) speed-up technique from Joux and Peyrin, and using high performance/cost efficient GPU cards from NVIDIA. The collision was found on a 16-node cluster with a total of 64 graphics cards. The authors estimated that a similar collision could be found by buying US$2,000 of GPU time on EC2.
The authors estimated that the cost of renting enough of EC2 CPU/GPU time to generate a full collision for SHA-1 at the time of publication was between US$75K and 120K, and noted that was well within the budget of criminal organizations, not to mention national intelligence agencies. As such, the authors recommended that SHA-1 be deprecated as quickly as possible.
On , the CWI (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica) and Google announced the "SHAttered" attack, in which they generated two different PDF files with the same SHA-1 hash in roughly 263.1 SHA-1 evaluations. This attack is about 100,000 times faster than brute forcing a SHA-1 collision with a birthday attack, which was estimated to take 280 SHA-1 evaluations. The attack required "the equivalent processing power of 6,500 years of single-CPU computations and 110 years of single-GPU computations".
On a paper by Gaëtan Leurent and Thomas Peyrin presented at Eurocrypt 2019 described an enhancement to the previously best chosen-prefix attack in Merkle–Damgård–like digest functions based on Davies–Meyer block ciphers. With these improvements, this method is capable of finding chosen-prefix collisions in approximately 268 SHA-1 evaluations. This is approximately 1 billion times faster (and now usable for many targeted attacks, thanks to the possibility of choosing a prefix, for example malicious code or faked identities in signed certificates) than the previous attack's 277.1 evaluations (but without chosen prefix, which was impractical for most targeted attacks because the found collisions were almost random) and is fast enough to be practical for resourceful attackers, requiring approximately $100,000 of cloud processing. This method is also capable of finding chosen-prefix collisions in the MD5 function, but at a complexity of 246.3 does not surpass the prior best available method at a theoretical level (239), though potentially at a practical level (≤249). This attack has a memory requirement of 500+ GB.
On the authors published an improved attack. In this paper they demonstrate a chosen-prefix collision attack with a complexity of 263.4, that at the time of publication would cost 45k USD per generated collision.
At CRYPTO 98, two French researchers, Florent Chabaud and Antoine Joux, presented an attack on SHA-0: collisions can be found with complexity 261, fewer than the 280 for an ideal hash function of the same size.
In 2004, Biham and Chen found near-collisions for SHA-0 – two messages that hash to nearly the same value; in this case, 142 out of the 160 bits are equal. They also found full collisions of SHA-0 reduced to 62 out of its 80 rounds.
Subsequently, on 12 August 2004, a collision for the full SHA-0 algorithm was announced by Joux, Carribault, Lemuet, and Jalby. This was done by using a generalization of the Chabaud and Joux attack. Finding the collision had complexity 251 and took about 80,000 processor-hours on a supercomputer with 256 Itanium 2 processors (equivalent to 13 days of full-time use of the computer).
On 17 August 2004, at the Rump Session of CRYPTO 2004, preliminary results were announced by Wang, Feng, Lai, and Yu, about an attack on MD5, SHA-0 and other hash functions. The complexity of their attack on SHA-0 is 240, significantly better than the attack by Joux "et al."
In February 2005, an attack by Xiaoyun Wang, Yiqun Lisa Yin, and Hongbo Yu was announced which could find collisions in SHA-0 in 239 operations.
Another attack in 2008 applying the boomerang attack brought the complexity of finding collisions down to 233.6, which is estimated to take 1 hour on an average PC.
In light of the results for SHA-0, some experts suggested that plans for the use of SHA-1 in new cryptosystems should be reconsidered. After the CRYPTO 2004 results were published, NIST announced that they planned to phase out the use of SHA-1 by 2010 in favor of the SHA-2 variants.
Implementations of all FIPS-approved security functions can be officially validated through the CMVP program, jointly run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE). For informal verification, a package to generate a high number of test vectors is made available for download on the NIST site; the resulting verification, however, does not replace the formal CMVP validation, which is required by law for certain applications.
, there are over 2000 validated implementations of SHA-1, with 14 of them capable of handling messages with a length in bits not a multiple of eight (see SHS Validation List).
These are examples of SHA-1 message digests in hexadecimal and in Base64 binary to ASCII text encoding.
Even a small change in the message will, with overwhelming probability, result in many bits changing due to the avalanche effect. For example, changing codice_1 to codice_2 produces a hash with different values for 81 of the 160 bits:
The hash of the zero-length string is:
Pseudocode for the SHA-1 algorithm follows:
The number codice_3 is the message digest, which can be written in hexadecimal (base 16).
The chosen constant values used in the algorithm were assumed to be nothing up my sleeve numbers:
Instead of the formulation from the original FIPS PUB 180-1 shown, the following equivalent expressions may be used to compute codice_9 in the main loop above:
It was also shown that for the rounds 32–79 the computation of:
can be replaced with:
This transformation keeps all operands 64-bit aligned and, by removing the dependency of codice_10 on codice_11, allows efficient SIMD implementation with a vector length of 4 like x86 SSE instructions.
In the table below, "internal state" means the "internal hash sum" after each compression of a data block.
Below is a list of cryptography libraries that support SHA-1:
Hardware acceleration is provided by the following processor extensions: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26672 |
Shannon Elizabeth
Shannon Elizabeth Fadal (born ) is an American actress and former fashion model. Elizabeth has appeared in comedy films such as "American Pie", "Scary Movie" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". She has also appeared in horror films such as "Jack Frost", "Thirteen Ghosts", "Cursed", and "Night of the Demons". She was described as a sex symbol for her role in the 1999 comedy film "American Pie". She also had a cameo in the film "Love Actually" and in "Catch a Christmas Star" in which she sings for the first time on camera.
She currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa and runs the non-profit animal rescue organization she co-started in 2001, Animal Avengers.
Elizabeth's father is an Arab Christian and of Lebanese/Syrian origin and her mother is of German, English and Irish ancestry. She was born in Houston, Texas, and raised in Waco, Texas, from 3rd grade through high school; Shannon graduated from Waco High School in 1991. In high school, she was a member of the tennis team and at one point considered a professional tennis career. She worked as a model for Ford & Elite models before she began a career in film.
Elizabeth appeared in several films and television shows before being cast in 1999's "American Pie" in the role of Nadia. It was a major box office success. Elizabeth subsequently appeared in several Hollywood films, including "Scary Movie", "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back", and "Tomcats". Elizabeth starred in the UPN series "Cuts" until the show was canceled in May 2006. "Cuts" and its parent show, "One on One", were two of the many shows not to be picked up by The CW. Elizabeth recurred in "That '70s Show" for a number of episodes.
In 2000 and 2003, she was featured in "Maxim". In June 2008 she was "Maxim"'s cover girl. She provided the likeness and voice for Serena St. Germaine in the 2004 video game, "". Elizabeth was one of the celebrities on an episode of NBC's "Thank God You're Here" along with Tom Green, Chelsea Handler, and George Takei. Elizabeth was among the cast of the sixth season of "Dancing with the Stars", partnered with Derek Hough. Elizabeth was the seventh star eliminated from the competition. Elizabeth was the host of the comedy/burlesque series "Live Nude Comedy" in 2009. Shannon also featured in Chris Brown's "Next to You" music video as Brown's girlfriend in 2011.
In 2019, Kevin Smith confirmed she will reprise her role as Justice in "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot."
In 2006, Elizabeth described poker as her second career and was called "one of the leading celebrity poker players." At that time, she visited the Las Vegas Valley up to three times each month to participate in poker games with top players. Elizabeth does not appear to have been as active a poker player since scoring 12 tournament cashes from 2006 through 2010 – she has only one tournament cash (in 2013) thereafter.
Elizabeth played in the Main Event of the 2005 World Series of Poker under the guidance of Daniel Negreanu, and won a special tournament celebrating the opening of a new poker room at Caesars Palace hotel in January 2006, beating out 83 celebrities and poker professionals to win $55,000. She also cashed four times in the World Series of Poker in 2006 and 2007, but again busted out of the Main Event early. In 2007, she advanced to the semi-finals of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship in a field consisting of the top poker professionals before losing to eventual champion Paul Wasicka.
After the September 11 attacks, Elizabeth recorded a public service announcement in which she said, "I'm half Arabic, but I am 100 percent American. What is going on affects me the same as everyone else."
Elizabeth was married to actor Joseph D. Reitman from 2002–2005.
Elizabeth later dated hip hop mogul Russell Simmons.
She is an environmentalist and vegan. She is a cousin of New York-based television host and relationship coach Tamsen Fadal.
Animal Avengers, a non-profit animal rescue organization founded by Elizabeth and her then-husband Reitman, is dedicated to rescuing and finding a home for homeless pets, reducing pet overpopulation, promoting responsible pet guardianship and preventing animal cruelty. Among the many fundraising events, Team Bodog raised over $50,000 for Animal Avengers in a celebrity poker night on October 8, 2005. The event was hosted by noted tournament director Matt Savage. In 2016, she began participating in numerous other Bodog-sponsored charity events as well. The organization, based in Brazil, lead 3D printing of prosthetic body parts for animals, including a beak for goose Victoria.
Elizabeth has served as the spokesperson for Farm Sanctuary's Adopt a Turkey program, urging people to adopt a turkey instead of eating one for Thanksgiving.
Elizabeth uses social media, particularly Instagram posts, to raise awareness about rhino poaching at the Poached Rhino fundraiser. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26675 |
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space-opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various films and other media, including television series, video games, novels, comic books, theme park attractions, and , comprising an all-encompassing fictional universe. The franchise holds a "Guinness World Records" title for the "Most successful film merchandising franchise." In 2020, the "Star Wars" franchise's total value was estimated at billion, and it is currently the fifth-highest-grossing media franchise of all time.
The original film, retroactively subtitled "Episode IV: A New Hope", was followed by the sequels "" (1980) and "" (1983), forming the original "Star Wars" trilogy. A prequel trilogy was later released, consisting of "" (1999), "" (2002), and "" (2005). In 2012, Lucas sold his production company to Disney, relinquishing his ownership of the franchise. The subsequently produced sequel trilogy consists of "" (2015), "" (2017), and "" (2019). Together, the three trilogies form what has been referred to as the "Skywalker saga". All nine films were nominated for Academy Awards (with wins going to the first two released) and were commercially successful. Together with the theatrical spin-off films "Rogue One" (2016) and "" (2018), the combined box office revenue of the films equates to over billion, and it is currently the second-highest-grossing film franchise.
The "Star Wars" franchise depicts the adventures of characters "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away", in which humans and many species of aliens (often humanoid) co-exist with robots, or 'droids', who may assist them in their daily routines; space travel between planets is common due to hyperspace technology. Spacecraft range from small starfighters, to huge capital ships such as the Star Destroyers, to space stations such as the moon-sized Death Stars.
A mystical power known as the Force is described in the original film as "an energy field created by all living things ... [that] binds the galaxy together". Through training and meditation, those whom "the Force is strong with" are able to perform various superpowers (such as telekinesis, precognition, telepathy, and manipulation of physical energy). The Force is wielded by two major knighthood orders at conflict with each other: the Jedi, peacekeepers of the Galactic Republic who act on the light side of the Force through non-attachment and arbitration, and the Sith, who use the dark side by manipulating fear and aggression. While Jedi Knights can be numerous, the Dark Lords of the Sith (or 'Darths') are intended to be limited to two: a master and their apprentice.
Force-wielders are very limited in numbers in comparison to the average population. The Jedi and Sith prefer the use of a weapon called a lightsaber, a blade of energy that can cut through virtually any surface and deflect energy bolts. The rest of the population, as well as renegades and soldiers, use laser-powered blaster firearms. In the outer reaches of the galaxy, crime syndicates such as the Hutt cartel are dominant. Bounty hunters are often employed by both gangsters and governments. Illicit activities include smuggling and slavery.
The "Star Wars" canon fictional universe spans multiple eras, including three focused around each of the film trilogies:
The non-canonical Expanded Universe depicts a different continuity which was rebranded "Legends" prior to the release of the sequel trilogy.
The "Star Wars" film series centers around three sets of trilogies, which are collectively referred to as the "Skywalker saga". They were produced non-chronologically, with "Episode"s "IV"–"VI" (the original trilogy) being released between 1977 and 1983, "Episode"s "I"–"III" (the prequel trilogy) being released between 1999 and 2005, and "Episode"s "VII"–"IX" (the sequel trilogy), being released between 2015 and 2019. Each trilogy focuses on a generation of the Force-sensitive Skywalker family. The original trilogy depicts the heroic development of Luke Skywalker, the prequels tell the backstory of his father Anakin, while the sequels star Luke's nephew, Kylo Ren.
An anthology series set between the main episodes entered development in parallel to the production of the sequel trilogy, described by Disney CFO Jay Rasulo as origin stories. The first entry, "Rogue One" (2016), tells the story of the rebels who steal the Death Star plans directly before "Episode IV". "" (2018) focuses on Han Solo's backstory, also featuring original trilogy co-protagonists Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian and involving prequel trilogy villain Darth Maul.
Lucasfilm has a number of "Star Wars" movies in development, including a trilogy which will be written by "The Last Jedi" writer/director Rian Johnson and be independent from the Skywalker saga.
Additionally, a film based on the was reported to be in development with Laeta Kalogridis writing the script. In September 2019, it was announced that Kennedy and Kevin Feige will collaborate to develop a "Star Wars" film. In January 2020, a film set in the era of was announced to be in development. In February 2020, a film was announced to be in development from director J. D. Dillard, and writer Matt Owens. In May 2020, Lucasfilm announced that Taika Waititi had been hired to direct a "Star Wars" film from a script he is co-writing with Krysty Wilson-Cairns.
In 1971, George Lucas wanted to film an adaptation of the "Flash Gordon" serial, but could not obtain the rights, so he began developing his own space opera. After directing "American Graffiti" (1973), he wrote a two-page synopsis, which 20th Century Fox decided to invest in. By 1974, he had expanded the story into the first draft of a screenplay. The subsequent movie's success led Lucas to make it the basis of an elaborate film serial.
With the backstory he created for the sequel, Lucas decided that the series would be a trilogy of trilogies. Most of the main cast would return for the two additional installments of the original trilogy, which were self-financed by Lucasfilm.
"Star Wars" was released on May 25, 1977, and first subtitled "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the 1979 book "The Art of Star Wars". "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" was released on May 21, 1980, also achieving wide financial and critical success. The final film in the trilogy, "Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" was released on May 25, 1983. The story of the original trilogy focuses on Luke Skywalker's quest to become a Jedi, his struggle with the evil Imperial agent Darth Vader, and the struggle of the Rebel Alliance to free the galaxy from the clutches of the Galactic Empire.
According to producer Gary Kurtz, loose plans for a prequel trilogy were developed during the outlining of the original two films. In 1980, Lucas confirmed that he had the nine-film series plotted, but due to the stress of producing the original trilogy, he had decided to cancel further sequels by 1981. In 1983, Lucas explained that "There was never a script completed that had the entire story as it exists now ... As the stories unfolded, I would take certain ideas and save them ... I kept taking out all the good parts, and I just kept telling myself I would make other movies someday."
Technical advances in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the ability to create computer-generated imagery (CGI), inspired Lucas to consider that it might be possible to revisit his saga. In 1989, Lucas stated that the prequels would be "unbelievably expensive." In 1992, he acknowledged that he had plans to create the prequel trilogy. A theatrical rerelease of the original trilogy in 1997 "updated" the 20-year-old films with the style of CGI envisioned for the new trilogy.
"Episode I: The Phantom Menace" was released on May 19, 1999, and "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" on May 16, 2002. "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith", the first film in the franchise, was released on May 19, 2005. The first two movies were met with mixed reviews, with the third being received somewhat more positively. The trilogy begins 32 years before "Episode IV" and follows the Jedi training of Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father, and his eventual fall from grace and transformation into the Sith lord Darth Vader, as well as the corruption of the Galactic Republic and rise of the Empire led by Darth Sidious. Together with the original trilogy, Lucas has collectively referred to the first six episodic films of the franchise as "the tragedy of Darth Vader".
Prior to releasing the original film, and made possible by its success, Lucas planned "three trilogies of nine films." He announced this to "Time" in 1978, and confirmed that he had outlined them in 1981. At various stages of development, the sequel trilogy was to focus on the rebuilding of the Republic, the return of Luke in a role similar to that of Obi-Wan in the original trilogy, Luke's sister (not yet determined to be Leia), Han, Leia, and . However, after beginning work on the prequel trilogy, Lucas insisted that "Star Wars" was meant to be a six-part series and that there would be no sequel trilogy.
Lucas decided to leave the franchise in the hands of other filmmakers, announcing in January 2012 that he would make no more "Star Wars" films. In October of that year, The Walt Disney Company agreed to buy Lucasfilm and announced that "Episode VII" would be released in 2015. The co-chairman of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, became president of the company and served as executive producer of new "Star Wars" feature films. Lucas provided Kennedy his story treatments for the sequels during the 2012 sale, but in 2015 it was revealed Lucas's sequel outline had been discarded. The sequel trilogy also meant the end of the existing "Star Wars" Expanded Universe, which was discarded from canon to give "maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience."
"" was released on December 16, 2015, "" on December 13, 2017, and "" on December 18, 2019, in many countries. "Episode VII" was met with both critical and box office success, and "Episode VIII", while also meeting critical and financial success, had a mixed reception from audiences. "Episode IX" received a mixed reception from critics and fans, although audiences leaned more positively. The sequel trilogy starts 30 years after "Episode VI" and focuses on the journey of the Force-sensitive orphan Rey, guided by Luke Skywalker. Along with ex-stormtrooper Finn and ace X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron, Rey helps the Resistance, led by Leia, fight the First Order, commanded by Han and Leia's son (and Luke's nephew), Kylo Ren.
Lucasfilm and Kennedy have stated that the standalone films would be referred to as the "Star Wars" anthology series (though the word "anthology" has not been used in any of the titles, instead carrying the promotional ""A Star Wars Story"" subtitle). Focused on how the Rebels obtained the Death Star plans introduced in the 1977 film, the first anthology film, "Rogue One", was released on December 16, 2016, to favorable reviews and box office success. The second, "", centered on a young Han Solo with Chewbacca and Lando as supporting characters, was released on May 25, 2018, to generally favorable reviews and underperformance at the box office. Despite this, more anthology films are expected to be released, following a hiatus after 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker".
The "Star Wars" franchise has been spun off to various television productions, including two animated series released in the mid-1980s. Further animated series began to be released in the 2000s, the first two of which focused on the Clone Wars. After Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, only remained canon. Three live-action "Star Wars" series will be released on Disney+. The first, "The Mandalorian", premiered on November 12, 2019. Star Wars won the 2020 Webby Award for Television & Film in the category Social.
From 1976 to 2014, the term "Expanded Universe" (EU) was an umbrella term for all officially licensed "Star Wars" storytelling material set outside the events depicted within the theatrical films, including novels, comics, and video games. Lucasfilm maintained internal continuity between the films and television content and the EU material until April 25, 2014, when the company announced all of the EU works would cease production. Existing works would no longer be considered canon to the franchise and subsequent reprints would be rebranded under the "Star Wars Legends" label, with downloadable content for the massively multiplayer online game "" the only "Legends" material to still be produced. The "Star Wars" canon was subsequently restructured to only include the existing six feature films, the animated film "" (2008), and its companion animated series. All future projects and creative developments across all types of media would be overseen and coordinated by the story group, announced as a division of Lucasfilm created to maintain continuity and a cohesive vision on the storytelling of the franchise. Multiple comics series from Marvel and novels published by Del Rey were produced after the announcement.
"Star Wars" in print predates the release of the first film, with the December 1976 novelization of "Star Wars", initially subtitled """". Credited to Lucas, it was ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster. The first "Expanded Universe" story appeared in Marvel Comics' "Star Wars" #7 in January 1978 (the first six issues being an adaptation of the film), followed by Foster's sequel novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" the following month.
After penning the novelization of the original film, Foster followed it with the sequel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" (1978). The novelizations of "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) by Donald F. Glut and "Return of the Jedi" (1983) by James Kahn followed, as well as "The Han Solo Adventures" trilogy (1979–1980) by Brian Daley, and "The Adventures of Lando Calrissian" trilogy (1983) by L. Neil Smith.
Timothy Zahn's bestselling "Thrawn" trilogy (1991–1993) reignited interest in the franchise and introduced the popular characters Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, and Gilad Pellaeon. The first novel, "Heir to the Empire", reached #1 on the "New York Times" Best Seller list, and the series finds Luke, Leia, and Han facing off against tactical genius Thrawn, who is plotting to retake the galaxy for the Empire. In "The Courtship of Princess Leia" (1994) by Dave Wolverton, set immediately before the "Thrawn" trilogy, Leia considers an advantageous political marriage to Prince Isolder of the planet Hapes, but she and Han ultimately marry. Steve Perry's "" (1996), set between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", was part of a multimedia campaign that included a comic book series and video game. The novel introduced the crime lord Prince Xizor, another popular character who would appear in multiple other works. Other notable series from Bantam include the "Jedi Academy" trilogy (1994) by Kevin J. Anderson, the 14-book "Young Jedi Knights" series (1995–1998) by Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, and the "" series (1996–2012) by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston.
Del Rey took over "Star Wars" book publishing in 1999, releasing what would become a 19-installment novel series called "The New Jedi Order" (1999–2003). Written by multiple authors, the series was set 25 to 30 years after the original films and introduced the Yuuzhan Vong, a powerful alien race attempting to invade and conquer the entire galaxy. The bestselling multi-author series "Legacy of the Force" (2006–2008) chronicles the crossover of Han and Leia's son Jacen Solo to the dark side of the Force; among his evil deeds, he kills Luke's wife Mara Jade as a sacrifice to join the Sith. Although no longer canon, the story is paralleled in "The Force Awakens" with Han and Leia's son Ben Solo, who has become the dark Kylo Ren.
Three series set in the prequel era were introduced for younger audiences: the 18-book "" (1999–2002) chronicles the adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his master Qui-Gon Jinn in the years before "The Phantom Menace"; the 11-book "Jedi Quest" (2001–2004) follows Obi-Wan and his own apprentice, Anakin Skywalker in between "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones"; and the 10-book "" (2005–2008), set almost immediately after "Revenge of the Sith", features Obi-Wan and the last few surviving Jedi.
Although Thrawn had been designated a "Legends" character in 2014, he was reintroduced into the canon in the 2016 third season of "Rebels", with Zahn returning to write more novels based in the character, and set in the new canon.
Marvel Comics published a "Star Wars" comic book series from 1977 to 1986. Original "Star Wars" comics were serialized in the Marvel magazine "Pizzazz" between 1977 and 1979. The 1977 installments were the first original "Star Wars" stories not directly adapted from the films to appear in print form, as they preceded those of the "Star Wars" comic series. From 1985–1987, the animated children's series "" and "" inspired comic series from Marvel's Star Comics line. According to Marvel comics former Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter, the strong sales of "Star Wars" comics saved Marvel financially in 1977 and 1978. Marvel's "Star Wars" series was one of the industry's top selling titles in 1979 and 1980. The only downside for Marvel was that the 100,000 copy sales quota was surpassed quickly, allowing Lippincott to renegotiate the royalty arrangements from a position of strength.
In the late 1980s, Marvel dropped a new "Star Wars" comic it had in development, which was picked up by Dark Horse Comics and published as the popular "Dark Empire" series (1991–1995). Dark Horse subsequently launched dozens of series set after the original film trilogy, including "Tales of the Jedi" (1993–1998), "" (1995–1998), "" (1998–2006), "Star Wars Tales" (1999–2005), "" (2002–2006), and "" (2006–2010).
After Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, it was announced in January 2014 that in 2015 the "Star Wars" comics license would return to Marvel Comics, whose parent company, Marvel Entertainment, Disney had purchased in 2009. Launched in 2015, the first three publications were titled "Star Wars", "", and the limited series "".
First announced as "Project Luminous" at Star Wars Celebration in April 2019, full details of a publishing initiative called "Star Wars: The High Republic" were revealed in a press conference in February 2020. Involving the majority of the current officially licensed publishers, a new era set 200 years before the Skywalker Saga will be explored in various books and comics. These include ongoing titles by Marvel and IDW Publishing, written by Cavan Scott and Daniel José Older respectively, that will both premiere in August 2020.
John Williams composed the soundtracks for the nine episodic films; he has stated that he will retire from the franchise with "The Rise of Skywalker". He also composed Han Solo's theme for "Solo: A Star Wars Story", which John Powell adapted and composed the rest of the score of. Michael Giacchino composed the score of "Rogue One". Williams also created the main theme for "".
The first "Star Wars" audio work is "The Story of Star Wars", an LP using audio samples from the original film and a new narration to retell the story, released in 1977. Most later printed novels were adapted into audio novels, usually released on cassette tape and re-released on CD. More recently, audio-only novels have been released, not directly based on printed media.
Radio adaptations of the films were also produced. Lucas, a fan of the NPR-affiliated campus radio station of his alma mater the University of Southern California, licensed the "Star Wars" radio rights to KUSC-FM for . The production used John Williams's original film score, along with Ben Burtt's sound effects.
The first was written by science-fiction author Brian Daley and directed by John Madden. It was broadcast on National Public Radio in 1981, adapting the original 1977 film into 13 episodes. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels reprised their film roles.
The overwhelming success, led to a 10-episode adaptation of "The Empire Strikes Back" debuted in 1983. Billy Dee Williams joined the other two stars, reprising his role as Lando Calrissian.
In 1983, Buena Vista Records released an original, 30-minute "Star Wars" audio drama titled "Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell", written by Daley. In the 1990s, Time Warner Audio Publishing adapted several "Star Wars" series from Dark Horse Comics into audio dramas: the three-part "Dark Empire" saga, "Tales of the Jedi", "", the "Dark Forces" trilogy, and "Crimson Empire" (1998). "Return of the Jedi" was adapted into 6-episodes in 1996, featuring Daniels.
The "Star Wars" franchise has spawned over one hundred computer, video, and board games, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles. Some are based directly on the movie material, while others rely heavily on the non-canonical Expanded Universe (rebranded as "Star Wars Legends" and removed from the canon in 2014). "Star Wars" games have gone through three significant development eras, marked by a change in leadership among the developers: the early licensed games, those developed after the creation of LucasArts, and those created after the closure of the Lucasfilm division by Disney and the transfer of the license to Electronic Arts.
The first era began with the first officially licensed electronic "Star Wars" game: Kenner's 1979 table-top "Star Wars Electronic Battle Command". In 1982, Parker Brothers published the first "Star Wars" video game for the Atari 2600, "", followed soon the year later by "", the first video game to depict lightsaber combat. They were followed in 1983 by Atari's rail shooter arcade game "Star Wars", with vector graphics to replicate the Death Star trench run scene from the 1977 film. The next game, "" (1984), has more traditional raster graphics, while the following "" (1985) has vector graphics.
Nintendo's "Star Wars" in 1987, a different "Star Wars" in 1991 and "" in 1992 are platform games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but the first one never saw release outside Japan. "Super Star Wars" in 1992 is a platform game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, with two sequels over the next two years.
The beginning of the second era is marked by the prominence of LucasArts and modern self-published games. LucasArts was founded after "Star Wars" creator George Lucas took interest in the increasing success of the video game market. Wanting to have more creative control over the games and their narratives, Lucas founded his own video-game development company, LucasArts. During this era, improved video game graphics allowed games to tell complex narratives, which allowed for the retelling of the films, and eventually original narratives set in the same continuity as the films, with voice-overs and CGI cutscenes. Lucasfilm had founded its own video game company in 1982, becoming best known for adventure games and World War II flight combat games. In 1993, LucasArts released "", the first self-published "Star Wars" video game and the first space flight simulator based on the franchise. It was one of the best-selling video games of 1993 and established its own . The was released between 1998 and 2003, also focusing on space battles set during the films.
"" (1995), a hybrid adventure game incorporating puzzles and strategy, was the first "Star Wars" first-person shooter. It featured gameplay and graphical features not then common in other games, made possible by LucasArts' custom-designed game engine, the Jedi. The game was well received, and it was followed by . The series introduced Kyle Katarn, who would appear in multiple games, novels, and comics. Katarn is a former stormtrooper who joins the Rebellion and becomes a Jedi, a plot arc similar to that of Finn in the later sequel trilogy films. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game, "Star Wars Galaxies", was in operation from 2003 until 2011. After Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, the games developed during the first two eras were discarded from the canon in 2014 and reassigned to the non-canonical "Star Wars Legends" label. LucasArts ceased its role as a developer in 2013, although it still operates as a licensor.
After its acquisition by Disney, LucasArts ceased being a developer and video game rights were reassigned to Electronic Arts, marking the start of the third era. Games made during this era are considered canonical, and feature more influence from the "Star Wars" filmmakers. Disney partnered with Lenovo to create the augmented reality video game "Jedi Challenges", released in November 2017. In August 2018, it was announced that Zynga would publish free-to-play "Star Wars" mobile games. The "Battlefront" games received a canonical reboot in 2017. "" was released in November 2019.
In addition to the Disneyland ride Star Tours (1987) and its successor, (2011), many live attractions have been held at Disney parks, including the travelling exhibition , the Space Mountain spin-off Hyperspace Mountain, a walkthrough Launch Bay, and the night-time "". An immersive themed area called (2019) opened at Disneyland and opened at Walt Disney World in mid-2019. A themed hotel, , is currently under construction at Walt Disney World.
A multimedia project involves works released across multiple types of media. "" (1996) was a multimedia project set between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" that included a novel by Steve Perry, a comic book series, a , and action figures. "" (2008–2010) was a similar project set between "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope" that included a novel, a and its , a graphic novel, a role-playing game supplement, and toys.
The success of the "Star Wars" films led the franchise to become one of the most merchandised franchises in the world. While filming the original 1977 film, George Lucas decided to take a $500,000 pay cut to his salary as director in exchange for full ownership of the franchise's merchandising rights. By 1987, the first three films have made billion in merchandising revenue. By 2012, the first six films produced approximately billion in merchandising revenue.
Kenner made the first "Star Wars" action figures to coincide with the release of the film, and today the original figures are highly valuable. Since the 1990s, Hasbro holds the rights to create action figures based on the saga. Pez dispensers began to be produced in 1997. "Star Wars" was the first intellectual property to be licensed in Lego history. Lego has produced animated parody short films and mini-series to promote their "Star Wars" sets. The Lego "Star Wars" video games are critically acclaimed bestsellers.
In 1977, the board game "Star Wars: Escape from the Death Star" was released, not to be confused with the board game with the same name published in 1990. A "Star Wars Monopoly" and themed versions of "Trivial Pursuit" and Battleship were released in 1997, with updated versions released in subsequent years. The board game "Risk" has been adapted in two editions by Hasbro: "" (2005) and the "" (2006). Three "Star Wars" tabletop role-playing games have been developed: in the 1980s and 1990s, one by Wizards of the Coast in the 2000s, and one by Fantasy Flight Games in the 2010s.
"Star Wars" Trading Cards have been published since the first "blue" series, by Topps, in 1977. Dozens of series have been produced, with Topps being the licensed creator in the United States. Each card series are of film stills or original art. Many of the cards have become highly collectible with some very rare "promos", such as the 1993 Galaxy Series II "floating Yoda" P3 card often commanding US$1,000 or more. While most "base" or "common card" sets are plentiful, many "insert" or "chase cards" are very rare. From 1995 until 2001, Decipher, Inc. had the license for, created, and produced the "Star Wars Customizable Card Game".
"Star Wars" features elements such as knighthood, chivalry, and Jungian archetypes such as "the shadow".
There are also many references to Christianity, such as in the appearance of Darth Maul, whose design draws heavily from traditional depictions of the devil. Anakin was conceived of a virgin birth, and is assumed to be the "Chosen One", a messianic individual. However, unlike Jesus, Anakin falls from grace, remaining evil as Darth Vader until "Return of the Jedi". According to Adam Driver, sequel trilogy villain Kylo Ren, who idolizes Vader, believes he is "doing what he thinks is right". George Lucas has said that the theme of the saga is redemption.
The saga draws heavily from the hero's journey, an archetypical template developed by comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. Each character—primarily Anakin, Luke, and Rey—follows the steps of the cycle or undergoes its reversal, becoming the villain. A defining step of the journey is "Atonement with the Father". Obi-Wan's loss of a father figure could have impacted his relationship with Anakin, whom both Obi-Wan and Palpatine are fatherlike mentors to. Luke's discovery that Vader is his father has strong repurcussions on the saga and is regarded as one of the most influential plot twists in cinema. Supreme Leader Snoke encourages Kylo Ren to kill his father, Han Solo. Kylo uses the fact that Rey is an orphan to tempt her into joining the dark side. According to "Inverse", the final scene in "The Last Jedi", which depicts servant children playing with a toy of Luke and one boy using the Force, symbolizes that "the Force can be found in people with humble beginnings."
Political science has been an important element of "Star Wars" since the franchise launched in 1977, focusing on a struggle between democracy and dictatorship. Battles featuring the Ewoks and Gungans against the Empire and Trade Federation, respectively, represent the clash between a primitive society and a more advanced one, similar to the Vietnam-American War. Darth Vader's design was initially inspired by Samurai armor, and also incorporated a German military helmet. Originally, Lucas conceived of the Sith as a group that served the Emperor in the same way that the "Schutzstaffel" served Adolf Hitler; this was condensed into one character in the form of Vader. Stormtroopers borrow the name of World War I German "shock" troopers. Imperial officers wear uniforms resembling those of German forces during World War II, and political and security officers resemble the black-clad SS down to the stylized silver death's head on their caps. World War II terms were used for names in the films; "e.g." the planets Kessel (a term that refers to a group of encircled forces) and Hoth (after a German general who served on the snow-laden Eastern Front). Shots of the commanders looking through AT-AT walker viewscreens in "The Empire Strikes Back" resemble tank interiors, and space battles in the original film were based on World War I and World War II dogfights.
Palpatine being a chancellor before becoming the Emperor in the prequel trilogy alludes to Hitler's role before appointing himself "Führer". Lucas has also drawn parallels to historical dictators such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and politicians like Richard Nixon. The Great Jedi Purge mirrors the events of the Night of the Long Knives. The corruption of the Galactic Republic is modeled after the fall of the democratic Roman Republic and the formation of an empire.
On the inspiration for the First Order formed "from the ashes of the Empire", "The Force Awakens" director J. J. Abrams spoke of conversations the writers had about how the Nazis could have escaped to Argentina after WWII and "started working together again."
The "Star Wars" saga has had a significant impact on popular culture, with references to its fictional universe deeply embedded in everyday life. Phrases like "evil empire" and "May the Force be with you" have become part of the popular lexicon. The first "Star Wars" film in 1977 was a cultural unifier, enjoyed by a wide spectrum of people. The film can be said to have helped launch the science-fiction boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, making science-fiction films a mainstream genre. The widespread impact made it a prime target for parody works and homages, with popular examples including "Hardware Wars", "Spaceballs", "" and "".
In 1989, the Library of Congress selected the original "Star Wars" film for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." "The Empire Strikes Back", was selected in 2010. 35mm reels of the 1997 Special Editions were the versions initially presented for preservation because of the difficulty of transferring from the original prints, but it was later revealed that the Library possesses a copyright deposit print of the original theatrical releases.
The original "Star Wars" film was a huge success for 20th Century Fox, and was credited for reinvigorating the company. Within three weeks of the film's release, the studio's stock price doubled to a record high. Prior to 1977, 20th Century Fox's greatest annual profits were $37 million, while in 1977, the company broke that record by posting a profit of $79 million. The franchise helped Fox to change from an almost bankrupt production company to a thriving media conglomerate.
"Star Wars" fundamentally changed the aesthetics and narratives of Hollywood films, switching the focus of Hollywood-made films from deep, meaningful stories based on dramatic conflict, themes and irony to sprawling special-effects-laden blockbusters, as well as changing the Hollywood film industry in fundamental ways. Before "Star Wars", special effects in films had not appreciably advanced since the 1950s. The commercial success of "Star Wars" created a boom in state-of-the-art special effects in the late 1970s. Along with "Jaws", "Star Wars" started the tradition of the summer blockbuster film in the entertainment industry, where films open on many screens at the same time and profitable franchises are important. It created the model for the major film trilogy and showed that merchandising rights on a film could generate more money than the film itself did.
The original "Star Wars" trilogy is widely considered one of the best film trilogies in history. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26678 |
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer and photographer. He is frequently cited as one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history. His films, which are mostly adaptations of novels or short stories, cover a wide range of genres, and are noted for their realism, dark humor, unique cinematography, extensive set designs, and evocative use of music.
Kubrick was raised in the Bronx, New York City, and attended William Howard Taft High School from 1941 to 1945. He received average grades, but displayed a keen interest in literature, photography, and film from a young age, and taught himself all aspects of film production and directing after graduating from high school. After working as a photographer for "Look" magazine in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he began making short films on a shoestring budget, and made his first major Hollywood film, "The Killing", for United Artists in 1956. This was followed by two collaborations with Kirk Douglas, the war picture "Paths of Glory" (1957) and the historical epic "Spartacus" (1960).
Creative differences arising from his work with Douglas and the film studios, a dislike of the Hollywood industry, and a growing concern about crime in America prompted Kubrick to move to the United Kingdom in 1961, where he spent most of the remainder of his life and career. His home at Childwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire, which he shared with his wife Christiane, became his workplace, where he did his writing, research, editing, and management of production details. This allowed him to have almost complete artistic control over his films, but with the rare advantage of having financial support from major Hollywood studios. His first productions in Britain were two films with Peter Sellers, "Lolita" (1962) and "Dr. Strangelove" (1964).
A demanding perfectionist, Kubrick assumed control over most aspects of the filmmaking process, from direction and writing to editing, and took painstaking care with researching his films and staging scenes, working in close coordination with his actors and other collaborators. He often asked for several dozen retakes of the same shot in a movie, which resulted in many conflicts with his casts. Despite the resulting notoriety among actors, many of Kubrick's films broke new ground in cinematography. The scientific realism and innovative special effects of "" (1968) were without precedent in the history of cinema, and the film earned him his only personal Oscar, for Best Visual Effects. Steven Spielberg has referred to the film as his generation's "big bang", and it is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. For the 18th-century period film "Barry Lyndon" (1975), Kubrick obtained lenses developed by Zeiss for NASA, to film scenes under natural candlelight. With "The Shining" (1980), he became one of the first directors to make use of a Steadicam for stabilized and fluid tracking shots. While many of Kubrick's films were controversial and initially received mixed reviews upon release—particularly "A Clockwork Orange" (1971), which Kubrick pulled from circulation in the UK following a mass media frenzy—most were nominated for Oscars, Golden Globes, or BAFTA Awards, and underwent critical reevaluations. His last film, "Eyes Wide Shut", was completed shortly before his death in 1999 at the age of 70.
Kubrick was born in the Lying-In Hospital at 307 Second Avenue in Manhattan, New York City to a Jewish family. He was the first of two children of Jacob Leonard Kubrick (May 21, 1902 – October 19, 1985), known as Jack or Jacques, and his wife Sadie Gertrude Kubrick ("" Perveler; October 28, 1903 – April 23, 1985), known as Gert. His sister Barbara Mary Kubrick was born in May 1934. Jack Kubrick, whose parents and paternal grandparents were of Polish-Jewish, Austrian-Jewish, and Romanian-Jewish origin, was a homeopathic doctor, graduating from the New York Homeopathic Medical College in 1927, the same year he married Kubrick's mother, the child of Austrian-Jewish immigrants. Kubrick's great-grandfather, Hersh Kubrick (also spelled Kubrik or Kubrike), arrived at Ellis Island via Liverpool by ship on December 27, 1899, at the age of 47, leaving behind his wife and two grown children, one of whom was Stanley's grandfather Elias, to start a new life with a younger woman. Elias Kubrick followed in 1902. At Stanley's birth the Kubricks lived in an apartment at 2160 Clinton Avenue in the Bronx. His parents had been married in a Jewish ceremony, but Kubrick did not have a religious upbringing and would later profess an atheistic view of the universe. His father earned a good income as a physician and by the standards of the West Bronx the family was fairly wealthy.
Soon after his sister's birth, Kubrick began schooling in Public School 3 in the Bronx and moved to Public School 90 in June 1938. His IQ was discovered to be above average but his attendance was poor, and he missed 56 days in his first term alone, as many as he attended. He displayed an interest in literature from a young age and began reading Greek and Roman myths and the fables of the Grimm brothers which "instilled in him a lifelong affinity with Europe". He spent most Saturdays during the summer watching the New York Yankees and would later photograph two boys watching the game in an assignment for "Look" magazine to emulate his own childhood excitement with baseball. When Kubrick was 12 his father Jack taught him chess. The game remained a lifelong interest of Kubrick's, appearing in many of his films. Kubrick, who later became a member of the United States Chess Federation, explained that chess helped him develop "patience and discipline" in making decisions. At the age of 13, Kubrick's father bought him a Graflex camera, triggering a fascination with still photography. He befriended a neighbor, Marvin Traub, who shared his passion for photography. Traub had his own darkroom where he and the young Kubrick would spend many hours perusing photographs and watching the chemicals "magically make images on photographic paper". The two indulged in numerous photographic projects for which they roamed the streets looking for interesting subjects to capture and spent time in local cinemas studying films. Freelance photographer Weegee (Arthur Fellig) had a considerable influence on Kubrick's development as a photographer; Kubrick would later hire Fellig as the special stills photographer for "Dr. Strangelove" (1964). As a teenager Kubrick was also interested in jazz, and briefly attempted a career as a drummer.
Kubrick attended William Howard Taft High School from 1941 to 1945. One of his classmates was Edith Gormezano, later known as the singer Eydie Gormé. Though he joined the school's photographic club, which permitted him to photograph the school's events in their magazine, he was a mediocre student, with a meager 67/D+ grade average. Introverted and shy, Kubrick had a low attendance record and often skipped school to watch double-feature films. He graduated in 1945 but his poor grades, combined with the demand for college admissions from soldiers returning from the Second World War, eliminated any hope of higher education. Later in life Kubrick spoke disdainfully of his education and of contemporary American schooling as a whole, maintaining that schools were ineffective in stimulating critical thinking and student interest. His father was disappointed in his son's failure to achieve the excellence in school of which he knew Stanley was fully capable. Jack also encouraged Stanley to read from the family library at home, while at the same time permitting Stanley to take up photography as a serious hobby.
While still in high school Kubrick was chosen as an official school photographer. In the mid-1940s, since he was not able to gain admission to day session classes at colleges, he briefly attended evening classes at the City College of New York. Eventually he sold a photographic series to "Look" magazine, having brought a photo to Helen O'Brian, the head of the photographic department, who then purchased it for £25. It was printed on June 26, 1945. Kubrick supplemented his income by playing chess "for quarters" in Washington Square Park and various Manhattan chess clubs.
In 1946, he became an apprentice photographer for "Look" and later a full-time staff photographer. G. Warren Schloat, Jr., another new photographer for the magazine at the time, recalled that he thought Kubrick lacked the personality to make it as a director in Hollywood, remarking, "Stanley was a quiet fellow. He didn't say much. He was thin, skinny, and kind of poor—like we all were." Kubrick quickly became known for his story-telling in photographs. His first, published on April 16, 1946, was entitled "A Short Story from a Movie Balcony" and staged a fracas between a man and a woman, during which the man is slapped in the face, caught genuinely by surprise. In another assignment, 18 pictures were taken of various people waiting in a dental office. It has been said retrospectively that this project demonstrated an early interest of Kubrick in capturing individuals and their feelings in mundane environments. In 1948, he was sent to Portugal to document a travel piece, and covered the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, Florida. Kubrick, a boxing enthusiast, eventually began photographing boxing matches for the magazine. His earliest, "Prizefighter", was published on January 18, 1949, and captured a boxing match and the events leading up to it, featuring Walter Cartier. On April 2, 1949, he published a photo essay, named "Chicago-City of Extremes" in "Look", which displayed his talent early on for creating atmosphere with imagery, including a photograph taken above a congested Chicago street at night. The following year, on July 18, 1950, the magazine published his photo essay, "Working Debutante – Betsy von Furstenberg", which featured a Pablo Picasso portrait of Angel F. de Soto in the background. Kubrick was also assigned to photograph numerous jazz musicians, from Frank Sinatra and Erroll Garner to George Lewis, Eddie Condon, Phil Napoleon, Papa Celestin, Alphonse Picou, Muggsy Spanier, Sharkey Bonano, and others.
Kubrick married his high-school sweetheart Toba Metz on May 28, 1948. They lived together in a small apartment at 36 West 16th Street, off Sixth Avenue just north of Greenwich Village. During this time, Kubrick began frequenting film screenings at the Museum of Modern Art and the cinemas of New York City. He was inspired by the complex, fluid camerawork of the director Max Ophüls, whose films influenced Kubrick's later visual style, and by the director Elia Kazan, whom he described as America's "best director" at that time, with his ability of "performing miracles" with his actors. Friends began to notice that Kubrick had become obsessed with the art of filmmaking—one friend, David Vaughan, observed that Kubrick would scrutinize the film at the cinema when it went silent, and would go back to reading his paper when people started talking. He also spent many hours reading books on film theory and writing down notes. Sergei Eisenstein's theoretical writings had a profound impact on Kubrick, and he took a great number of notes from books in the library of Arthur Rothstein, the photographic technical director of "Look" magazine.
Kubrick shared a love of film with his school friend Alexander Singer, who after graduating from high school had the intention of directing a film version of Homer's "Iliad". Through Singer, who worked in the offices of the newsreel production company, The March of Time, Kubrick learned that it could cost $40,000 to make a proper short film, money he could not afford. He had $1500 in savings and managed to produce a few short documentaries fueled by encouragement from Singer. He began learning all he could about filmmaking on his own, calling film suppliers, laboratories, and equipment rental houses.
Kubrick decided to make a short film documentary about boxer Walter Cartier, whom he had photographed and written about for "Look" magazine a year earlier. He rented a camera and produced a 16-minute black-and-white documentary, "Day of the Fight". Kubrick found the money independently to finance it. He had considered asking Montgomery Clift to narrate it, whom he had met during a photographic session for "Look", but settled on CBS news veteran Douglas Edwards. According to Paul Duncan the film was "remarkably accomplished for a first film", and used a backward tracking shot to film a scene in which Cartier and his brother walk towards the camera, a device which later became one of Kubrick's characteristic camera movements. Vincent Cartier, Walter's brother and manager, later reflected on his observations of Kubrick during the filming. He said, "Stanley was a very stoic, impassive but imaginative type person with strong, imaginative thoughts. He commanded respect in a quiet, shy way. Whatever he wanted, you complied, he just captivated you. Anybody who worked with Stanley did just what Stanley wanted". After a score was added by Singer's friend Gerald Fried, Kubrick had spent $3900 in making it, and sold it to RKO-Pathé for $4000, which was the most the company had ever paid for a short film at the time. Kubrick described his first effort at filmmaking as having been valuable since he believed himself to have been forced to do most of the work, and he later declared that the "best education in film is to make one".
Inspired by this early success, Kubrick quit his job at "Look" and visited professional filmmakers in New York City, asking many detailed questions about the technical aspects of filmmaking. He stated that he was given the confidence during this period to become a filmmaker because of the number of bad films he had seen, remarking, "I don't know a goddamn thing about movies, but I know I can make a better film than that". He began making "Flying Padre" (1951), a film which documents Reverend Fred Stadtmueller, who travels some 4,000 miles to visit his 11 churches. The film was originally going to be called "Sky Pilot", a pun on the slang term for a priest. During the course of the film, the priest performs a burial service, confronts a boy bullying a girl, and makes an emergency flight to aid a sick mother and baby into an ambulance. Several of the views from and of the plane in "Flying Padre" are later echoed in "" (1968) with the footage of the spacecraft, and a series of close-ups on the faces of people attending the funeral were most likely inspired by Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" (1925) and "Ivan the Terrible" (1944/1958).
"Flying Padre" was followed by "The Seafarers" (1953), Kubrick's first color film, which was shot for the Seafarers International Union in June 1953. It has shots of ships, machinery, a canteen, and a union meeting. For the cafeteria scene in the film, Kubrick chose a long, sideways-shooting dolly shot to establish the life of the seafarer's community; this shot is an early demonstration of a technique which would become a signature of his. The montage of speaker and audience echoes scenes from Eisenstein's "Strike" (1925) and "" (1928). "Day of the Fight", "Flying Padre" and "The Seafarers" constitute Kubrick's only surviving documentary works; some historians believe he made others.
After raising $1000 showing his short films to friends and family, Kubrick found the finances to begin making his first feature film, "Fear and Desire" (1953), originally running with the title "The Trap", written by his friend Howard Sackler. Kubrick's uncle, Martin Perveler, a Los Angeles pharmacy owner, invested a further $9000 on condition that he be credited as executive producer of the film. Kubrick assembled several actors and a small crew totaling 14 people (five actors, five crewmen, and four others to help transport the equipment) and flew to the San Gabriel Mountains in California for a five-week, low-budget shoot. Later renamed "The Shape of Fear" before finally being named "Fear and Desire", it is a fictional allegory about a team of soldiers who survive a plane crash and are caught behind enemy lines in a war. During the course of the film, one of the soldiers becomes infatuated with an attractive girl in the woods and binds her to a tree. This scene is noted for its close-ups on the face of the actress. Kubrick had intended for "Fear and Desire" to be a silent picture in order to ensure low production costs; the added sounds, effects, and music ultimately brought production costs to around $53,000, exceeding the budget. He was bailed out by producer Richard de Rochemont on the condition that he help in de Rochemont's production of a five-part television series about Abraham Lincoln on location in Hodgenville, Kentucky.
"Fear and Desire" was a commercial failure, but garnered several positive reviews upon release. Critics such as the reviewer from "The New York Times" believed that Kubrick's professionalism as a photographer shone through in the picture, and that he "artistically caught glimpses of the grotesque attitudes of death, the wolfishness of hungry men, as well as their bestiality, and in one scene, the wracking effect of lust on a pitifully juvenile soldier and the pinioned girl he is guarding". Columbia University scholar Mark Van Doren was highly impressed by the scenes with the girl bound to the tree, remarking that it would live on as a "beautiful, terrifying and weird" sequence which illustrated Kubrick's immense talent and guaranteed his future success. Kubrick himself later expressed embarrassment with "Fear and Desire", and attempted over the years to keep prints of the film out of circulation. During the production of the film, Stanley almost killed his cast with poisonous gasses by mistake.
Following "Fear and Desire", Kubrick began working on ideas for a new boxing film. Due to the commercial failure of his first feature, Kubrick avoided asking for further investments, but commenced a film noir script with Howard O. Sackler. Originally under the title "Kiss Me, Kill Me", and then "The Nymph and the Maniac", "Killer's Kiss" (1955) is a 67-minute film noir about a young heavyweight boxer's involvement with a woman being abused by her criminal boss. Like "Fear and Desire", it was privately funded by Kubrick's family and friends, with some $40,000 put forward from Bronx pharmacist Morris Bousse. Kubrick began shooting footage in Times Square, and frequently explored during the filming process, experimenting with cinematography and considering the use of unconventional angles and imagery. He initially chose to record the sound on location, but encountered difficulties with shadows from the microphone booms, restricting camera movement. His decision to drop the sound in favor of imagery was a costly one; after 12–14 weeks shooting the picture, he spent some seven months and $35,000 working on the sound.
Alfred Hitchcock's "Blackmail" (1929) directly influenced the film with the painting laughing at a character, and Martin Scorsese has, in turn, cited Kubrick's innovative shooting angles and atmospheric shots in "Killer's Kiss" as an influence on "Raging Bull" (1980). Actress Irene Kane, the star of "Killer's Kiss", observed: "Stanley's a fascinating character. He thinks movies should move, with a minimum of dialogue, and he's all for sex and sadism". "Killer's Kiss" met with limited commercial success and made very little money in comparison with its production budget of $75,000. Critics have praised the film's camerawork, but its acting and story are generally considered mediocre.
While playing chess in Washington Square, Kubrick met producer James B. Harris, who considered Kubrick "the most intelligent, most creative person I have ever come in contact with." The two formed the Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation in 1955. Harris purchased the rights to Lionel White's novel "Clean Break" for $10,000 and Kubrick wrote the script, but at Kubrick's suggestion, they hired film noir novelist Jim Thompson to write the dialog for the film—which became "The Killing" (1956)—about a meticulously planned racetrack robbery gone wrong. The film starred Sterling Hayden, with whom Kubrick had been impressed in "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950).
Kubrick and Harris moved to Los Angeles from New York City and signed with the Jaffe Agency to shoot the picture, which became Kubrick's first full-length feature film shot with a professional cast and crew. The Union in Hollywood stated that Kubrick would not be permitted to be both the director and the cinematographer of the movie, so veteran cinematographer Lucien Ballard was hired for the shooting. Kubrick agreed to waive his fee for the production, which was shot in just 24 days on a budget of $330,000. He clashed with Ballard during the shooting, and on one occasion Kubrick threatened to fire Ballard following a camera dispute, despite being only 27 years old at the time and 20 years Ballard's junior. Hayden recalled that Kubrick was "cold and detached. Very mechanical, always confident. I've worked with few directors who are that good".
"The Killing" failed to secure a proper release across the United States; the film made little money, and was promoted only at the last minute, as a second feature to the Western movie "Bandido!" (1956). Several contemporary critics lauded the film, with a reviewer for "Time" comparing its camerawork to that of Orson Welles. Today, critics generally consider "The Killing" to be among the best films of Kubrick's early career; its nonlinear narrative and clinical execution also had a major influence on later directors of crime films, including Quentin Tarantino. Dore Schary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was highly impressed as well, and offered Kubrick and Harris $75,000 to write, direct, and produce a film, which ultimately became "Paths of Glory" (1957).
"Paths of Glory", set during World War I, is based on Humphrey Cobb's 1935 antiwar novel, which Kubrick had read while waiting in his father's office. Schary was familiar with the novel, but stated that MGM would not finance another war picture, given their backing of the anti-war film "The Red Badge of Courage" (1951). After Schary was fired by MGM in a major shake-up, Kubrick and Harris managed to interest Kirk Douglas in playing Colonel Dax. The film, shot in Munich, from January 1957, follows a French army unit ordered on an impossible mission, and follows with a war trial of three soldiers, arbitrarily chosen, for misconduct. Dax is assigned to defend the men at Court Martial. For the battle scene, Kubrick meticulously lined up six cameras one after the other along the boundary of no-man's land, with each camera capturing a specific field and numbered, and gave each of the hundreds of extras a number for the zone in which they would die. Kubrick himself operated an Arriflex camera for the battle, zooming in on Douglas. "Paths of Glory" became Kubrick's first significant commercial success, and established him as an up-and-coming young filmmaker. Critics praised the film's unsentimental, spare, and unvarnished combat scenes and its raw, black-and-white cinematography. Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" wrote: "The close, hard eye of Mr Kubrick's sullen camera bores directly into the minds of scheming men and into the hearts of patient, frightened soldiers who have to accept orders to die". Despite the praise, the Christmas release date was criticized, and the subject was controversial in Europe. The film was banned in France until 1974 for its "unflattering" depiction of the French military, and was censored by the Swiss Army until 1970.
Marlon Brando contacted Kubrick, asking him to direct a film adaptation of the Charles Neider western novel, "The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones", featuring Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Brando was impressed, saying that "Stanley is unusually perceptive, and delicately attuned to people. He has an adroit intellect, and is a creative thinker—not a repeater, not a fact-gatherer. He digests what he learns and brings to a new project an original point of view and a reserved passion". The two worked on a script for six months, begun by a then unknown Sam Peckinpah. Many disputes broke out over the project, and in the end, Kubrick distanced himself from what would become "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961).
In February 1959, Kubrick received a phone call from Kirk Douglas asking him to direct "Spartacus" (1960), based on the true life story of the historical figure Spartacus and the events of the Third Servile War. Douglas had acquired the rights to the novel by Howard Fast and blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo began penning the script. It was produced by Douglas, who also starred as rebellious slave Spartacus, and cast Laurence Olivier as his foe, the Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus. Douglas hired Kubrick for a reported fee of $150,000 to take over direction soon after he fired director Anthony Mann. Kubrick had, at 31, already directed four feature films, and this became his largest by far, with a cast of over 10,000 and a budget of $6 million. At the time, this was the most expensive film ever made in America, and Kubrick became the youngest director in Hollywood history to make an epic. It was the first time that Kubrick filmed using the anamorphic 35mm horizontal Super Technirama process to achieve ultra-high definition, which allowed him to capture large panoramic scenes, including one with 8,000 trained soldiers from Spain representing the Roman army. Disputes broke out during the filming. Kubrick complained about not having full creative control over the artistic aspects, insisting on improvising extensively during the production. Kubrick and Douglas were also at odds over the script, with Kubrick angering Douglas when he cut all but two of his lines from the opening 30 minutes. Despite the on-set troubles, "Spartacus" took $14.6 million at the box office in its first run. The film established Kubrick as a major director, receiving six Academy Award nominations and winning four; it ultimately convinced him that if so much could be made of such a problematic production, he could achieve anything. "Spartacus" also marked the end of the working relationship between Kubrick and Douglas.
Kubrick and Harris made a decision to film Kubrick's next movie "Lolita" (1962) in England, due to clauses placed on the contract by producers Warner Bros. that gave them complete control over every aspect of the film, and the fact that the Eady plan permitted producers to write off the costs if 80% of the crew were British. Instead, they signed a $1 million deal with Eliot Hyman's Associated Artists Productions, and a clause which gave them the artistic freedom that they desired. "Lolita", Kubrick's first attempt at black comedy, was an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov, the story of a middle-aged college professor becoming infatuated with a 12-year-old girl. Stylistically, "Lolita", starring Peter Sellers, James Mason, Shelley Winters, and Sue Lyon, was a transitional film for Kubrick, "marking the turning point from a naturalistic cinema ... to the surrealism of the later films", according to film critic Gene Youngblood. Kubrick was deeply impressed by the chameleon-like range of actor Peter Sellers and gave him one of his first opportunities to improvise wildly during shooting, while filming him with three cameras.
"Lolita" was shot over 88 days on a budget of $2 million at Elstree Studios, between October 1960 and March 1961. Kubrick often clashed with Shelley Winters, whom he found "very difficult" and demanding, and nearly fired at one point. Because of its provocative story, "Lolita" was Kubrick's first film to generate controversy; he was ultimately forced to comply with censors and remove much of the erotic element of the relationship between Mason's Humbert and Lyon's Lolita which had been evident in Nabokov's novel. The film was not a major critical or commercial success upon release, earning $3.7 million at the box office on its opening run. "Lolita" has since become acclaimed by film critics. Social historian Stephen E. Kercher documented that the film "demonstrated that its director possessed a keen, satiric insight into the social landscape and sexual hang-ups of cold war America", while Jon Fortgang of Film4 wrote: "Lolita, with its acute mix of pathos and comedy, and Mason's mellifluous delivery of Nabokov's sparkling lines, remains the definitive depiction of tragic transgression".
Kubrick's next project was "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964), another satirical black comedy. Kubrick became preoccupied with the issue of nuclear war as the Cold War unfolded in the 1950s, and even considered moving to Australia because he feared that New York City might be a likely target for the Russians. He studied over 40 military and political research books on the subject and eventually reached the conclusion that "nobody really knew anything and the whole situation was absurd". After buying the rights to the novel "Red Alert", Kubrick collaborated with its author, Peter George, on the script. It was originally written as a serious political thriller, but Kubrick decided that a "serious treatment" of the subject would not be believable, and thought that some of its most salient points would be fodder for comedy. Kubrick and George then reworked the script as a satire (provisionally titled "The Delicate Balance of Terror") in which the plot of "Red Alert" was situated as a film-within-a-film made by an alien intelligence, but this idea was also abandoned, and Kubrick decided to make the film as "an outrageous black comedy". Just before filming began, Kubrick hired noted journalist and satirical author Terry Southern to transform the script into its final form, a black comedy, loaded with sexual innuendo, becoming a film which showed Kubrick's talents as a "unique kind of absurdist" according to the film scholar Abrams. Southern made major contributions to the final script, and was co-credited (above Peter George) in the film's opening titles; his perceived role in the writing later led to a public rift between Kubrick and Peter George, who subsequently complained in a letter to "Life" magazine that Southern's intense but relatively brief (November 16 to December 28, 1962) involvement with the project was being given undue prominence in the media, while his own role as the author of the film's source novel, and his ten-month stint as the script's co-writer, were being downplayed – a perception Kubrick evidently did little to address.
Kubrick found that "Dr. Strangelove", a $2 million production which employed what became the "first important visual effects crew in the world", would be impossible to make in the U.S. for various technical and political reasons, forcing him to move production to England. It was shot in 15 weeks, ending in April 1963, after which Kubrick spent eight months editing it. Peter Sellers again agreed to work with Kubrick, and ended up playing three different roles in the film. Upon release, the film stirred up much controversy and mixed opinions. "The New York Times" film critic Bosley Crowther worried that it was a "discredit and even contempt for our whole defense establishment ... the most shattering sick joke I've ever come across", while Robert Brustein of "Out of This World" in a February 1970 article called it a "juvenalian satire". Kubrick responded to the criticism, stating: "A satirist is someone who has a very skeptical view of human nature, but who still has the optimism to make some sort of a joke out of it. However brutal that joke might be". Today, the film is considered to be one of the sharpest comedy films ever made, and holds a near perfect 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 79 reviews . It was named the 39th-greatest American film and third-greatest American comedy film of all time by the American Film Institute, and in 2010, it was named the sixth-best comedy film of all time by "The Guardian".
Kubrick spent five years developing his next film, "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), having been highly impressed with science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke's novel "Childhood's End", about a superior race of alien beings who assist mankind in eliminating their old selves. After meeting Clarke in New York City in April 1964, Kubrick made the suggestion to work on his 1948 short story "The Sentinel", about a tetrahedron which is found on the Moon which alerts aliens of mankind. That year, Clarke began writing the novel "", and the screenplay was written by Kubrick and Clarke in collaboration. The film's theme, the birthing of one intelligence by another, is developed in two parallel intersecting stories on two very different time scales. One depicts evolutionary transitions between various stages of man, from ape to "star child", as man is reborn into a new existence, each step shepherded by an enigmatic alien intelligence seen only in its artifacts: a series of seemingly indestructible eons-old black monoliths. In space, the enemy is a supercomputer known as HAL who runs the spaceship, a character which novelist Clancy Sigal described as being "far, far more human, more humorous and conceivably decent than anything else that may emerge from this far-seeing enterprise".
Kubrick spent a great deal of time researching for the film, paying particular attention to accuracy and detail in what the future might look like. He was granted permission by NASA to observe the spacecraft being used in the Ranger 9 mission for accuracy. Filming commenced on December 29, 1965, with the excavation of the monolith on the moon, and footage was shot in Namib Desert in early 1967, with the ape scenes completed later that year. The special effects team continued working diligently until the end of the year to complete the film, taking the cost to $10.5 million. "2001: A Space Odyssey" was conceived as a Cinerama spectacle and was photographed in Super Panavision 70, giving the viewer a "dazzling mix of imagination and science" through ground-breaking effects, which earned Kubrick his only personal Oscar, an Academy Award for Visual Effects. Louise Sweeney of "The Christian Science Monitor" called the film the "ultimate trip" while praising one of the scenes where the viewer moves through space while witnessing a vibrant mix of lighting, color, and patterns. Kubrick said of the concept of the film in an interview with "Rolling Stone": "On the deepest psychological level, the film's plot symbolized the search for God, and finally postulates what is little less than a scientific definition of God. The film revolves around this metaphysical conception, and the realistic hardware and the documentary feelings about everything were necessary in order to undermine your built-in resistance to the poetical concept".
Upon release in 1968, "2001: A Space Odyssey" was not an immediate hit among critics, who faulted its lack of dialog, slow pacing, and seemingly impenetrable storyline. The film appeared to defy genre convention, much unlike any science-fiction movie before it, and clearly different from any of Kubrick's earlier films or stories. Kubrick was particularly outraged by a scathing review from Pauline Kael, who called it "the biggest amateur movie of them all", with Kubrick doing "really every dumb thing he ever wanted to do". Despite mixed reviews from critics at that time, "2001: A Space Odyssey" gradually gained popularity and earned $31 million worldwide by the end of 1972. Today, it is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, and is a staple on All Time Top 10 lists. Baxter describes the film as "one of the most admired and discussed creations in the history of cinema", and Steven Spielberg has referred to it as "the big bang of his film making generation". For biographer Vincent LoBrutto it "positioned Stanley Kubrick as a pure artist ranked among the masters of cinema".
After completing "2001: A Space Odyssey", Kubrick searched for a project that he could film quickly on a more modest budget. He settled on "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) at the end of 1969, an exploration of violence and experimental rehabilitation by law enforcement authorities, based around the character of Alex (portrayed by Malcolm McDowell). Kubrick had originally received a copy of Anthony Burgess's novel of the same name from Terry Southern while they were working on "Dr. Strangelove", but had rejected it on the grounds that Nadsat, a street language for young teenagers, was too difficult to comprehend. The decision to make a film about the degeneration of youth reflected contemporary concerns in 1969; the New Hollywood movement was creating a great number of films that depicted the sexuality and rebelliousness of young people. This influenced Kubrick, in Baxter's opinion. "A Clockwork Orange" was shot over 1970–1971 on a budget of £2 million. Kubrick abandoned his use of CinemaScope in the filming, deciding that the 1.66:1 widescreen format was, in the words of Baxter, an "acceptable compromise between spectacle and intimacy", and favored his "rigorously symmetrical framing", which "increased the beauty of his compositions". The film heavily features "pop erotica" of the period, including a giant white plastic set of male genitals, decor which Kubrick had intended to give it a "slightly futuristic" look. McDowell's role in Lindsay Anderson's "if..." (1968) was crucial to his casting as Alex, and Kubrick professed that he probably would not have made the film if McDowell had been unavailable.
Because of its depiction of teenage violence, "A Clockwork Orange" became one of the most controversial films of its time, and part of an ongoing debate about violence and its glorification in cinema. It received an X rating, or certificate, in both the UK and US, on its release just before Christmas 1971, though many critics saw much of the violence depicted in the film as satirical, and less violent than "Straw Dogs", which had been released a month earlier. Kubrick personally pulled the film from release in the United Kingdom after receiving death threats following a series of copycat crimes based on the film; it was thus completely unavailable legally in the UK until after Kubrick's death, and not re-released until 2000. John Trevelyan, the censor of the film, personally considered "A Clockwork Orange" to be "perhaps the most brilliant piece of cinematic art I've ever seen," and believed it to present an "intellectual argument rather than a sadistic spectacle" in its depiction of violence, but acknowledged that many would not agree. Negative media hype over the film notwithstanding, "A Clockwork Orange" received four Academy Award nominations, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Editing, and was named by the New York Film Critics Circle as the Best Film of 1971. After William Friedkin won Best Director for "The French Connection" that year, he told the press: "Speaking personally, I think Stanley Kubrick is the best American film-maker of the year. In fact, not just this year, but the best, period".
"Barry Lyndon" (1975) is an adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's "The Luck of Barry Lyndon" (also known as "Barry Lyndon"), a picaresque novel about the adventures of an 18th-century Irish rogue and social climber. John Calley of Warner Bros. agreed in 1972 to invest $2.5 million into the film, on condition that Kubrick approach major Hollywood stars, to ensure it of success. Like previous films, Kubrick and his art department conducted an enormous amount of research, and he went from knowing very little about the 18th century at the start of the production to becoming an expert on it. Extensive photographs were taken of locations and artwork in particular, and paintings were meticulously replicated from works of the great masters of the period in the film. The film was shot on location in Ireland, beginning in the autumn of 1973, at a cost of $11 million with a cast and crew of 170. The decision to shoot in Ireland stemmed from the fact that it still retained many buildings from the 18th century period which England lacked. The production was problematic from the start, plagued with heavy rain and political strife involving Northern Ireland at the time. After Kubrick received death threats from the IRA in the New Year of 1974 due to the shooting scenes with English soldiers, he fled Ireland with his family on a ferry from Dún Laoghaire under an assumed identity, and filming resumed in England.
Baxter notes that "Barry Lyndon" was the film which made Kubrick notorious for paying scrupulous attention to detail, often demanding twenty or thirty retakes of the same scene to perfect his art. Often considered to be his most authentic-looking picture, the cinematography and lighting techniques that Kubrick and cinematographer John Alcott used in "Barry Lyndon" were highly innovative. Interior scenes were shot with a specially adapted high-speed f/0.7 Zeiss camera lens originally developed for NASA to be used in satellite photography. The lenses allowed many scenes to be lit only with candlelight, creating two-dimensional, diffused-light images reminiscent of 18th-century paintings. Cinematographer Allen Daviau states that the method gives the audience a way of seeing the characters and scenes as they would have been seen by people at the time. Many of the fight scenes were shot with a hand-held camera to produce a "sense of documentary realism and immediacy".
"Barry Lyndon" found a great audience in France, but was a box office failure, grossing just $9.5 million in the American market, not even close to the $30 million Warner Bros. needed to generate a profit. The pace and length of "Barry Lyndon" at three hours put off many American critics and audiences, but the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, including Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Musical Score, more than any other Kubrick film. As with most of Kubrick's films, "Barry Lyndon"'s reputation has grown through the years and it is now considered to be one of his best, particularly among filmmakers and critics. Numerous polls, such as "The Village Voice" (1999), "Sight & Sound" (2002), and "Time" (2005), have rated it as one of the greatest films ever made. , it has as 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 64 reviews. Roger Ebert referred to it as "one of the most beautiful films ever made ... certainly in every frame a Kubrick film: technically awesome, emotionally distant, remorseless in its doubt of human goodness".
"The Shining", released in 1980, was adapted from the novel of the same name by bestselling horror writer Stephen King. "The Shining" was not the only horror film to which Kubrick had been linked; he had turned down the directing of both "The Exorcist" (1973) and "" (1977), despite once saying in 1966 to a friend that he had long desired to "make the world's scariest movie, involving a series of episodes that would play upon the nightmare fears of the audience". The film stars Jack Nicholson as a writer who takes a job as a winter caretaker of a large and isolated hotel in the Rocky Mountains. He spends the winter there with his wife, played by Shelley Duvall, and their young son, who displays paranormal abilities. During their stay, they confront both Jack's descent into madness and apparent supernatural horrors lurking in the hotel. Kubrick gave his actors freedom to extend the script, and even improvise on occasion, and as a result, Nicholson was responsible for the 'Here's Johnny!' line and scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife. So determined to produce perfection was Kubrick, he often demanded up to 70 or 80 retakes of the same scene. Duvall, who Kubrick also intentionally isolated and argued with often, was forced to perform the iconic and exhausting baseball bat scene 127 times. Afterwards, Duvall presented Kubrick with clumps of hair that had fallen out due to the extreme stress of filming. The bar scene with the ghostly bartender was shot 36 times, while the kitchen scene between the characters of Danny (Danny Lloyd) and Halloran (Scatman Crothers) ran to 148 takes. The aerial shots of the Overlook Hotel were shot at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon, while the interiors of the hotel were shot at Elstree Studios in England between May 1978 and April 1979. Cardboard models were made of all of the sets of the film, and the lighting of them was a massive undertaking, which took four months of electrical wiring. Kubrick made extensive use of the newly invented Steadicam, a weight-balanced camera support, which allowed for smooth hand-held camera movement in scenes where a conventional camera track was impractical. According to Garrett Brown, Steadicam's inventor, it was the first picture to use its full potential.
Five days after release on May 23, 1980, Kubrick ordered the deletion of a final scene, in which the hotel manager Ullman (Barry Nelson) visits Wendy (Shelley Duvall) in hospital, believing it to have been unnecessary after witnessing the audience excitement in cinemas at the climax of the film. "The Shining" opened to strong box office takings, earning $1 million on the first weekend and earning $30.9 million in America alone by the end of the year. The original critical response was mixed, and King himself detested the film and disliked Kubrick. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" praised the "eerie way" in which Kubrick turned an "enormous building into something cramped and claustrophobic", which would "undoubtedly amount to one of the screen's scarier haunted houses". "The Shining" is now considered to be a horror classic, and the American Film Institute has ranked it as the 27th greatest thriller film of all time.
Kubrick met author Michael Herr through mutual friend David Cornwell (novelist John le Carré) in 1980, and became interested in his book "Dispatches", about the Vietnam War. Herr had recently written Martin Sheen's narration for "Apocalypse Now" (1979). Kubrick was also intrigued by Gustav Hasford's Vietnam War novel "The Short-Timers." With the vision in mind to shoot what would become "Full Metal Jacket" (1987), Kubrick began working with both Herr and Hasford separately on a script. He eventually found Hasford's novel to be "brutally honest" and decided to shoot a film which closely follows the novel. All of the film was shot at a cost of $17 million within a 30-mile radius of his house between August 1985 and September 1986, later than scheduled as Kubrick shut down production for five months following a near-fatal accident with a jeep involving Lee Ermey. A derelict gasworks in Beckton in the London Docklands area posed as the ruined city of Huế, which makes the film visually very different from other Vietnam War films. Around 200 palm trees were imported via 40-foot trailers by road from North Africa, at a cost of £1000 a tree, and thousands of plastic plants were ordered from Hong Kong to provide foliage for the film. Kubrick explained he made the film look realistic by using natural light, and achieved a "newsreel effect" by making the Steadicam shots less steady, which reviewers and commentators thought contributed to the bleakness and seriousness of the film.
According to critic Michel Ciment, the film contained some of Kubrick's trademark characteristics, such as his selection of ironic music, portrayals of men being dehumanized, and attention to extreme detail to achieve realism. In a later scene, United States Marines patrol the ruins of an abandoned and destroyed city singing the theme song to the Mickey Mouse Club as a sardonic counterpoint. The film opened strongly in June 1987, taking over $30 million in the first 50 days alone, but critically it was overshadowed by the success of Oliver Stone's "Platoon", released a year earlier. Co-star Matthew Modine stated one of Kubrick's favorite reviews read: "The first half of "FMJ" is brilliant. Then the film degenerates into a masterpiece." Roger Ebert was not particularly impressed with it, awarding it a mediocre 2.5 out of 4. He concluded: "Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" is more like a book of short stories than a novel", a "strangely shapeless film from the man whose work usually imposes a ferociously consistent vision on his material".
Kubrick's final film was "Eyes Wide Shut" (1999), starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey. Tom Cruise portrays a doctor who witnesses a bizarre masked quasireligious orgiastic ritual at a country mansion, a discovery which later threatens his life. The story is based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 Freudian novella "Traumnovelle" ("Dream Story" in English), which Kubrick relocated from turn-of-the-century Vienna to New York City in the 1990s. Kubrick said of the novel: "A difficult book to describe—what good book isn't. It explores the sexual ambivalence of a happy marriage and tries to equate the importance of sexual dreams and might-have-beens with reality. All of Schnitzler's work is psychologically brilliant". Kubrick was almost 70, but worked relentlessly for 15 months to get the film out by its planned release date of July 16, 1999. He commenced a script with Frederic Raphael, and worked 18 hours a day, while maintaining complete confidentiality about the film.
"Eyes Wide Shut", like "Lolita" and "A Clockwork Orange" before it, faced censorship before release. Kubrick sent an unfinished preview copy to the stars and producers a few months before release, but his sudden death on March 7, 1999, came a few days after he finished editing. He never saw the final version released to the public, but he did see the preview of the film with Warner Bros., Cruise, and Kidman, and had reportedly told Warner executive Julian Senior that it was his "best film ever". At the time, critical opinion of the film was mixed, and it was viewed less favorably than most of Kubrick's films. Roger Ebert awarded it 3.5 out of 4 stars, comparing the structure to a thriller and writing that it is "like an erotic daydream about chances missed and opportunities avoided", and thought that Kubrick's use of lighting at Christmas made the film "all a little garish, like an urban sideshow". Stephen Hunter of "The Washington Post" disliked the film, writing that it "is actually sad, rather than bad. It feels creaky, ancient, hopelessly out of touch, infatuated with the hot taboos of his youth and unable to connect with that twisty thing contemporary sexuality has become."
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Kubrick collaborated with Brian Aldiss on an expansion of his short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" into a three-act film. It was a futuristic fairy tale about a robot that resembles and behaves as a child, and his efforts to become a 'real boy' in a manner similar to Pinocchio. Kubrick approached Spielberg in 1995 with the AI script with the possibility of Steven Spielberg directing it and Kubrick producing it. Kubrick reportedly held long telephone discussions with Spielberg regarding the film, and, according to Spielberg, at one point stated that the subject matter was closer to Spielberg's sensibilities than his.
Following Kubrick's death in 1999, Spielberg took the various drafts and notes left by Kubrick and his writers and composed a new screenplay based on an earlier 90-page story treatment by Ian Watson written under Kubrick's supervision and according to Kubrick's specifications. In association with what remained of Kubrick's production unit, he directed the movie "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" (2001) which was produced by Kubrick's longtime producer (and brother-in-law) Jan Harlan. Sets, costumes, and art direction were based on the works of conceptual artist Chris Baker, who had also done much of his work under Kubrick's supervision.
Spielberg was able to function autonomously in Kubrick's absence, but said he felt "inhibited to honor him", and followed Kubrick's visual schema with as much fidelity as he could, according to author Joseph McBride. Spielberg, who once referred to Kubrick as "the greatest master I ever served", now with production underway, admitted, "I felt like I was being coached by a ghost." The film was released in June 2001. It contains a posthumous production credit for Stanley Kubrick at the beginning and the brief dedication "For Stanley Kubrick" at the end. John Williams's score contains many allusions to pieces heard in other Kubrick films.
Following "2001: A Space Odyssey", Kubrick originally planned to make a film about the life of the French emperor Napoleon. Fascinated by his life and own "self-destruction", Kubrick spent a great deal of time planning the film's development, and had conducted about two years of extensive research into Napoleon's life, reading several hundred books and gaining access to Napoleon's personal memoirs and commentaries. He also tried to see every film ever made about Napoleon and found none of them appealing, including Abel Gance's 1927 film which is generally considered to be a masterpiece, but for Kubrick, a "really terrible" movie. LoBrutto states that Napoleon was an ideal subject for Kubrick, embracing Kubrick's "passion for control, power, obsession, strategy, and the military", while Napoleon's psychological intensity and depth, logistical genius and war, sex, and the evil nature of man were all ingredients which deeply appealed to Kubrick.
Kubrick drafted a screenplay in 1961, and envisaged making a "grandiose" epic, with up to 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. He had intended hiring the armed forces of an entire country to make the film, as he considered Napoleonic battles to be "so beautiful, like vast lethal ballets", with an "aesthetic brilliance that doesn't require a military mind to appreciate". He wanted them to be replicated as authentically as possible on screen. Kubrick had sent research teams to scout for locations across Europe, and commissioned screenwriter and director Andrew Birkin, one of his young assistants on "2001", to the Isle of Elba, Austerlitz, and Waterloo, taking thousands of pictures for his later perusal. Kubrick approached numerous stars to play leading roles, including Audrey Hepburn for Empress Josephine, a part which she could not accept due to semiretirement.
British actors David Hemmings and Ian Holm were considered for the lead role of Napoleon, before Jack Nicholson was cast. The film was well into preproduction and ready to begin filming in 1969 when MGM cancelled the project. Numerous reasons have been cited for the abandonment of the project, including its projected cost, a change of ownership at MGM, and the poor reception that the 1970 Soviet film about Napoleon, "Waterloo", received. In 2011, Taschen published the book, "Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made", a large volume compilation of literature and source documents from Kubrick, such as scene photo ideas and copies of letters Kubrick wrote and received. In March 2013, Steven Spielberg, who previously collaborated with Kubrick on "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" and is a passionate admirer of his work, announced that he would be developing "Napoleon" as a TV miniseries based on Kubrick's original screenplay.
In the 1950s, Kubrick and Harris developed a sitcom starring Ernie Kovacs and a film adaption of the book "I Stole $16,000,000", but nothing came of them. Tony Frewin, an assistant who worked with the director for a long period of time, revealed in a 2013 "Atlantic" article: "He [Kubrick] was limitlessly interested in anything to do with Nazis and desperately wanted to make a film on the subject." Kubrick had intended making a film about the life story of Dietrich Schulz-Koehn, a Nazi officer who used the pen name "Dr. Jazz" to write reviews of German music scenes during the Nazi era. Kubrick had been given a copy of the Mike Zwerin book "Swing Under the Nazis" after he had finished production on "Full Metal Jacket", the front cover of which featured a photograph of Schulz-Koehn. A screenplay was never completed and Kubrick's film adaptation plan was never initiated. The unfinished "Aryan Papers", based on Louis Begley's debut novel "Wartime Lies", was a factor in the abandonment of the project. Work on "Aryan Papers" depressed Kubrick enormously, and he eventually decided that Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" (1993) covered much of the same material.
According to biographer John Baxter, Kubrick had shown an interest in directing a pornographic film based on a satirical novel written by Terry Southern, titled "Blue Movie", about a director who makes Hollywood's first big-budget porn film. Baxter claims that Kubrick concluded that he did not have the patience or temperament to become involved in the porn industry, and Southern stated that Kubrick was "too ultra conservative" towards sexuality to have gone ahead with it, but liked the idea. Kubrick was unable to direct a film of Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" as Eco had given his publisher instructions to never sell the film rights to any of his books after his dissatisfaction with the film version of "The Name of the Rose". Also, when the film rights to Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" were sold to United Artists, the Beatles approached Kubrick to direct them in a film based on the books, but Kubrick was unwilling to produce a film based on a very popular book. Director Peter Jackson has reported that Tolkien was against the involvement of the Beatles.
As a young man, Kubrick was fascinated by the films of Soviet filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin. Kubrick read Pudovkin's seminal theoretical work, "Film Technique," which argues that editing makes film a unique art form, and it needs to be employed to manipulate the medium to its fullest. Kubrick recommended this work to others for many years. Thomas Nelson describes this book as "the greatest influence of any single written work on the evolution of [Kubrick's] private aesthetics". Kubrick also found the ideas of Konstantin Stanislavski to be essential to his understanding the basics of directing, and gave himself a crash course to learn his methods.
Kubrick's family and many critics felt that his Jewish ancestry may have contributed to his worldview and aspects of his films. After his death, both his daughter and wife stated that he was not religious, but "did not deny his Jewishness, not at all". His daughter noted that he wanted to make a film about the Holocaust, the "Aryan Papers", having spent years researching the subject. Most of Kubrick's friends and early photography and film collaborators were Jewish, and his first two marriages were to daughters of recent Jewish immigrants from Europe. British screenwriter Frederic Raphael, who worked closely with Kubrick in his final years, believes that the originality of Kubrick's films was partly because he "had a (Jewish?) respect for scholars". He declared that it was "absurd to try to understand Stanley Kubrick without reckoning on Jewishness as a fundamental aspect of his mentality".
Walker notes that Kubrick was influenced by the tracking and "fluid camera" styles of director Max Ophüls, and used them in many of his films, including "Paths of Glory" and "2001: A Space Odyssey". Kubrick noted how in Ophuls' films "the camera went through every wall and every floor". He once named Ophüls' "Le Plaisir" (1952) as his favorite film. According to film historian John Wakeman, Ophüls himself learned the technique from director Anatole Litvak in the 1930s, when he was his assistant, and whose work was "replete with the camera trackings, pans and swoops which later became the trademark of Max Ophüls". Geoffrey Cocks believes that Kubrick was also influenced by Ophüls' stories of thwarted love and a preoccupation with predatory men, while Herr notes that Kubrick was deeply inspired by G. W. Pabst, who earlier tried, but was unable to adapt Schnitzler's "Traumnovelle", the basis of "Eyes Wide Shut". Film critic Robert Kolker sees the influence of Welles' moving camera shots on Kubrick's style. LoBrutto notes that Kubrick identified with Welles and that this influenced the making of "The Killing", with its "multiple points of view, extreme angles, and deep focus".
Kubrick admired the work of Ingmar Bergman and expressed it in personal letter: "Your vision of life has moved me deeply, much more deeply than I have ever been moved by any films. I believe you are the greatest film-maker at work today [...], unsurpassed by anyone in the creation of mood and atmosphere, the subtlety of performance, the avoidance of the obvious, the truthfulness and completeness of characterization. To this one must also add everything else that goes into the making of a film; [...] and I shall look forward with eagerness to each of your films."
When the American magazine "Cinema" asked Kubrick in 1963 to name his favorite films, he listed Italian director Federico Fellini's "I Vitelloni" as number one in his Top 10 list.
Kubrick's films typically involve expressions of an inner struggle, examined from different perspectives.
He was very careful not to present his own views of the meaning of his films and to leave them open to interpretation. He explained in a 1960 interview with Robert Emmett Ginna:
"One of the things I always find extremely difficult, when a picture's finished, is when a writer or a film reviewer asks, 'Now, what is it that you were trying to say in that picture?' And without being thought too presumptuous for using this analogy, I like to remember what T. S. Eliot said to someone who had asked him—I believe it was "The Waste Land"—what he meant by the poem. He replied, 'I meant what I said.' If I could have said it any differently, I would have".
Kubrick likened the understanding of his films to popular music, in that whatever the background or intellect of the individual, a Beatles record, for instance, can be appreciated both by the Alabama truck driver and the young Cambridge intellectual, because their "emotions and subconscious are far more similar than their intellects". He believed that the subconscious emotional reaction experienced by audiences was far more powerful in the film medium than in any other traditional verbal form, and was one of the reasons why he often relied on long periods in his films without dialogue, placing emphasis on images and sound. In a 1975 "Time" magazine interview, Kubrick further stated: "The essence of a dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it is simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves." He also said: "Realism is probably the best way to dramatize argument and ideas. Fantasy may deal best with themes which lie primarily in the unconscious".
Diane Johnson, who co-wrote the screenplay for "The Shining" with Kubrick, notes that he "always said that it was better to adapt a book rather than write an original screenplay, and that you should choose a work that isn't a masterpiece so you can improve on it. Which is what he's always done, except with "Lolita"". When deciding on a subject for a film, there were a number of aspects that he looked for, and he always made films which would "appeal to every sort of viewer, whatever their expectation of film". According to his co-producer Jan Harlan, Kubrick mostly "wanted to make films about things that mattered, that not only had form, but substance". Kubrick believed that audiences quite often were attracted to "enigmas and allegories" and did not like films in which everything was spelled out clearly.
Although none of his features display graphic sex scenes, sexuality in Kubrick's films is usually depicted outside matrimonial relationships in hostile situations. Baxter states that Kubrick explores the "furtive and violent side alleys of the sexual experience: voyeurism, domination, bondage and rape" in his films. He further points out that films like "A Clockwork Orange" are "powerfully homoerotic", from Alex walking about his parents' flat in his Y-fronts, one eye being "made up with doll-like false eyelashes", to his innocent acceptance of the sexual advances of his post-corrective adviser Deltroid (Aubrey Morris). British critic Adrian Turner notes that Kubrick's films appear to be "preoccupied with questions of universal and inherited evil", and Malcolm McDowell referred to his humor as "black as coal", questioning his outlook on humanity. A few of his pictures were obvious satires and black comedies, such as "Lolita" and "Dr. Strangelove"; many of his other films also contained less visible elements of satire or irony. His films are unpredictable, examining "the duality and contradictions that exist in all of us". Ciment notes how Kubrick often tried to confound audience expectations by establishing radically different moods from one film to the next, remarking that he was almost "obsessed with contradicting himself, with making each work a critique of the previous one".
Kubrick stated that "there is no deliberate pattern to the stories that I have chosen to make into films. About the only factor at work each time is that I try not to repeat myself". As a result, Kubrick was often misunderstood by critics, and only once did he have unanimously positive reviews upon the release of a film—for "Paths of Glory".
Film author Patrick Webster considers Kubrick's methods of writing and developing scenes to fit with the classical auteur theory of directing, allowing collaboration and improvisation with the actors during filming. Malcolm McDowell recalled Kubrick's collaborative emphasis during their discussions and his willingness to allow him to improvise a scene, stating that "there was a script and we followed it, but when it didn't work he knew it, and we had to keep rehearsing endlessly until we were bored with it".
Once Kubrick was confident in the overall staging of a scene, and felt the actors were prepared, he would then develop the visual aspects, including camera and lighting placement. Walker believes that Kubrick was one of "very few film directors competent to instruct their lighting photographers in the precise effect they want". Baxter believes that Kubrick was heavily influenced by his ancestry and always possessed a European perspective to filmmaking, particularly the Austro-Hungarian empire and his admiration for Max Ophuls and Richard Strauss.
Gilbert Adair, writing in a review for "Full Metal Jacket", commented that "Kubrick's approach to language has always been of a reductive and uncompromisingly deterministic nature. He appears to view it as the exclusive product of environmental conditioning, only very marginally influenced by concepts of subjectivity and interiority, by all whims, shades and modulations of personal expression". Johnson notes that although Kubrick was a "visual filmmaker", he also loved words and was like a writer in his approach, very sensitive to the story itself, which he found unique. Before shooting began, Kubrick tried to have the script as complete as possible, but still allowed himself enough space to make changes during the filming, finding it "more profitable to avoid locking up any ideas about staging or camera or even dialogue prior to rehearsals" as he put it. Kubrick told Robert Emmett Ginna: "I think you have to view the entire problem of putting the story you want to tell up there on that light square. It begins with the selection of the property; it continues through the creation of the story, the sets, the costumes, the photography and the acting. And when the picture is shot, it's only partially finished. I think the cutting is just a continuation of directing a movie. I think the use of music effects, opticals and finally main titles are all part of telling the story. And I think the fragmentation of these jobs, by different people, is a very bad thing". Kubrick also said: "I think that the best plot is no apparent plot. I like a slow start, the start that gets under the audience's skin and involves them so that they can appreciate grace notes and soft tones and don't have to be pounded over the head with plot points and suspense tools."
Kubrick was notorious for demanding multiple takes during filming to perfect his art, and his relentless approach was often extremely demanding for his actors. Jack Nicholson remarked that Kubrick would often demand up to fifty takes of a scene. Nicole Kidman explains that the large number of takes he often required stopped actors from consciously thinking about technique, thereby helping them enter a "deeper place". Kubrick's high take ratio was considered by some critics as "irrational"; he firmly believed that actors were at their best during the filming, as opposed to rehearsals, due to the sense of intense excitement that it generates. Kubrick explained: "Actors are essentially emotion-producing instruments, and some are always tuned and ready while others will reach a fantastic pitch on one take and never equal it again, no matter how hard they try" ...
"When you make a movie, it takes a few days just to get used to the crew, because it is like getting undressed in front of fifty people. Once you're accustomed to them, the presence of even one other person on set is discordant and tends to produce self-consciousness in the actors, and certainly in itself". He also told biographer Michel Ciment: "It's invariably because the actors don't know their lines, or don't know them well enough. An actor can only do one thing at a time, and when he learned his lines only well enough to say them while he's thinking about them, he will always have trouble as soon as he has to work on the emotions of the scene or find camera marks. In a strong emotional scene, it is always best to be able to shoot in complete takes to allow the actor a continuity of emotion, and it is rare for most actors to reach their peak more than once or twice. There are, occasionally, scenes which benefit from extra takes, but even then, I'm not sure that the early takes aren't just glorified rehearsals with the adding adrenaline of film running through the camera."
Kubrick would devote his personal breaks to having lengthy discussions with actors. Among those who valued his attention was Tony Curtis, star of "Spartacus", who said Kubrick was his favorite director, adding, "his greatest effectiveness was his one-on-one relationship with actors." He further added, "Kubrick had his own approach to film-making. He wanted to see the actor's faces. He didn't want cameras always in a wide shot twenty-five feet away, he wanted close-ups, he wanted to keep the camera moving. That was his style." Similarly, Malcolm McDowell recalls the long discussions he had with Kubrick to help him develop his character in "A Clockwork Orange", noting that on set he felt entirely uninhibited and free, which is what made Kubrick "such a great director". Kubrick also allowed actors at times to improvise and to "break the rules", particularly with Peter Sellers in "Lolita", which became a turning point in his career as it allowed him to work creatively during the shooting, as opposed to the preproduction stage.
During an interview, Ryan O'Neal recalled Kubrick's directing style: "God, he works you hard. He moves you, pushes you, helps you, gets cross with you, but above all he teaches you the value of a good director. Stanley brought out aspects of my personality and acting instincts that had been dormant ... My strong suspicion [was] that I was involved in something great". He further added that working with Kubrick was "a stunning experience" and that he never recovered from working with somebody of such magnificence.
Kubrick credited the ease with which he filmed scenes to his early years as a photographer. He rarely added camera instructions in the script, preferring to handle that after a scene is created, as the visual part of film-making came easiest to him. Even in deciding which props and settings would be used, Kubrick paid meticulous attention to detail and tried to collect as much background material as possible, functioning rather like what he described as "a detective". Cinematographer John Alcott, who worked closely with Kubrick on four of his films, and won an Oscar for Best Cinematography on "Barry Lyndon", remarked that Kubrick "questions everything", and was involved in the technical aspects of film-making including camera placement, scene composition, choice of lens, and even operating the camera which would usually be left to the cinematographer. Alcott considered Kubrick to be the "nearest thing to genius I've ever worked with, with all the problems of a genius".
Among Kubrick's innovations in cinematography are his use of special effects, as in "2001", where he used both slit-scan photography and front-screen projection, which won Kubrick his only Oscar for special effects. Some reviewers have described and illustrated with video clips, Kubrick's use of "one-point perspective", which leads the viewer's eye towards a central vanishing point. The technique relies on creating a complex visual symmetry using parallel lines in a scene which all converge on that single point, leading away from the viewer. Combined with camera motion it could produce an effect that one writer describes as "hypnotic and thrilling". "The Shining" was among the first half-dozen features to use the then-revolutionary Steadicam (after the 1976 films "Bound for Glory", "Marathon Man" and "Rocky"). Kubrick used it to its fullest potential, which gave the audience smooth, stabilized, motion-tracking by the camera. Kubrick described Steadicam as being like a "magic carpet", allowing "fast, flowing, camera movements" in the maze in "The Shining" which otherwise would have been impossible.
Kubrick was among the first directors to use video assist during filming. At the time he began using it in 1966, it was considered cutting-edge technology, requiring him to build his own system. Having it in place during the filming of "2001", he was able to view a video of a take immediately after it was filmed. On some films, such as "Barry Lyndon", he used custom made zoom lenses, which allowed him to start a scene with a close-up and slowly zoom out to capture the full panorama of scenery and to film long takes under changing outdoor lighting conditions by making aperture adjustments while the cameras rolled. LoBrutto notes that Kubrick's technical knowledge about lenses "dazzled the manufacturer's engineers, who found him to be unprecedented among contemporary filmmakers". For "Barry Lyndon" he also used a specially adapted high-speed (f/0.7) Zeiss camera lens, originally developed for NASA, to shoot numerous scenes lit only with candlelight. Actor Steven Berkoff recalls that Kubrick wanted scenes to be shot using "pure candlelight", and in doing so Kubrick "made a unique contribution to the art of filmmaking going back to painting ... You almost posed like for portraits." LoBrutto notes that cinematographers all over the world wanted to know about Kubrick's "magic lens" and that he became a "legend" among cameramen around the world.
Kubrick spent extensive hours editing, often working seven days a week, and more hours a day as he got closer to deadlines. For Kubrick, written dialogue was one element to be put in balance with mise en scène (set arrangements), music, and especially, editing. Inspired by Pudovkin's treatise on film editing, Kubrick realized that one could create a performance in the editing room and often "re-direct" a film, and he remarked: "I love editing. I think I like it more than any other phase of filmmaking ... Editing is the only unique aspect of filmmaking which does not resemble any other art form—a point so important it cannot be overstressed ... It can make or break a film". Biographer John Baxter stated that "Instead of finding the intellectual spine of a film in the script before starting work, Kubrick felt his way towards the final version of a film by shooting each scene from many angles and demanding scores of takes on each line. Then over months ... he arranged and rearranged the tens of thousands of scraps of film to fit a vision that really only began to emerge during editing".
Kubrick's attention to music was an aspect of what many referred to as his "perfectionism" and extreme attention to minute details, which his wife Christiane attributed to an addiction to music. In his last six films, Kubrick usually chose music from existing sources, especially classical compositions. He preferred selecting recorded music over having it composed for a film, believing that no hired composer could do as well as the public domain classical composers. He also felt that building scenes from great music often created the "most memorable scenes" in the best films. In one instance, for a scene in "Barry Lyndon" which was written into the screenplay as merely, "Barry duels with Lord Bullingdon", he spent forty-two working days in the editing phase. During that period, he listened to what LoBrutto describes as "every available recording of seventeenth-and eighteenth- century music, acquiring thousands of records to find Handel's sarabande used to score the scene". Jack Nicholson likewise observed his attention to music for his films, stating that Kubrick "listened constantly to music until he discovered something he felt was right or that excited him".
Kubrick is credited with introducing Hungarian composer György Ligeti to a broad Western audience by including his music in "2001", "The Shining" and "Eyes Wide Shut". According to Baxter, the music in "2001" was "at the forefront of Kubrick's mind" when he conceived the film. During earlier screening he played music by Mendelssohn and Vaughan Williams, and Kubrick and writer Clarke had listened to Carl Orff's transcription of "Carmina Burana", consisting of 13th century sacred and secular songs. Ligeti's music employed the new style of micropolyphony, which used sustained dissonant chords that shift slowly over time, a style he originated. Its inclusion in the film became a "boon for the relatively unknown composer" partly because it was introduced alongside background by Johann Strauss and Richard Strauss.
In addition to Ligeti, Kubrick also enjoyed a collaboration with composer Wendy Carlos, whose 1968 album "Switched-On Bach"—which re-interpreted baroque music through the use of a Moog synthesizer—caught his attention. In 1971, Carlos composed and recorded music for the soundtrack of "A Clockwork Orange". Additional music not used in the film was released in 1972 as "Wendy Carlos's Clockwork Orange". Kubrick later collaborated with Carlos on "The Shining" (1980). The opening of the film, in which the camera follows Jack Torrance's yellow VW beetle through the mountains to the Overlook Hotel, employs Carlos' eerie rendering of "Dies Irae" (Day of Wrath) from Hector Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique".
Kubrick married his high-school sweetheart Toba Metz, a caricaturist, on May 29, 1948, when he was nineteen years old. They had attended Taft High School together and had lived in the same apartment block on Shakespeare Avenue. The couple lived together in Greenwich Village and divorced three years later in 1951. He met his second wife, the Austrian-born dancer and theatrical designer Ruth Sobotka, in 1952. They lived together in New York City's East Village beginning in 1952, married in January 1955, and moved to Hollywood in July 1955, where she played a brief part as a ballet dancer in Kubrick's film, "Killer's Kiss" (1955). The following year she was art director for his film, "The Killing" (1956). They divorced in 1957.
During the production of "Paths of Glory" in Munich in early 1957, Kubrick met and romanced the German actress Christiane Harlan, who played a small though memorable role in the film. Kubrick married Harlan in 1958, and the couple remained together for 40 years, until his death in 1999. Besides his stepdaughter, they had two daughters together: Anya Renata (April 6, 1959 – July 7, 2009) and Vivian Vanessa (born August 5, 1960). In 1959 they settled into a home at 316 South Camden Drive in Beverly Hills with Harlan's daughter, Katherina, aged six. They also lived in New York City, during which time Christiane studied art at the Art Students League of New York, later becoming an independent artist. The couple moved to the United Kingdom in 1961 to make "Lolita", and Kubrick hired Peter Sellers to star in his next film, "Dr. Strangelove". Sellers was unable to leave the UK, so Kubrick made Britain his permanent home thereafter. The move was quite convenient to Kubrick, since he shunned the Hollywood system and its publicity machine, and he and Christiane had become alarmed with the increase in violence in New York City.
In 1965 the Kubricks bought Abbots Mead on Barnet Lane, just south-west of the Elstree/Borehamwood studio complex in England. Kubrick worked almost exclusively from this home for 14 years where, with some exceptions, he researched, invented special effects techniques, designed ultra-low light lenses for specially modified cameras, pre-produced, edited, post-produced, advertised, distributed and carefully managed all aspects of four of his films. In 1978, Kubrick moved into Childwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire, a mainly 18th-century stately home, which was once owned by a wealthy racehorse owner, about north of London and a 10-minute drive from his previous home at Abbotts Mead. His new home became a workplace for Kubrick and his wife, "a perfect family factory" as Christiane called it, and Kubrick converted the stables into extra production rooms besides ones within the home that he used for editing and storage.
A workaholic, Kubrick rarely took a vacation or left England during the forty years before his death. LoBrutto notes that Kubrick's confined way of living and desire for privacy has led to spurious stories about his reclusiveness, similar to those of Greta Garbo, Howard Hughes, and J. D. Salinger. Michael Herr, Kubrick's co-screenwriter on "Full Metal Jacket", who knew him well, considers his "reclusiveness" to be myth: "[He] was in fact a complete failure as a recluse, unless you believe that a recluse is simply someone who seldom leaves his house. Stanley saw a lot of people ... he was one of the most gregarious men I ever knew, and it didn't change anything that most of this conviviality went on over the phone." LoBrutto states that one of the reasons he acquired a reputation as a recluse was because he insisted in remaining near his home, but the reason for this was because for Kubrick there were only three places on the planet he could make high quality films with the necessary technical expertise and equipment: Los Angeles, New York City or around London. He disliked living in Los Angeles, and thought London a superior film production center to New York City.
As a person, Kubrick was described by Norman Lloyd as "a very dark, sort of a glowering type who was very serious". Marisa Berenson, who starred in "Barry Lyndon", fondly recalled: "There was great tenderness in him and he was passionate about his work. What was striking was his enormous intelligence, but he also had a great sense of humor. He was a very shy person and self-protective, but he was filled with the thing that drove him twenty-four hours of the day." Kubrick was particularly fond of machines and technical equipment, to the point that his wife Christiane once stated that "Stanley would be happy with eight tape recorders and one pair of pants". Kubrick had obtained a pilot's license in August 1947; some have claimed that he later developed a fear of flying, stemming from an incident in the early 1950s when a colleague had been killed in a plane crash. Kubrick had been sent the charred remains of his camera and notebooks which, according to Duncan, traumatized him for life. Kubrick also had a strong mistrust of doctors and medicine, especially those he did not know, and on one occasion he had a dentist from the Bronx flown to London to treat him.
On March 7, 1999, six days after screening a final cut of "Eyes Wide Shut" for his family and the stars, Kubrick died in his sleep at the age of 70, suffering a heart attack. His funeral was held five days later at his home estate at Childwickbury Manor, with only close friends and family in attendance, totaling approximately 100 people. The media were kept a mile away outside the entrance gate. Alexander Walker, who attended the funeral, described it as a "family farewell, ... almost like an English picnic", with cellists, clarinetists and singers providing song and music from many of his favorite classical compositions. Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning, was recited. A few of his obituaries mentioned his Jewish background. Among those who gave eulogies were Terry Semel, Jan Harlan, Steven Spielberg, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. He was buried next to his favorite tree on the estate. In her book dedicated to Kubrick, his wife Christiane included one of his favorite quotations of Oscar Wilde: "The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young."
Part of the New Hollywood film-making wave, Kubrick's films are considered by film historian Michel Ciment to be "among the most important contributions to world cinema in the twentieth century", and he is frequently cited as one of the greatest and most influential directors in the history of cinema. Leading directors, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Wes Anderson, George Lucas, James Cameron, Terry Gilliam, the Coen brothers, Ridley Scott, and George A. Romero, have cited Kubrick as a source of inspiration, and additionally in the case of Spielberg and Scott, collaboration. On the DVD of "Eyes Wide Shut", Steven Spielberg comments that the way Kubrick "tells a story is antithetical to the way we are accustomed to receiving stories" and that "nobody could shoot a picture better in history". Orson Welles, one of Kubrick's greatest personal influences and all-time favorite directors, said that: "Among those whom I would call 'younger generation', Kubrick appears to me to be a giant." Akira Kurosawa, another director Kubrick admired, remarked, "He made many masterpieces."
Kubrick continues to be cited as a major influence by many directors, including Christopher Nolan, Todd Field, David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, David Lynch, Lars von Trier, Tim Burton, Michael Mann, and Gaspar Noé. Many filmmakers imitate Kubrick's inventive and unique use of camera movement and framing, as well as his use of music, including Frank Darabont. Paul Thomas Anderson, in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", stated, "it's so hard to do anything that doesn't owe some kind of debt to what Stanley Kubrick did with music in movies. Inevitably, you're going to end up doing something that he's probably already done before. It can all seem like we're falling behind whatever he came up with."
Artists in fields other than film have also expressed admiration for Kubrick. English musician and poet PJ Harvey, in an interview about her 2011 album "Let England Shake", argued that "something about [...] what is not said in his films...there's so much space, so many things that are silent – and somehow, in that space and silence everything becomes clear. With every film, he seems to capture the essence of life itself, particularly in films like "Paths of Glory", ["2001: A Space Odyssey"], "Barry Lyndon"...those are some of my favorites." The music video for Kanye West's 2010 song "Runaway" was inspired by "Eyes Wide Shut". Pop singer Lady Gaga's concert shows have included the use of dialogue, costumes, and music from "A Clockwork Orange".
In 2000, BAFTA renamed their Britannia lifetime achievement award the "Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award", joining the likes of D. W. Griffith, Laurence Olivier, Cecil B. DeMille, and Irving Thalberg, all of whom have annual awards named after them. Kubrick won this award in 1999, and subsequent recipients have included George Lucas, Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, and Daniel Day-Lewis. A number of people who worked with Kubrick on his films created the 2001 documentary "", produced and directed by Kubrick's brother-in-law, Jan Harlan, who had executive produced Kubrick's last four films.
The first public exhibition of material from Kubrick's personal archives was presented jointly in 2004 by the Deutsches Filmmuseum and Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt, Germany, in cooperation with Christiane Kubrick and Jan Harlan / The Stanley Kubrick Estate. In 2009, an exhibition of paintings and photos inspired by Kubrick's films was held in Dublin, Ireland, entitled "Stanley Kubrick: Taming Light". On October 30, 2012, an exhibition devoted to Kubrick opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and concluded in June 2013. Exhibits include a wide collection of documents, photographs and on-set material assembled from 800 boxes of personal archives that were stored in Kubrick's home-workplace in the UK. A number of celebrities attended and spoke at the museum's pre-opening gala, including Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Jack Nicholson, while Kubrick's widow, Christiane, appeared at the pre-gala press review. In October 2013, the Brazil São Paulo International Film Festival paid tribute to Kubrick, staging an exhibit of his work and a retrospective of his films. The exhibit opened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in late 2014 and ended in January 2015.
Kubrick is widely referenced in popular culture, and the TV series "The Simpsons" is said to contain more references to Kubrick films than any other pop culture phenomenon. When the Directors Guild of Great Britain gave Kubrick a lifetime achievement award, they included a cut-together sequence of all the homages from the show. Several works have been created that related to Kubrick's life, including the made-for-TV mockumentary "Dark Side of the Moon" (2002), which is a parody of the pervasive conspiracy theory that Kubrick had been involved with the faked footage of the NASA moon landings during the filming of "2001: A Space Odyssey". "Colour Me Kubrick" (2005) was authorized by Kubrick's family and starred John Malkovich as Alan Conway, a con artist who had assumed Kubrick's identity in the 1990s. In the 2004 film "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers", Kubrick was portrayed by Stanley Tucci; the film documents the filming of "Dr. Strangelove".
In April 2018, the month that marked the 50th anniversary of "2001: A Space Odyssey", the International Astronomical Union named the largest mountain of Pluto's moon Charon after Kubrick.
From October 2019 through the beginning of March 2020, the Skirball Cultural Center hosted an exhibition called "Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs", a show focusing on Kubrick's early career. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26683 |
Statistics
Statistics is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industrial, or social problem, it is conventional to begin with a statistical population or a statistical model to be studied. Populations can be diverse groups of people or objects such as "all people living in a country" or "every atom composing a crystal". Statistics deals with every aspect of data, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments. See glossary of probability and statistics.
When census data cannot be collected, statisticians collect data by developing specific experiment designs and survey samples. Representative sampling assures that inferences and conclusions can reasonably extend from the sample to the population as a whole. An experimental study involves taking measurements of the system under study, manipulating the system, and then taking additional measurements using the same procedure to determine if the manipulation has modified the values of the measurements. In contrast, an observational study does not involve experimental manipulation.
Two main statistical methods are used in data analysis: descriptive statistics, which summarize data from a sample using indexes such as the mean or standard deviation, and inferential statistics, which draw conclusions from data that are subject to random variation (e.g., observational errors, sampling variation). Descriptive statistics are most often concerned with two sets of properties of a "distribution" (sample or population): "central tendency" (or "location") seeks to characterize the distribution's central or typical value, while "dispersion" (or "variability") characterizes the extent to which members of the distribution depart from its center and each other. Inferences on mathematical statistics are made under the framework of probability theory, which deals with the analysis of random phenomena.
A standard statistical procedure involves the collection of data leading to test of the relationship between two statistical data sets, or a data set and synthetic data drawn from an idealized model. A hypothesis is proposed for the statistical relationship between the two data sets, and this is compared as an alternative to an idealized null hypothesis of no relationship between two data sets. Rejecting or disproving the null hypothesis is done using statistical tests that quantify the sense in which the null can be proven false, given the data that are used in the test. Working from a null hypothesis, two basic forms of error are recognized: Type I errors (null hypothesis is falsely rejected giving a "false positive") and Type II errors (null hypothesis fails to be rejected and an actual relationship between populations is missed giving a "false negative"). Multiple problems have come to be associated with this framework: ranging from obtaining a sufficient sample size to specifying an adequate null hypothesis.
Measurement processes that generate statistical data are also subject to error. Many of these errors are classified as random (noise) or systematic (bias), but other types of errors (e.g., blunder, such as when an analyst reports incorrect units) can also occur. The presence of missing data or censoring may result in biased estimates and specific techniques have been developed to address these problems.
The earliest writings on probability and statistics, statistical methods drawing from probability theory, date back to Arab mathematicians and cryptographers, notably Al-Khalil (717–786) and Al-Kindi (801–873). In the 18th century, statistics also started to draw heavily from calculus. In more recent years statistics has relied more on statistical software to produce these tests such as descriptive analysis.
Statistics is a mathematical body of science that pertains to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data, or as a branch of mathematics. Some consider statistics to be a distinct mathematical science rather than a branch of mathematics. While many scientific investigations make use of data, statistics is concerned with the use of data in the context of uncertainty and decision making in the face of uncertainty.
In applying statistics to a problem, it is common practice to start with a population or process to be studied. Populations can be diverse topics such as "all people living in a country" or "every atom composing a crystal". Ideally, statisticians compile data about the entire population (an operation called census). This may be organized by governmental statistical institutes. "Descriptive statistics" can be used to summarize the population data. Numerical descriptors include mean and standard deviation for continuous data types (like income), while frequency and percentage are more useful in terms of describing categorical data (like education).
When a census is not feasible, a chosen subset of the population called a sample is studied. Once a sample that is representative of the population is determined, data is collected for the sample members in an observational or experimental setting. Again, descriptive statistics can be used to summarize the sample data. However, the drawing of the sample has been subject to an element of randomness, hence the established numerical descriptors from the sample are also due to uncertainty. To still draw meaningful conclusions about the entire population, "inferential statistics" is needed. It uses patterns in the sample data to draw inferences about the population represented, accounting for randomness. These inferences may take the form of: answering yes/no questions about the data (hypothesis testing), estimating numerical characteristics of the data (estimation), describing associations within the data (correlation) and modeling relationships within the data (for example, using regression analysis). Inference can extend to forecasting, prediction and estimation of unobserved values either in or associated with the population being studied; it can include extrapolation and interpolation of time series or spatial data, and can also include data mining.
Mathematical statistics is the application of mathematics to statistics. Mathematical techniques used for this include mathematical analysis, linear algebra, stochastic analysis, differential equations, and measure-theoretic probability theory.
The earliest writings on probability and statistics date back to Arab mathematicians and cryptographers, during the Islamic Golden Age between the 8th and 13th centuries. Al-Khalil (717–786) wrote the "Book of Cryptographic Messages", which contains the first use of permutations and combinations, to list all possible Arabic words with and without vowels. The earliest book on statistics is the 9th-century treatise "Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages", written by Arab scholar Al-Kindi (801–873). In his book, Al-Kindi gave a detailed description of how to use statistics and frequency analysis to decipher encrypted messages. This text laid the foundations for statistics and cryptanalysis. Al-Kindi also made the earliest known use of statistical inference, while he and later Arab cryptographers developed the early statistical methods for decoding encrypted messages. Ibn Adlan (1187–1268) later made an important contribution, on the use of sample size in frequency analysis.
The earliest European writing on statistics dates back to 1663, with the publication of "Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality" by John Graunt. Early applications of statistical thinking revolved around the needs of states to base policy on demographic and economic data, hence its "stat-" etymology. The scope of the discipline of statistics broadened in the early 19th century to include the collection and analysis of data in general. Today, statistics is widely employed in government, business, and natural and social sciences.
The mathematical foundations of modern statistics were laid in the 17th century with the development of the probability theory by Gerolamo Cardano, Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat. Mathematical probability theory arose from the study of games of chance, although the concept of probability was already examined in medieval law and by philosophers such as Juan Caramuel. The method of least squares was first described by Adrien-Marie Legendre in 1805.
The modern field of statistics emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century in three stages. The first wave, at the turn of the century, was led by the work of Francis Galton and Karl Pearson, who transformed statistics into a rigorous mathematical discipline used for analysis, not just in science, but in industry and politics as well. Galton's contributions included introducing the concepts of standard deviation, correlation, regression analysis and the application of these methods to the study of the variety of human characteristics—height, weight, eyelash length among others. Pearson developed the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, defined as a product-moment, the method of moments for the fitting of distributions to samples and the Pearson distribution, among many other things. Galton and Pearson founded "Biometrika" as the first journal of mathematical statistics and biostatistics (then called biometry), and the latter founded the world's first university statistics department at University College London.
Ronald Fisher coined the term null hypothesis during the Lady tasting tea experiment, which "is never proved or established, but is possibly disproved, in the course of experimentation".
The second wave of the 1910s and 20s was initiated by William Sealy Gosset, and reached its culmination in the insights of Ronald Fisher, who wrote the textbooks that were to define the academic discipline in universities around the world. Fisher's most important publications were his 1918 seminal paper "The Correlation between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance" (which was the first to use the statistical term, variance), his classic 1925 work "Statistical Methods for Research Workers" and his 1935 "The Design of Experiments", where he developed rigorous design of experiments models. He originated the concepts of sufficiency, ancillary statistics, Fisher's linear discriminator and Fisher information. In his 1930 book "The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection", he applied statistics to various biological concepts such as Fisher's principle (which A. W. F. Edwards called "probably the most celebrated argument in evolutionary biology") and Fisherian runaway, a concept in sexual selection about a positive feedback runaway affect found in evolution.
The final wave, which mainly saw the refinement and expansion of earlier developments, emerged from the collaborative work between Egon Pearson and Jerzy Neyman in the 1930s. They introduced the concepts of "Type II" error, power of a test and confidence intervals. Jerzy Neyman in 1934 showed that stratified random sampling was in general a better method of estimation than purposive (quota) sampling.
Today, statistical methods are applied in all fields that involve decision making, for making accurate inferences from a collated body of data and for making decisions in the face of uncertainty based on statistical methodology. The use of modern computers has expedited large-scale statistical computations and has also made possible new methods that are impractical to perform manually. Statistics continues to be an area of active research for example on the problem of how to analyze big data.
When full census data cannot be collected, statisticians collect sample data by developing specific experiment designs and survey samples. Statistics itself also provides tools for prediction and forecasting through statistical models. The idea of making inferences based on sampled data began around the mid-1600s in connection with estimating populations and developing precursors of life insurance.
To use a sample as a guide to an entire population, it is important that it truly represents the overall population. Representative sampling assures that inferences and conclusions can safely extend from the sample to the population as a whole. A major problem lies in determining the extent that the sample chosen is actually representative. Statistics offers methods to estimate and correct for any bias within the sample and data collection procedures. There are also methods of experimental design for experiments that can lessen these issues at the outset of a study, strengthening its capability to discern truths about the population.
Sampling theory is part of the mathematical discipline of probability theory. Probability is used in mathematical statistics to study the sampling distributions of sample statistics and, more generally, the properties of statistical procedures. The use of any statistical method is valid when the system or population under consideration satisfies the assumptions of the method.
The difference in point of view between classic probability theory and sampling theory is, roughly, that probability theory starts from the given parameters of a total population to deduce probabilities that pertain to samples. Statistical inference, however, moves in the opposite direction—inductively inferring from samples to the parameters of a larger or total population.
A common goal for a statistical research project is to investigate causality, and in particular to draw a conclusion on the effect of changes in the values of predictors or independent variables on dependent variables. There are two major types of causal statistical studies: experimental studies and observational studies. In both types of studies, the effect of differences of an independent variable (or variables) on the behavior of the dependent variable are observed. The difference between the two types lies in how the study is actually conducted. Each can be very effective.
An experimental study involves taking measurements of the system under study, manipulating the system, and then taking additional measurements using the same procedure to determine if the manipulation has modified the values of the measurements. In contrast, an observational study does not involve experimental manipulation. Instead, data are gathered and correlations between predictors and response are investigated. While the tools of data analysis work best on data from randomized studies, they are also applied to other kinds of data—like natural experiments and observational studies—for which a statistician would use a modified, more structured estimation method (e.g., Difference in differences estimation and instrumental variables, among many others) that produce consistent estimators.
The basic steps of a statistical experiment are:
Experiments on human behavior have special concerns. The famous Hawthorne study examined changes to the working environment at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company. The researchers were interested in determining whether increased illumination would increase the productivity of the assembly line workers. The researchers first measured the productivity in the plant, then modified the illumination in an area of the plant and checked if the changes in illumination affected productivity. It turned out that productivity indeed improved (under the experimental conditions). However, the study is heavily criticized today for errors in experimental procedures, specifically for the lack of a control group and blindness. The Hawthorne effect refers to finding that an outcome (in this case, worker productivity) changed due to observation itself. Those in the Hawthorne study became more productive not because the lighting was changed but because they were being observed.
An example of an observational study is one that explores the association between smoking and lung cancer. This type of study typically uses a survey to collect observations about the area of interest and then performs statistical analysis. In this case, the researchers would collect observations of both smokers and non-smokers, perhaps through a cohort study, and then look for the number of cases of lung cancer in each group. A case-control study is another type of observational study in which people with and without the outcome of interest (e.g. lung cancer) are invited to participate and their exposure histories are collected.
Various attempts have been made to produce a taxonomy of levels of measurement. The psychophysicist Stanley Smith Stevens defined nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales. Nominal measurements do not have meaningful rank order among values, and permit any one-to-one (injective) transformation. Ordinal measurements have imprecise differences between consecutive values, but have a meaningful order to those values, and permit any order-preserving transformation. Interval measurements have meaningful distances between measurements defined, but the zero value is arbitrary (as in the case with longitude and temperature measurements in Celsius or Fahrenheit), and permit any linear transformation. Ratio measurements have both a meaningful zero value and the distances between different measurements defined, and permit any rescaling transformation.
Because variables conforming only to nominal or ordinal measurements cannot be reasonably measured numerically, sometimes they are grouped together as categorical variables, whereas ratio and interval measurements are grouped together as quantitative variables, which can be either discrete or continuous, due to their numerical nature. Such distinctions can often be loosely correlated with data type in computer science, in that dichotomous categorical variables may be represented with the Boolean data type, polytomous categorical variables with arbitrarily assigned integers in the integral data type, and continuous variables with the real data type involving floating point computation. But the mapping of computer science data types to statistical data types depends on which categorization of the latter is being implemented.
Other categorizations have been proposed. For example, Mosteller and Tukey (1977) distinguished grades, ranks, counted fractions, counts, amounts, and balances. Nelder (1990) described continuous counts, continuous ratios, count ratios, and categorical modes of data. See also Chrisman (1998), van den Berg (1991).
The issue of whether or not it is appropriate to apply different kinds of statistical methods to data obtained from different kinds of measurement procedures is complicated by issues concerning the transformation of variables and the precise interpretation of research questions. "The relationship between the data and what they describe merely reflects the fact that certain kinds of statistical statements may have truth values which are not invariant under some transformations. Whether or not a transformation is sensible to contemplate depends on the question one is trying to answer" (Hand, 2004, p. 82).
A descriptive statistic (in the count noun sense) is a summary statistic that quantitatively describes or summarizes features of a collection of information, while descriptive statistics in the mass noun sense is the process of using and analyzing those statistics. Descriptive statistics is distinguished from inferential statistics (or inductive statistics), in that descriptive statistics aims to summarize a sample, rather than use the data to learn about the population that the sample of data is thought to represent.
Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to deduce properties of an underlying probability distribution. Inferential statistical analysis infers properties of a population, for example by testing hypotheses and deriving estimates. It is assumed that the observed data set is sampled from a larger population. Inferential statistics can be contrasted with descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics is solely concerned with properties of the observed data, and it does not rest on the assumption that the data come from a larger population.
Consider independent identically distributed (IID) random variables with a given probability distribution: standard statistical inference and estimation theory defines a random sample as the random vector given by the column vector of these IID variables. The population being examined is described by a probability distribution that may have unknown parameters.
A statistic is a random variable that is a function of the random sample, but "not a function of unknown parameters". The probability distribution of the statistic, though, may have unknown parameters.
Consider now a function of the unknown parameter: an estimator is a statistic used to estimate such function. Commonly used estimators include sample mean, unbiased sample variance and sample covariance.
A random variable that is a function of the random sample and of the unknown parameter, but whose probability distribution "does not depend on the unknown parameter" is called a pivotal quantity or pivot. Widely used pivots include the z-score, the chi square statistic and Student's t-value.
Between two estimators of a given parameter, the one with lower mean squared error is said to be more efficient. Furthermore, an estimator is said to be unbiased if its expected value is equal to the true value of the unknown parameter being estimated, and asymptotically unbiased if its expected value converges at the limit to the true value of such parameter.
Other desirable properties for estimators include: UMVUE estimators that have the lowest variance for all possible values of the parameter to be estimated (this is usually an easier property to verify than efficiency) and consistent estimators which converges in probability to the true value of such parameter.
This still leaves the question of how to obtain estimators in a given situation and carry the computation, several methods have been proposed: the method of moments, the maximum likelihood method, the least squares method and the more recent method of estimating equations.
Interpretation of statistical information can often involve the development of a null hypothesis which is usually (but not necessarily) that no relationship exists among variables or that no change occurred over time.
The best illustration for a novice is the predicament encountered by a criminal trial. The null hypothesis, H0, asserts that the defendant is innocent, whereas the alternative hypothesis, H1, asserts that the defendant is guilty. The indictment comes because of suspicion of the guilt. The H0 (status quo) stands in opposition to H1 and is maintained unless H1 is supported by evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt". However, "failure to reject H0" in this case does not imply innocence, but merely that the evidence was insufficient to convict. So the jury does not necessarily "accept" H0 but "fails to reject" H0. While one can not "prove" a null hypothesis, one can test how close it is to being true with a power test, which tests for type II errors.
What statisticians call an alternative hypothesis is simply a hypothesis that contradicts the null hypothesis.
Working from a null hypothesis, two basic forms of error are recognized:
Standard deviation refers to the extent to which individual observations in a sample differ from a central value, such as the sample or population mean, while Standard error refers to an estimate of difference between sample mean and population mean.
A statistical error is the amount by which an observation differs from its expected value, a residual is the amount an observation differs from the value the estimator of the expected value assumes on a given sample (also called prediction).
Mean squared error is used for obtaining efficient estimators, a widely used class of estimators. Root mean square error is simply the square root of mean squared error.
Many statistical methods seek to minimize the residual sum of squares, and these are called "methods of least squares" in contrast to Least absolute deviations. The latter gives equal weight to small and big errors, while the former gives more weight to large errors. Residual sum of squares is also differentiable, which provides a handy property for doing regression. Least squares applied to linear regression is called ordinary least squares method and least squares applied to nonlinear regression is called non-linear least squares. Also in a linear regression model the non deterministic part of the model is called error term, disturbance or more simply noise. Both linear regression and non-linear regression are addressed in polynomial least squares, which also describes the variance in a prediction of the dependent variable (y axis) as a function of the independent variable (x axis) and the deviations (errors, noise, disturbances) from the estimated (fitted) curve.
Measurement processes that generate statistical data are also subject to error. Many of these errors are classified as random (noise) or systematic (bias), but other types of errors (e.g., blunder, such as when an analyst reports incorrect units) can also be important. The presence of missing data or censoring may result in biased estimates and specific techniques have been developed to address these problems.
Most studies only sample part of a population, so results don't fully represent the whole population. Any estimates obtained from the sample only approximate the population value. Confidence intervals allow statisticians to express how closely the sample estimate matches the true value in the whole population. Often they are expressed as 95% confidence intervals. Formally, a 95% confidence interval for a value is a range where, if the sampling and analysis were repeated under the same conditions (yielding a different dataset), the interval would include the true (population) value in 95% of all possible cases. This does "not" imply that the probability that the true value is in the confidence interval is 95%. From the frequentist perspective, such a claim does not even make sense, as the true value is not a random variable. Either the true value is or is not within the given interval. However, it is true that, before any data are sampled and given a plan for how to construct the confidence interval, the probability is 95% that the yet-to-be-calculated interval will cover the true value: at this point, the limits of the interval are yet-to-be-observed random variables. One approach that does yield an interval that can be interpreted as having a given probability of containing the true value is to use a credible interval from Bayesian statistics: this approach depends on a different way of interpreting what is meant by "probability", that is as a Bayesian probability.
In principle confidence intervals can be symmetrical or asymmetrical. An interval can be asymmetrical because it works as lower or upper bound for a parameter (left-sided interval or right sided interval), but it can also be asymmetrical because the two sided interval is built violating symmetry around the estimate. Sometimes the bounds for a confidence interval are reached asymptotically and these are used to approximate the true bounds.
Statistics rarely give a simple Yes/No type answer to the question under analysis. Interpretation often comes down to the level of statistical significance applied to the numbers and often refers to the probability of a value accurately rejecting the null hypothesis (sometimes referred to as the p-value).
The standard approach is to test a null hypothesis against an alternative hypothesis. A critical region is the set of values of the estimator that leads to refuting the null hypothesis. The probability of type I error is therefore the probability that the estimator belongs to the critical region given that null hypothesis is true (statistical significance) and the probability of type II error is the probability that the estimator doesn't belong to the critical region given that the alternative hypothesis is true. The statistical power of a test is the probability that it correctly rejects the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is false.
Referring to statistical significance does not necessarily mean that the overall result is significant in real world terms. For example, in a large study of a drug it may be shown that the drug has a statistically significant but very small beneficial effect, such that the drug is unlikely to help the patient noticeably.
Although in principle the acceptable level of statistical significance may be subject to debate, the p-value is the smallest significance level that allows the test to reject the null hypothesis. This test is logically equivalent to saying that the p-value is the probability, assuming the null hypothesis is true, of observing a result at least as extreme as the test statistic. Therefore, the smaller the p-value, the lower the probability of committing type I error.
Some problems are usually associated with this framework (See criticism of hypothesis testing):
Some well-known statistical tests and procedures are:
Exploratory data analysis (EDA) is an approach to analyzing data sets to summarize their main characteristics, often with visual methods. A statistical model can be used or not, but primarily EDA is for seeing what the data can tell us beyond the formal modeling or hypothesis testing task.
Misuse of statistics can produce subtle but serious errors in description and interpretation—subtle in the sense that even experienced professionals make such errors, and serious in the sense that they can lead to devastating decision errors. For instance, social policy, medical practice, and the reliability of structures like bridges all rely on the proper use of statistics.
Even when statistical techniques are correctly applied, the results can be difficult to interpret for those lacking expertise. The statistical significance of a trend in the data—which measures the extent to which a trend could be caused by random variation in the sample—may or may not agree with an intuitive sense of its significance. The set of basic statistical skills (and skepticism) that people need to deal with information in their everyday lives properly is referred to as statistical literacy.
There is a general perception that statistical knowledge is all-too-frequently intentionally misused by finding ways to interpret only the data that are favorable to the presenter. A mistrust and misunderstanding of statistics is associated with the quotation, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics". Misuse of statistics can be both inadvertent and intentional, and the book "How to Lie with Statistics" outlines a range of considerations. In an attempt to shed light on the use and misuse of statistics, reviews of statistical techniques used in particular fields are conducted (e.g. Warne, Lazo, Ramos, and Ritter (2012)).
Ways to avoid misuse of statistics include using proper diagrams and avoiding bias. Misuse can occur when conclusions are overgeneralized and claimed to be representative of more than they really are, often by either deliberately or unconsciously overlooking sampling bias. Bar graphs are arguably the easiest diagrams to use and understand, and they can be made either by hand or with simple computer programs. Unfortunately, most people do not look for bias or errors, so they are not noticed. Thus, people may often believe that something is true even if it is not well represented. To make data gathered from statistics believable and accurate, the sample taken must be representative of the whole. According to Huff, "The dependability of a sample can be destroyed by [bias]... allow yourself some degree of skepticism."
To assist in the understanding of statistics Huff proposed a series of questions to be asked in each case:
The concept of correlation is particularly noteworthy for the potential confusion it can cause. Statistical analysis of a data set often reveals that two variables (properties) of the population under consideration tend to vary together, as if they were connected. For example, a study of annual income that also looks at age of death might find that poor people tend to have shorter lives than affluent people. The two variables are said to be correlated; however, they may or may not be the cause of one another. The correlation phenomena could be caused by a third, previously unconsidered phenomenon, called a lurking variable or confounding variable. For this reason, there is no way to immediately infer the existence of a causal relationship between the two variables. (See Correlation does not imply causation.)
"Applied statistics" comprises descriptive statistics and the application of inferential statistics. "Theoretical statistics" concerns the logical arguments underlying justification of approaches to statistical inference, as well as encompassing "mathematical statistics". Mathematical statistics includes not only the manipulation of probability distributions necessary for deriving results related to methods of estimation and inference, but also various aspects of computational statistics and the design of experiments.
Statistical consultants can help organizations and companies that don't have in-house expertise relevant to their particular questions.
Machine learning models are statistical and probabilistic models that capture patterns in the data through use of computational algorithms.
Statistics is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines, including natural and social sciences, government, and business. Business statistics applies statistical methods in econometrics, auditing and production and operations, including services improvement and marketing research. In the field of biological sciences, the 12 most frequent statistical tests are: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Chi-Square Test, Student’s T Test, Linear Regression, Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient, Mann-Whitney U Test, Kruskal-Wallis Test, Shannon’s Diversity Index, Tukey’s Test, Cluster Analysis, Spearman’s Rank Correlation Test and Principal Component Analysis.
A typical statistics course covers descriptive statistics, probability, binomial and normal distributions, test of hypotheses and confidence intervals, linear regression, and correlation. Modern fundamental statistical courses for undergraduate students focus on the correct test selection, results interpretation and use of open source softwares .
The rapid and sustained increases in computing power starting from the second half of the 20th century have had a substantial impact on the practice of statistical science. Early statistical models were almost always from the class of linear models, but powerful computers, coupled with suitable numerical algorithms, caused an increased interest in nonlinear models (such as neural networks) as well as the creation of new types, such as generalized linear models and multilevel models.
Increased computing power has also led to the growing popularity of computationally intensive methods based on resampling, such as permutation tests and the bootstrap, while techniques such as Gibbs sampling have made use of Bayesian models more feasible. The computer revolution has implications for the future of statistics with a new emphasis on "experimental" and "empirical" statistics. A large number of both general and special purpose statistical software are now available. Examples of available software capable of complex statistical computation include programs such as Mathematica, SAS, SPSS, and R.
Traditionally, statistics was concerned with drawing inferences using a semi-standardized methodology that was "required learning" in most sciences. This tradition has changed with the use of statistics in non-inferential contexts. What was once considered a dry subject, taken in many fields as a degree-requirement, is now viewed enthusiastically. Initially derided by some mathematical purists, it is now considered essential methodology in certain areas.
Statistical techniques are used in a wide range of types of scientific and social research, including: biostatistics, computational biology, computational sociology, network biology, social science, sociology and social research. Some fields of inquiry use applied statistics so extensively that they have specialized terminology. These disciplines include:
In addition, there are particular types of statistical analysis that have also developed their own specialised terminology and methodology:
Statistics form a key basis tool in business and manufacturing as well. It is used to understand measurement systems variability, control processes (as in statistical process control or SPC), for summarizing data, and to make data-driven decisions. In these roles, it is a key tool, and perhaps the only reliable tool. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26685 |
Swedish language
Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken natively by 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden (as the sole official language) and in parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Written Norwegian and Danish are usually more easily understood by Swedish speakers than the spoken languages, due to the differences in tone, accent and intonation. Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It has the most speakers of the North Germanic languages.
Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties and rural dialects still exist, the written language is uniform and standardized.
The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, which means that the finite verb (V) appears in the second position (2) of a declarative main clause. Swedish morphology is similar to English; that is, words have comparatively few inflections. Swedish has two genders and is generally seen to have two grammatical cases – nominative and genitive (except for pronouns that, as in English, also are inflected in the object form) – although it is debated if the genitive in Swedish should be seen as a genitive case or just the nominative plus the so-called genitive "s", then seen as a clitic. Swedish has two grammatical numbers – plural and singular. Adjectives have discrete comparative and superlative forms and are also inflected according to gender, number and definiteness. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes (endings), complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles. The prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a comparatively large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme.
Swedish has also had historic use in Estonia, although the current status of the Estonian Swedish speakers is almost extinct. Instead, it is used in the Swedish diaspora, most notably in Oslo, Norway, with more than 50,000 resident Swedes.
Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. In the established classification, it belongs to the East Scandinavian languages, together with Danish, separating it from the West Scandinavian languages, consisting of Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian. However, more recent analyses divide the North Germanic languages into two groups: "Insular Scandinavian" (Faroese and Icelandic), and "Continental Scandinavian" (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish), based on mutual intelligibility due to heavy influence of East Scandinavian (particularly Danish) on Norwegian during the last millennium and divergence from both Faroese and Icelandic.
By many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. However, because of several hundred years of sometimes quite intense rivalry between Denmark and Sweden, including a long series of wars from the 16th to 18th centuries, and the nationalist ideas that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the languages have separate orthographies, dictionaries, grammars, and regulatory bodies. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are thus from a linguistic perspective more accurately described as a dialect continuum of Scandinavian (North Germanic), and some of the dialects, such as those on the border between Norway and Sweden, especially parts of Bohuslän, Dalsland, western Värmland, western Dalarna, Härjedalen, Jämtland, and Scania, could be described as intermediate dialects of the national standard languages.
Swedish pronunciations also vary greatly from one region to another, a legacy of the vast geographic distances and historical isolation. Even so, the vocabulary is standardized to a level that make dialects within Sweden virtually fully mutually intelligible.
In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, evolved into Old Norse. This language underwent more changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted in the appearance of two similar dialects: "Old West Norse" (Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland) and "Old East Norse" (Denmark and Sweden). The dialects of Old East Norse spoken in Sweden are called "Runic Swedish", while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as "Runic Danish". The dialects are described as "runic" because the main body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, which had only 16 letters. Because the number of runes was limited, some runes were used for a range of phonemes, such as the rune for the vowel "u", which was also used for the vowels "o", "ø" and "y", and the rune for "i", also used for "e".
From 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. The innovations spread unevenly from Denmark which created a series of minor dialectal boundaries, or isoglosses, ranging from Zealand in the south to Norrland, Österbotten and northwestern Finland in the north.
An early change that separated Runic Danish from the other dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong "æi" to the monophthong "é", as in "stæinn" to "sténn" "stone". This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read "stain" and the later "stin". There was also a change of "au" as in "dauðr" into a long open "ø" as in "døðr" "dead". This change is shown in runic inscriptions as a change from "tauþr" into "tuþr". Moreover, the "øy" diphthong changed into a long, close "ø", as in the Old Norse word for "island". By the end of the period, these innovations had affected most of the Runic Swedish-speaking area as well, with the exception of the dialects spoken north and east of Mälardalen where the diphthongs still exist in remote areas.
Old Swedish (Swedish: "fornsvenska") is the term used for the medieval Swedish language. The start date is usually set to 1225 since this is the year that "Västgötalagen" ("the Västgöta Law") is believed to have been compiled for the first time. It is among the most important documents of the period written in Latin script and the oldest Swedish law codes. Old Swedish is divided into "äldre fornsvenska" (1225–1375) and "yngre fornsvenska" (1375–1526), "older" and "younger" Old Swedish. Important outside influences during this time came with the firm establishment of the Christian church and various monastic orders, introducing many Greek and Latin loanwords. With the rise of Hanseatic power in the late 13th and early 14th century, Middle Low German became very influential. The Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of Low German-speaking immigrants. Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society, and brought terms from their native languages into the vocabulary. Besides a great number of loanwords for such areas as warfare, trade and administration, general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions were imported. The League also brought a certain measure of influence from Danish (at the time much more similar than today's language).
Early Old Swedish was markedly different from the modern language in that it had a more complex case structure and also retained the original Germanic three-gender system. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases; besides the extant nominative, there were also the genitive (later possessive), dative and accusative. The gender system resembled that of modern German, having masculine, feminine and neuter genders. The masculine and feminine genders were later merged into a "common gender" with the definite suffix "-en" and the definite article "den", in contrast with the neuter gender equivalents "-et" and "det". The verb system was also more complex: it included subjunctive and imperative moods and verbs were conjugated according to person as well as number. By the 16th century, the case and gender systems of the colloquial spoken language and the profane literature had been largely reduced to the two cases and two genders of modern Swedish.
A transitional change of the Latin script in the Nordic countries was to spell the letter combination "ae" as æ – and sometimes as a' – though it varied between persons and regions. The combination "ao" was similarly rendered ao, and "oe" became oe. These three were later to evolve into the separate letters ä, å and ö. The first time the new letters were used in print was in "Aff dyäffwlsens frästilse" ("By the Devil's temptation") published by Johan Gerson in 1495.
Modern Swedish (Swedish: "nysvenska") begins with the advent of the printing press and the European Reformation. After assuming power, the new monarch Gustav Vasa ordered a Swedish translation of the Bible. The New Testament was published in 1526, followed by a full Bible translation in 1541, usually referred to as the "Gustav Vasa Bible", a translation deemed so successful and influential that, with revisions incorporated in successive editions, it remained the most common Bible translation until 1917. The main translators were Laurentius Andreæ and the brothers Laurentius and Olaus Petri.
The Vasa Bible is often considered to be a reasonable compromise between old and new; while not adhering to the colloquial spoken language of its day, it was not overly conservative in its use of archaic forms. It was a major step towards a more consistent Swedish orthography. It established the use of the vowels "å", "ä", and "ö", and the spelling "ck" in place of "kk", distinguishing it clearly from the Danish Bible, perhaps intentionally, given the ongoing rivalry between the countries. All three translators came from central Sweden which is generally seen as adding specific Central Swedish features to the new Bible.
Though it might seem as if the Bible translation set a very powerful precedent for orthographic standards, spelling actually became more inconsistent during the remainder of the century. It was not until the 17th century that spelling began to be discussed, around the time when the first grammars were written. Capitalization during this time was not standardized. It depended on the authors and their background. Those influenced by German capitalized all nouns, while others capitalized more sparsely. It is also not always apparent which letters are capitalized owing to the Gothic or blackletter typeface which was used to print the Bible. This typeface was in use until the mid-18th century, when it was gradually replaced with a Latin typeface (often antiqua).
Some important changes in sound during the Modern Swedish period were the gradual assimilation of several different consonant clusters into the fricative and later into . There was also the gradual softening of and into and the fricative before front vowels. The velar fricative was also transformed into the corresponding plosive .
The period that includes Swedish as it is spoken today is termed "nusvenska" (lit., "Now-Swedish") in linguistics, and started in the last decades of the 19th century. It saw a democratization of the language with a less formal written form that approached the spoken one. The growth of a public school system also led to the evolution of so-called "boksvenska" (literally, "book Swedish"), especially among the working classes, where spelling to some extent influenced pronunciation, particularly in official contexts. With the industrialization and urbanization of Sweden well under way by the last decades of the 19th century, a new breed of authors made their mark on Swedish literature. Many scholars, politicians and other public figures had a great influence on the emerging national language, among them prolific authors like the poet Gustaf Fröding, Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf, and radical writer and playwright August Strindberg.
It was during the 20th century that a common, standardized national language became available to all Swedes. The orthography finally stabilized and became almost completely uniform, with some minor deviations, by the time of the spelling reform of 1906. With the exception of plural forms of verbs and a slightly different syntax, particularly in the written language, the language was the same as the Swedish of today. The plural verb forms appeared decreasingly in formal writing into the 1950s, when their use was removed from all official recommendations.
A very significant change in Swedish occurred in the late 1960s, with the so-called "du-reformen", "the you-reform". Previously, the proper way to address people of the same or higher social status had been by title and surname. The use of "herr" ("Mr" or "Sir"), "fru" ("Mrs" or "Ma'am") or "fröken" ("Miss") was considered the only acceptable way to begin conversation with strangers of unknown occupation, academic title or military rank. The fact that the listener should preferably be referred to in the third person tended to further complicate spoken communication between members of society. In the early 20th century, an unsuccessful attempt was made to replace the insistence on titles with "ni"—the standard second person plural pronoun)—analogous to the French "vous". (Cf. T-V distinction.) "Ni" wound up being used as a slightly less familiar form of "du", the singular second person pronoun, used to address people of lower social status. With the liberalization and radicalization of Swedish society in the 1950s and 1960s, these class distinctions became less important, and "du" became the standard, even in formal and official contexts. Though the reform was not an act of any centralized political decree, but rather the result of sweeping change in social attitudes, it was completed in just a few years, from the late 1960s to early 1970s. The use of "ni" as a polite form of address is sometimes encountered today in both the written and spoken language, particularly among older speakers.
Swedish is the sole official national language of Sweden, and one of two in Finland (alongside Finnish). As of 2006, it was the first or sole native language of 7.5 to 8 million Swedish residents. In 2007 around 5.5% (c. 290,000) of the population of Finland were native speakers of Swedish, partially due to a decline following the Russian annexation of Finland after the Finnish War 1808–1809. The Finland Swedish minority is concentrated in the coastal areas and archipelagos of southern and western Finland. In some of these areas, Swedish is the predominant language; in 19 municipalities, 16 of which are located in Åland, Swedish is the sole official language. Åland county is an autonomous region of Finland.
According to a rough estimation, as of 2010 there were up to 300,000 Swedish-speakers living outside Sweden and Finland. The largest populations were in the United States (up to 100,000), the UK, Spain and Germany (c. 30,000 each) and a large proportion of the remaining 100,000 in the Scandinavian countries, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia. Over 3 million people speak Swedish as a second language, with about 2,410,000 of those in Finland. According to a survey by the European Commission, 44% of respondents from Finland who did not have Swedish as a native language considered themselves to be proficient enough in Swedish to hold a conversation. Due to the close relation between the Scandinavian languages, a considerable proportion of speakers of Danish and especially Norwegian are able to understand Swedish.
There is considerable migration between the Nordic countries, but owing to the similarity between the cultures and languages (with the exception of Finnish), expatriates generally assimilate quickly and do not stand out as a group. According to the 2000 United States Census, some 67,000 people over the age of five were reported as Swedish speakers, though without any information on the degree of language proficiency. Similarly, there were 16,915 reported Swedish speakers in Canada from the 2001 census. Although there are no certain numbers, some 40,000 Swedes are estimated to live in the London area in the United Kingdom. Outside Sweden and Finland, there are about 40,000 active learners enrolled in Swedish language courses.
Swedish is the official main language of Sweden. Swedish is also one of two official languages of Finland. In Sweden, it has long been used in local and state government, and most of the educational system, but remained only a "de facto" primary language with no official status in law until 2009. A bill was proposed in 2005 that would have made Swedish an official language, but failed to pass by the narrowest possible margin (145–147) due to a pairing-off failure. A proposal for a broader language law, designating Swedish as the main language of the country and bolstering the status of the minority languages, was submitted by an expert committee to the Swedish Ministry of Culture in March 2008. It was subsequently enacted by the Riksdag, and entered into effect on 1 July 2009.
Swedish is the sole official language of Åland (an autonomous province under the sovereignty of Finland), where the vast majority of the 26,000 inhabitants speak Swedish as a first language. In Finland as a whole, Swedish is one of the two "national" languages, with the same official status as Finnish (spoken by the majority) at the state level and an official language in some municipalities.
Swedish is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the working languages of the Nordic Council. Under the Nordic Language Convention, citizens of the Nordic countries speaking Swedish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable for interpretation or translation costs.
The Swedish Language Council ("Språkrådet") is the regulator of Swedish in Sweden but does not attempt to enforce control of the language, as for instance the "Académie française" does for French. However, many organizations and agencies require the use of the council's publication "Svenska skrivregler" in official contexts, with it otherwise being regarded as a "de facto" orthographic standard. Among the many organizations that make up the Swedish Language Council, the Swedish Academy (established 1786) is arguably the most influential. Its primary instruments are the glossary "Svenska Akademiens ordlista" ("SAOL", currently in its 14th edition) and the dictionary "Svenska Akademiens Ordbok", in addition to various books on grammar, spelling and manuals of style. Although the dictionaries have a prescriptive element, they mainly describe current usage.
In Finland, a special branch of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland has official status as the regulatory body for Swedish in Finland. Among its highest priorities is to maintain intelligibility with the language spoken in Sweden. It has published "Finlandssvensk ordbok", a dictionary about the differences between Swedish in Finland and Sweden.
From the 13th to 20th century, there were Swedish-speaking communities in Estonia, particularly on the islands (e. g., Hiiumaa, Vormsi, Ruhnu; in Swedish, known as "Dagö", "Ormsö", "Runö", respectively) along the coast of the Baltic, communities which today have all disappeared. The Swedish-speaking minority was represented in parliament, and entitled to use their native language in parliamentary debates. After the loss of Estonia to the Russian Empire in the early 18th century, around 1,000 Estonian Swedish speakers were forced to march to southern Ukraine, where they founded a village, "Gammalsvenskby" ("Old Swedish Village"). A few elderly people in the village still speak Swedish and observe the holidays of the Swedish calendar, although the dialect is most likely facing extinction.
From 1918–1940, when Estonia was independent, the small Swedish community was well treated. Municipalities with a Swedish majority, mainly found along the coast, used Swedish as the administrative language and Swedish-Estonian culture saw an upswing. However, most Swedish-speaking people fled to Sweden before the end of World War II, that is, before the invasion of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1944. Only a handful of speakers remain.
Swedish dialects have either 17 or 18 vowel phonemes, 9 long and 9 short. As in the other Germanic languages, including English, most long vowels are phonetically paired with one of the short vowels, and the pairs are such that the two vowels are of similar quality, but with the short vowel being slightly lower and slightly centralized. In contrast to e.g. Danish, which has only tense vowels, the short vowels are slightly more lax, but the tense vs. lax contrast is not nearly as pronounced as in English, German or Dutch. In many dialects, the short vowel sound pronounced or has merged with the short (transcribed in the chart below).
There are 18 consonant phonemes, two of which, and , vary considerably in pronunciation depending on the dialect and social status of the speaker. In many dialects, sequences of (pronounced alveolarly) with a dental consonant result in retroflex consonants; alveolarity of the pronunciation of is a precondition for this retroflexion. has a guttural or "French R" pronunciation in the South Swedish dialects; consequently, these dialects lack retroflex consonants.
Swedish is a stress-timed language, where the time intervals between stressed syllables are equal. However, when casually spoken, it tends to be syllable-timed. Any stressed syllable carries one of two tones, which gives Swedish much of its characteristic sound. Prosody is often one of the most noticeable differences between dialects.
Swedish nouns and adjectives are declined in genders as well as number. Nouns are of common gender ("en" form) or neuter gender ("ett" form). The gender determines the declension of the adjectives. For example, the word "fisk" ("fish") is a noun of common gender ("en fisk") and can have the following forms:
The definite singular form of a noun is created by adding a suffix ("-en", "-n", "-et" or "-t"), depending on its gender and if the noun ends in a vowel or not. The definite articles "den", "det", and "de" are used for variations to the definitiveness of a noun. They can double as demonstrative pronouns or demonstrative determiners when used with adverbs such as "här" ("here") or "där" ("there") to form "den/det här (can also be "denna/detta")" ("this"), "de här (can also be "dessa")" ("these"), "den/det där" ("that"), and "de där" ("those"). For example, "den där fisken" means "that fish" and refers to a specific fish; "den fisken" is less definite and means "that fish" in a more abstract sense, such as that set of fish; while "fisken" means "the fish". In certain cases, the definite form indicates possession, e. g., "jag måste tvätta håret" ("I must wash "my" hair").
Adjectives are inflected in two declensions – indefinite and definite – and they must match the noun they modify in gender and number. The indefinite neuter and plural forms of an adjective are usually created by adding a suffix ("-t" or "-a") to the common form of the adjective, e. g., "en grön stol" (a green chair), "ett grönt hus" (a green house), and "gröna stolar" ("green chairs"). The definite form of an adjective is identical to the indefinite plural form, e. g., "den gröna stolen" ("the green chair"), "det gröna huset" ("the green house"), and "de gröna stolarna" ("the green chairs").
Swedish pronouns are similar to those of English. Besides the two natural genders "han" and "hon" ("he" and "she"), there are also the two grammatical genders "den" and "det", usually termed common and neuter. In recent years, a gender-neutral pronoun "hen" has been introduced, particularly in literary Swedish. Unlike the nouns, pronouns have an additional object form, derived from the old dative form. "Hon", for example, has the following nominative, possessive, and object forms:
Swedish also uses third-person possessive reflexive pronouns that refer to the subject in a clause, a trait which is restricted to North Germanic languages:
Swedish used to have genitive that was placed at the end of the head of a noun phrase. In modern Swedish, it has become an enclitic "-s", which attaches to the end of the noun phrase, rather than the noun itself.
In formal written language, it used to be considered correct to place the genitive "-s" after the head of the noun phrase ("hästen"), though this is today considered dated, and different grammatical constructions are often used.
Verbs are conjugated according to tense. One group of verbs (the ones ending in "-er" in present tense) has a special imperative form (generally the verb stem), but with most verbs the imperative is identical to the infinitive form. Perfect and present participles as adjectival verbs are very common:
In contrast to English and many other languages, Swedish does not use the perfect participle to form the present perfect and past perfect. Rather, the auxiliary verb "har" ("have"), "hade" ("had") is followed by a special form, called supine, used solely for this purpose (although often identical to the neuter form of the perfect participle):
When building the compound passive voice using the verb "att bli", the past participle is used:
There exists also an inflected passive voice formed by adding "-s", replacing the final "r" in the present tense:
In a subordinate clause, the auxiliary "har" is optional and often omitted, particularly in written Swedish.
Subjunctive mood is occasionally used for some verbs, but its use is in sharp decline and few speakers perceive the handful of commonly used verbs (as for instance: "vore, månne") as separate conjugations, most of them remaining only as set of idiomatic expressions.
Where other languages may use grammatical cases, Swedish uses numerous prepositions, similar to those found in English. As in modern German, prepositions formerly determined case in Swedish, but this feature can only be found in certain idiomatic expressions like "till fots" ("on foot", genitive).
As Swedish is a Germanic language, the syntax shows similarities to both English and German. Like English, Swedish has a subject–verb–object basic word order, but like German it utilizes verb-second word order in main clauses, for instance after adverbs and adverbial phrases, and dependent clauses. (Adverbial phrases denoting time are usually placed at the beginning of a main clause that is at the head of a sentence.) Prepositional phrases are placed in a place–manner–time order, as in English (but not German). Adjectives precede the noun they modify. Verb-second (inverted) word order is also used for questions.
The vocabulary of Swedish is mainly Germanic, either through common Germanic heritage or through loans from German, Middle Low German, and to some extent, English. Examples of Germanic words in Swedish are "mus" ("mouse"), "kung" ("king"), and "gås" ("goose"). A significant part of the religious and scientific vocabulary is of Latin or Greek origin, often borrowed from French and, lately, English. Some 1–200 words are also borrowed from Scandoromani or Romani, often as slang varieties; a commonly used word from Romani is "tjej" ("girl").
A large number of French words were imported into Sweden around the 18th century. These words have been transcribed to the Swedish spelling system and are therefore pronounced recognizably to a French-speaker. Most of them are distinguished by a "French accent", characterized by emphasis on the last syllable. For example, "nivå" (fr. "niveau", "level"), "fåtölj" (fr. "fauteuil", "armchair") and "affär" ("shop; affair"), etc. Cross-borrowing from other Germanic languages has also been common, at first from Middle Low German, the lingua franca of the Hanseatic league and later from Standard German. Some compounds are translations of the elements (calques) of German original compounds into Swedish, like ' from German ' ("cotton"; literally, "tree-wool").
As with many Germanic languages, new words can be formed by compounding, e. g., nouns like ' ("nail polish remover") or verbs like ' ("to eavesdrop"). Compound nouns take their gender from the head, which in Swedish is always the last morpheme. New words can also be coined by derivation from other established words, such as the verbification of nouns by the adding of the suffix "-a", as in ' ("car") and ' ("travel (recreationally) by car"). The opposite, making nouns of verbs, is also possible, as in ' ("way of thinking; concept") from ' ("to think").
The Swedish alphabet is a 29-letter alphabet, using the 26-letter ISO basic Latin alphabet plus the three additional letters "Å"/"å", "Ä"/"ä", and "Ö"/"ö" constructed in the 16th century by writing "o" and "e" on top of an "a", and an "e" on top of an "o". Though these combinations are historically modified versions of A and O according to the English range of usage for the term diacritic, these three characters are not considered to be diacritics within the Swedish application, but rather separate letters, and are independent letters following "z". Before the release of the 13th edition of "Svenska Akademiens ordlista" in April 2006, "w" was treated as merely a variant of "v" used only in names (such as "Wallenberg") and foreign words ("bowling"), and so was both sorted and pronounced as a "v". Other diacritics (to use the broader English term usage referenced here) are unusual in Swedish; é is sometimes used to indicate that the stress falls on a terminal syllable containing "e", especially when the stress changes the meaning ("ide" vs. "idé", "winter lair" vs. "idea") as well as in some names, like "Kastrén"; occasionally other acute accents and, less often, grave accents can be seen in names and some foreign words. The letter à is used to refer to unit cost (a loan from the French), equivalent to the at sign (@) in English.
The German "ü" is treated as a variant of "y" and sometimes retained in foreign names and words, e. g., "müsli" ("muesli/granola"). A proper diaeresis may very exceptionally be seen in elaborated style (for instance: "Aïda"). The German convention of writing "ä" and "ö" as "ae" and "oe" if the characters are unavailable is an unusual convention for speakers of modern Swedish. Despite the availability of all these characters in the Swedish national top-level Internet domain and other such domains, Swedish sites are frequently labelled using "a" and "o", based on visual similarity, though Swedish domains could be registered using the characters å, ä, and ö from 2003.
In Swedish orthography, the colon is used in a similar manner as in English, with some exceptions: the colon is used for some abbreviations, such as "3:e" for "tredje" ("third") and "S:t" for "Sankt" ("Saint"), and for all types of endings that can be added to numbers, letters and abbreviations, such as "a:et" ("the a") and "CD:n" ("the CD"), or the genitive form "USA:s" ("USA's").
According to a traditional division of Swedish dialects, there are six main groups of dialects:
The traditional definition of a Swedish dialect has been a local variant that has not been heavily influenced by the standard language and that can trace a separate development all the way back to Old Norse. Many of the genuine rural dialects, such as those of Orsa in Dalarna or Närpes in Österbotten, have very distinct phonetic and grammatical features, such as plural forms of verbs or archaic case inflections. These dialects can be near-incomprehensible to a majority of Swedes, and most of their speakers are also fluent in Standard Swedish. The different dialects are often so localized that they are limited to individual parishes and are referred to by Swedish linguists as "sockenmål" (lit., "parish speech"). They are generally separated into six major groups, with common characteristics of prosody, grammar and vocabulary. One or several examples from each group are given here. Though each example is intended to be also representative of the nearby dialects, the actual number of dialects is several hundred if each individual community is considered separately.
This type of classification, however, is based on a somewhat romanticized nationalist view of ethnicity and language. The idea that only rural variants of Swedish should be considered "genuine" is not generally accepted by modern scholars. No dialects, no matter how remote or obscure, remained unchanged or undisturbed by a minimum of influences from surrounding dialects or the standard language, especially not from the late 19th century onwards with the advent of mass media and advanced forms of transport. The differences are today more accurately described by a scale that runs from "standard language" to "rural dialect" where the speech even of the same person may vary from one extreme to the other depending on the situation. All Swedish dialects with the exception of the highly diverging forms of speech in Dalarna, Norrbotten and, to some extent, Gotland can be considered to be part of a common, mutually intelligible dialect continuum. This continuum may also include Norwegian and some Danish dialects.
The samples linked below have been taken from SweDia, a research project on Swedish modern dialects available for download (though with information in Swedish only), with many more samples from 100 different dialects with recordings from four different speakers: older female, older male, younger female and younger male. The dialect groups are those traditionally used by dialectologists.
Standard Swedish is the language used by virtually all Swedes and most Swedish-speaking Finns. It is called "rikssvenska" or "standardsvenska" ("Standard Swedish") in Sweden. In Finland, "högsvenska" ("High Swedish") is used for the Finnish variant of standard Swedish and "rikssvenska" refers to Swedish as spoken in Sweden in general.
In a poll conducted in 2005 by the Swedish Retail Institute ("Handelns Utredningsinstitut"), the attitudes of Swedes to the use of certain dialects by salesmen revealed that 54% believed that "rikssvenska" was the variety they would prefer to hear when speaking with salesmen over the phone, even though dialects such as "gotländska" or "skånska" were provided as alternatives in the poll.
Finland was a part of Sweden from the 13th century until the loss of the Finnish territories to Russia in 1809. Swedish was the sole administrative language until 1902 as well as the dominant language of culture and education until Finnish independence in 1917. The percentage of Swedish speakers in Finland has steadily decreased since then. The Swedish-speaking population is mainly concentrated in the coastal areas of Ostrobothnia, Southwest Finland and Nyland where the percentage of Finland Swedes partly is high, with Swedish being spoken by more than 90% of the population in several municipalities, and on Åland, where Swedish is spoken by a vast majority of the population and is the only official language. Swedish is an official language also in the rest of Finland, though, with the same official status as Finnish. The country's public broadcaster, Yle, provides two Swedish-language radio stations, Yle Vega and Yle X3M, as well a TV channel, Yle Fem.
Rinkeby Swedish (after Rinkeby, a suburb of northern Stockholm with a large immigrant population) is a common name among linguists for varieties of Swedish spoken by young people of foreign heritage in certain suburbs and urban districts in the major cities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. These varieties could alternatively be classified as sociolects, because the immigrant dialects share common traits independent of their geographical spread or the native country of the speakers. However, some studies have found distinctive features and led to terms such as Rosengård Swedish (after Rosengård in Malmö), a variant of Scanian. A survey made by the Swedish linguist Ulla-Britt Kotsinas showed that foreign learners had difficulties in guessing the origins of Rinkeby Swedish speakers in Stockholm. The greatest difficulty proved to be identifying the speech of a boy speaking Rinkeby Swedish whose parents were both Swedish; only 1.8% guessed his native language correctly.
New linguistic practices in multilingual urban contexts in fiction and hip-hop culture and rap lyrics have been introduced that goes beyond traditional socio-linguistic domains. Källström (Chapter 12) and Knudsen (Chapter 13).
Excerpt from "Barfotabarn" (1933), by Nils Ferlin (1898–1961): | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26689 |
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